Lumen Fidei - page 76

76
not ashamed” is associated with public acknowl-
edgment. The intention is to say that God, by his
concrete actions, makes a public avowal that he is
present in our midst and that he desires to solidi-
fy every human relationship. Could it be the case,
instead, that we are the ones who are ashamed to
call God our God? That we are the ones who fail
to confess him as such in our public life, who fail
to propose the grandeur of the life in common
which he makes possible? Faith illumines life and
society. If it possesses a creative light for each
new moment of history, it is because it sets every
event in relationship to the origin and destiny of
all things in the Father.
Consolation and strength amid suffering
56. Writing to the Christians of Corinth about
his sufferings and tribulations, Saint Paul links his
faith to his preaching of the Gospel. In himself
he sees fulfilled the passage of Scripture which
reads: “I believed, and so I spoke” ( 2 Cor 4:13).
The reference is to a verse of Psalm 116, in which
the psalmist exclaims: “I kept my faith, even
when I said, ‘I am greatly afflicted’” (v. 10). To
speak of faith often involves speaking of painful
testing, yet it is precisely in such testing that Paul
sees the most convincing proclamation of the
Gospel, for it is in weakness and suffering that
we discover God’s power which triumphs over
our weakness and suffering. The apostle himself
experienced a dying which would become life
for Christians (cf. 2 Cor 4:7-12). In the hour of