Lumen Fidei - page 38

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to see his face. The ground was thus laid for a
dialogue with Hellenistic culture, a dialogue pres-
ent at the heart of sacred Scripture. Hearing em-
phasizes personal vocation and obedience, and
the fact that truth is revealed in time. Sight pro-
vides a vision of the entire journey and allows it
to be situated within God’s overall plan; without
this vision, we would be left only with uncon-
nected parts of an unknown whole.
30. The bond between seeing and hearing in
faith-knowledge is most clearly evident in John’s
Gospel. For the Fourth Gospel, to believe is
both to hear and to see. Faith’s hearing emerg-
es as a form of knowing proper to love: it is a
personal hearing, one which recognizes the voice
of the Good Shepherd (cf. Jn 10:3-5); it is a hear-
ing which calls for discipleship, as was the case
with the first disciples: “Hearing him say these
things, they followed Jesus” ( Jn 1:37). But faith
is also tied to sight. Seeing the signs which Jesus
worked leads at times to faith, as in the case of
the Jews who, following the raising of Lazarus,
“having seen what he did, believed in him”
(Jn 11:45). At other times, faith itself leads to
deeper vision: “If you believe, you will see the
glory of God” (Jn 11:40). In the end, belief and
sight intersect: “Whoever believes in me believes
in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees
him who sent me” (Jn 12:44-45). Joined to hear-
ing, seeing then becomes a form of following
Christ, and faith appears as a process of gazing,