Many signs confirm for us that it is God himself who has revealed the mysteries of faith
spelled out in the articles of the Creed,
and St. Thomas Aquinas says it belongs to theology to offer a narrative of those confirmatory signs.
Even though our faith is not based on such signs, it is a joy nonetheless to study them and acquire
a sense of God speaking to us through the testimony of the prophets and apostles.
In scholastic theological vocabulary, the mysteries of faith are those truths revealed
by God that surpass the range of reason. Examples of the mysteries of faith are such
teachings as the Trinity or Incarnation, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
his real presence in the Eucharist, and many more things. A motive of credibility is any word,
deed, or fact accessible to reason that confirms in some measure or another
that it is indeed God who has revealed these mysteries. Motives of credibility go by various
other names in the Christian tradition. They are also called signs, confirmatory signs, evidences,
evidences for the faith, reasons for the faith, and other things. Regardless of what they are
called, a common conviction is being expressed. The testimony of the prophets and apostles
is not only the word of men, but the Word of God, and faith is no irrational act of the mind,
but is confirmed by innumerable indications of God present in our midst and speaking to us
through the mouth of the prophets, apostles, and the Church today.
It is an ordinary part of Christian life to reflect on the signs, search them out,
sort them out, point them out, and tell the story of how God has revealed himself. The
project of doing so never ends because the array of confirmatory signs is so vast and so deep that
an entire sub-discipline of theology is devoted to it -- it is called fundamental theology.
Down through the years, different theologians have employed different strategies for presenting the
signs. The common view is that no one sign is sufficient, but they form a cumulative case,
and different people are moved by different signs or combinations of signs according to their era,
temperament, and presuppositions. There are different strategies for presenting the signs.
Some strategies are more argumentative, others more narrative.
St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of a narrative of signs, and in Book I Chapter Six of
the Summa contra gentiles offers a brief example of such a narrative.
Since the days of St. Thomas, theologians have offered much more along the same lines,
and in the nineteenth century St. John Henry Newman offered a far more extensive narrative
of the signs as well as an influential account of how the mind assesses them.
John Henry Newman spoke of the “illative sense.”
The illative sense is an ability of the mind to detect one concrete truth from another concrete
truth or set of truths without going through a process of inference strictly so called.
The illative sense gathers up fragments of overall experience in a single firm judgment.
Detecting a person’s interior mood from the social cues given in the facial expression
and tone of voice might be one example of the illative sense at work, but the same sense is
at work in ordinary practical affairs and in the study of history. Considering a single deed of
one historical figure, historians often detect and tell a much longer story of the person.
It is the illative sense by which the mind follows the trail of the truth pointed
out by the vast array of signs permeating the history of Israel, the origins of Christianity,
the testimony of the apostles, the history of the Church, the lives of the Saints over the ages,
and our contemporary experience. Such a large body of experience is a web of signs.
From the experience of the signs, and rational reflection upon them, the illative sense is able
to detect and form a firm judgment that it is God himself who has revealed the mysteries of faith.
To get an understanding of how the illative sense works, let’s look at one historical fact:
the conversion of St. Paul. Once upon a time there was a man named Saul of Tarsus,
a Pharisee, and a persecutor of Christians. All of a sudden, one day, out of nowhere,
he converts to believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He claimed he received a divine
revelation of the risen Lord Jesus, and he spent the rest of his life proclaiming it.
The persecutor became the persecuted. He endured incredible suffering and eventual martyrdom
for preaching that Jesus is Lord. What do you do with St. Paul? Perhaps it is
possible to explain him away, but he is only one fact to consider. Let’s take another.
At this point we could begin to tell the story of ancient Israel, its messianic prophecies,
the historical reality of Jesus of Nazareth, the fact of his death, burial, and empty tomb,
and the experience of many who afterwards at least thought they encountered the risen Lord Jesus.
The conversion of St. Paul is actually part of this larger story, and the story continues
to include the spread of Christianity under Roman persecution, continued reports of many
who experienced healings, miracles, exorcisms in the name of Jesus in the early Church. Against
all odds, the Church and the same reports continue into our own day, and to tell the whole story we
would go through many of the lives of the Saints. We would discuss their experience, biographies,
teachings, and the many healings, miracles, signs, and wonders surrounding them. Sts.
Catherine of Siena, Joseph Cupertino, and Padre Pio are just three noteworthy examples.
We also have to consider Lourdes, Fatima, and the many phenomena that have already been
medically investigated and found lacking in all natural explanation on the best
science available to us. This little summary is only a sketch. But to those who hold
no dogmatic commitment to naturalism or prejudice against the supernatural,
the picture and the pattern begins to become clear before the illative sense of the mind.
It is altogether reasonable to say that God of truth and love is with us, he is now teaching us
who he is, and his living and effective Word and his Holy Spirit is at work in our midst.
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