Faith is a gift from God, as well as our free response to believe what God tells us about Himself and about the world He made. We first receive the gift of faith in the Sacrament of Baptism. The Sacraments are the chief means of receiving of God’s grace in our lives.

Understanding Faith

Faith is necessary for salvation. Jesus tells us many times, and the Catholic Church teaches that “Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation” (CCC 161). Our faith can be increased, but it also can be lost. We are free to accept or to reject God. God is always calling us to Himself, but He never coerces us. We must choose to believe in Him and we must live our lives according to His revealed truth. Unlike human beings who sin, or who fail despite their best intentions, God never sins or fails. For this reason, faith is certain. We can be surer of our faith in God than we can be in any human knowledge. Our faith is not a blind leap, even though the truths that have been revealed to us are sometimes not clear to our human understanding. We believe because it is God who has revealed the truth to us. Scripture tells us: “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1).

The Trinity

The Blessed Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — is the central mystery of our Faith. When we speak of the Blessed Trinity, we are professing two beliefs: belief in the unity of God (that there is only one God) and belief in the Trinity of God (that there are three equal, distinct Divine Persons in God). When we say that there are three distinct Persons in God we mean that one Person is not the other Person, and yet all three are one God. The Trinity is a communion of persons — an eternal exchange of love. Human beings have a unique place in creation because we can be made sharers in that love. Everything that God creates, and has ever created, or will ever create, is good. When God created human persons, He said that His creation was very good. The Catechism teaches that man is the “summit” of the Creator’s work. Man is “the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake, and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life” (CCC 356).

Image and Likeness of God

“God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). That we are created in the image of God does not mean that we look like Him. Rather, it means that human persons are created with intellect, free will, and the capacity to love. This means that we can use our reason to know things, choose between right and wrong, and love God and one another These gifts that we have received from God allow us to enter into communion with other persons and, by grace, to enter into a relationship with God Himself. Of all the creatures on earth, only human beings can share in the divine life of God.