Part II: Qualities of Mature Adult Faith and Discipleship
"By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples." (Jn 15:8)
At the heart of all we are and do as the Church is a revelation of great Good News: God, who is love, has made us to enjoy divine life in abundance,(19) to share in the very life of God, a communion with the Holy Trinity together with all the saints in the new creation of God's reign.(20) Faith, which is a gift from God, is our human response to this divine calling: it is a personal adherence to God and assent to his truth.(21) Through searching and growth, conversion of mind and heart, repentance and reform of life, we are led by God to turn from the blindness of sin and to accept God's saving grace, liberating truth, and sustaining love for our lives and for all of creation.
Christian faith is lived in discipleship to Jesus Christ. As disciples, through the power of the Holy Spirit, our lives become increasingly centered on Jesus and the kingdom he proclaims. By opening ourselves to him we find community with all his faith-filled disciples and by their example come to know Jesus more intimately. By following the example of his self-giving love we learn to be Christian disciples in our own time, place, and circumstances.
God's call to conversion and discipleship unfolds in our lives with immeasurable potential for maturing and bearing fruit. The calls to holiness, to community, and to service of God and neighbor are "facets of Christian life that come to full expression only by means of development and growth toward Christian maturity."(22)
This maturity of Christian faith can blossom at any age. We see it in children like Samuel who hear and respond to God's word (cf. 1 Sm 3:1-18). We see it in young people like Mary who ponder and say "yes" to God's call (cf. Lk 1:26-38). We see it in adults and marvel especially at the beauty of faith in those who have persevered in following the Lord over the full course of a lifetime: "They shall bear fruit even in old age, always vigorous and sturdy" (Ps 92:15).
To provide effective adult faith formation requires first of all "the accurate identification of the typical characteristics of Christian adults."(23) What are these characteristics? What does mature adult faith look like in those who respond generously to God's call? The General Directory for Catechesis says that it is "a living, explicit, and fruitful confession of faith."(24) By this, a human being makes a total and free self-commitment to God (DV, no. 7). A full and rich development of these three characteristics is what we aim for in adult catechesis and Christian living.
Living Faith
Faith is both a gift of God and an authentically human response(25)-a recognition of God's call in one's life and a free decision to follow this call by accepting and living the truth of the Gospel. As such, faith is living and active, sharing many of the qualities of living things: it grows and develops over time; it learns from experience; it adapts to changing conditions while maintaining its essential identity; it goes through seasons, some apparently dormant, others fruitful, though wherever faith is present the Holy Spirit is at work in the life of the disciple.
Like all living things, a living faith needs nourishment, which the mature adult disciple finds above all in union with Christ-"the way and the truth and the life" (Jn 14:16). "This life of intimate union with Christ in the Church is maintained by the spiritual helps common to all the faithful, chiefly by active participation in the liturgy."(26) It is also maintained by
- frequent reading of the word of God, sacred writings of our tradition, and the official documents of the Church
- involvement in the community life and mission of the Church
- personal prayer
- participation in the works of justice and service to the poor
- the fulfillment of our human obligations in family and society through the active practice of love for God and neighbor.
A living faith is a searching faith-it "seeks understanding."(27) Adults need to question, probe, and critically reflect on the meaning of God's revelation in their unique lives in order to grow closer to God. A searching faith leads to deepening conversion.(28) Along the way, it may even experience doubt. Yet the essence of this quality of adult faith is not doubt, but search-a trusting, hopeful, persistent "seeking" or "hunger" for a deeper appropriation of the Gospel and its power to guide, transform, and fulfill our lives.
A living faith is keenly conscious and aware of the power and hold of sin in human life (cf. Heb 12:1, Rom 7:14-25). Like the Church, the person of mature faith is "at once holy and always in need of purification."(29) Repentance and renewal, constantly dying to sin and rising by grace to new life-this pattern of the paschal mystery, especially through the sacraments, shapes the whole existence of the mature disciple (cf. Mk 8:34-38, Jn 12:24-26, Rom 6).
Throughout this mortal life, a living faith longs for the fulfillment of eternal life. Even though we are now on a pilgrimage, with mature faith we "taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below."(30) This in turn stirs up a greater commitment "to put into action in this world the energies and means received from the Creator to serve justice and peace"(31)-a central mandate of God's reign.
