Essay 7

Faith
“Faith is certainty of the divine promise without proof whatsoever of it”
Saint Augustine of Hippo, Civitas Dei
Faith is so simple to understand, and yet so dramatically important for life, that there is no easy way to find an example of it. Perhaps, the best example of Faith is in the everyday job of medics, nurses, teachers, soldiers and policemen. These people, unlike others, besides doing their job must assume a life mission which is to give their lives to a higher purpose: To serve mankind despite any kind of hardships and even though success is not certain.
They serve without any kind of certainty of their success. How is it that you would give your life in exchange of “nothing”? That’s when faith comes in. Even though they are not sure of their success they sort of expect in the certain presence of a divine being. Why is it that the do such thing? Because they act either for love or hope to their fellows. As a soldier once put it, they don’t throw themselves at dangers because there are fearless, in fact they are fearful of what they do but their love for their fellow soldiers and the hope that by facing danger without care for their own lives they might save the lives of their fellows is what truly guides them.
The case of a soldier is the same case of a medic, nurse, teacher or policemen. Most of them act, without certainty of their success, motivated by love and hope. This is how I can deduce that Faith is related to love and hope and these two elements are the traces of a divine presence however we call it. At the end of the day, looking at these everyday examples of Faith, I realize that is not a mere doctrinal certainty but rather the result of feeling those traces of divinity in my life and acting according to them. You can say that Faith also comes from spirituality and that, regardless of religious stances, is universal to all people who get in touch with those traces and acknowledge their supremeness.
So bottom line is that, for me, Faith is the greatest expression of spirituality and is an expression of Love and Hope. By itself Faith is a motivation that spurges from these two elements and that drive you through fear and not through uncertainty. I believe Faith does carry me through a lot o fears I have in my everyday life and illuminates my path whenever this gets clouded. Also, I believe in what Jesus said about this motivation: Faith is not about quantity but about quality. This idea Jesus gave humanity about faith is perhaps the only truth I’ve experienced of it, whenever coldness grips my spirit no matter how small is my faith, if I get a good hold from it; it carries me through fear and darkness.
Lots of people relate Faith to Death and believe Faith is a way to avoid being gripped by an eternal termination that they consider Death to be. I think that my everyday efforts to accept Death have led me to understand Faith is not only about Death. Faith goes beyond this universe and is present independently of my existence; this takes to me believe that Death is not the final end and that Faith goes beyond it. For me, this means that Faith is my everyday path and struggle to turn into my spiritual true being and thus reach my Creator through the opportunity of Death.