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On the Catechism 2-3: The Mission of the Faithful

Paragraphs 1 through 3 of the Catechism form a complete unit.  In this introduction to the Faith, there are many sets of three.  From Paragraph 1 recall that the faithful are to know, love and serve God.  Immediately thereafter, the Church teaches us that the mission given to the Apostles by Jesus was to proclaim the Gospel, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and finally to teach the baptized all that they had heard from their Lord.

This three part commission was passed along through time by Apostolic Succession to all the Bishops of the Catholic Church!  Having the same commission, the Bishops are to teach that which has been received.  We call this received teaching, the Deposit of Faith or the Word of God.  From the Apostles to the Bishops today, all in succession have the solemn duty of handing on the Faith as it was received, guarding the faith from adulteration, and preserving the Faith from heresy and error. However, the Bishops are not the only members of the Church that are called to a special duty.

Each member of the Church is to profess the faith by their manner of living, by celebrating the liturgy, and by their prayers.  These three items are the general rules of living a holy life and for becoming a saint.  The details fill the thousands of paragraphs that follow!

CCC 2-3

2 So that this call should resound throughout the world, Christ sent forth the apostles he had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the gospel: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Mat 28:19-20) Strengthened by this mission, the apostles "went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it." (Mk 16:20)

3 Those who with God's help have welcomed Christ's call and freely responded to it are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world. This treasure, received from the apostles, has been faithfully guarded by their successors. All Christ's faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer. (Acts 2:42)

Q&A

Q. How did the Gospel spread through the entire world?

A. The Gospel was spread to all the nations by Christ's chosen Apostles.

Q. Why did the Apostles spread the Gospel to all the nations?

A. The Apostles spread the Gospel to all the nations because they were personally commissioned by the Risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Q. Was the proclamation of the Gospel the only task given to the Apostles?

A. No. The Apostles were commissioned by Jesus to carry out three tasks. First, they were to proclaim the Gospel to all the nations. Second, the Apostles were to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Finally, the Apostles were directed to teach the baptized to observe all the commandments that the Apostles had heard from Jesus while they were with Him.

Q. Did Jesus make any guarantees?

A. Yes. Jesus guaranteed that he would be with the Apostles not only in their natural life times but until the end of the age. That is to say that Jesus would be with the Apostles and their successors until He returned to end the age.

Q. Did the Apostles carry out the mandate given them by Our Lord?

A. Yes, the Apostles faithfully "went forth and preached everywhere."

Q. Did Jesus, Risen from the dead, Glorified, and Ascended to the Father help the Apostles in their mission?

A. Yes! The Gospel of Mark states that "the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through them" by causing miracles, called "signs" by St. Mark, to demonstrate to the world that the Apostles were acting with the power and authority of Jesus.

Q. Did the people who received the Good News and who were baptized by the Apostles also spread the Gospel?

A. Yes, the people of the time of the Apostles as well as we who have received the Good News today, are commanded to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ everywhere in the world.

Q. Who are the successors of the Apostles?

A. The successors of the Apostles are the Bishops of the Holy Catholic Church. The Bishops of the Church have preserved, guarded, and handed on the treasure of the Word of God received from Christ over all these many centuries.

Q. What are we, the baptized to do in our time?

A. We are called upon to profess the faith, to live the faith, and to celebrate the faith in liturgy and prayer.

BREVIARY

Jesus commissioned the Apostles and all the baptized to proclaim the Gospel to the entire world.

All believers who receive the Good News of Jesus Christ are to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

All believers are to be taught the commandments that the Apostles received from Jesus Christ.

The treasure of God's Word first given to the Apostles has been handed on, guarded, and preserved by the successors of the Apostles, the Bishops of the Holy Catholic Church.

All of Christ's faithful are called upon to hand on the Faith in every generation by professing the faith, by living the faith in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating the faith in the ancient liturgy and by prayer.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Pray for us!

