For if faith can't be earned, then there's nothing we can do to get it. And that puts unbelieving people who want to have faith in a quandary. Well, I think skeptics find a clue about what direction they might take in those words of St. Paul about the blessings of the Spirit. For faith is given as a gift to the whole church. Now many of us might think precisely the opposite .
Faith comes to the community.
On the first Christian Pentecost, the Holy Spirit appeared in the midst of an assembly of the followers of Jesus. At the beginning, the Spirit wasn't given to individual church members. Instead it was given to the whole people of God. No wonder, then, that people become religious for the first time when they're touched by a community of faith. I once served as chaplain to an Episcopal school for boys.