“To an Authentic and Renewed Conversion”: Vatican II and the Year of Faith (Part 1)

On October 11, 2011, in an Apostolic Letter entitled Porta Fidei (The Gate of Faith), Pope Benedict XVI declared a Year of Faith from October 2012 to November 2013 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. This Holy Year, according to Benedict XVI, “is a call to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the only Savior of the world.”

“A Deep Crisis of Faith”

Why did Benedict XVI declare this Year of Faith? In his message to the young people gathered for the World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, in August 2011, he observed: “Today we are witnessing a certain ‘eclipse of God’, a kind of amnesia that, although it is not a rejection resounding Christianity is, however, a denial of the treasure of our faith, a denial that could lead to the loss of our deepest identity.

Benedict was aware that, under the growing influence of a radically secularist ideology, Europe and the West today are gradually losing touch with their Christian identity and heritage, allowing God to fade into the background and become increasingly irrelevant. for social and political life. This insidious “amnesia” not only threatens to wipe out modern Western civilization completely cut off from its Christian roots, with disastrous consequences for the entire civilized world, but has also begun to subtly infect the minds and hearts of individual Christian believers, weakening their faith and turning them away from Christ.

What better way to respond to this “‘eclipse of God'” and combat this “amnesia”, this “denial of the treasure of our faith”, than to summon the whole Church “to an authentic and renewed conversion” to her Lord Jesus Christ , “the originator and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2) and “the only Savior of the world”? In other words, the Year of Faith is intended to revitalize and reform the Church so that she can more effectively carry out her mission of announcing Christ to the whole world.

The Holy Spirit obviously inspired our former Vicar of Christ to proclaim this Year of Faith in order to respond to the needs of the Church and the world at this particular moment in human history. Benedict observed in fidei holder that while in the past the vital importance of faith in the formation of human society and culture was taken for granted, this is no longer the case today. Radical secularism increasingly confronts religious believers with the strange idea that faith is an exclusively private and individual matter that should not shape or influence public life in any way. This notion contradicts the intrinsic nature of the authentic Christian faith, which must be publicly professed and shared with others. “A Christian can never think of belief as a private act,” the Holy Father maintained, echoing similar words from Pope John Paul II. “Faith is choosing to be with the Lord in order to live with him… Faith, precisely because it is a free act, also demands social responsibility for what is believed.” In light of “a profound crisis of faith” that has gripped contemporary human society and culture, Benedict XVI pointed out “the need to rediscover the path of faith in order to illuminate more and more the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ.” “

The Path of Faith – An Encounter with Christ

For Christian believers, faith is an encounter and a relationship with a Person who loves us: Christ, the Son of God, who became man, suffered, died, and rose from the dead to take away our sins. This encounter and loving relationship gives meaning and direction to our lives. The “path of faith” begins with Baptism, which makes us participants in the Trinitarian life of God and incorporates us into the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church; continue with the help of the other sacraments; and “ends with the passage through death to eternal life” (fidei holder). The Resurrection of Christ from the dead – a real historical and physical event – is the basis of our Christian faith: “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain” (1 Cor. 15:17).

Unfortunately, due to poor catechesis, some Catholics today view the faith as grudging acceptance of a set of boring and archaic dogmas imposed by an authoritarian hierarchy that unnecessarily burdens and constricts their lives. This minimalist and distorted version of the faith is completely powerless in the lives of its adherents and completely unattractive to potential believers. These people have never experienced faith as the thrill ride and positive liberating force it is meant to be. There is nothing boring about an authentic personal encounter with Christ. Such an encounter is a transformative, life-changing experience that fills the person with joy and motivates them to testify of Christ to others.