Catechism Project Link

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On the Catechism 1: To Know, Love, and Serve God Redux

It is time to get back to work!

Presented below is a representation of an earlier post which considered the very first paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  This paragraph is particularly important because it provides a key to understanding the Holy Faith.  In an act of love that was completely beyond the hope of any of man's efforts at religion, God reveals to Israel that He has reached down to man in love to rescue all of us from our fallen world and fallen natures.  Through the Cross of Christ we can see the completion of the Plan of Salvation (Gen 3:15) that was launched at the very moment that Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise. 

In response, with the help of grace, we are to know, love and serve God.  As any small child who first learned his or her faith from the Baltimore Catechism knows, this response, together with faith, hope and the love of God, is our means of salvation. This is how we get aboard and stay upon the rescue ship that is the Church!  Most of the people who live or who have ever lived will not believe this good news.  Instead of seeking the freedom to do what we ought, most seek the false freedom to do as they will with no reference to Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!  Too many of us look around when we ought to be looking up!  It is time to get back to work. 

 

The first words of the Catechism express the infinite perfection, blessedness and goodness of God. God created man to “make him share in his own blessed life.” God made us to be happy and live forever with a share of the His own life. This fact alone is astounding. It has been revealed to Israel and to all the nations of the world through the Church that God is good and that He loves the humanity that He has created.

A second key point is that God draws close to man! Notice that the Catechism does not teach that man first seeks God.  Rather, the witness of history and the Holy Scriptures is that God initiates the relationship with His people.  History is full of failed efforts, false religions, and hopeless philosophies that seek to either invent or posit a “god” to worship or to ignore God and create a man made utopia.  Our Lord is revealed as “Father” who seeks after the love and good of His children.

The good and loving Holy Trinity calls man to a relationship with God: to “seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.” In the same way, God calls men into the unity of the Church. The cause of our disunity is sin. Just as God initiates a loving relationship with men, He initiated and executed the Plan of Salvation that redeemed and justified man before God.

The supremely loving act of the Father was to send His Son as “Redeemer and Savior.” In and through the Son, God invites men, “in the Holy Spirit”, to be his adopted children and “thus heirs of His blessed life.” The teaching and life of the Church is about our response to this invitation and the life we live as restored, redeemed, and justified sons and daughters of the Lord!

CCC 1

1 God, perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.

Q&A

Q. What are the very first words of the Catechism that describe God?

A. God is described as infinitely perfect and blessed in himself.

Q. Why did God create man?

A. God created man in a plan of sheer goodness so that man could share in His own blessed life.

Q. Does God draw close to and call man?

A. God both draws close to man and calls man. The Catechism says that God draws close to man at every time and in every place.

Q. What is God’s call to man?

A. God calls man to seek Him, to know Him, and to love Him with all his strength. He makes this call to man while constantly drawing closer to man.

Q. Does God call men to unity with one another?

A. Yes. Like all good Fathers, God wants His children to live in harmony and unity with one another.

Q. What is the source of division among men?

A. Sin.

Q. What type of unity does God desire for men?

A. God desires that all men should be united with one another in the family of the Church which is visible and identifiable to all men.

Q. How has God overcome sin and disunity?

A. God accomplished the defeat of sin and unity through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. God sent His Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, to men and to become one with us. Through the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord, the work of redemption and salvation was accomplished. Jesus Christ established the unified family of God in His Church.

Q. What is the status of men who enter the Church?

A. Those who enter the Church in faith in Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, are made His adopted sons and daughters and thus heirs of His blessed life.

BREVIARY

God is infinitely perfect and blessed in Himself.

God created man in a plan of sheer goodness in order to share His blessed life .

God calls all men to Himself and He draws men to unity in His Church.

All disunity among men is caused by sin.

God has defeated sin and disunity through His Son, who became one with us, and who suffered, died, and rose again.

The work of redemption and salvation was accomplished through Our Lord's suffering, death, and resurrection.

