Faith and reason go hand in hand for Catholics

I think most people are familiar with the concept that human beings use both faith and reason to come to knowledge. We usually see this when we are talking about coming to know God. As Catholics we know that we must have faith, but we also know that our faith must be informed with reason. These two faculties work hand in hand.
A few years ago I read a book about faith and reason written by Pope Benedict XVI. In the book he observed that many modern relationships are strangled because one party or the other is constantly looking for confirmation of love from the other person. Benedict noted that because modern man tends to rely solely on reason and reject the faculty of faith, we cannot trust the other. Thus, we are constantly seeking proofs of love. This can be exhausting and it tends to suffocate the relationship.
This ability to have faith in others is related to our ability to have faith in God; they are not exactly the same. However, when I look at our culture I see the result of people not being able to have any faith in others. We have become cynical and untrusting.
We don’t trust medical experts when they tell us that the Covid vaccine is safe. We don’t trust the statement of any politician of the “other” party. Certainly part of that is the partisanship that characterizes our politics, but I am convinced that this division we experience is also rooted in our inability to have any faith in people.
I certainly don’t mean for us to be gullible and uncritical in our reasoning. However, a life lived relying solely on reason does tend to be cynical and dry. Maybe by rediscovering our faith in God we can remember how to have faith in others too.
— Pat Arensberg is the Director of the Office for Evangelization and Family Life. Email him at [email protected] 
For more information concerning the events of this office, visit us at mobilefaithformation.org