Faith: The Beginnings of Belief

Catechism Paragraphs 185 – 231

“This synthesis of faith was not made to accord with human opinions, but rather what was of the greatest importance was gathered from all the Scriptures, to present the one teaching of the faith in its entirety.  Such syntheses are called ‘professions of faith’ since they summarize the faith that Christians profess.  They are called ‘creeds’ on account of what is usually their first word in Latin, credo (‘I believe’).  187  The first profession of faith is made during Baptism.  Baptism is given ‘in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’  189    The Creed is divided into three parts: the first part speaks of the first divine Person and the wonderful work of creation ; the next speaks of the second divine Person and the mystery of his redemption of men; and the final parts speaks of the third divine Person, the origin and source of our sanctification.  These are the three chapters of our baptismal seal.”  190  

“Among all the creeds, two occupy a special place in the Church’s life:  The Apostle’s Creed is so called because it is rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the apostles’ faith.  194  The Niceno-Constantinopolitan, or Nicene Creed draws its great authority from the fact that it stems from the first two ecumenical Councils (in 325 and 381).  It remains common to all the great Churches of both East and West to this day.  195    

I believe in one God  These are the words with which the Nicene Creed begins.  The confession of God’s oneness, which has its roots in the divine revelation of the Old Covenant, is inseparable from the profession of God’s existence.  200   Jesus himself affirms that God is ‘the one Lord’ whom you must love ‘with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mk 12:29-30).’  At the same time Jesus gives us to understand that he himself is ‘the Lord.’ To confess that Jesus is Lord is distinctive of Christian faith.”  202 

“In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH (I AM HE WHO IS, I AM WHO AM, or I AM WHO I AM) God says who he is and by what name he is to be called (Ex 3:13-15).  This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery.  206   God, who reveals his name as ‘I AM,’ reveals himself as the God who is always there, present to his people in order to save them.  207   Out of respect for the holiness of God, the people of Israel do not pronounce his name.  In the reading of Sacred Scripture, the revealed name (Yhwh) is replaced by the divine title ‘Lord’ (in Hebrew Adonai, in Greek Kyrios).  It is under this title that the divinity of Jesus will be acclaimed:  ‘Jesus is Lord’.  209  The divine name, ‘I Am’ or ‘He Is,’ expresses God’s faithfulness: despite the faithlessness of men’s sin and the punishment it deserves, he keeps steadfast love for thousands (Ex 34:7).  By going so far as to give us his own Son for us, God reveals that he is ‘rich in mercy’. (Eph 2:4)  By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part:  ‘In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.’ (1Jn 4:10)  God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  604   The revelation of the ineffib le name ‘I Am who Am’ contains then the truth that God alone IS.  The Church’s tradition (understands) the divine name in this sense:  God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end.”  213

“God is Truth itself, whose words cannot deceive.  This is why one can abandon oneself in full trust to the truth and faithfulness of his word in all things.  The beginning of sin and of man’s fall was due to a lie of the tempter who induced doubt of God’s word, kindness, and faithfulness.  215   In the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that God had only one reason to reveal himself to them, a single motive for choosing them from among all peoples as his special possession:  his sheer gratuitous love.  Out of love, God never stopped saving them and pardoning their unfaithfulness and sins.  God’s love for Israel is compared to a father’s love for his son.  218   God’s love is everlasting: ‘For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you.’ (Isa 54:10) 220   But St. John goes even further when he affirms that ‘God is love.’ (1Jn 4:8, 16)  God’s very being is love.  By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret:  God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and he has destined us to share in that exchange.  221   Indeed, God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, that is, God wills the salvation of everyone through the knowledge of the truth.  Salvation is found in the truth.”  851  

“Believing in one God has enormous consequences for our whole life.  It means coming to know God’s greatness and majesty: Behold, God is great.  Therefore, we must serve God first.  It means living in thanksgiving: everything we are and have comes from him.  It means knowing the unity and true dignity of all men: Everyone is made in the image and likeness of God.  It means making good use of created things:  To use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him.  222-6  Even when he reveals himself, God remains a mystery beyond words: ‘If you understood him, it would not be God.’ (St. Augustine)” 230  

“Faith is a sheer gift of God.  Faith is incomplete unless it leads to active love.  Faith grows when we listen more and more carefully to God’s Word and enter a lively exchange with him in prayer.  Faith gives us even now a foretaste of the joy of heaven.  YOUCAT Q21  What should you do once you have come to know God?  Once you have come to know God, you must put him in the first place in your life.  And with that a new life begins.  You should be able to recognize Christians by the fact that they love even their enemies."  YOUCAT Q34

I found this whole section of the catechism on belief in God, faith, a good read --- but one which must be read more than once.  Faith is trust, and it is a trust not without reason.  Faith and reason go together.  I reflect on this somewhat often in my blog, Do Not Be Anxious, for trusting without seeing, without scientific proof as we know it, is sometimes a cause of anxiety.  Trust is sometimes going ahead without knowing what is in front of us.  Trust is sometimes accepting pain and suffering as a good thing, even thought every bone of our body screams: “This isn’t right!”  Faith is a hard thing, but as YOUCAT Q21 notes, faith grows.  Even if you find yours weak now, never give up.  Faith grows.

