The much awaited Year of Faith started on October 11. It perfectly coincided with both the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and also the liturgical memorial of one of its leading protagonists, Blessed John XXIII.

Faith is much rooted in the here and now because it essentially enlightens the present with its eternal saving truth- Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap

In the homily of the Opening Mass that initiated this universal ecclesial soul-searching event, Pope Benedict XVI said that Vatican Council II was “animated by a desire… to immerse itself anew in the Christian mystery so as to re-propose it fruitfully to contemporary man”.

Faith is not something of the past. On the contrary, it is much rooted in the here and now because it essentially enlightens the present with its eternal saving truth. Faith redeems our time by offering its eternal character to it to rebuild and protect it from the shackles of the ever fragmented reality of temporality.

Faith was the essential backbone on which Vatican Council II evolved. Indeed, the Servant of God, Pope Paul VI, during his general audience of March 8, 1967 articulated this fact in the following manner:

“Even if the Council does not deal expressly with the faith, it talks about it on every page, it recognizes its vital and supernatural character, it assumes it to be whole and strong and it builds upon its teachings. We need only recall some of the Council’s statements in order to realise the essential importance that the Council, consistent with the doctrinal tradition of the Church, attributes to the faith, the true faith, which has Christ for its source and the Church’s Magisterium for its channel.”

Both the Year of Faith and also the anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II present a serious reflection on the true meaning of faith.

Commenting on two particular signs, the enthronement of a copy of the Book of the Gospels, which was employed at the Council, together with the consignment of the seven final messages of the Council, the Holy Father said that “these signs help us not only to remember, they also offer us the possibility of going beyond commemorating. They invite us to enter more deeply into the spiritual movement which characterised Vatican II, to make it ours and to develop it according to its true meaning.

“And its true meaning was and remains faith in Christ, the apostolic faith, animated by the inner desire to communicate Christ to individuals and all people, in the Church’s pilgrimage along the pathways of history”.

In his homily, Pope Benedict XVI said that faith is special because it is totally impregnated with the “eternal presence of God (which) transcend(s) time”.

Additionally, the German Pontiff is convinced that what needs to be done is precisely “to revive in the whole Church that positive tension, that yearning to announce Christ again to contemporary man. But so that this interior thrust towards the new evangelization neither remains just an idea nor be lost in confusion, it needs to be built on a concrete and precise basis and this basis is the documents of Vatican Council II, the place where it found expression”.

Thus, the needed key and strength for the new evangelization is the rediscovery of Vatican II’s spirit.

With humble frankness, the Pope insisted once again that “if today the Church proposes a new Year of Faith and a new evangelization it is not to honour an anniversary but because there is more need of it, even more than there was 50 years ago! And the reply to be given to this need is the one desired by the Popes, by the Council Fathers and contained in its documents”.

Amid the prevalent existential deserts of our world faith is a constant journey of meeting the Incarnate God who is still immersed and fully present in our troubled history. He is a God who constantly cares for us because He wants us to be one with him. And, in order that our encounter with Him bears abundant good fruit, He gives us “the Gospel and the faith of the Church, of which the Council documents are a luminous expression, as is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published 20 years ago”.

The Year of Faith has kicked off. The rest is up to us to let it transform us.