Day 22: Wrestling with Faith

Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith." To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; it must be "working through charity," abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church. CCC 156

Perseverance. That is the main theme, along with faith, in today's reading. Scripture teaches us that "without faith it is impossible to please [God]" (Heb 11:6) and through His grace "the one who perseveres to the end will be saved" (Matt 24:13). Rather a daunting task, perseverance. We are such frail and fickle creatures sometimes, and that's why we need God's grace to "endure the unendurable and bear the unbearable", as Japanese Emperor Hirohito once told his people upon surrender. Faith is not easy at times and like that emperor's words at the end of probably the worst war in human history, we too must surrender not to a coalition of Allies, but to God. It is acceptance of His free gift of faith, trusting in Him, and perseverance till the end of our lives, despite the many trials we face, to which we are called. 

There was also a section that stated "there is no dichotomy between faith and science [because] truths do not contradict each other" (Catechism Companion, Vol 1, p. 48).

I really liked this image that is found in the Companion book (p. 49), with the caption:

In the person of Jacob, picture here wrestling with the angel of the Lord, we can see ourselves and our own honest struggles with the faith (see CCC 157). Despite his own "wrestling" Jacob never lost faith in God and his promises.

Painting by Alexandre-Louis Leloir, 1865

I think it's fair to say that there's a bit of Jacob in all of us in this regard.