Faith and Reason will be the most important category of the Thirsting for Truth Young Adult program. The “Faith” aspect of this category will consist of learning basic Theology, Philosophy, Church teaching, and Church history. The “Reason” aspect will discuss how the logic of the world can bring us to greater understanding of Theology and then help us to implement our faith into our everyday lives. Our goal is not simply to understand and make sense of the Catholic faith. Our goal is to ultimately take that understanding and put it into action.
Original Sin
That’s not always easy. Before Adam and Eve’s original sin they were endowed by something called “preternatural gifts”. They had infused knowledge, absence of concupiscence[1] and bodily immortality [2]. In a nutshell, before their sin they had a few things going for them:
1) They couldn’t experience pain and death the way we now do.
2) Their Intellect and Will were intact and united.
– The intellect is how one comes to know a thing and discern right from wrong.
– The will is the ability to choose what we know to be right.
Sin brought death into the world and Adam and Eve, after their fall, were left with a darkened intellect and a weakened will. All humans inherit this problem through original sin. Because of our darkened intellects we have a harder time telling right from wrong. Some more than others. This is why some people call good things bad and bad things good.
Even if we can properly discern what is right we still need a strong will to be able to choose that which we know to be right and good. The two must be united and well formed in order to be combat the tendency to sin. Often we may find ourselves attracted to something we know to be wrong or too weak to choose what we know to be good. This is why St. Paul, in Romans 7:15, says “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” It is not enough to learn right from wrong. We must also train ourselves to continually choose what is right.
Learning more about our faith will help us to develop our intellect and better discern right from wrong. However, we must then put that faith into practice with the use of reason. This is why we have married the two sub-categories “Faith” and “Reason” because faith and reason must go hand-in-hand.
Think of it in terms of “Romance” (faith) and “Logic” (reason). Christianity is all about developing a relationship with God. Like any good relationship you need to have romance and be grounded in logic. If you have one without the other your relationship will fail. No one can conduct a relationship on pure logic and no one should expect to have a successful relationship without logic. A relationship requires a delicate balance between the two. Two people can feel so in love that they want to spend every waking minute together. They might write silly poetry and sacrifice their own wants, or needs, for the sake of the other. However, if they don’t follow some structure, set standards and guidelines as well as goals, they will wander aimlessly into problems. If they are too rigid their romance will suffer leaving the relationship boring. If they have no structure then their relationship will be based on feelings and built on sand. We have to apply this same kind of thinking to our relationship with God. Faith and reason, like romance and logic, must go hand-in-hand.
In future meditations we will discuss matters of Theology and Church teaching from both perspectives.
Questions for Discussion
1) What sort of struggles do you experience in combining your faith with everyday life?
2) Are there some aspects of faith that seem unreasonable?
3) Are there aspects of everyday life where you find it easy to see faith expressed (ex: technology, relationships, business… etc)?
4) What questions would you like to see answered in future meditations?
References:
[1] Concupiscence is the tendency to sin or the tendency to choose what we know to be wrong. This is what causes sinful behavior to sometimes appear appetizing.
[2] “Preternatural Gifts” – Catholic Culture Dictionary: http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=35763