I want to thank Elizabeth Scalia over at The Anchoress (www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchoress) for this wonderful quote from Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI:
Faith is not the resignation of reason in view of the limits of our knowledge; it is not a retreat into the irrational in view of the dangers of a merely instrumental reason. Faith is not the expression of weariness and flight but is courage to exist and an awakening to the greatness and breadth of what is real.
Faith is an act of affirmation; it is based on the power of a new Yes, which becomes possible for man when he is touched by God. It seems to me important, precisely amid the rising resentment against technical rationality, to emphasize clearly the essential reasonableness of faith. In a criticism of the modern period, which has long been going on, one must not reproach its confidence in reason as such, but only the narrowing of the concept of reason, which has opened the door to irrational ideologies. The mysterium, as faith sees it, is not the irrational but rather the uttermost depths of the divine reason, which our weak eyes are no longer able to penetrate. It is the creative reason, the power of the divine knowledge that imparts meaning. It is only from this beginning that one can correctly understand the mystery of Christ, in which reason can then be seen to be the same as love.
The first word of faith, therefore, tells us: everything that exists is thought that has poured forth. The Creator Spirit is the origin and the supporting foundation of all things. Everything that is, is reasonable in terms of its origin, for it comes from creative reason. . . The mysterium is not opposed to reason but saves and defends the reasonableness of existence and of man.
– Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), A Turning Point for Europe
Everything that exists is thought poured forth…..
Wow! Of course, this goes straight to the heart of the mystery of the Trinity, and Jesus being the Word made flesh, sent forth from the Father, and through whom all is created.
Again, in a very elegant manner, the Holy Father describes fundamentals of our faith and its reasonability.
