What if I Feel That I Have Lost My Faith?

Faith, in the Christian tradition, is a theological virtue that comes from God as a gift. So any baptized person has received this gift of faith. The gift of faith is a habit that is still present in us even when we are not using it. If I have the habit of playing the piano, I remain a piano player even when sleeping or swimming. So the gift of Christian faith remains in a person whether or not a person is at the moment using this gift or even sensing this gift. 

Indeed, Christian faith is a bit like citizenship. To be born in the United States is to be a U.S. citizen, which remains so until a person explicitly renounces citizenship. A good citizen votes and does not break laws. But even a citizen who does not vote and does break laws remains a citizen. So too, Christian faith as a habit infused by God remains with us even in our ups and downs. This understanding of faith does not depend upon our passing feelings or any emotional sense of closeness with God.  

Indeed, to feel faith and to have faith are two different matters. The hypochondriac feels sick but actually has good health. So too, a person might feel a lack of faith but actually have a very strong gift of faith. Indeed, even a great saint like Mother Teresa of Calcutta felt a lack of God’s presence for around fifty years. In a way, this feeling that God does not exist, or that God is absent, can be evidence of a deep faith. Only a wife can feel the absence of her husband. So too, only a soul that is ordered to God by faith can feel the loss of the presence of God. Faith is not a matter of feeling this presence. 

For those feeling a loss of faith, it would be helpful to engage in the practices that can help increase faith. And what if a person is not sure whether or not faith is present? Fr. Richard John Neuhaus once said, “If you would believe, act as though you believe, leaving it to God to know whether you believe, for such leaving it to God is faith.”xxvi Act as a person of faith acts, do what a person of faith does, and love as a person of faith loves. Rather than focus on feelings, make the choices and decisions of a person of faith, leaving it to God whether or not the feelings arise. 

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