Lumen Fidei - page 33

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swer this question, we need to reflect on the kind
of knowledge involved in faith. Here a saying of
Saint Paul can help us: “One believes with the
heart” (Rom 10:10). In the Bible, the heart is the
core of the human person, where all his or her
different dimensions intersect: body and spirit,
interiority and openness to the world and to oth-
ers, intellect, will and affectivity. If the heart is
capable of holding all these dimensions together,
it is because it is where we become open to truth
and love, where we let them touch us and deeply
transform us. Faith transforms the whole person
precisely to the extent that he or she becomes
open to love. Through this blending of faith and
love we come to see the kind of knowledge which
faith entails, its power to convince and its ability
to illumine our steps. Faith knows because it is
tied to love, because love itself brings enlight-
enment. Faith’s understanding is born when we
receive the immense love of God which trans-
forms us inwardly and enables us to see reality
with new eyes.
27. The explanation of the connection be-
tween faith and certainty put forward by the phi-
losopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is well known. For
Wittgenstein, believing can be compared to the
experience of falling in love: it is something sub-
jective which cannot be proposed as a truth valid
for everyone.19 Indeed, most people nowadays
19 Cf. Vermischte Bemerkungen / Culture and Value, ed. G.H.
von Wright, Oxford, 1991, 32-33; 61-64.