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            The Apostles had the immense fortune to meet Jesus Christ; their lives and eternities were stamped by that meeting. Though their faith was put to many tests, they stuck with Our Lord. In a moment when many abandoned him, Peter said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68). Peter's answer was that of a man bound to Jesus by love. He did not say, "to what, but to whom, shall we go?". His faith, his fidelity, was to the Person of Jesus. But that also meant fidelity to his teaching, to the words of Jesus: "words of eternal life".

            "" means people. The laity are "prototype" members of the People of God; each one has been divinely chosen with a specific calling and mission. The proper place of the laity is in the world. What is asked of them there is to sanctify themselves through their ordinary work and life, so that their presence, friendship and example can lead others around them to God.

            Our Lord promised that he, with his divine power, would be with his Church always (Mt 28:18-20) and that evil or error would never overcome it (Mt 16:18). Good is stronger than evil; God is more powerful than the devil, although at times we may be tempted to give way to the opposite impression. God's thoughts are not how we tend to think, nor are his ways our ways (cf. Is 55:8). The triumph of Jesus Christ came through letting himself be put to death on the cross: humanly speaking it appeared as his failure.

            The virtue of faith is an expression of our trust in God's truthfulness. By this virtue, we accept something as true not because its truth is naturally evident to our mind, but simply because we have it on God's word, communicated to us in Scripture or Tradition as interpreted by the Magisterium, "the living teaching office of the Church" (DV 10).