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Handout Lesson 1 Profession of Faith

The document discusses the key characteristics and nature of faith. It explains that faith is a grace from God, a human act, and seeks understanding. Faith and science do not conflict because they come from the same God. While faith is a personal act, it is not isolated - no one can believe alone. Professions of faith like creeds summarize the beliefs of Christians and signify communion among believers. The two major creeds are the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed.

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Tricia Cruz
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141 views

Handout Lesson 1 Profession of Faith

The document discusses the key characteristics and nature of faith. It explains that faith is a grace from God, a human act, and seeks understanding. Faith and science do not conflict because they come from the same God. While faith is a personal act, it is not isolated - no one can believe alone. Professions of faith like creeds summarize the beliefs of Christians and signify communion among believers. The two major creeds are the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed.

Uploaded by

Tricia Cruz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lesson 1: The Profession of Faith

FAITH
• Humans are called to communion with God… Faith is our response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to us.
(CCC, 26)
• The desire for God is written in the human heart. (CCC, 27)
• Etymology: To obey (lat. “ob-audire”) “to hear, to listen to”
• Submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God who is the Truth itself.
• “Anyone who wants to believe needs a heart that is ready to listen.” - 1 Kings 3:9
• “Faith comes from hearing, and by hearing the word of Christ.” – Rom. 10:17

CHARACTERISTICS OF FAITH
• Faith is a Grace

➢ Before faith can be exercised man must have the grace of God to move and assist him
➢ Man must have the interior help of Holy Spirit who moves heart and converts it to God
➢ Faith is a gift from God, a supernatural virtue infused by him (CCC 153)

• Faith is a Human Act


➢ Acts that proceed from the reason and free will are rightly called “personal acts”.

• Faith is certain
➢ All human knowledge are founded on the very words of God who cannot lie… “the certainty that the divine
light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives” (CCC 157)

• Faith seeks understanding


➢ The grace of faith opens the “eyes of the heart” to a lively understanding of the contents of revelation. (CCC
158)
➢ In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace: “Believing is an act of the intellect
assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace.” (CCC 155)
➢ What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our
natural reason; we believe “because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither
deceive nor be deceived.” (CCC 156)
➢ Thus, the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her
fruitfulness and stability “are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all”
(CCC 156)
➢ “The Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts so that Revelation may be more and more profoundly
understood.”
➢ “I believe in order to understand, and I understand the better to believe.” - St. Augustine
➢ “In knowing comes loving”- St. Thomas Aquinas

• Faith and Science


➢ All branches of knowledge carried out in a truly scientific can never conflict with faith, because the things of
the world and the things of faith are derive from the same God. (CCC 159)
• Freedom of Faith
➢ Man's response to God by faith must be free, and... therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith
against his will. The act of faith is of its very nature a free act. (CCC 160)
➢ “God calls men and women to serve him in spirit and in truth, they are bound to him in conscience, but not
coerced...”
➢ Jesus invites people to faith and conversion, but never coerced them…His kingdom grows by love with
which Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws men to himself.

• Necessity of Faith
➢ Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that
salvation.
➢ Faith – the beginning of eternal life
➢ Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below. Then we
shall see God “face to face”, “as he is”. (CCC 163)

I and WE BELIEVE

• Faith is a personal act - the free response of the human person to the initiative of God, yet faith is not an isolated
act.
• No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone. (CCC 166)
• Hence… We believe
• Whoever says "I believe" says “I pledge myself to what we believe.”
• Communion in faith needs a common language of faith, normative for all and uniting all in the same confession of
faith.

Professions of Faith

• Such “syntheses of faith” are called “professions of faith” - they summarize the faith that Christians profess.
• They are called “creeds” (Lat. “credo” which means, “I believe”).
• They are also called “symbols of faith”. The Greek word Symbolon means “half of a broken object”. It is a sign of
recognition and communion of believers. Symbolon also means “A gathering, collection or summary.” The symbols
of faith is a summary of the principal truths of the faith and therefore serves as the first and fundamental point of
reference for catechesis.
• Two Creeds occupy a special place in the life of the Church:
➢ Apostle’s Creed - The faithful summary of the apostle’s faith. It is the ancient baptismal symbol of the
Church of Rome. Adopted by the early church before the middle of the 2nd century CE
➢ Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed or Nicene Creed - The Creed used by both Churches in the East and
West. It draws it great authority form the first two ecumenical councils: Nicea (325 CE) and Constantinople
(381 CE.)
➢ “I believe” (Apostles' Creed) is the faith of the Church professed personally by each believer, principally
during Baptism.
➢ “We believe” (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) is the faith of the Church confessed by the bishops
assembled in council or more generally by the liturgical assembly of believers.
• The Church, our mother, responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both "I believe" and "We believe".
(CCC 167)
• Let us embrace the Creed of our life-giving faith. To say the “Credo” with faith is to enter into communion with God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and also with the whole Church which transmits the faith to us and in whose midst we
believe.

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