Sunday 24 November, the day that the Church celebrates the solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe, Pope Francis closed the Year of Faith on St Peter’s Square. It has truly been a year of grace for the whole Church! So many celebrations and pastoral initiatives were realised in dioceses and parishes throughout the world! So many fruits of life and faith this year has brought! But can we ask ourselves: “What is faith?” Today it is not seldom – even if there are many baptised – that people look at faith from a negative point of view, that is, as a heap of prohibitions, an obstacle to the desires of freedom and happiness that live in the human heart... But this is a completely false and mistaken image of faith! Christian faith, in reality, is a wholly positive and fascinating programme of life, which leads to true and full freedom and happiness, which does not delude! Faith is an immense treasure, a secure compass, a light that guides us into life. Pope Francis in his first encyclical Lumen fidei clearly explains: “Those who believe, see; they see with a light that illumines their entire journey, for it comes from the risen Christ...” (n. 1). When one does not have this light, one no longer lives, everything becomes confused, it is impossible to distinguish between good and bad, to know oneself and to understand the true meaning of existence...
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains to us that faith is a gift, a grace that comes from God himself. But faith, being a gift, is also a free reply of man to God who, moved by a merciful love, continuously searches for man and never tires of forgiving him. Permitting God to enter into our lives enables us to touch Him, to let Him speak in our hearts: this is true faith! Faith is therefore not an abstract theory or doctrine, but is an encounter with a living Person – the person of the Risen Christ – that, illuminating our existence, opens new and fascinating horizons before us. He who has faith lives with immense joy under the gaze of God, who is ever faithful in His infinite love. This is why Pope Francis so often reminds us that a Christian cannot ever be sad!
At the end of this Year of Faith therefore, we ask ourselves with courage and truth: in my life have I truly met the Lord? Have I let myself be touched by Him, by His Word, by His merciful love? Have I listened to His voice in the silence of prayer? To summarise, have I discovered the beauty of being Christian, that is, a disciple of Christ, or have I perhaps still to make that decisive and determinate decision of having Christ as my sole Master and Lord...? Pope Francis insists: “Jesus tells us in the Gospel that being Christians does not mean having a ‘label’!... Being Christian is living and witnessing to faith in prayer, in works of charity, in promoting justice, in doing good. The whole of our life must pass through the narrow door which is Christ” (Angelus, 25 August 2013).
