The Daily Unveiling

In his apostolic letter, Porta Fidei, meaning the Door of Faith, Pope Benedict begins by discussing the reasons for this Year of Faith. He says that it is a year to “rediscover a taste for feeding ourselves on the word of God...and the bread of life”, to provide a “renewal of the Church”, to “reveal in the world, faithfully, although with shadows, the mystery of the Lord”, and to summon “to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Savior of the world”. But how?

Pope Benedict’s first encyclical was entitled “Deus Caritas Est”, “God is Love”. In the same way that he began his papacy, he begins his discussion on what this Year of Faith means: by talking again, firstly, about love. In Porta Fidei he says “In rediscovering his love day by day, the missionary commitment of believers attains force and vigor that can never fade away. Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy. It makes us fruitful, because it expands our hearts in hope and enables us to bear life-giving witness.”

The word discover comes from the Latin word meaning unveil. Throughout Scripture, we read of Christ being described as the bridegroom. Each day, Christ our bridegroom, pulls back the veil between heaven and earth that he might behold the face of his beloved—the Church, you and me. A daily unveiling--this is what the Holy Father calls us to pursue. Our mission in this Year of Faith and in the entirety of our lives is to gaze at our Lover as he gazes back at us, every single day.

Benedict XVI then continues to explain that this daily experience of love received is the fruit that makes our faith grow. Benedict doesn’t say it’s an experience of books read or Rosaries said. He doesn't say that faith grows with the number of Scripture passages memorized or by the presence of Catholic bumper stickers on our car. An experience of love received: THIS is what allows our faith to become stronger.

And this begs the question—do the things we do to enhance our faith lead us to the experience of LOVE? If the Novena we are saying does not allow us to encounter the LOVE of God that leads us to entrust ourselves and our needs to him, then it is just recitation. It we just say a Rosary without contemplation on the LOVE exemplified in each of the mysteries, we are just uttering words. If going to Mass becomes more about the priest or the people present, we are missing the love contained in that little host. If our acts of service are done out of pride and fear, we are like the loveless Pharisees who Jesus condemns. If we tell people about Jesus but do not do so with the fire of love, we are “resounding gongs and clashing symbols”. All that we do in faith—prayer, Mass, acts of service, evangelization—must be done in love out of the experience of love received.

Have you gazed upon the face of your Lover today? May our commitment to meeting his gaze make us fruitful as it expands our hearts in hope and enables us to bear life-giving witness.