November 29, 2023 Reflection – The Theological Virtues

The Theological Virtues

November 29, 2023

Dear Family of Mary!

Here, again, is the message from Our Lady of Medjugorje for November 25, 2023:

Dear children! May this time be interwoven with prayer for peace and good deeds, so that the joy of the expectation of the King of Peace may be felt in your hearts, families and in the world which does not have hope. Thank you for having responded to my call. (November 25, 2023)

Our Lady tells us that we need “the joy of the expectation of the King of Peace” to be felt in our hearts. We need it to be felt in our families. And we need it to be felt in the world! This joy of the expectation of the King of Peace has a name. It is Hope! When we expect something good to come, we have hope. And nothing is more good than the coming of Jesus, the King of Peace! So we need to feel Hope in our whole being, as we thrill in expectation of Jesus’ coming!

This Gift of Hope has me thinking. There are three Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope and Love. These virtues are not manmade, but given to us by God. I want to present to you what our Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us about these three Virtues so we will understand their incredible importance, especially Hope. Here is the intro and first virtue, Faith:

II. THE THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES

1812 The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which adapt man’s faculties for participation in the divine nature: ⁷⁶ for the theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object.

1813 The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. ⁷⁷

Faith

1814 Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith “man freely commits his entire self to God.” ⁷⁸ For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God’s will. “The righteous shall live by faith.” Living faith “work[s] through charity.” ⁷⁹

1815 The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. ⁸⁰ But “faith apart from works is dead”: ⁸¹ when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body.

1816 The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: “All however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks.” ⁸² Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: “So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” ⁸³

Read this over a couple of times, because it is dense!! More tomorrow!!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
(c) Mary TV 2023