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Conversion and faith
53. In proclaiming the Good
News of Revelation to the world, evangelization invites men and women to
conversion and faith. (140) The call of Jesus, "Repent and believe
in the Gospel", (Mk 1,15) continues to resound today by means of
the Church's work of evangelization. The Christian faith is, above all,
conversion to Jesus Christ, (141) full and sincere adherence to his
person and the decision to walk in his footsteps. (142) Faith is a
personal encounter with Jesus Christ making, of oneself a disciple of him. This
demands a permanent commitment to think like him, to judge like him and to live
as he lived. (143) In this way the believer unites himself to the
community of disciples and appropriates the faith of the Church. (144)
54. This "Yes" to
Jesus Christ, who is the fullness of the revelation of the Father is twofold: a
trustful abandonment to God and a loving assent to all that he has revealed to
us. This is possible only by means of the action of the Holy Spirit.
(145)
"By faith man freely commits his entire
self completely to God, making the full submission of his intellect and will to
God who reveals, and willingly assenting to the Revelation given by him".
(146)
"To believe has thus a double
reference: to the person and to the truth; to the truth, by trust in the person
who bears witness to it". (147)
55. Faith involves a change
of life, a "metanoia", (148) that is a profound
transformation of mind and heart; it causes the believer to live that
conversion. (149) This transformation of life manifests itself at all
levels of the Christian's existence: in his interior life of adoration and
acceptance of the divine will, in his action, participation in the mission of
the Church, in his married and family life; in his professional life; in
fulfilling economic and social responsibilities.
Faith and conversion arise from the
"heart", that is, they arise from the depth of the human person
and they involve all that he is. By meeting Jesus Christ and by adhering to him
the human being sees all of his deepest aspirations completely fulfilled. He
finds what he had always been seeking and he finds it superabundantly.
(150) Faith responds to that "waiting", (151)
often unconscious and always limited in its knowledge of the truth about God,
about man himself and about the destiny that awaits him. It is like pure water
(152) which refreshes the journey of man, wandering in search of his
home. Faith is a gift from God. It can only be born in the intimacy of Man's
heart as a fruit of that "grace [which] moves and assists him",
(153) and as a completely freeresponse to the promptings of the Holy
Spirit who moves the heart and turns it toward God, and who "makes it easy
for all to accept and believe the truth". (154) The Blessed Virgin
Mary lived these dimensions of faith in the most perfect way. The Church
"venerates in Mary the purest realization of faith". (155)
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