The Light of Faith

Lumen Fidei

"The Light of Faith"

By Pope Francis (and Pope Benedict XVI)

Foreword by Scott Hahn

This print from Image Books

Encyclical Released on 29 June 2013

This isn't really a book, and isn't really something that I have any sort of qualifications to review or even really comment on, and yet this is the next book that I am reviewing and so here we are. Instead of a traditional review where I tell you what I liked and didn't like, I thought I'd do a brief wrap-up of the format and how this all came together, and try to pull and important point or two from the encyclical. 

An encyclical is a letter which is a very high form of Papal Document, and this one is an encyclical letter addressed to pretty much everyone (Bishops, Priests and Deacons, Consecrated Persons, and Lay Faithful). An encyclical is a way for the Pope to teach in a binding and authoritative way, a way that calls for our attention. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI gave three encyclicals during his Papacy, two of which were on the virtue of Charity (Deus Caritas Est - God is Love (2005) and Caritas en Veritate - Charity in Truth (2009)) and one of which was on the virtue of Hope (Spe Salvi - Saved by Hope (2007)). In order to complete his explanation of the Theological Virtues, which are Faith, Hope, and Charity (love), he had begun and basically finished an encyclical Letter on Faith. When Pope Francis came in as Pope, then, he took what Pope Benedict XVI had started and added some finishing touches, giving it to us as "the work of four hands." 

In his very good introduction found with this hard copy of the encyclical, Scott Hahn explains the beauty of the two Popes working together on this encyclical: "It is not merely two Holy Fathers who speak in these pages. It is the long succession, the unbroken tradition. It is the voice of Christ himself, who entrusted the office to his vicars." Two Popes, two very different men, and yet very much one Light of Faith that they present. For this reason alone, it is worth reading, as you hear the voice of the Church's traditional explanation of the virtue of Faith applied to our daily life in these pages.

If I had to find one quote that I thought was a good explanation of what this encyclical says, I would take it from Paragraph 55: "If it [faith] 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." For me, that is the crux of the virtue of faith being presented in this encyclical: faith is a light because it shows us who we are in relationship to the Father, allowing us all to see what it means to be a son or daughter as well as a brother or sister. Faith is not something which makes the difficulties pass - in fact, many times suffering will be a large part of our faith journey - but it is something which gives light in the darkness and which will never leave us abandoned. 

In walking through the experience of faith of God's people, and then applying that faith to today, these four hands of these two Popes help us in this encyclical to see that faith reveals to us the Son in order to help us understand what it means to live as a Christian, what it means to be a part of a Church, and ultimately what it means to love. Faith is something which leads to and is tied to love because faith, as they say over and over again in this encyclical, is something we receive, and so it must be received and lived with others, not as an individual experience. Faith, then, necessitates love and community, therefore strengthening the Church and the world with it. 

You probably are aware that you don't need to buy hard copies of encyclicals; all of them are available for free offline. You can find this one on the Vatican website by clicking this link: Lumen Fidei; you could also go there and find it in a whole bunch of other languages. If you're like me, though, and like a hard copy to write on, or if you want the version with a very nice introduction from Scott Hahn, you can find that through Image Books by going here: Lumen Fidei. 

Whatever you do, please read this encyclical and allow it to open your heart and mind to the light of faith a little bit more in this new year.




 "I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review."