To His apostles or maybe to Himself, Jesus once rhetorically posed a question, “When the Son of man comes will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18-8). It is interesting to observe that upon his return on the last day the Lord expects to look for faith above everything else, especially among His followers. In our times this may sound a bit incongruous.

Social justice, peace, lack of poverty, full churches or compassion would almost certainly rank higher in the perception of what should be most important in our societies.

Yet Christ held faith to be the foundation upon which all other virtues are built and this with good reason.

When this virtue comes amiss we end up blindly magnifying the faults of others while nullifying our own.

So much rhetoric is being spent giving advice to the Church about how it should set about reforming itself, while at the same time forgetting that the most important reform to be first undertaken is that of oneself.

During the next few months Catholics will be celebrating the Year of Faith and with good reason too. It is this crisis of faith that is leading to the many woes that beset our society and even the Church herself. Once faith in God wanes, then our inner life starts to collapse.

Christ has taught us that learning without faith means nothing. During the 2,000 years of existence the Catholic Church has harboured within its ranks many holy and humble learned men and women but also a number of people who, not having nurtured enough their faith thought that their scholarship gave them leave to utter words which end up harming not only their own souls but also those of others.

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