On the remaining Sundays of this year when we celebrate Mass together, we will consider something central to Christian moral teaching: the seven virtues.
Each Sunday we shall look at one virtue, taking as our starting point the Scripture readings for that Sunday. We shall consider the four cardinal virtues – prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance – and the three theological virtues – faith, hope and charity.
But first, what exactly is a virtue?
Aristotle understood virtue as a stable disposition of character enabling us to choose and act well. St Thomas Aquinas developed this understanding, describing virtue as a good habit which disposes us towards good actions.
The important word here is habit. Virtue is not simply doing something good once. A person who occasionally tells the truth is not necessarily honest. A person who occasionally acts bravely is not necessarily courageous. Virtue means that goodness has become a settled disposition of our character.
And today we begin with the first of the theological virtues: faith.
The Letter to the Hebrews gives us a familiar biblical description:
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
Faith therefore concerns realities which are not immediately accessible to our senses.
Let us now look at today’s readings, because each tells us something important about faith.
In our first reading, from the prophet Isaiah, God speaks about Cyrus, the Persian king whom he has chosen as an instrument of his plans, even though Cyrus does not know him and does not believe in him. And that is an important lesson for our faith. We do not have to understand all God’s plans before we can place our trust in him.
In today’s second reading, St Paul thanks God for the Christians in Thessalonica and recalls their faith, love and hope. Notice that he speaks of their work of faith. Their faith is not merely an intellectual opinion. It has changed the way they live.
Faith involves both our intellect and our will. We accept as true what God has revealed, but we also place our trust in him and allow that trust to guide our actions.
The Latin word credo, with which we traditionally begin the Creed at Mass, means “I believe”, but also carries the sense of “I trust”.
This matters because Christian faith is more than accepting certain statements about God as true. It means trusting God himself.
Finally, in today’s Gospel, the Pharisees attempt to trap Jesus with their question about paying taxes to Caesar.
Jesus asks to see a coin bearing Caesar’s image and replies:
“Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
The immediate question concerns political authority and its legitimate demands. But Jesus directs our attention towards something greater. The coin bears Caesar’s image and may be returned to Caesar. But we bear the image of God. Our lives, our intellects, our wills and our very existence belong ultimately to him.
And this is perhaps the most important question of faith. Not simply whether we believe that God exists, but whether we believe that we belong to him and we can trust him.
At the same time, faith does not mean having all the answers. Christians are called to think and ask questions. And here two great Catholic thinkers can help us.
The first is St Anselm of Canterbury, the eleventh-century theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury. He famously wrote: Credo ut intelligam – “I believe in order to understand.”
Anselm did not mean that we should abandon reason or refuse to examine our beliefs. Quite the opposite. He believed that faith opens the door to deeper understanding. We begin by trusting God’s revelation, and then, as the second step, use the intellect God has given us to explore its meaning.
Faith comes first. And from it, understanding follows. And once we look at the world through the lens of our Catholic faith, many things begin to make sense which previously seemed incomprehensible.
But there will always be questions we cannot fully answer:
Why is there cancer in the world? Why does an innocent child get killed? How can a piece of bread genuinely become the Body of Christ and still taste like bread?
The only honest answer is: we do not fully know. But does this invalidate our faith?
Here we turn to another great English Catholic thinker, St John Henry Newman.
In his Apologia, Newman wrote: “Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.”
This is a profound distinction. A difficulty is simply something we do not understand. But a doubt involves questioning whether what we believe is actually true. The two are not identical.
We may believe something firmly without being able to explain every single aspect of it. This happens frequently in ordinary life. We may trust someone we have known for years without always understanding their decisions.
Our trust rests not on having every answer, but on knowing that person and having good reasons to believe in their honesty and goodness. The same principle applies to our faith in God.
Newman acknowledged that some Christian doctrines present serious intellectual difficulties. He certainly did not pretend to have all the answers. And if you ever meet a minister of religion who claims that they have all the answers, let me offer you a little pastoral advice: run away as fast as you can.
And perhaps this is the thought with which we should conclude.
Faith is not the absence of questions. Nor is it the ability to explain every mystery of Christianity.
Faith is the settled disposition to trust God, even when our understanding remains incomplete.
That is why faith is a virtue. It perfects our intellect and will, directs us towards God, and enables us to live according to truths greater than those we can discover by ourselves.
Let us therefore ask God not only to preserve our faith, but to deepen it: that we may believe more firmly, seek to understand more fully, and above all live more faithfully according to what we believe.
Amen.