Pope John Paul II - Daily Reflections on Faith

Edited by Leonardo Sapienza

Libreria Editrice Vaticana

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Washington, DC

In the homily on Holy Thursday in front of hundreds of priests gathered in the Basilica of St. Peter for the traditional Chrism Mass, during which the promises of priestly ordination are renewed, Pope Benedict XVI made mention of the Year of Faith. In the context of a widespread religious illiteracy that no longer knows the fundamental content of the faith, he said: The Year of Faith, commemorating the opening of the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago, should provide us with an occasion to proclaim the message of faith with new enthusiasm and new joy. We find it of course first and foremost in Sacred Scripture, which we can never read and ponder enough. Yet at the same time we all experience the need for help in accurately expounding it in the present day, if it is truly to touch our hearts. This help we find first of all in the words of the teaching Church: the texts of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church are essential tools which serve as an authentic guide to what the Church believes on the basis of Gods word. And of course this also includes the whole wealth of documents given to us by Pope John Paul II, still far from being fully explored. The final expression is quite striking, with reference to the manifold and rich Magisterium of his predecessor, which still deserves to be known and fully explored.

These pages prepared by Leonardo Sapienza on the symphony of the faith are a prompt reply to the call of Benedict XVI.

Among the themes of great impact that John Paul II left to us, that of faith remains one of the richest and most fundamental. Not only because of the importance of the theme, but above all because of the testimony that he gave to it. His faith in Jesus Christ, in fact, shone through his words and actions and permitted all, believers and nonbelievers, to grasp a common foundation to which to make reference beyond their differences. It is enough to refer to his Encyclical Fides et Ratio in order to touch with our hands his conviction and his desire that the faith should be the irreplaceable companion of life for our contemporary world, so often confused, indecisive, and weak. Those words of his still resound today as a great provocation: This does not mean that the link between faith and reason as it now stands does not need to be carefully examined, because each without the other is impoverished and enfeebled. Deprived of what Revelation offers, reason has taken side-tracks which expose it to the danger of losing sight of its final goal. Deprived of reason, faith has stressed feeling and experience, and so runs the risk of no longer being a universal proposition. It is an illusion to think that faith, tied to weak reasoning, might be more penetrating; on the contrary, faith then runs the grave risk of withering into myth or superstition. By the same token, reason which is unrelated to an adult faith is not prompted to turn its gaze to the newness and radicality of being (Fides et Ratio, no. 48).

These are words of great truth that can be experienced every day. From this point, nonetheless, must be revived a common effort to restore to faith its role as a guide in the lives of persons. No one, especially today, can refuse to be a pilgrim on the roads of our increasingly small world with faith as a traveling companion. The alternative, unfortunately, would be that of becoming wanderers without destination or direction.

As is well known, John Paul II often expressed his most intimate thoughts in the language of poetry. Rereading a few of the verses of his Roman Triptych could permit a better grasp of his perspective. The verses entitled The Source become, perhaps, the most direct reference to the theme of faith:

The undulating wood slopes down

to the rhythm of mountain streams...

If you want to find the source,

you have to go up, against the current.

Break through, search, dont yield,

you know it must be here somewhere.

Where are you?... Source, where are you?!

Silence...

Stream, woodland stream,

tell me the secret

of your origin!

(Silencewhy are you silent?

With what care you have hidden the mystery

of your origin!)

Let me wet my lips

in spring water,

to feel its freshness,

its life-giving freshness.

Simple verses full of beauty that penetrate the mystery and provoke the readers to seek always, without tiring, until they find solace in the contemplation of the beauty of the mystery to which faith leads.

Blessed John Paul II was able to speak about faith in such a profound and persuasive way because he was first of all a man of faith. In the most difficult moments, when suffering was getting the upper hand, his trusting abandonment to the Lord appeared clearly in his face. Never as in his case has the profound unity between life and teaching become so effective, inspiring an intense and permanent movement that above all in thousands of young people has given life to the experience of the New Evangelization. This, in fact, remains the most immediate expression of faith that becomes participation in the joy discovered. When one has finally found the answer to the great questions that touch on the meaning of life, sharing it with others becomes a moral obligation. Faith, however, allows one to go beyond obligation. It is a sharing by its very nature because it allows one to see in the face of the other, the brother or sister for whom Christ gave his life out of love. Faith leads to this experience of love because it is born from love, is nourished by it, and lives it as an offering of total self-donation to the point of becoming mercy for those who are in need of forgiveness.

With these pages, Leonardo Sapienza allows one not only to enter into the richness of the teaching of John Paul II but also to make a journey of true catechesis. By beginning to identify the why of faith and in what it consists, he leads one step by step to discovering its presence in the various moments of life, to the point of understanding that only by believing and abandoning oneself to the mystery can one perceive the greatness of the gift received. With untiring zeal, Leonardo Sapienza has published over the course of the years valuable collections of aphorisms that span the various contents of faith and Christian witness. With Daily Reflections on Faith, he renders a great service to the Year of Faith. Meditating on these pages will reinforce our enthusiasm for growing in faith and presenting a consistent witness of this, so that the world may believe.

RINO FISICHELLA

PRESIDENTOFTHE PONTIFICAL COUNCILFORTHE

PROMOTIONOFTHE NEW EVANGELIZATION

While certainly acknowledging the fact that the Church presents her teaching with varying degrees of magisterial authority, it is necessary to recover a sense of the wholeness and interior logicthe symphony of the faith. Undoubtedly the greatest service you can render to the Church at this present time is to make every effort to present anew the fullness and beauty of the apostolic faith, and thereby end the disharmony and confusion produced by teachings on questions of faith, morals and discipline which are at odds with the Church's Magisterium. JOHN PAUL IIMARCH 20, 1993

On March 13, 1985, John Paul II began a cycle of catechesis on faith, which he continued in all of the general audiences of that year.

The core of these weekly catecheses was the relationship between faith and secularization.

John Paul II expressed his concern: The people of today, blinded by progress and prosperity, often look only to the earth; they no longer know how to look above the world in which they are enclosed: they accept secularization. They intentionally organize their lifestyles solely as a function of the realities of this world, without paying any attention to God and his will. This has always been with us, this same temptation to forget about God, or at least to live as if God did not exist (Homily, May 16, 1985).