Fr. Wojciech Giertych - The Spark of Faith: Understanding the Power of Reaching Out to God

Fr. Wojciech Giertych, OP

The Spark of Faith

Understanding the Power
of Reaching Out to God

EWTN PUBLISHING, INC.

Irondale, Alabama

Copyright 2018 by Fr. Wojciech Giertych, OP

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Perceptions Design Studio.

The Spark of Faith is an English translation of Rozruch wiary (Pelplin, Poland: Wydawnictwo Bernardinum, 2012).

Scripture quotations have been taken from the The Jerusalem Bible (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1968).

Excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church , Second Edition, for use in the United States of America, copyright 1994 and 1997, United States Catholic ConferenceLibreria Editrice Vaticana. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Nihil obstat : Fr. Zdzisaw Benedict, Censor Librorum
Imprimatur : Wiesaw migiel, Bishop of Pelplin
September 28, 2012, L.dz. 1089/2021/IA

The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur agree with the content, opinions or statements expressed.

EWTN Publishing, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Giertych, Wojciech, 1951- author.

Title: The Spark of Faith Understanding the Power of Reaching Out to God /

Fr. Wojciech Giertych, OP.

Other titles: Rozruch wiary. English

Description: Ironadale, Alabama : EWTN Publishing, Inc., 2018. | Includes

bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018016502 | ISBN 9781682780688 (pbk. : alk. paper) ePub ISBN 9781682780695 Subjects: LCSH: Faith. | Catholic Church Doctrines.

Classification: LCC BT771.3 .G5313 2018 | DDC 234/.23 dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018016502

Contents

Preface to the English Edition

This book was written with a pastoral intent. It was designed as a helpful tool for a spiritual living out of the Year of Faith announced by Pope Benedict XVI. As such, this is not a work of academic theology filled with quotations and references. Watchful readers may easily recognize the sources of my presentation. I have no reason to hide them; in fact, I am deeply indebted to those who have gone before me and have led me to understand the importance of faith. Among them, first of all, I have to mention St. Thomas Aquinas, whose treatise on faith in the Summa Theologiae remains a standard point of reference. Second, there is the youngest Doctor of the Church, St. Thrse of Lisieux, whose writings offer a wonderful practical schooling in faith. And then, there are several theologians, whose works I have read and used in my teaching and preaching over the years. The first one that I have to mention is the French Carmelite Fr. Marie-Eugne of the Child Jesus. (Recently, he was beatified in Avignon.) Further theological masters include Fr. Michel Labourdette, OP, a long-time professor of moral theology in Toulouse. His mimeographed notes on the IIa pars of the Summa Theologiae , in which, article after article, he explains the doctrine of Aquinas, are the best commentary on the Summa that I have ever found. I have followed his notes in my courses at the Roman Angelicum. Another master whom, years back, I was urged to read is Fr. Marie-Joseph Le Guillou, OP. I have found a profound light in his books showing the importance of doing theology in unison with the spiritual life. And finally, I need to mention Fr. Servais Pinckaers, OP, and to thank him for his liberating vision of the fundamentals of Christian morals.

This book is derivative, very much based on the works of the above masters, whom I have closely followed, without always specifying from whom I have drawn. Wherever I have been inexact or have simplified issues, the fault is mine. But there was a reason for this: All theological thinking is located in some specific context. I wrote this book in Polish, thinking about the needs of the average Catholic in Poland, who is generally put off by academic theological works. Recently, while reading about Latin American theology, I noticed a similarity with Polish Catholicism. Where Catholic identity is drawn from a surrounding culture marked by post-Tridentine theology and piety, thinking about faith is not a prime concern, because it seems to be automatic. This is unfortunate, because then faith, while respected and unquestioned, has little practical impact on lives. Furthermore, this world is marked by a profound rift that dates from the Enlightenment, though its roots can be traced to Baroque theology. Reason seems to be skeptical and disdaining of faith, while faith is seen to be a sentimental, emotional affair tied with popular devotions. Catholic society in such countries is torn within between the intellectuals who are critical of popular religiosity and the masses who feel that they are being scorned. The consequence is that despite the common Catholic background there are deep social conflicts, little true thinking within faith and about faith, and almost no concern for the deepening of faiths rooting in the soul. Catholic intellectuals are tempted to bypass theology and to focus primarily on philosophy, as if trying to serve faith from without, while pastors are tempted to maintain religious traditions only in a mechanical way and to focus primarily on social and political issues, seeing in them the major danger. In both these approaches, the perception of the supernatural character of faith and its inherent forces of growth seems to be lost. That is why in my book, I am trying to combat both the Gnostic elevation of reason above faith and the Semi-Pelagian treatment of faith as a quality acquired through natural effort and in response to some externally imposed obligation. Writing for the Polish Church, I saw the need of insisting repeatedly and directly upon this throughout the book.

Catholics in the English-speaking world, and also in France, are more directly concerned about their faith and Catholic identity. They know that they have to struggle to maintain it, because it is not automatic. Thus they are searching for assistance in the deepening of their faith and in the structuring of a synthesis of their cultural and moral life within faith. This book may therefore seem to them to speak about things that seem obvious. Nevertheless, at the request of my students I have translated it into English, hoping that it may be useful as it reminds us that faith has within itself the capacity to spark the supernatural life in the soul.

As I present this book, I have to thank Luanne Zurlo, who has urged me to translate it and then carefully corrected my translation, pointing out where my turns of phrases and simplifications require a reformulation in view of American reactions. This has been an enormous help, making this book more readable. I also thank Charles McKinney and the editors from EWTN Publishing Inc. for their helpful and necessary linguistic and grammatical corrections.

The Vatican, June 29, 2017
Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul

Michel Labourdette, OP, Cours de la thologie morale : La foi IIa-IIae , qq. 116 (Toulouse, 19591960).

Introduction

Faith is a divine gift that enables the encounter with God. It is the first impulse of the supernatural life in the human soul. When there is a moment of faith, when the believer consciously focuses the mind toward God, in view of Himself, there is a direct contact with the mysterious but living God. From this moment, the divine life is present in the individual and is set in motion. Throughout the time that a person persists in a lively faith, he is animated from within by divine grace. When he breaks this contact with God when an obstacle has been erected between him and God divine grace is excluded from the soul, and so it cannot transform the soul from within. Only a reiterated impulse of divine grace, one that is given freely and gratuitously, will restore that lively faith, and it will allow for a renewed encounter with God in faith and love.