Natural faith is belief in what is said by a human being, without actual personal knowledge that it is true. Examples: the distance of the Sun from the Earth; that the American Revolution took place historically; that our friends really are our friends; that the doctor knows what he is doing when he prescribes some treatment. Of course, we don't just believe people randomly -- our belief is usually supported by our reasoning that the source is credible, that the information is generally thought to be true, and other such things.
You can see that this kind of faith is necessary to us in order to function and learn. If we distrusted everything we did not absolutely KNOW we would not be able to live. Even the floor we stand on would be suspect because we didn't KNOW the builders knew what they were doing, or even if our minds were deceiving us by telling us there was actually a floor.
Supernatural faith is greater than this natural faith, though. It is defined as:
We are given this gift in our Baptism and it is strengthened in Confirmation and through practicing our faith, particularly by receiving the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.
A theological virtue, a free gift of God, consisting in an infused supernatural habit or capacity for believng, by which man is disposed to accept as true everything God has revealed solely because of the authority and truthfulness of God who reveals it.
This supernatural gift allows us to go much farther towards the truth than anyone could go without it. Since God is invisible to our senses, we would find it impossible to come to know what He is like without this gift of seeing what is beyond our minds.
Go on to Next Section
No comments:
Post a Comment
Put your initials or something here when you have finished the lesson.