6
come from God. Faith is born of an encounter
with the living God who calls us and reveals his
love, a love which precedes us and upon which
we can lean for security and for building our lives.
Transformed by this love, we gain fresh vision,
new eyes to see; we realize that it contains a great
promise of fulfilment, and that a vision of the
future opens up before us. Faith, received from
God as a supernatural gift, becomes a light for
our way, guiding our journey through time. On
the one hand, it is a light coming from the past,
the light of the foundational memory of the life
of Jesus which revealed his perfectly trustworthy
love, a love capable of triumphing over death.
Yet since Christ has risen and draws us beyond
death, faith is also a light coming from the future
and opening before us vast horizons which guide
us beyond our isolated selves towards the breadth
of communion. We come to see that faith does
not dwell in shadow and gloom; it is a light for
our darkness. Dante, in the Divine Comedy, after
professing his faith to Saint Peter, describes that
light as a âÂÂspark, which then becomes a burning
flame and like a heavenly star within me glim-
mersâÂÂ.
4
It is this light of faith that I would now
like to consider, so that it can grow and enlighten
the present, becoming a star to brighten the ho-
rizon of our journey at a time when mankind is
particularly in need of light.
4
âÂÂParadiso XXIV, 145-147.
