United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

42 • Part I. The Creed: The Faith Professed

FROM THE CATECHISM

1. Why do we say faith is both personal and communal? Faith is a personal act—the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone just as no one can live alone. You have not given yourself the faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others. (CCC, no. 166) 2. What should we recall about the formulas of faith such as those found in the creeds? We do not believe in formulas, but in those realities they express, which faith allows us to touch. . . . All the same we do approach these realities with the help of formula tions of the faith which permit us to express the faith and hand it on, to celebrate it in community, to assimilate and live on it more and more. (CCC, no. 170) 3. What role does the Church play in handing on the faith? The Church, “the pillar and [foundation] of truth,” faith fully guards “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” She guards the memory of Christ’s words; it is she who from generation to generation hands on the apostles’ confession of faith. (CCC, no. 171, citing 1 Tm 3:15; Jude 3)

religion for the stability of society and the moral order. In fact, they expected that faith would affect the social order. Despite some major problems that the Church faced in this coun try, the Catholic faith grew and prospered here. But the early influence of the Enlightenment in this country’s origins continues in unexpected ways and presents troubling issues for faith. The country’s foundational principle of religious freedom, originally meant simply to preserve the