Catechesis 5: For The Candidates For Baptism Concerning Faith
CATECHESIS 5: For the candidates for baptism Concerning faith
Reading: Heb 11.1ff: ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the proof of things which are not seen…’
1 How great is the honour the Lord is conferring on you, when he transfers you from the rank of the catechumens to that of the Faithful! The Apostle Paul stands as a witness and says: ‘God is Faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor 1.9). For since ‘Faithful’ is God's name, you should take it as a great honour to be given the same name. For God is called ‘Faithful’, just as he is called ‘Good’, ‘Righteous’, ‘Almighty’ and ‘Creator of the Universe’. So consider the dignity to which you are being raised, since you are soon to share God's title.
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10 Although there is a single word ‘faith’, it is applied in two ways. One kind of faith concerns doctrines, and involves the soul's assent to some truth. It benefits the soul, as the Lord says: ‘The one who listens to my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come to judgment’ (Jn 5.24). And again: ‘The one who believes in the Son is not judged’ (Jn 3.18), ‘but has passed from death to life’ (5.24). How great is God's love for mankind! The righteous earned God's approval over many years; but what they obtained by earning his approval over many years Jesus now bestows on you in a single hour. For if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord and that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved and transported to Paradise by the one who admitted the thief into Paradise. Don't doubt whether it is possible. For the one who saved the thief here at holy Golgotha for the faith of a single hour will save you too if you believe.
11 Here is a second kind of faith, which is given by Christ as a grace. ‘For to one it is given to speak wisdom through the Spirit, to another to speak knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another in the same Spirit faith, and to another gifts of healing’ (1 Cor 12.8–9). Consequently this faith, which is given by the Spirit as a grace, doesn't only concern doctrines, but can produce effects which transcend human powers. For anyone who has faith of this kind ‘will say to this mountain: “Move from here to there”, and it will move’ (Mt 17.20). For when anyone says this with faith and believes it will happen, and ‘does not hesitate in their heart’ (Mk 11.23), then they receive the grace. It is to this kind of faith that the saying: ‘If you have faith like a mustard-seed’ (Mt 17.20) refers. For a mustard-seed is small in size but is fiery in power; it is sown in a tiny area, but comprises great branches, and when it grows it can provide shelter for the birds; so too faith in the briefest instant can produce great results in the soul. For when enlightened by faith, the soul forms an image of God and contemplates him, in so far as that is possible. It circles the boundaries of the world, and before the fulfilment of this age it already beholds the judgment and the promised rewards. So maintain the faith which comes from yourself and is directed towards him, so that you may receive from him the faith which can accomplish works transcending human powers.
12 Learn the faith and profess it; receive it and keep it—but only the Creed which the Church will now deliver to you, the Creed which is firmly based on the whole of Scripture. For since not everyone is able to read the Scriptures, but some are prevented from learning them by illiteracy, others by lack of time, we summarize the whole teaching of the faith in a few lines, so that ignorance will not lead you to lose your souls. I want you to memorize it word for word, and to recite it very carefully among yourselves. Do not write it down on paper, but inscribe it in your memories and in your hearts. But when you repeat it, make sure that none of the catechumens overhears the words that have been handed on to you. Keep it as food for your journey at every moment of your life, and never accept another Creed apart from it, even if we ourselves change our minds and contradict what we are teaching now, even if a hostile angel is ‘transfigured into an angel of light’ (2 Cor 11.14) and tries to lead you astray. For ‘if we or an angel from heaven preach to you a gospel which is opposed to what you have been taught, let him be accursed’ (Gal 1.8). So for now, listen to the Creed and memorize it word for word, and in due time you will be taught the proof from the holy Scriptures for each point it contains. For the articles of the Creed were not put together according to human choice; the most important doctrines were collected from the whole of Scripture to make up a single exposition of the faith. Just as the mustard-seed contains its many branches in a tiny grain, so too this Creed embraces in a few words all the religious knowledge contained in the Old and New Testaments. So see to it, brethren, and ‘hold fast to the traditions’ (2 Thess 2.15) which will now be entrusted to you; and engrave them ‘on the tablet of your heart’ (Prov 7.3).
13 Guard them religiously, in case the Enemy should try to rob any of you who grow slack. Do not let any heretic pervert any of the traditions. For faith is like money entrusted to the banker; God requires you to submit accounts of the deposit. I charge you, in the words of the Apostle, ‘before the God who gives life to every creature, and before Christ Jesus who testified under Pontius Pilate and made the good confession’, to ‘preserve uncorrupted’ this Creed which has been entrusted to you, ‘until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Tim 6.13–14). The treasure of life has now been entrusted to you; the Master will demand his deposit at his appearing, ‘which will be revealed at the proper time by the one blessed Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no human being has seen or can see’ (1 Tim 6.15–16). To him is the glory, honour and power for ever and ever. Amen.