“Let Jesus Christ take hold of you!  […]  Let your life be an open book that narrates the experience of the new life in the Spirit, the presence of God who sustains us on the way and opens to us life that will never end.”

On October 24, 2012, Pope Benedict addressed a huge crowd in Saint Peter’s Square for his weekly audience.  As promised, the Holy Father is using the Wednesday audiences to reflect on the Apostles’ Creed, but this week he wanted to start with a fundamental question: What is faith?

It may seem like we have asked that question a lot lately, but Pope Benedict XVI is emphasizing for us that the science and technology only take us so far.  The most profound questions of life, questions like “What is the meaning of life?” and “How should we live in order to be happy?” or “Is there a future for humanity?”—these cannot be answered by physics, chemistry, biology, or any other scientific knowledge.

It is not because scientific knowledge is useless or bad that it can give no response to such questions; they simply are beyond the scope of these fields of inquiry.  It’s important to recognize this in order to situate faith—through which we can give an answer to these questions—in its proper relationship with science and reason.  Truth can never contradict truth.

We don’t just need bread, in other words.  We need love, meaning, and hope.  Faith, by being an entrustment of myself to God and a personal response to His love, gives me a certainty that is different from but no less solid than the exact calculations of science. 

Faith is a certainty that gives a secure foundation and solid ground to live authentically every day.  What does “authentically” mean here?  Faith believes in the love of God that does not shrink back from our failures, our wickedness, or even death.  We know that God’s love is capable of transforming every form of slavery that we know in our lives; it is the reason for our hope.  God promises an indestructible love for all eternity and he is giving it to us.  Through faith we accept this we begin to live without fear; we begin to become what we were made to be: God’s sons and daughters.  It is a gift from God and, at the same time, a profoundly human act.

(For the full text of the Holy Father's address, please click here.  The Vatican translation should be available in English in about a week.)