Fides Quae

The “VID”, as we dis-affectionately call COVID-19 at our house, has changed so many things in your life and mine! It made a big change in one of my favorite pastoral activities of the year.

As part of our Confirmation process we still have our kids go through a “Question Night.” That consists of having the students sit in front of family, friends and fellow congregants and answer questions from a list of 100+ questions involving the basic teachings of the Christian faith. It is a sort of public, oral exam about the faith we believe, fides quae creditur.

I sweat bullets when I went through it as a kid. The kids still do.

But it is worth it. The exercise solidifies for young people an understanding of what we believe as Christians. Faith in God in a general sense is fruitless. What we believe (fides quae) is equally important that we believe (fides qua).

Actually that exercise as a kid kept me out of a cult in college. As I was being “recruited” into a Bible study, they were teaching about how Jesus was not really God, that he was only a man. Even though I had not been a stellar catechism student, I remembered the Biblical teaching, learned in Catechism, of Jesus being both truly God and truly man. It was the last time I attended the group that I figured out later was one of the many mid-1970’s cults.

Fides quae creditur— that’s significant.

So for 35+ plus years I have maintained the practice of “Question Night.”

I wasn’t going to let the “VID” get in the way. So with the aid of my fellow pastor and all of his Millennial abilities, we had it this year… as a Zoom meeting in a game-show format live-streamed on Facebook.

Fides quae creditur— that’s significant, significant enough to do whatever it takes.

What struck you as significant this week?