ENCYCLICAL LETTER LUMEN FIDEI

OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF  FRANCIS

TO THE BISHOPS  PRIESTS AND DEACONS 

CONSECRATED PERSONS

AND THE LAY FAITHFUL ON FAITH.

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1. The light of faith: this is how the Church’s  tradition speaks of the great gift brought by Jesus. In John’s Gospel, Christ says of himself: “I  have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness”  (Jn 12:46). Saint Paul uses the same image: “God  who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has  shone in our hearts” (2 Cor 4:6). The pagan world,  which hungered for light, had seen the growth of  the cult of the sun god, Sol Invictus, invoked each  day at sunrise. Yet though the sun was born anew  each morning, it was clearly incapable of casting  its light on all of human existence. The sun does  not illumine all reality; its rays cannot penetrate to  the shadow of death, the place where men’s eyes  are closed to its light. “No one — Saint Justin  Martyr writes — has ever been ready to die for  his faith in the sun”.[1] Conscious of the immense  horizon which their faith opened before them,  Christians invoked Jesus as the true sun “whose  rays bestow life”.[2] To Martha, weeping for the  death of her brother Lazarus, Jesus said: “Did I  not tell you that if you believed, you would see  the glory of God?” (Jn 11:40). Those who believe, see; they see with a light that illumines their  entire journey, for it comes from the risen Christ, the morning star which never sets.