“Faith” not only includes truths that we believe about God but also the truth of God’s
actions in our own lives, according to the Letter to the Hebrews. Hebrews demonstrates
these actions through God’s interactions with Abraham and Sarah.
The Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 11:1-2, 8-19) asserts: “Faith is confident assurance
concerning what we hope for and conviction about things we do not see” (Heb 11:1).
Hebrews teaches that we can be assured and convinced beyond what we can see.
St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that we cannot know God as He is but we can know God
by what He does. In one of the first articles of the Summa Theologiae, Thomas writes:
Although we cannot know in what consists the essence of God, nevertheless …
we make use of His effects, either of nature or of grace, … even as in some
philosophical sciences we demonstrate something about a cause from its effect
(1a. 1, 7, ad 1).
By looking at the effects in creation and in grace, we know the cause. The goodness of
the created world indicates that there is a good cause.
To believe that God continues to give good requires faith. Faith is more than our
membership in the Church as Catholic Christians. It is our personal believing in God as
revealed by the Scriptures and the Church.
Faith, hope and charity are virtues. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, a virtue is a
disposition to act in a good way: “Therefore human virtue which is an operative habit, is
a good habit, productive of good works” (1a2ae. 55, 3). A virtue leads to action. To what
action does the virtue of faith lead?
The virtue of faith moves us to the act of faith, to believe. St. Thomas writes: “The act of
faith is to believe” (2a2ae. 4, 1). What is an act of belief?
Thomas explains that in our minds, we have an intellect that knows and seeks the truth.
Knowing the truth isn’t complete if the truth remains just information. Our minds include
a will that moves us to act towards what we know is good.
Faith, first of all, belongs to the intellect because we believe that something is true.
Thomas borrows St. Augustine’s definition of faith, which is “to think with assent” (The
Predestination of the Saints.).
Faith is also in the will because we choose to believe here and now. Thomas affirms:
“To believe is an act of the mind assenting to God’s true word by reason of the
command of the will as this is moved by God through grace” (2a2ae. 2, 9). That is to will
to take hold of the truth.

St. Thomas tells us that there are three ways that we can actively believe in relation to
God. First, we can simply believe that God exists.
Secondly, we can believe God. We believe that God is true. This means we believe not
only that God exists but we believe what He reveals. St. Thomas calls God, “First Truth”
(1a. 16, 5). In other words, God is so true that He Himself is the foundation of truth. This
is why we believe in the truths that God has revealed to us, through Scripture and the
Church, for instance the three Persons of the Trinity or Jesus’ presence in the
Eucharist.
The third way is to believe in God. This way of believing relates especially to God’s
actions because it is not only to believe there is a God or to believe that God reveals
truth but to believe that God acts in our lives.
This personal type of faith is very close to hope. Because we believe that God is in our
lives, we can hope in Him in the here and now. Hebrews says that “Faith is confident
assurance concerning what we hope for,” which is God’s promises in our lives and for
the future. Jesus affirmed, “It has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.”
The intellect seeks truth and the will moves us to the good. Faith is a virtue that seeks
truth but faith is also moved by the will towards the good, because God is not only First
Truth but also Goodness itself.
We assent in our intellects, as we say “yes” to God, even as we are moved by our will
towards the goodness of God (2a2ae. 2, 1, ad 3). The reality of God action in our lives
is not just an idea to which we agree but we believe in God’s action in the here and now
by our hearts that move us to Him.
The Letter to the Hebrews gives us a good example of faith in Abraham: “By faith,
Abraham obeyed when he was called, and he went forth … not knowing where he was
going… By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country” (Heb 11:8-
9).
Abraham’s journey is a model for our own journeys of faith. A journey is a series of
steps. Each step is an act of faith. Each day, even each moment, and each situation
calls for an act of faith in Jesus’ presence.
Abraham and Sarah trusted that they would have a son, even though they were both
aged: “As a result of this faith, there came forth from one man, who was himself as good
as dead, descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands of the
seashore” (Heb 11:12).
Even when God tested Abraham, Abraham trusted God: “By faith Abraham, when put to
the test, offered up Isaac; he who had received the promises was ready to sacrifice his
only son…” (Heb 11:17).

Each one of us believes when we act by faith, trusting that God will fulfill His promises
even when we are confronted by difficult situations: “Faith is confident assurance
concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see” (Heb 11:1).
In today’s Gospel (Luke 12:32-48), Jesus tells us that our priority or treasure has to be
the kingdom of God: “Do not fear, little flock. It has pleased your Father to give you the
kingdom” (Lk 12:32).
God is our Father who wants to give us the kingdom but our energies and desires get
scattered on other things, which raise our anxieties. We have to ask ourselves what
God wants for us in particular situations.
Like the servants in the Gospel, we need to bring our affairs into line with what God
wants. The Gospel speaks of servants who keep watch for the coming of the master, so
that they can open the gate when he comes (Lk 12:36): “Be on guard, therefore. The
Son of Man will come when you least expect Him” (Lk 12:40). In fact, Jesus is always
acting in our lives but we need to watch and to open the gate for Him.
God isn’t asking us to be totally passive but to work with things the way they are, in His
Providence. Over and over again we have to surrender our lives and our efforts into
Jesus’ hands.
Actually, our faith that God is acting in our lives grows as we repeatedly place our
activities and our concerns in God’s hands.

Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.,

References to the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas give the part of the
Summa, the question and the article. If the passage is found in a response to an
objection that Thomas has introduced in the first part of the article, the Latin word “ad,”
meaning “to,” is added with the number of the objection.