Apologetics for the Masses #516 - John 6 Isn't About the Eucharist? What a Presbyterian Has to Say (Part 2)

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Topic

Had a couple of questions about something I said in the last newsletter about God not giving us our faith, so this is a quick clarification.

Introduction

This is going to be a real short newsletter. I've been taking a break from the newsletter for a few weeks as I've been spending a good bit of time on a 3-part seminar on prayer that I've been doing at my parish the last couple of weeks. The third part of the seminar will be this Tuesday. After that, I'll be getting back to the newsletter. However, I received a couple of questions about the last newsletter. In particular, on my statement about God not giving us our faith. So, I wanted to clear up any confusion, or questions, anyone may have had about what I said. Below is one of the questions that I received, which basically conveys the concern of both of the questions I received, then my response, and then some additional thoughts.

Challenge/Response/Strategy

Question From Subscriber
Hello John,

I enjoy reading your newsletter very much, but today I felt compelled to comment on something you said in the issue [Issue #515].

[You stated the following in your newsletter]: “Does Jesus 'give' a person faith? No. If that were true, then He would give everyone faith because 1 Tim 2:4 says that God wants all men to be saved. So, if He wants all men to be saved, and He’s the one Who gives men their faith, then He would give all men faith. But, all men don’t have faith, do they? So, no, Jesus does not give us our faith.”

I would argue that the Catholic Church teaches that Jesus does, indeed, give us our faith, when we are baptized. Among other wonderful gifts, at our baptism, we receive the three Theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. I have argued for years that even our [supernatural] faith is a gift from God, and not something we have to drum up ourselves. He gives us EVERYTHING we need to be saved. Not all men have the theological virtue of faith because not all men have been baptized."

My Response
"Thanks for the email. My counter would be that, in context, I was not talking about the theological virtue of faith that is indeed infused in us at Baptism; rather, I was talking about faith more along the lines of how the Protestants view it within a Sola Fide context - one's personal decision to accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior. Protestants do not believe we receive anything of the supernatural at Baptism and so the argument I was making was coming from, in essence, the Protestant perspective. I was playing ball on their playing field, so to speak."

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That was my response to the question, but I also have a few more thoughts on the topic:

Additional Thoughts on Faith
"...we are therefore said to be justified gratuitously, because none of those things that precede justification [at our Baptism], whether faith or works, merit the grace of justification." (Council of Trent; "Decree on Justification")

"Faith: Both a gift of God and a human act by which the believer gives personal adherence to God who invites his response, and freely assents to the whole truth that God has revealed...Faith is both a theological virtue given by God as grace, and an obligation which flows from the first commandment of God." (Catechism, Glossary definition of "Faith")

"The Most Holy Trinity gives the baptized sanctifying grace, the grace of justification:
- enabling them to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him through the theological virtues" (Catechism, #1266)

"He who believes and is baptized will be saved..." (Mark 16:16).

All of which tells us that there are different levels/types of faith - some faith is infused at Baptism and some faith we can have before Baptism (even though it is not "infused", it is still a gift of God's grace). As a teacher of RCIA/OCIA, I can tell you that there are indeed folks who have faith before they are ever baptized. If they didn't, they wouldn't ever get baptized. We see an example of this in Scripture on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) - they believed, so they were baptized.

Faith is a gift of God and a human act. As I essentially said in the last newsletter, we have faith only by the grace of God. So, in that sense, God does give us our faith by giving us the grace necessary to make an act of faith. However, God does not impose the actual human act of faith - an act of the intellect and of the will - upon us. So, in that sense, He does not "give" us our faith...He does not force us to have faith...He does not make the act of faith for us. We have to do our part.

An analogy that comes to mind is if my wife gives me all the ingredients to make a chocolate cake - flour, sugar, milk, eggs, chocolate, etc. - would you say that she gave me a chocolate cake? No. She gave me everything necessary for me to make a chocolate cake, but I still don't have a chocolate cake. I still have to do my part to make the chocolate cake a reality. God gives me everything I need to have faith, but I don't actually have faith until I do my part. Now, obviously, any analogy dealing with the ways of God will fall short, but I hope that might make some sense.

Anyway, if anyone else has a question about all of this, feel free to send it my way.

Closing Comments

I hope all of you have a great week!

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