Growing in the Theological Virtues: Intimacy with God

The main goal of spiritual growth is to grow in our relationship with God. That’s exactly what the theological virtues help us to do. The first step of any human relationship is to build trust. As trust strengthens, our relationship grows in the security necessary to open ourselves in intimacy. Intimacy means to truly know another person and be known by that person. It requires the ability to trust that what the other person shares about himself is true.

Of course, God already knows us intimately. But the only way we can know him is if he reveals himself to us. God would be beyond our understanding without grace and without his revelation.

The virtue of faith is one of the three theological virtues, along with hope and charity. That means that

• It is part of sanctifying grace, directly giving us a relationship with God
• It is infused into our souls at baptism
• Like a muscle, we have to do nothing to get it but we must exercise it or we will lose it

Spiritual growth in the virtue of faith means knowing God more intimately. There are a few misconceptions about faith that can get in the way.

Myth #1: Faith is the same as belief. One sarcastic atheist on Facebook commented, “Faith is belief in something that you know isn’t true.” Not. Faith is trust in a person that is beyond our comprehension. He is a mystery. That does mean that some of our relationship with God is going to be based on belief. But the virtue of faith goes beyond belief. God truly reveals himself through his relationship with us. Much of faith is acceptance of what God has revealed to us.

Myth #2: Since God is a mystery he cannot be known. When we refer to a mystery in theology, we are not saying that something cannot be known at all – as in there’s no use even trying. A mystery is something that could not be known unless God revealed it to us. Since God is inexhaustible, each mystery related to him is also inexhaustible. But God wants to be known! So he invites us to immerse ourselves in the Mystery. When we do, we can come to know it more and more and more. Faith is the constant movement of getting to know God.

Myth #3: Faith doesn’t require any effort on our part. Living the virtue of faith means to grow in intimacy with God. It is an ongoing process of getting to know God on a deeper and deeper level. While knowing God at all wouldn’t be possible unless he took the initiative, growing in intimacy with God also takes work on our part. This work is an important part of spiritual growth.

Myth #4: If you have faith, you don’t have to worry about works. This might be true if faith were some mystical experience. But the virtue of faith works as an intersection of grace and human nature. So our relationship with God is very much like a human relationship. Consider how a marriage or a friendship would fare if you didn’t do anything to nurture it? To say “I have faith and that’s all I need” is like a husband telling his wife, “I told you I loved you when we got married. What more do you want from me?” The fact is that the trust of hope and the intimacy of faith naturally lead to obedience and a desire to serve. What we do matters as much as what we believe.

Growing in intimacy with God should be an exciting proposition. It means an active life of study, prayer and living the faith.

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