What is faith?

[Michaeljc4]

I am unsure about what this word means. The Catechism refers to “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It’s the first clause–‘assurance of things hoped for,’ that I am having a hard time with. By having faith, I am assured of what, exactly? (I get the second clause.)

I looked at the Catholic Encyclopedia; it defined faith as having to do with ‘steadfastness,’ which is a species of devotion or loyalty. It seems to me that having faith that there is a God is necessary before feeling loyalty or devotion to him, right? So that’s not all that helpful.

Any thoughts or resources? What is a good definition of faith?

 

[glendab]

Here’s an example: The little girl (not quite 6 yrs. old) from her death bed at the hospital suddenly coming out of her coma like sleep to find her mom near and weeping and her dad staring out the window blankly, looks around the room and though she’s only been well enough to go to Church a few times after her emergency Baptism as an infant because most of her days have been spent in the hospital, suddenly realizing things not seen or hoped for among her parents starts talking and her mother and father rush to her bed and she consoles them and says “Don’t worry Mommy and Daddy, I’ll be with Jesus and Mary and I’ll hear you every time you pray and talk to me in Heaven, only you won’t see me anymore. So don’t be sad. I’m not going to be sick anymore.” She fell ill very shortly after that and passed within the hour.

Pray for the gift of faith. Intellectual knowledge is one thing, but the gift of Faith is that - a gift and it is supernatural in origin and demeanor. Those who have it help those who lack it.

Glenda

 

[Jerbear]

I believe there is faith and blind faith. To me faith is when you believe something to be true without seal tight proof that something is necessarily true but you go ahead and believe it. Blind faith is when you completely trust something to be true even if evidence comes out to contradict your belief.

I understand that these might not be the definitions of faith and blind faith but I figured if the OP was looking for a simple definition then they would have simply looked it up in the dictionary and instead was looking for opinions from people on this forum as to what their personal definition was.

 

[rcwitness]

I am unsure about what this word means. The Catechism refers to “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It’s the first clause–‘assurance of things hoped for,’ that I am having a hard time with. By having faith, I am assured of what, exactly? (I get the second clause.)

I looked at the Catholic Encyclopedia; it defined faith as having to do with ‘steadfastness,’ which is a species of devotion or loyalty. It seems to me that having faith that there is a God is necessary before feeling loyalty or devotion to him, right? So that’s not all that helpful.

Any thoughts or resources? What is a good definition of faith?

That quote from the Catechism is from Hebrews 11
11 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old received divine approval. 3 By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.

In my own words, Faith is the means which we see Spiritual Truth. It is His means of bringing man into His council. Faith is hearing what we are convicted of in the Spirit.

 

[JJFB]

Good question! Faith is trust in God’s will. Faith is the surrender of one’s will to God’s will. In order to surrender one’s will to God’s will, one must trust God. Faith is not simply a belief that God exists. Trust in someone is always to some degree. Do I trust you with my cheeseburger? Sure. Do I trust you with my wallet? Well, I’m not so sure. Jesus talks about the faith of a mustard seed, and how it grow into the largest of plants. So, faith starts as a little bit of trust, but then grows into a great deal of trust.

 

[JRKH]

Good question! Faith is trust in God’s will. Faith is the surrender of one’s will to God’s will. In order to surrender one’s will to God’s will, one must trust God. Faith is not simply a belief that God exists. Trust in someone is always to some degree. Do I trust you with my cheeseburger? Sure. Do I trust you with my wallet? Well, I’m not so sure. Jesus talks about the faith of a mustard seed, and how it grow into the largest of plants. So, faith starts as a little bit of trust, but then grows into a great deal of trust.

Agree - Faith is trust. It is also conviction - something more than simple belief. It is something that we act upon with confidence because of that assurance we have from our firm belief…

Faith is a tough thing to nail down a definition for…

Peace
James

 

[sirach2v4]

faith is a belief in things we know from revelation which are beyond our senses, which science is unable to verify.

If faith were supposedly something that could be proven by science, then it wouldn’t be faith, by definition.

Scientists believe in “dark matter” although they have not found it. God is infinitely more obscure than even “dark matter.”

 

[TimothyH]

Faith is trust. When you have faith in someone you trust them.

The fullness of faith - faithfullness - is complete trust.

-Tim-