Our Catholic Mission in the Year of Faith

The Messages of Pope Benedict XVI in His Apostolic Letter PORTA FIDEI for the Induction of the Year of Faith

    On October 11, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI announced the Year of Faith. The Holy Father wrote in his apostolic letter for the occasion that he has “spoken of the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ.”

    Regarding the Second Vatican Council, Alan Shreck writes in his book The Compact History of the Catholic Church that “[t]he greatest impact of the council with regard to the world has been the impetus for Catholics to get more involved in the affairs of society, especially to promote justice, peace and the defense of human life.” (p. 146) With these two things in mind, taking into account Pope Benedict’s message to the world and keeping in mind the fact that Catholics long ago were called to get more involved in matters such as those listed above, why would we not jump on the call to evangelize others? Why would we not want to bring others to the fullness of truth? 

    Pope Benedict speaks of the Second Vatican Council in his apostolic letter for the Year of Faith. He wrote in his letter, quoting Bl. Pope John Paul II, ‘“I feel more than ever in duty bound to point to the Council as the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century: there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning.”’ Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II ask that by following the proper guidance, we can assist in the “necessary renewal of the Church.” (Apostolic Letter for the Year of Faith) In his Letter, the current Holy Father offers to us beautiful words of guidance in how we can “open wide the doors to Christ," and he begins with the words “patience” and “love.” By these things, we, as Christians, can bring to the world the light of Christ and open the doors to Him.

    We are summoned to renew conversion to the Lord. This is what the Holy Father tells us. We are called to “press forward” in the Church and cooperate with God, and we must have “Faith working through love.” (Gal 5:6) The Holy Father’s message is that it was through the greatest of loves that God saved us and calls the world to a conversion through the forgiveness of their sins. (Acts 5:31) Many people say that God will not forgive them because they have just done too many bad things in life. Others say they don’t need forgiveness because they just don’t believe in God anyway. It is our duty as Christians to bring these people to the truth. But how can we do this?

    Pope Benedict tells us that we must evangelize in love, not pride or force. Some say that the best way to preach is by doing so always, but using “words when necessary,” as St. Francis of Assisi is credited as having said. But whether by words or actions, we are called to preach the gospel. As Christians, our mission is to love. The pope asks us to be inspired by and have in our hearts the love Christ has in His own. This is what “impels us to evangelize.” We are called to be joyful and loving, patient and kind; not forceful, demeaning, with an in-your-face type of attitude. This would often be the wrong approach. We are called to attract others to the Faith through love. Pope Benedict writes that “[f]aith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy. It makes us fruitful, expanding our hearts in hope and enables us to bear life-giving witness.” In love, we can help others to realize that their hearts, like that of St. Augustine, will not be at rest until they rest in Christ.

    The Holy Father’s next message is that we must believe to bring others to believe, too. He writes that “Only through believing, then, does faith grow and become stronger.” We are told that “reflection on the faith will have to be intensified, so as to help all believers in Christ to acquire a more conscious and vigorous adherence to the Gospel, especially at a time of profound change such as humanity is currently experiencing.” Part of the message for Christians is to profess our faith publicly, in “fullness and with new conviction, with confidence and hope.” We are called to be witnesses. The early Christians professed their faith to the point of death, and we, too, must be ready to live our faith at each moment of our lives. Pope Benedict XVI tells us we must “entrust ourselves fully to God.” God gave us free will, but we have to cooperate with Him and accept the grace He gives to us in the call to evangelize others. When we say “I believe” in the Creed at Mass, we have to mean it with all of our hearts and be ready to do anything for the Church in following the magisterium and the Word of God.

    We are called to safeguard the teaching of the Church. Time and time again in the course of history, we have seen or read of many occasions during which the Church could have fallen apart. God, however, was upholding it then and continues to uphold it now, and we are called to do our part in safeguarding it. We are called to continue to live the Faith through the sacraments and liturgy. These are what can give us grace and the courage we need to fight for the Church.The Mass, the Eucharist-- with these we will have strength. 

    The next message of the Pope? Continue believing, evangelizing, and defending the Faith and bringing others to know of the mercy of God. Again, only in God will our hearts find rest. The pope writes: “in [Christ] all the anguish and all the longing of the human heart finds fulfillment. The joy of love, the answer to the drama of suffering and pain”-- all of this can be found in Christ. St. Augustine knew this when he wrote in his beautiful work  Confessions, "You have made us for Yourself, O Lord. Our hearts are restless until they rest in You." To relate this concept to real life situations, the Pope provides examples of the many incredible saints and holy people who lived by faith in God. He writes of Our Lady and her fiat, he writes of the apostles leaving everything they had to follow Christ; he writes of the disciples who followed in the footsteps of the apostles, and of the martyrs who “gave their lives, bearing witness to the truth...” By the examples of these many wonderful witnesses, we can learn how to bring others to the faith through charity and selflessness. Pope Benedict tells us that “Faith without charity bears no fruit, while charity without faith would be a sentiment constantly at the mercy of doubt.” Pope Benedict tells us to love others, to not be afraid of evangelizing and bringing others to the truth. Through love, we are “capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end.” In love, we have to defend and fight for all we believe in. We must defend the truth, life, and the unborn. We cannot give up; rather, we can look to all the beautiful witnesses to the Faith and be inspired by them always, praying for the grace to never shirk our moral obligations and duties to the Church. If we are called to die for our faith, then let us do so with joy.

    We have faith. We have hope. We have love. We believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; we believe in the Church, in Heaven, the forgiveness of sins, the communion of saints. So what are we waiting for in bringing our Faith to others? In communion with the saints in heaven and the faithful on earth, as well as Our Lady and Christ, let us in Christ, through Mary, follow our call and “open wide the doors to Christ” so that all hearts might rest in Him. Pope Benedict, as Christ's servant, asks this of us in the Year of Faith. We are called to be patient, but we are called to act now. Let us respond to that call by living our faith more deeply, hoping in God, and bringing souls in union with Him through love.

Works Cited

Pope Benedict XVI, Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, (11 October 2012). Retrieved from Libreria Editrice Vaticana: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/motu_proprio/documents/hf_ben-xvi_motu-proprio_20111011_porta-fidei_en.html. Online. Retrieved 30 November 2012.

Shreck, Alan. The Compact History of the Catholic Church, Ohio: Servant Books, an imprint of St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2009. Print.