July 8, 2016
What would you identify as the five foundation stones of faith? Would you agree that they are a profession of faith in God, prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage?
Faith. Begins with a profession of faith in God. As Christians, we believe that there is one God in which there are three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Every day, we are called to invoke the name of God in blessing on ourselves, on others and on our world.
Prayer. Through prayer, we come to know the God whose name we invoke and whose blessing we seek. We should have a habit of daily prayer in which we remind ourselves of our dependence on God, our need for the guidance of God, and our need for the forgiveness of God.
Charity. When we come to know God, we realize that God has been immensely, gratuitously generous to us. All that we have ultimately comes from God. As a result, we are called to use the gifts with which we have been blessed by God to help those who are in need.
Fasting. We all have a need to abstain from the satisfaction of our material desires. When we fast, we recognize that we are not slaves to our desires, but rather we can control our desires so that our behavior conforms to what God expects of us as God’s sons and daughters.
Pilgrimage. For persons of faith, all of life is a pilgrimage. We came from God and we are journeying to God. When we look at life in this way, we become more conscious of whether the path we are following in life is really leading us into deeper unity with God and our ultimate union with God in death.
If you think these are excellent foundation stones of faith, then know that they are the five pillars of Islam. Although Muslims would offer a slightly different explanation for each, they remain perfectly valid for us as Catholic Christians. This should remind us that before we denigrate another religion, we should first discover what this religion teaches and where we might find not only find surprising points of agreement, but new insights into faith as well.
Fr. Mark Hallinan, S.J.