Faith

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

Faith is the gateway to Christianity.

Faith is the first step in the Christian life.

We do not need to know every single detail to believe (as St. Augustine said, “I believe in order to know”), but to trust.

Trust and faith go together.

An analogy would be if I were to tell people about myself and my life story. They would believe me first and through believing then they would know. The reason they would believe is because they trust me therefore faith and trust go together. They are almost inseparable.

Patience and faith go together.

To keep the faith that we start in we must have patience. Patience when something troubles us in the faith, and we wait for an answer from God. The virtues of the Christian way are like a network; when you grow in one virtue, the others grow as well. Faith and patience go together, because without other virtues growing, faith won’t grow as well.

Humility and faith go together.

In Hebrews 11:1, St. Paul the Apostle says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” Substance in Greek (as well as Latin from where we get our English word), means “standing under.” Therefore in order for us to have true faith we must be humble, not focusing on ourselves but on God our hope. We have to submit to God and to our spiritual fathers if we are to continue in the faith of Jesus Christ.

Finally we have to be simple to have faith. There were many great theologians in the past, as well as in the present, who were very studious and they were great apologists and wrote so many things about the Christian way. They studied a lot of theology, a lot of history, a lot of languages, and a lot of many other subjects, yet in the end they came to the realization that ultimately the faith is simple. Also if we are to be worshippers of God in spirit and truth, we have to be simple, as Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Children are simple and believe, therefore we have to be the same according to the words of our Lord Jesus.

Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.