All who enter the Church in faith in Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, are made His adopted sons and daughters and are thus heirs of His blessed life.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Pray for us!

Catechism Project Link

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Daily Word: Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Modern and now Post-modern men do not understand sacrifice. The strict view of reason is that to deny oneself serves no outcome, no purpose, no measurable gain. The Post-modern mind focuses primarily on feelings. What good feeling can be obtained through sacrifice, the postmodernist asks. They both miss the point of Lent. Lent is a time where the grace filled person directs the will to overcome the intellect and the emotions. If we are to know, love, and serve God in this world, we will be called upon to do, or not do, what the world finds impossible. For example, tell a fellow Catholic that "we can be saints if we chose to be" will result in a plea to the "merely human." Benedict XVI thinks we are capable of more than mediocrity. The Holy Father, it is reported, calls Christians to an observance of Lent that is characterized by "more intense prayer, by an austere and penitential style of life." Is this madness? No, it is not. Benedict XVI is only saying what Jesus Christ said – about a cross.

First Reading

The Book of Deuteronomy (Deut 30:15-20) records the two options Moses offers Israel: chose life or choose death. Life results from obeying the commandments, loving God, and living an ethical life. An ethical life is one based on the Biblical view where one "walks in His ways." If Israel will chose life, the result is long life, prosperity in terms of family and blessing "in the land."

On the other hand, if Israel, or anyone for that matter, chooses death, we have chosen false gods. The result of this choice is to perish and to lose the Promised Land. Of course, the Promise Land for us is Heaven. What did we learn is the critical aspect of Heaven? Heaven is a place of complete happiness and contentment where we share in the divine life of the Holy Trinity. Is this hard to understand? Yes, just as Canaan was hard to envision while Israel wandered in the Sinai.

What is life? Moses says: "Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him." I would go so far to as to say we must "cling" to God and to the life He offers. As a husband and wife cling to one another, so must we cling to Our Lord and the holy faith that He teaches us through His Catholic Church. The promise given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is for Israel and also for the Church.

Gospel

Jesus raises the standard of life (Luke 9:22-25). Jesus told His disciples that He would suffer and be crucified. What's more, Christ said that anyone who wishes to follow Him must "deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." What does Jesus offer? Does he offer prosperity, children, riches or worldly esteem? No, Jesus offers martyrdom. Jesus said: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." After this Jesus offers the choice of life and death as did Moses. If we wish to gain the world we will lose our inheritance of eternal life. If we wish to have life, we must give up the world including this temporary life.

Is Jesus asking each of us to die the red death of a martyr? No, I do not think so. Each one of us is called to a type of cross carrying death. It seems that Benedict XVI has shown us that each of us must die to ourselves; we must die to our egoism, selfishness, and self-centeredness. We are being shown that we must pick up our cross and live the life of intense prayer. We must have an austerity by detachment from worldly belongings. We must be willing to give up our own way and give ourselves to Jesus. We must want what He wants.

Mary, Mother of God, pray for us! St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle!

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Daily Word: Ash Wednesday

Lent begins today. Today we receive ashes as signs of our creation, we were made from the earth; as a sign of our mortality, we shall return to dust; as a sign of ownership on our foreheads, we have been redeemed and purchased by the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. These forty days of Lent are a time of shedding vice and acquiring virtue. What does Mother Church propose for our reading and hearing on this day?

Mass Readings

The First Reading is from the Book of the Prophet Joel. In this reading (Joel 2:12-18) we hear the pleading of the Lord when he calls to His people, "return to me with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God." We are called to return with our whole heart. This means that we are to turn away from those things that have our heart which are not God.

Are we attracted to sin, petty imperfections, obsessions, do we worship false gods of money or human esteem? If so, we are to turn our hearts away from these things and turn our entire heart to God. How do we turn to God? Joel tells us that we turn with fasting and weeping. Fasting and weeping is recognition that we have given our hearts to false love, we have sinned, and are remorseful. We should feel remorse for sin. We return with the confidence that He is waiting to receive us with the grace we need to be saints.

