Faith 'n' Reason Fridays

"Faith and Reason Free-for-all Bother-Father Facebookish Fridays."

On Fridays we strive most especially to think with faith and believe with understanding.

The Vision Thing

We are calling all Catholics to see how the world looks through the eyes of faith.

Blind faith (a.k.a. "fideism") is a vice, not a virtue.

Faith is a vision of reality granted to us by God-revealing-God.

Everything looks different when we see the world through the eyes of faith. "Let those who have eyes to see, see, and those who have ears to hear, hear!"

We Apologize

We have good reasons for what we believe.

The goal of "Faith 'n' Reason Fridays" is to think faithfully and believe intelligently so that we may:

• Preach Jesus faithfully.
• Love our neighbor as Jesus has loved us.

We should be able to provide the reasons for our belief.

God created us as intelligent beings. Our powers of the intellect are part of being in the "image and likeness" of God (Gen 1:27-18). God is not offended by our thinking about what and why we believe. On the contrary, Peter tells us we should "always be ready to give an explanation [Greek: apologos] to anyone who asks you for a reason [Greek: logos--word, logic, reason, principle] for your hope" (1 Pet 3:15).

Thinking with the Church

I believe what the Church teaches and I aim to teach what the Church believes.

Faith 'n' Reason Fridays have the same goal as that of Vatican II: "To strive calmly to show the strength and beauty of the doctrine of the faith" (John Paul II, "Fidei Depositum").

Eph 4:11-16

¹¹And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers,

¹²to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

¹³until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ,

¹⁴so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming.

¹⁵Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ,

¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body's growth and builds itself up in love.

Mystagogy

St. Augustine said, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee." Our minds are hungry until they feed on truth. We sink our teeth into the mysteries of the faith and ruminate on them.

"My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work" (Jn 4:34).

The mysteries of the faith are not obstacles to understanding but deep springs of living water. We know enough to know how little we know. "With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation" (Is 12:3).

"'Mysteries' in religion are not truths of which we can know nothing but truths of which we cannot know everything" (Frank Sheed, The Action of the Holy Spirit, p. 57).

"Pasta primavera" is "springtime pasta." We enjoy the first fruits of the garden. We feast on fruit of the Tree of Life.

Psychology -- Loving with Understanding

Lovers want to know and to be known. They are eager to reveal themselves to the beloved, and to have the beloved revealed to them.

"Away from me. I do not know you!" (Mt 7:23).

"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Phil 4:8).

Josef Pieper, "On Faith."

An altogether incomprehensible communication is no communication at all. There is no way either to believe or not to believe it or its author. For belief to be possible at all, it is assumed that the communication has in some way been understood. (Faith Hope Love, 24).

Philosophy -- "Love of Wisdom"

Teaching faith to think and reason to believe is the task of systematic theology. St. Thomas Aquinas set the pattern for the union of faith and reason in the 13th century (1225-1274 AD). In his view, a sound philosophy is the handmaid of theology, just as today mathematics is the handmaid of science. Philosophy is not theology, nor is mathematics physics, but it is impossible to do theology without a philosophy or to do physics without mathematics. If the philosophical assumptions used in theological reasoning are unsound, the theology will be unsound.

Pascal

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapor, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him, the universe knows nothing of this. All our dignity then, consists in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endeavor then, to think well; this is the principle of morality."

Truth is Soul-Food

"Living the truth in love" Eph 4:15.

Our culture is starving for the truth of the gospel.

We cannot effectively clear the ground and produce good fruit unless we use the power tools provided by the Holy Spirit to do so.

Choir rehearsal

People sometimes use the phrase "preaching to the choir" as if it were synonymous with "wasting one's breath, but the Body must be fed if it is to grow strong, be healed of its wounds, and be equipped to preach the Good News to the whole world.

Spiritual exercises

Each virtue is like a muscle--"use it or lose it." During this show, we give our minds a workout so that they become stronger, have greater endurance, can see more than before, and are ready for new challenges. "The mind is never so much itself as when it has been lately overthrown" (JHN).

One-room Schoolhouse

We cover everything, from pre-school to post-graduate questions. It can be a little chaotic. It takes some getting used to.

"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly" (GKC).

"Take what you like and heave the rest."

Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude

Think to thank.

G. K. Chesterton called thanks "the highest form of thought" (The Universe According to G. K. Chesterton, p. 112). The better we understand God's hidden and mysterious plan of salvation, "hidden from all ages, but now revealed in Christ" (St. Paul), the better we can thank and praise God for the "wonders of His love."

Eph 3:9-10

⁸ To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ,

⁹ and to bring to light [for all] what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things,

¹⁰ so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the principalities and authorities in the heavens.

Minding Jesus

We are supposed to love God with our minds.

"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself" (Lk 10:27).

God calls us to grow up.

Questioning the faith with faith is not contrary to the faith. Fideism, "blind faith," is a vice, not a virtue.

"When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things" (1 Cor 13:11).

Change of mind accompanies change of heart.

"Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect" (Rom 12:2).

We are called "think in harmony with one another."

"May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 15:5-6).

"Same mind, same love."

"If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing" (Phil 2:1-2).

We need "eyes to see and ears to hear."

Amor dat oculos.

We know something they don't know

Matthew 13:10-11

¹⁰ The disciples approached him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

¹¹ He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.

Spiritual warfare

The enemy loves to get us confused; then we are easy prey for temptation.

Thinking clearly is hard work, but it fortifies us against the enemy's attacks.

The lines are open

We are on an open party line.

Despite the title of the show, we very much welcome calls and correspondence from our non-Catholic brothers and sisters in the Lord, as well as from agnostics, atheists, and non-Christians.

"Catholic Conference Call"

"Catholic Conversation"

"Answer Priest"

The heart is the seat of wisdom. It is our heart that keeps our minds on track (CSL, Abolition of Man). Another name for the show (John Henry Newman's motto): "Cor ad cor loquitur"--"Heart to Heart." Or "Heart of Wisdom."

"Food for thought"--"Catholic soul food."