1.) What is the Filipino Faith?

Faith is not some “answer box” __ it is not some “thing” we have, keep, and own. Rather,
real faith is a force within us that by the power of Christ’s Holy Spirit gradually works a
transformation in our daily thoughts, hopes, attitudes and values. In religious terms, we know
that faith is necessary for salvation __ it is the “beginning of our salvation” (cf. Trent, ND 1935;
CCC 161). For “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). From experience we
realize that faith brings us fuller life which can be described by three basic values: genuine
personal maturity, freedom and happiness. Faith in general means the way we know, accept,
and relate positively to others, especially the mutual trust, love, and fidelity we experience in
family and friendships.

Faith in God is grounded in God’s own revelation through his words and deeds in salvation
history. It is confirmed by the many reasons for believing that have been worked out
throughout the centuries, responding to the biblical challenge: “Always be ready to give an
explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Pt 3:15).

2.) What are the Characteristics of Faith?

Total and Absolute

123. Already the Old Testament contrasted faith “in man in whom there is no salvation”
with faith in “the Lord who made heaven and earth . . . who shall reign forever” (cf. Ps 146:3,5-
6,10; Jer 17:5-8). Only Faith in God calls for a total and absolute adherence (cf. CCC 150). Christ
himself provides, especially in his Passion, Death and Resurrection, the best example of this
total and absolute commitment to God.

Trinitarian

124. For us Christians, Faith is our adherence to the Triune God revealed through Jesus
Christ our Lord. It is our friendship with Christ and through Christ with the Father, in their Holy
Spirit. Through Christ’s witness to his Father in his teaching, preaching, miracles, and especially
in his Passion, Death and Resurrection, we come to believe in Christ our Savior, in the Father,
and in the Holy Spirit sent into our hearts. Our Faith as Catholics, then, consists in our personal
conviction and belief in God our Father, revealed by Jesus Christ, His own divine Son-made-
man, and their presence to us through the Holy Spirit, in the Church (cf. PCP II 64; CCC 151-52).

Loving, Maturing and Missionary

125. Our Christian Faith is truly life-giving and mature only through love, for “the man
without love has known nothing of God, for God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). And to be Christian, this love
must be inseparably love of God and love of neighbor, like Christ’s. It thus impels us to mission,
to evangelize, by bringing others the Good News (cf. 1 Cor 9:16). Such a missionary spirit is the
test of authentic Faith because it is unthinkable that a person should believe in Christ’s Word
and Kingdom without bearing witness and proclaiming it in his turn (cf. EN 24; PCP II 67-71,
402). This means we are all called to share in Christ’s own three-fold mission as priest, prophet
and king (cf. PCP II 116- 21; LG 10-13).

Informed and Communitarian

126. PCP II insists that Catholic Faith must be “informed,” that is “believing Jesus’ words,
and accepting his teachings, trusting that he has “the words of eternal life” (cf. Jn 6:68; NCDP
147). It must be “communitarian” since it is the Church that transmits to us Christ’s revelation
through Sacred Scripture and its living Tradition, and alone makes possible for us an adequate
faith-response (cf. PCP II 65).

Inculturated

127. This Catholic faith in God and in Jesus Christ is never separated from the typical Filipino
faith in family and friends. On the one hand, we live out our faith in God precisely in our daily
relationships with family, friends, fellow workers, etc. On the other hand, each of these is
radically affected by our Catholic Faith in God our Father, in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son,
our Savior, and in their Holy Spirit dwelling within us in grace. “This is how all will know you for
my disciples: your love for one another” (Jn 13:35; cf. PCP II 72-73, 162, 202-11).

3.) What are the Dimensions of Faith?

The Three Essential Dimensions of Faith

128. Vatican II explains this faith-response as follows: “By faith man freely commits his entire
self to God, making ‘the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals,’ and
willingly assenting to the Revelation given by Him” (DV 5). Christian Faith, then, touches every
part of us: our minds (believing), our wills (doing), and our hearts (trusting). Let us briefly
examine each aspect in turn.

Believing

129. Faith involves our basic convictions as Christians. “For if you confess with your lips
that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead; you will be
saved” (Rom 10:9). John sums up his Gospel with: “These things have been recorded to help
you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, so that through this faith you may have
life in his name” (Jn 20: 31). Faith, then, is knowing, but not mere “head knowledge” of some
abstract truths. It is like the deep knowledge we have of our parents, or of anyone we love
dearly. Christian Faith, then, is personal knowledge of Jesus Christ as “my Lord and my God” (Jn
20:28). Christ solemnly assures each of us: “Here I stand knocking at the door. If anyone hears
me calling and opens the door, I will enter his house, and have supper with him, and he with
me” (Rv 3:20).

Doing

130. But besides believing, faith is also doing. As St. James writes: “My brothers, what
good is it to profess faith without practicing it?” (Jas 2:14). Christ himself taught: “None of
those who cry out ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of God, but only the one who does the
will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21). Faith, then, is a commitment to follow (obey) God’s will
for us. This we see exemplified in Mary’s “I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as
you say” (Lk 1:38). PCP II brings out this “doing” dimension of faith as “witnessing” through
“loving service” of our needy neighbors. In our concrete situation, particularly urgent is the call
for: 1) deeds of justice and love; and 2) for protecting and caring for our endangered earth’s
environment (cf. PCP II 78-80). 131. Of course, we realize that we often do not do what we
affirm in faith. But this awareness of our failures emphasizes all the more the essential place of
behavior in authentic Christian Faith. It also makes us more conscious of our need for Christ’s
Spirit to live out our faith in our actions. “For apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).
“Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he
must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God”
(DV 5).
Entrusting/Worshipping

132. Beyond believing and doing, faith is also entrusting oneself into God’s hands.
Abraham, our father in faith, at God’s command left everything to set out for a foreign land.
Against all human odds Moses trusted Yahweh to free the Hebrews from their slavery in Egypt.
In the New Testament, Jesus worked signs and cures only with those who trusted in him. He
promised the possessed boy’s father: “Everything is possible to a man who trusts” (Mk 9:23).
133. Faith, then, is from the heart __ the loving, trusting, and hoping in the Lord that comes
from God’s own love flooding our hearts. This trusting Faith “lives and grows through prayer
and worship” __ personal heartfelt conversation with God that is the opposite of mindless,
mechanical repetition of memorized formulas. Genuine personal prayer and group prayer find
both their inspirational source and summit of perfection in the Liturgy, the Catholic
community’s official public Trinitarian worship of the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in
the Holy Spirit (cf. PCP II 74-77).

Reference:

Rev. Oscar V. Cruz, D. D., “Catechism for Filipino Catholics: New Edition (with expanded
Subject Index and Primer”, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), March 6,
1997, pp. 38 – 41