2: Three key ideas:
1. The linked Ignatian ideas of the two standards, discernment, and the first principle and foundation. Ignatius spoke of two military standards: one of good and one of the side of evil, and that everyone is called to choose under which banner she or he fights. He who does not choose is not on the side of good, for to be on that side is a conscious decision. Do I stand up for good? I must take a stand, make a choice, and make a difference. This battle is internal, and leads to the discussion of discernment. Discernment is determining God's will for me, the idea of the "contemplative in action," or "where prayer and action meet." (http://www.geocities.com/athens/olympus/2688/jesuitideals.html) Through discernment, I will know what to do and what God wants for me, one and the same thing, and then do it. Discernment is: thinking, reflective, reasonable, and acts upon decision. The first principle and foundation gives a way to look at discernment, stating that "men were created by God to love, praise, and serve Him and thereby save their soul," and that man should use anything that helps attain this goal, and avoid anything that detracts from this goal.
2. The Catholic definition of faith involves seven important and connected aspects. The first aspect, "faith is a grace," means that God gives us faith, "to help us respond to his call to become his children." (RB, 92) Grace is a participation in the life of God, a free and undeserved gift of God, not something we can earn or have to earn. Secondly, faith requires a free, human response. Humans must accept the grace and faith God gives them. Also, God cannot force us to accept the faith He gives us, for "forced love," of God or anyone, "is a contradiction." (RB 93) Thus, because human beings are the only creatures with the free will needed to love, only they can know, love and praise God. Following that point is the aspect, "faith is a risk." By definition, we do not and can not know for certain anything in which we have faith. Thus, putting faith in something always leaves room to be wrong. Faith in God means an uncertain future, for no one knows while alive what happens after death. People can only have faith in different theories. Nevertheless, faith is also reasonable, the fourth point. One must have a reason to believe, otherwise he or she does not truly believe. In the book's example of asking a girl out for a date, the reason is that something about the girl awakens my desire sop much that I am willing to take the risk of faith rather than to lose the opportunity of something so potentially great, being with this girl. Blind faith, that is, belief in God without resons to support the belief, is therefore irresponsible. We have faith in God because the evidence leads us to accept the Catholic conclusion, that is, the Catholic Religion. Next, faith is Certain, meaning that it is a strong enough commitment to something that one who has faith is certain enough to act upon his or her belief. Faith also seeks understanding. The deeper my faith grows, the more questions I want to ask and the more I want to know. The more I know, the more certain I become, the deeper my faith becomes, and the more reasonable this faith becomes. Also, I seek to be understood in my faith. God revealed himself to us to be understood, for instance. Finally, faith is a virtue, a good habit, a "specific moral quality regarded as good or meritous." (Webster’s New World Dictionary) Virtue is acquired through practice, and improved by learning from failure and experience. One must train him or herself in order to overcome temptation on the basis of faith.
3. Faith is the golden mean or way between reason and belief. There are two different errors, on opposite ends of the spectrum. Nihilism, the belief that there exists no certain and absolute truth, and thus a lack of faith in everything. The other error is radicalism, the belief in everything without evidence. Nihilists believe that the universe cannot be understood by the mind, partially because it is in a constant state of change or flux. Thus, there is no objective morality according to nihilists, because the truth changes constantly. This philosophy fails because every day a nihilist has to make decisions, decisions based upon some value judgement based upon values which in theory the nihilist denies the existence of. Radicalism, on the other hand, means believing something is true without evidence. One sector within radicalism is fundamentalism, the taking one's holy book literally in terms of history, science, etc, despite the fact that their claims cannot be held up in light of modern science. Also, fanaticism is the belief in something so zealously that ones actions become unreasonable and even hypocritical. People believe this because they desire security. While nihilism relies upon reason alone, radicalism relies upon faith alone. Faith, as belief supported by reason, the golden way.
3: The Mission gave examples of faith to different things. Fr. Gabriel showed his faith in the end to the Society of Jesus, while Fr Mendosa showed his faith to the natives. Both doubted their faith, but ended by making a decision based upon their faith.
5: To make myself a better person form this study, I will focus on backing up my faith that I have been taught from my birth with evidence for my beliefs. By testing my own faith under questioning and reflection, I will be able to find proper, reasoned evidence leading me to faith, while still keeping the belief aspect of faith. I will look up answers I do not have in Church documents and ask questions to theologians.