Imagine that after hearing the doorbell ring, you find a giggling child at your door saying you won one million dollars. You would probably tell the child not to lie and shut the door. What if instead of a child, you would have found the mayor of your town with a television crew saying you won one million dollars. You would now believe. You would not trust the child, but you would trust the mayor.
There is an enormous difference between these two scenarios even though both child and mayor relate the exact same information. This example brings to light that to believe in something, to have faith, depends primarily on the trustworthiness of the witness relating the information.
Whenever we read a newspaper article or watch the news, we have faith in what reporters relate since we have not been eyewitnesses of the news. People choose certain newspapers or news channels based on the trust they place on the reporters and editors. We also place our faith in historians who write history textbooks. We trust they have done research and accurately recorded historical events since no one alive today was an eyewitness.
Our Christian faith depends entirely on the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke of things no human being has seen, yet we have faith in everything he has taught us because he has proven himself to be a worthy witness. He is worthy because he rose from the dead, validating all that he taught and preached. It is at the resurrection that the message of Christ gains its strength and on which our faith rests. The resurrection is the ultimate and unique sign that he gives us to know that all he said is true. As Saint Paul said, if Christ had not risen from the dead, our faith would be in vain.
As the Year of Faith beings throughout the world, it is an opportunity to ask God to increase in us the gift of faith, to recommit to Christ and his Church, and to deepen and increase our knowledge of the content of our faith through study.
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