When Pope Benedict XVI said that faith is not about a set of truths, doctrines, norms and practice; rather, it is an encounter with the person of Jesus, he sort of simplified this definition.
Since it is an encounter, faith involves the whole person. Faith is to stake my life, all that I am, in the person of Jesus. This is not something I say once for all. My life should express it again and again and again.
This relationship with Jesus isn't something abstract like a nice theory I accept and adhere to.
However, I do need to know who is this Person I am staking my life on. That is why this relationship must be founded on the truth of Jesus, not on my ideas about him or what my feelings at the moment tell me. And surprisingly, Jesus unlocks for me, too, the truth about myself, the truth about life.
My relationship with Jesus does not depend on my sentiments and emotions, but they do play a part. After all, I am a human person, and emotions are part of the human framework. So perhaps there are days when I feel so strongly that I love Jesus, or that everybody is good and lovable; or some days could be the opposite.
Faith is a journey, and, like any journey, there are moments of heroic audacity and moments of turning back, as well. Sometimes the journey might look repetitive and monotonous, but it is not. After all, we are never the same person.
And so is faith. It is never the same.
We can never say that "we have arrived". It is always in progress.
And so is love.
We can never arrive at love's fullness and perfection. We grow in it, day by day. And even what we may consider as moments of regression, are all part of the growing process.
And when we do arrive at love's perfection, then there would be no more need for faith, because we shall see God face-to-face.
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