Living By Faith

Tuning In to Faith

Everyone Lives by Faith

Even those who reject faith live by their own beliefs.

If we examine our lives closely, we realize that we cannot live without faith. We drink coffee because we believe it contains no poison; if we believed it did, we would not drink it. We drink coffee, converse with others, and travel by plane—all because of faith.

If we believed that a terrorist had planted a time bomb on a plane bound for Israel, we would not board it. Thus, in our daily lives, we do not live by verifying every single detail, but rather by trusting and believing.

The more we distrust medication or a doctor, the slower the healing process becomes; conversely, the more we trust them, the faster the recovery. The more we place our trust in others, the closer we grow to them; the more we distrust them, the more distant the relationship becomes. Whether we are conscious of it or not, faith forms the deep foundation of our lives and constantly influences us.

Therefore, faith is a fundamental human act.  Some might counter this by arguing, "In reality, there are both believers and non-believers in the world; don't communists live well without believing in God? Therefore, it is possible to live without faith."

However, while this may be theoretically possible, it is impossible in actual life. If we broaden our perspective on human existence and examine it closely, we see those non-believers and communists alike live based on their own forms of faith.

Non-believers live with the firm conviction that "faith is a delusion—an act of believing in something that does not exist," while communists live with the certainty that "the God spoken of by Christians does not exist."

Thus, non-believers and communists are ultimately living by faith as well. No human being can stand outside the realm of faith; paradoxically, their vehement rejection of faith reveals that they, too, live by believing in something.

Today, there are countless non-believers and many who profess atheism. Following Nietzsche’s proclamation of the "death of God," indifference toward religion has steadily deepened in modern times. There are many aspects of this phenomenon that we, as believers, must deeply reflect upon and acknowledge. This situation has arisen because believers have failed to bear witness to the invisible God through their actions and lived practices in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian sage, pointedly addressed this reality: "I love Jesus. But I dislike Christians. Because they do not resemble Jesus."

Such consequences arise when believers fail to live according to their faith and instead allow their faith to be shaped by the way they live. Therefore, we must now move beyond a faith consisting merely of words and become true Christians who bear witness—through love in our daily lives—to the faith we profess.

Written by Fr. Peter Kim Seok-tae  in the Catholic Times (Pastor, Doryong-dong Parish, Diocese of Daejeon)