Faith in God

St. Peter of Verona had to suffer a lot for his faith and lose a lot of blood. Before his martyrdom, he dipped his finger in his blood and wrote on the ground in the sand, “I believe in God.” What about our faith? Do we believe that God exists? One of the most important Russian writers of recent centuries is Andrei Sinavsky. True to his convictions, he spent several years in Soviet concentration camps. On one occasion, he asked himself this way: “Sir, why do I believe? Perhaps from the old custom … And from the anxiety of death? So why do I believe, Lord? Because my parents forced me to think? Or has my sermons intimidated? And do I believe, Lord, to save my soul, or to want to be better than others? Sir, please intervene inside me so that I can believe simply because you exist. “

Let us ask ourselves a question with this writer: Do we believe in God? And why do we believe in him? It is good to ask this question from time to time, because faith in God completely changes a person’s attitude towards life and death. With faith in God, one enjoys peace of mind and answers to many questions about the meaning of life. Also, so that we have clarity on these questions, or so that we can answer if someone asks us. But are we sure? Is it possible to prove that God exists? In terms of mathematical-scientific proofs no. Evidence belongs to the material world. However, God is not something that can be disposed of. After all, even the great questions of a person’s life cannot be deciphered as a crossword puzzle. If the solution were so easy, this problem would no longer exist. However, God does not stand outside all human experience because logical reasoning can still lead to the conclusion that it exists. There is knowledge that we gain only when we are interested in them.

God is not of such a nature as the tangible reality that surrounds us. We cannot use the means we use to study our world to get to know it. Unlike a scientist who can prove his claim, one cannot concretely verify that God exists, resp. Does not exist. In the search for God, it is essential that we do not stay with theoretical considerations, but that we once dare to address the “matter with God.” Only then do we know a person when we come in contact with him? God can only be known when we begin to deal with him. So we must also be willing to find God. In this context, Max Planck, the founder of quantum theory, said, “God stands at the beginning for the believer and at the end of all thinking for the physicist.” “We cannot know everything about anything,” said religious thinker Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). Ourselves. Of course, God will always remain a mystery to us. Even though God has appeared to us, we have only a faint knowledge of him in advance.

Everyone can learn about God in their earthly life and in this world. However, it cannot be understood. “The God whom man understands is not God” (Terstegan). When talking about God, our speech fails. God is “inexpressible, incomprehensible, invisible, and inexplicable” (Anaphora). St. Paul testifies in Romans (11: 33-35). Theologians finally acknowledged the distant past. That is why we are talking about faith. We believe that God exists and that he deserves our trust. Scripture calls faith the essence. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we read: “Without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he rewards those who seek him” (11, 6). Faith, without which one cannot please God and enjoy fellowship with his other children, marks the beginning of man’s salvation.

I believe in God. With these words begins the Confession of Faith. They are the starting point for further articles of faith, and every word of confession depends on faith in God. This is what the Catholic Church’s Catechism teaches: “All articles of the Creed depend on the first, just as God’s commandments develop the first commandment. Other articles allow us to know God better as He gradually appeared to men. “Thus, believers rightly confess first that they believe in God” (CCC, 199). This “faith in God leads us to turn only to him as our beginning and to our last goal, and to give nothing to him or replace him” (CCC, 229). Life shows that people who stop believing in God do not believe in anything. What’s worse, they believe in anything. Therefore, we can ask here: Is our faith in God strong enough?