Lumen Fidei - page 53

53
itself, the words by which we make sense of our
lives and the world around us, comes to us from
others, preserved in the living memory of others.
Self-knowledge is only possible when we share in
a greater memory. The same thing holds true for
faith, which brings human understanding to its
fullness. Faith’s past, that act of Jesus’ love which
brought new life to the world, comes down to us
through the memory of others — witnesses —
and is kept alive in that one remembering subject
which is the Church. The Church is a Mother
who teaches us to speak the language of faith.
Saint John brings this out in his Gospel by close-
ly uniting faith and memory and associating both
with the working of the Holy Spirit, who, as Je-
sus says, “will remind you of all that I have said
to you” (Jn 14:26). The love which is the Holy
Spirit and which dwells in the Church unites ev-
ery age and makes us contemporaries of Jesus,
thus guiding us along our pilgrimage of faith.
39. It is impossible to believe on our own. Faith
is not simply an individual decision which takes
place in the depths of the believer’s heart, nor a
completely private relationship between the “I”
of the believer and the divine “Thou”, between
an autonomous subject and God. By its very na-
ture, faith is open to the “We” of the Church; it
always takes place within her communion. We are
reminded of this by the dialogical format of the
creed used in the baptismal liturgy. Our belief is
expressed in response to an invitation, to a word