The Second Reading from Second Corinthians (2Cor 5:20 – 6:2) calls us to repentance now! Saint Paul teaches, "We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." What could be clearer? Saint Paul urges us to conversion now because none of us is promised a tomorrow. As we say in the "Hail Mary", pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Two days are the most important in our lives: today and the day of our death. The past is gone; there is no promise of another day. Perhaps tomorrow is the day of our death. We must turn to God now! Saint Paul urges us, "Behold, now is the very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

In the Gospel (Mat 6:1-6, 16-18) Jesus teaches us how to conduct ourselves when we turn to Him. We learn how to properly show charity, how to pray, and how to fast. When we do some act of charity we are not to make a show of our good works. If we do make a show of our works, the Lord says that "you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father." When we pray, we are told to "go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret." What is the "inner room?" There are two senses of this phrase. First, we are to literally pray in a place that does not lend itself to the esteem of others. More fundamentally, we are to enter the inner room of our hearts. The heart, as we read in the first reading, is where we turn to God. Our prayers must come from our hearts and not just our lips.

Finally, we are called to fasting by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Second Person of the Holy Trinity! Jesus says, "When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites." At the time of Christ, persons who were fasting would make a show of their fasting by publically boasting of their pius acts so that they would receive the approval and esteem of others. Jesus calls us to fast but to fast in a certain way. We are to fast and look perfectly natural while we do so! In fact, we are to dress ourselves and appear as we would on any other day. Only Our Lord should know of our fast. Our fasting must come from our heart, our inner room, where we meet Him.

Lord, who throughout these forty days
For us did fast and pray,
Teach us with you to mourn our sins,
And close by you to stay.

(Hymn for Evening Prayer)

Mary, Mother of God, pray for us! St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle!

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Notes on Ash Wednesday

James Akin has prepared an excellent question and answer discussion on Ash Wednesday. The article by James Akin can be found on the EWTN web site here.

Ash Wednesday is the first day of the forty days of Lent. The fortieth day of Lent is Holy Saturday and is marked by the Easter Vigil Mass where catechumens are baptized. The forty days of Lent exclude the six Sundays during the Season of Lent.

Ash Wednesday began during the Tenth Century in Christianized Europe. The official name of "Ash Wednesday" is the Day of Ashes.

Ashes are placed on the forehead. A mark on the forehead is a symbol of a person's ownership. The mark of a Cross on the forehead indicates our being owned by Jesus Christ. We were claimed by Jesus Christ in our baptism when we were marked by the Sign of the Cross on our forehead. Revelation 7:3, 9:4, and 14:1 all refer to marks on the foreheads of the faithful who belong to Jesus Christ.

Ashes are a symbol of mourning and penance. We mark ourselves with ashes as a sign of repentance and mourning for our sins. In addition, we fast on Ash Wednesday as a sign of our repentance. Ashes are also a sign of our mortality. We are reminded that we were created from the dust of the Earth and that we will die and return to dust. The point is that the time for repentance is now.

Ashes are made from the burned palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday. This is a reminder that we must not only rejoice in the arrival of Jesus Christ but that we must repent of our sins which were the cause of our Lord's death on the Cross. Akin reminds us that Jesus died for us so that we might not be condemned to Hell.

Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation. No one is obligated to receive ashes. However, it is an important sign of one's commitment to beginning the penitential period of Lent. The Church has established holy days of obligation for commemoration and celebration of important events. However, there has never been a holy day of obligation dedicated to penance and repentance.

Father Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary provides the following definitions:

Repentance is voluntary sorrow for having done something wrong, together with the resolve to amend one's conduct by taking the necessary means to avoid the occasions of sin. To repent is to be sorry for sin with self-condemnation.

Penance is the virtue of disposition of heart by which one repents of one's own sins and is converted to God. Also the punishment by which one atones of sins committed, either by oneself or by others.

Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!

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A New Blog

I have started a new journal titled Gaudium.  The style is different than Viator.  Viator is a notebook; Gaudium is a journal.  There will be more ranting there and more "note booking" here!

I think that is enough.

You can find Gaudium here.  My first post is here.

A Fascinating Video

This video is astonishing.  Watch it.  Tell me what you think.  NBC refused to run it during the Superbowl.  This seems like a good time to start writing again.

An Occasional Rant 2009.005: Sometimes the Truth Hurts

The Church's liturgical calendar simply refers to today as the Monday after the Epiphany. The scriptures and readings continue to meditate upon the revelation of Christ to the entire world. The Wall Street Journal published an article today that tells a story of a sad and tragic combination of family compromise for power, of priests who betray their Lord, and the tragic consequences for politics today.

Mass Reading

The First Letter of Saint John (3:22 – 4:6) teaches us how we should live. If we want good things from Our Lord then we must keep the commandments.

"And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit whom he gave us."

This shows that those who compromise with the philosophies of this world and thereby deny Christ are in grave danger. This passage destroys the false teaching that we can be saved with faith alone. On the same hand, those who parse the Word of God in a way that would allow the destruction of innocent children – an example of which is given below – or who in cunning ways evade the Commandments are separated from Jesus. To be separated from Our Lord is to fall back into darkness.

Second Reading

Saint Peter Chrysologus notices the consequences of the Incarnation. "The Gentiles, who were the last, become the first: the faith of the Magi is the first fruits of the belief of the Gentiles." As discussed yesterday, Gentile were the first – perhaps after Mary and Joseph – to worship the new born Jesus.

The saint reminds us of the meaning of the three gifts given by the Magi. "As they [the Magi] look, they believe and do not question, as their symbolic gifts bear witness: incense for God, gold for a king, myrrh for one who is to die."

The Baptism of the Lord must be seen in this "upside down" way as well. We enter the waters of baptism to have our sins cleansed. Jesus, as Saint Peter Chrysologus notices does something different. He says, "Today Christ enters the Jordan to wash away the sin of the world. John himself testifies that this is why he has come: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Today a servant lays his hand on God, John lays his hand on Christ, not to forgive but to receive forgiveness."

An Unholy Compromise and Betrayal

The Wall Street Journal has a shocking and sad article today. You can find it here. It seems that the Catholic Kennedy family was once whole-heartedly opposed to the holocaust that is abortion in the United States. The article quotes Ted Kennedy as saying, "When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception." This is an admirable goal to work toward. However, the growing political advantages of switching sides on the abortion issue compromised the Kennedy family.

The article claims that the Kennedy and Shriver families met with a group of "leading theologians and Catholic college professors" for the purpose of receiving coaching on how they could accept and promote abortion with a "clear conscience." Anyone with a modicum of human experience knows that mortal sin can be justified with clever legalistic manipulation. As a good and holy priest once said to me, each and every commandment can be rationalized away. Any sin can be committed with what appears to be good reasons. However, no commandment can be broken when the test of love of neighbor and God is applied. If the article is correct, the Kennedy family hired a collection of wolves in sheep's clothing to numb their consciences.

Who were these wolves? The article names the pack. Former – note, former – Jesuit priest Albert Jonsen recalls in his book about how he was joined by Rev. Joseph Fuchs (a high priest of the Proportionalist school of moral theology that was undone by Pope John Paul II), Rev. Robert Drinan (who served in Congress until told to stop by Pope John Paul II), Giles Milhaven, (dissenting theologian and author of Toward a New Catholic Morality – the word New ought to give a warning), Richard Mc Cormick (an abject dissenter of great renown) and Charles Curran (who was disciplined by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and is not allowed to teach as a Catholic any longer). It seems the Kennedy's gathered a collection of dissenters to tickle their ears. May God have mercy on them all.

I think that is enough.

Mary, Theotokos, pray for us!

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