4. "Supernatural" Faith and Its Origins But how can this take place?
This question takes us back to our initial reflections on the structure of faith, since
our reply consists of the affirma­tion that the Word of God reaches us through the mediation
of men who have heard it and touched it; men for whom God has become a concrete experience;
men who know him at first hand, so to speak.
In order to grasp this, we must reflect on the structure of knowledge and faith, which
we set out above.
We said that while faith has the character of a non-autonomous knowledge, at the same
time it involves a factor of mutual trust whereby the knowledge of the other becomes
my own knowledge.
Hence, this factor of trust contains an element of participa­tion: by means of my act of
trust, I become a sharer in the knowledge of another.
This is what we might call the social aspect of the phenom­enon of faith.
No one knows everything, but all of us together know what it is necessary to know; faith constitutes
a network of reciprocal dependence that at the same time is a network of mutual solidarity,
where each one sustains the other and is sustained by him.
This fundamental anthropological structure can also be seen in our relationship with
God, where it finds its original form and its integrating center.
Our knowledge of God is essentially based on this reciprocity, on a trust that becomes
partici­pation and is subsequently verified in the expe­rience of each individual's life.
The relationship with God is also, and indeed before all else, a relationship with men;
it is based an a commun­ion among men.
We can also say that the communication that is specific to the relationship with God confers
its most radical potential on human communication, raising it from the level of utilitarian interest
to that level which is fundamental for the person.
If I am to accept as my own this knowledge of others that I am offered, and to experience
its reality in my personal life, it is of course neces­sary that I myself should be
open to God.
The voice of the Eternal can reach me through the mediation of the other person only if
there is in me an organ capable of receiving it.
In this sense, the shared knowledge of God that comes to me from others is more personal
than the knowledge I share with the technician or spe­cialist.
The knowledge of God requires an inte­rior vigilance, a spirituality, and an openness
of the heart that becomes personally aware, in silence and recollection, that there exists
a direct access to the Creator.
Nevertheless, it is true that God does not disclose himself to an isolated ego.
God does not accept a merely individualistic exclusiveness: our relationship to him is
linked to our brothers and sisters.
At this point, an unexpected path opens up before us.
We have said that what we call "natu­ral faith", by which we trust results that we
cannot verify on our own, finds its justification in the knowledge of those who are familiar
with the subject in general or who have them­selves examined one specific question.
Although such a "faith" retains for the one involved its character as faith, it appeals
nevertheless to what another has seen.
When we spoke of the religious question at the beginning of this lecture, it appeared
that precisely this decisive element was lacking in supernatural-religious faith--that, at
least, was the initial impression.
Here there is no one who sees how things are, and it seems that we are never anything else
but believers.
This seemed to be the core of the problem of religious faith; but now we must say that
that impression was misleading.
In supernatural faith, too, there are a multitude who live from a small number of persons: and
this small number lives for the multitude.
Similarly, in the things of God we are not all like blind people who grope their way
forward in the dark.
Here, too, there are persons who are permitted to see: Christ says of the father of the great
family of Israel, "Abraham saw my day and was glad".
Christ is there, at the very center of history, as the great man who sees, and all his words
flow from his immediate contact with the Father.
As for us, the word that refers to our situation is: "He who has seen me has seen the Father".
In its innermost essence, the Christian faith is a participation in this act whereby Jesus sees.
His act of seeing makes possible his word, which is the authentic expression of what
he sees.
Accord­ingly, what Jesus sees is the point of reference for our faith, the specific place
where it is anchored.