“Just have faith” is incorrect if it means don’t try to understand.
“Just have faith” is correct if it means trusting the one you are with to explain all things to you (over time, each piece at a time).
The Church is “Jesus with you”. If you ask “Him” he will explain to you all things to your satisfaction.
When I became Catholic, it was not because I understood all things Catholic; in fact I still wondered how they could say some of the things they said. **But I did believe that this was the Church that was established by Jesus to Peter and the Apostles, **and I could not get back to 1st century Galilee to be with Him, but I could be with those he appointed and sent (the Catholic Church). He could make all things plain, and therefore they could also.
So, I asked them to let me be a part of them, with the expectation that whatever I did not know, they would make plain to me to the point of knowing or understanding it as truth and as Good.
That is what I expect for my “faith in the Church”, with no compromise.
So, when there is something where I do not understand how it can be as they say, my words to the Church (to whoever is saying it in the Church) are, “I believe what you tell me is truth, because it is you telling me; but I do not understand it. How is this true? What does it mean?” The expectation is that the Holy Spirit will lead me into all truth via his Church.
I have not been disappointed, and I expect answers to very difficult questions, and so my current Teacher in the Church is Thomas Aquinas. I turn to him as to a master, hearing all he says, looking into myself to see myself exactly as he describes, and I reason through ideas using his reasoning. I do not read him as an outsider to try and understand the thought of Aquinas, but as an apprentice learning the craft of thinking like Aquinas. And I find my answers. I does not have to be Thomas who a person asks to explain, but it requires that you believe that person, that Church, is True, is a member of Christ who does not lie in matters of faith and life.
You wrote, "Yes, I think Jesus was a real person. I don’t know what he is/was, though. "
Using my method just stated, my words to the Church (to a Priest, fellow parishioner, or Catholic author) would be, **“Jesus was real, and you say you represent him. I believe you do, **and I wish to participate with Jesus. But I don’t know what he was or is, nor exactly what you are. I want you to let me know you, who you are, what you are, so that in the end I will say with all certainty that I understand exactly who and what you are (and what I am in my participation with you)” Then ask your first question, perhaps, “How is it that you say Jesus is the Son of God?”, or “What is the Trinity?” or whatever question.
An example of what I found out, what I understand as true can be found at my site,
softvocation.org/2013/12/27/the-trinity/
Be an apprentice to Jesus / the Church. Walk along as trusting your master craftsman will make you a master of what you know and understand as true.
I was well and truly Catholic before I came across the apologetic’s I quoted in my previous post. I believe very much what C.S. Lewis once said “I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” I believe many people fall into that trap trying to find God by trying to look at the sun, (which will end up blinding you so you can’t see anything) instead of looking around at all that the sun illuminates for us, thus the importance of spiritual reading such as the Gospels and the Saints etc (e.g. Diary of St. Faustina).
“Never judge a philosophy by it’s abuse.” - St Augustine