Explicit Faith
Adult faith is clearly and explicitly rooted in a personal relationship with Jesus lived in the Christian community. "The Christian faith is, above all, conversion to Jesus Christ, full and sincere adherence to his person and the decision to walk in his footsteps."(32) Our understanding of the person and the way of Jesus continues to grow by our meditation on the word of God, by prayer and sacrament, by our efforts to follow Jesus' example, and by the sure guidance of the Church's teaching.(33)
Through intimacy with Jesus, a maturing adult faith opens people to a deepening relationship with and an "explicit confession of the Trinity."(34) Authentic Christian faith is "radically Trinitarian,"(35) and "the whole Christian life is a communion with each of the divine persons."(36)
Adult faith is explicitly connected to the life, teaching, and mission of the Church. As adults mature, a searching faith leads them to examine their lives, their world, and their faith more profoundly. In this quest, they enter into dialogue with the gospel message as professed by the teaching of the Church and lived by the people of God. Through this dialogical process they come not only to know, but to make the faith their own. They acquire that "ecclesial consciousness, which is ever mindful of what it means to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ, participants in her mystery of communion and in her dynamism in mission and the apostolate."(37)
Adult faith is confident because it is founded on the word of God(38) and confirmed by the whole Church's supernatural sense of the faith.(39) The adult disciple seeks the clarity and knowledge of faith, so as to find and accept it "with all joy and peace in believing" (Rom 15:13). Out of this conviction come the willingness and ability to witness to the Christian faith whenever possible, to explain it whenever necessary, and to be confidently guided by it always.
"The most valuable gift that the Church can offer to the bewildered and restless world of our time is to form within it Christians who are confirmed in what is essential and who are humbly joyful in their faith."(40) The more this happens, the more it helps us create a climate of "mutual esteem, reverence, and harmony" in the Church and learn to "acknowledge all legitimate diversity. . . . For the ties which unite the faithful together are stronger than those which separate them: let there be unity in what is necessary, freedom in what is doubtful, and charity in everything."(41)
Fruitful Faith
The adult disciple enjoys the fruits of the Spirit, which are "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal 5:22-23). Mature faith is open to the action and power of God's Spirit, and cannot remain idle or unproductive. Where the Spirit is active, faith is fruitful.
Adult faith bears the fruit of justice and compassion through active outreach to those in need. Recognizing also the connection of personal sins and social consequences, they pray and work both for personal conversion and for systemic change and social transformation that will serve the common good and, ultimately, the realization of God's reign of justice and peace "on earth as in heaven" (Mt 6:10).
Adult faith bears the fruit of evangelization. While fully respecting the religious freedom and choice of others, the adult disciple bears witness in the world to the gift of faith and to the treasure we have found in Jesus and among the community of his disciples. In this process, the witness of the word is essential, but a living witness in the service of love and justice speaks with special power today.
These are some of the characteristics of mature adult faith. But it is essential to remember also that salvation is not the fruit of our innate gifts, our adult competence, or our achievements. Mature faith recognizes that, however great or modest our competence or accomplishments, God's favor is always a gift and a grace. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God" (Eph 2:8).
19. Cf. Jn 10:10; Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), no. 1996ff. (Washington, D.C.: Libreria Editrice Vaticana-United States Catholic Conference, 1994).
20. Cf. CCC, nos. 1023ff., 1042ff.
22. U.S. Catholic Bishops, Called and Gifted for the Third Millennium: Reflections of the U.S. Catholic Bishops on the Thirtieth Anniversary of the "Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity" and the Fifteenth Anniversary of "Called and Gifted" (CGTM), (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1995), p. 20; cf. GDC, nos. 53-57.
24. GDC, no. 82; cf. GDC, nos. 56c, 66; CIC, no. 773; CCEO, no. 617; Second Vatican Council, Christus Dominus: Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church, no. 14. In Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents: New Revised Edition, ed. Austin Flannery (Northport, N.Y.: Costello Publishing Co., 1992).
26. AA, no. 4; cf. GDC, nos. 51, 85; CCC, nos. 1074, 1123.
27. CCC, no. 158, citing St. Anselm, Prosl. prooem. In Patrologia Latina, nos. 153, 225a, ed. J. P. Migne (Paris: 1841-1855).
31. CCC, no. 2820; cf. CCC, nos. 1049, 2818; Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (GS), nos. 21, 34, 39, 43, 57, 72. In Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents: New Revised Edition, ed. Austin Flannery (Northport, N.Y.: Costello Publishing Co., 1992).
32. GDC, no. 53; cf. CT, no. 5b; cf. CCC, nos. 422-429.
33. Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (DV), no. 8. In Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents: New Revised Edition, ed. Austin Flannery (Northport, N.Y.: Costello Publishing Co., 1992); CCC, no. 94.
36. CCC, no. 259; cf. CT, no. 5.
37. John Paul II, Christifideles Laici: The Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World, no. 64 (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1988).
38. CCC, no. 157; cf. 1 Thes 2:13.
41.. GS, no. 92; cf. John Paul II, "Eighth Address of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to the Bishops of the United States during Their Ad Limina Visits," Ad Limina Addresses: The Addresses of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to the Bishops of the United States during Their Ad Limina Visits: March 5-December 9, 1988 (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1988); John XXIII, Ad Petri Cathedram (On Truth, Unity and Peace), 1959.
Synod Initiatives
- Evangelization and "The New Evangelization"
- Structures for Participation and Accountability
- Ongoing Education and Formation: Adults, Young Adults and Youth
- Ministry and Leadership: Lay, Consecrated Life and Ordained
- Eucharist and Sacramental Living
- Social Justice: Living at the Service of God's Reign
