Lumen Fidei - page 11

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CHAPTER ONE
WE HAVE  BELIEVED  IN  LOVE
(cf. 1 Jn 4:16)
Abraham, our father in faith
8. Faith opens the way before us and accompa-
nies our steps through time. Hence, if we want
to understand what faith is, we need to follow the
route it has taken, the path trodden by believers,
as witnessed first in the Old Testament. Here a
unique place belongs to Abraham, our father in
faith. Something disturbing takes place in his life:
God speaks to him; he reveals himself as a God
who speaks and calls his name. Faith is linked to
hearing. Abraham does not see God, but hears
his voice. Faith thus takes on a personal aspect.
God is not the god of a particular place, or a de-
ity linked to specific sacred time, but the God of
a person, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
capable of interacting with man and establishing
a covenant with him. Faith is our response to a
word which engages us personally, to a “Thou”
who calls us by name.
9. The word spoken to Abraham contains both
a call and a promise. First, it is a call to leave his
own land, a summons to a new life, the begin-
ning of an exodus which points him towards an
unforeseen future. The sight which faith would
give to Abraham would always be linked to the
need to take this step forward: faith “sees” to the