The Foundation of Faith

THERE is plenty happening in our world today to shake the faith of believers. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find souls who are remaining steadfast in their Christian faith without compromise, without giving up, without caving in to the pressures and temptations of the world. But this raises a question: just what exactly is my faith to be in? The Church? Mary? The Sacraments…?

We have to know the answer to this question because the days are here and coming when everything around us will be shaken. Everything. Financial institutions, governments, the social order, nature, and yes, even the Church itself. If our faith is in the wrong place, then it too will risk collapsing altogether.

Our faith is to be in Jesus. Jesus is the foundation of our faith, or should be.

When Our Lord turned to the disciples to ask them who people were saying the Son of Man is, Peter replied:

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” (Matt 16:16-18)

We see that Peter’s profession, his faith in Jesus, became the bedrock upon which the Church was to be built. But Jesus did not deal in abstracts; He truly intended to build His Church upon the person, the “office” of Peter, and hence, here we are today, 267 popes later. But St. Paul adds:

…no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 3:11)

That is to say, that something greater lay beneath Peter, the rock, and that was Jesus, the cornerstone.

See, I am laying a stone in Zion, a stone that has been tested, a precious cornerstone as a sure foundation; whoever puts faith in it will not waver. (Isaiah 28:16)

Because even Peter failed; even Peter sinned. Indeed, if our faith was to rely upon Peter, then we would be a disillusioned bunch to be sure. No, the reason for Peter and the Church was not to give us an object of our faith, but rather a visible manifestation of the Builder himself at work. That is to say that all the truths, all the splendors of Christian art, literature, architecture, music and doctrine merely point toward something, or rather, Someone greater, and that is Jesus.

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:11-12)

This is why I say that we had better know where to put our faith in these days of purification and chastisement that are upon us. Because the eclipse of truth and reason today are not only leaving a great shadow upon the Church, but seek to destroy it altogether. Even now, the things I’ve mentioned above do not exist in many nations upon the earth—places where the truths of the faith are whispered and those outward manifestations of Christ’s beauty remain hidden in believer’s hearts in the bastion of hope.

When Jesus appeared to St. Faustina, revealing that His message of Divine Mercy to her was “a sign for the end times” that “will prepare the world for My final coming,” ^[1]Jesus to St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n. 848, 429 He did not leave her with a book of doctrines, an encyclical or catechism. Rather, He left her with three words that could save the world:

Jezu Ufam Tobie

which translate from Polish to:

Jesus I trust in you.

Imagine that! After 2000 years of building His Church, the antidote for humanity has remained as simple as it was in the beginning: the name of Jesus.

Indeed, St. Peter prophesied of a global shaking in which the only hope would be for those who called in faith upon the Name above all names.

The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and splendid day of the Lord, and it shall be that everyone shall be saved who calls on the name of the Lord. (Acts 2:20-21)

None of this is to say, of course, that the Church is not important; that Our Blessed Mother is inconsequential; that truth is irrelevant. No, what gives them importance is the word of Christ. Indeed, Jesus is the Word made flesh. Jesus and His word are one and the same thing. And so when Jesus says that He will build a Church, we believe in the Church because He is building it. When He says that we should take Mary as our mother, we take her because He gave her to us. When He commands us to baptize, break Bread, confess, heal, and ordain, we do so because the Word has spoken. Our faith is in Him, and we obey because obedience is proof of faith.

We may see bishops and cardinals fall away from the Catholic faith. But we will remain unshaken because our faith is in Jesus, not men. We may see our churches torn down to the foundations, but we will remain unshaken because our faith is in Jesus, not buildings. We may see our fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers turn against us, but we will remain unshaken because our faith is in Jesus, not flesh and blood. We may see good called evil and evil called good, but we will remain unshaken because our faith is in Christ’s word, not the word of men.

But do you know Him? Do you speak to Him? Do you walk with Him? Because if you do not, then how can you trust Him? There is going to come a point when it is too late for some people, when the shaking will leave nothing left and all that was built on sand will be carried away.

If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire [itself] will test the quality of each one’s work. (1 Cor 3:12-13)

But here is the good news: you do not need to be a bible scholar, a theologian or a priest to call upon His Name. You do not even have to be a Catholic. You just need to have faith—and He will hear you—and do the rest.