The Obedience of Faith

Catechism Paragraphs 142 – 184

This section of the catechism focuses on what we mean, when we say: “I believe”.  “To obey in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself.  144   The Letter to the Hebrews lays special emphasis on Abraham’s faith:  ‘By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out … not knowing where he was to go.  By faith, he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the promised land.  By faith, Sarah was given to conceive the son of the promise.  And by faith Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice.  145   Hebrews 11:1:  Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  146   The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith.  By faith, Mary welcomes the tidings and promise brought by the angel Gabriel.”  148  

“Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God.  At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.  150   For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his ‘beloved Son,’ in whom the Father is ‘well pleased.’  The Lord himself said to his disciples: ‘Believe in God, believe also in me.’  Because he has seen the Father, Jesus Christ is the only one who knows him and can reveal him.  151   One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to men who Jesus is.”  152

“Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him.  153   Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit.  But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act.  Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed are contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason.”  What the catechism is saying here is that faith is not hocus-pocus, believing without any reason to believe.  From my readings about the faith of Islam, they believe that God is unknowable, as are his ways.  So if, in their belief, God said the sky is brown, they would agree it is brown although that does not seem reasonable.  They do not see God as something which can be known by man.  The Catholic Church (and most Christian faiths) would disagree.

Amen, as said at the end of prayers, means “I believe.”  “What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe ‘because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.’   So that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit.  156   Faith is certain.  It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie.  To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives.  157   It is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith and to understand better what He has revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love.  In the words of St. Augustine, ‘I believe in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe.’  158   Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason.  Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.  Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God.”  159 

“To be human, man’s response to God by faith must be free, and therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will.  The act of faith is of its very nature a free act.”  160  

The necessity of faith:  “Believing in Jesus Christ and in the one who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation.  Since without faith it is impossible to please God and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life but he who endures to the end.  162   To live, to grow, and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; it must be working through charity, abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church.”  162  

“Now, however, we walk by faith, not by sight, we perceive God as in a mirror, dimly and only in part.  Even though enlightened by him in whom it believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test.  It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who ‘in hope believed against hope,’ to the Virgin Mary, who, in her pilgrimage of faith walked into the night of faith in sharing the darkness of her son’s suffering and death; and to so many others: ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. (Heb 12:1-2)” 164-5 

“’I believe’ is the faith of the Church professed personally by each believer, principally during Baptism.  167   It is the Church that believes first and so bears, nourishes, and sustains my faith.  Everywhere, it is the Church that first confesses the Lord:  ‘Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you,’ as we sing in the hymn Te Deum; with her and in her, we are won over and brought to confess: ‘I believe.’  168   The Church, the pillar and bulwark of the truth, faithfully guards the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.  She guards the memory of Christ’s words; it is she who from generation to generation hands on the apostles’ confession of faith.  The Church, our Mother, teaches us the language of faith in order to introduce us to the understanding and the life of faith.  171  Through the centuries, in so many languages, cultures, peoples, and nations, the Church has constantly confessed this one faith, received from the one Lord, transmitted by one Baptism, and grounded in the conviction that all people have only one God and Father.”  172

“Faith is necessary for salvation.  The Lord himself affirms:  He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.  (Mk 16:16)  Faith is a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come.  (St. Thomas Aquinas, Comp, theol. 1,2)  183-4

Catechism Reading Plan

Part One:  The Profession of Faith

Pages               Date

13-23               1-30-13
24-38               2-5
39-50               2-12
51-61               2-19
62-72               2-26
73-84               3-5
85-96               3-12
97-107             3-19
(Break)             3-26

108-121           4-2
122-135           4-9
136-145           4-16
146-161           4-23
162-171           4-30
172-179           5-7
180-192           5-14
193-205           5-21
(Break)             5-28

206-217           6-4
218-230           6-11
231-246           6-18
247-257           6-25
258-268           7-2
269-279           7-9
280-290           7-16
291-308           7-23
(Break)             7-30

309-324           8-6
325-338           8-13
339-356           8-20
357-367           8-27
368-378           9-3
379-392           9-10
393-405           9-17
406-420           9-24

Why Does The Catholic Church Act Like It Knows It All?

Catechism Paragraphs 74 – 100

The catechism of the Catholic Church was put together to document in one place the key doctrines of the Church, and where they came from --- someone did not just make them up.  The section I read today documents a key underpinning of the Church’s authority:  Divine Revelation.  Section I Article 2 is on The Transmission of Divine Revelation.  Article 3 is on Sacred Scripture.

“God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  (1Tim 2:4)  74   Christ the Lord commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel.  This Gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral discipline.  75   The Church, the pillar and bulwark of the truth, faithfully guards ‘the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.’  She guards the memory of Christ’s words; it is she who from generation to generation hands on the apostles’ confession of faith. (1Tim 3:15; Jude 3.)  The Church our Mother teaches us the language of faith in order to introduce us to the understanding and the life of faith.”  171  

“In keeping with the Lord’s command, the Gospel was handed on in two ways:  orally,  by the apostles by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received – whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and in writing, by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of salvation to writing.”  76

“In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the apostles left bishops as their successors.  They gave them their own position of teaching authority.  77   This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy Spirit, is called Tradition, since it is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it.  Through Tradition, the Church in her doctrine, life, and worship perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes.  The sayings of the Holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of this Tradition, showing how its riches are poured out in the practice and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer.”  78

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRADITION AND SACRED SCRIPTURE

Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.  And (Holy) Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit.  It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound, and spread it abroad by their preaching.  81   Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.   (This is a key doctrine of the Catholic Faith).  82   Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical, or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church’s magisterium.”  83 

THE MAGISTERIUM OF THE CHURCH

“The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living, teaching office of the Church alone.  Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ.  This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.  Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant.  It teaches only what has been handed on to it.  85-6   Mindful of Christ’s words to his apostles: ‘He who hears you, hears me,’ the faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.”  87   

DOGMAS OF THE FAITH

“The Church’s Magisterium exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes truths contained in divine Revelation or having a necessary connection with them, in a form obliging the Christian people to an irrevocable adherence of faith.  88   The mutual connections between dogmas, and their coherence, can be found in the whole of the Revelation of the mystery of Christ.  In Catholic doctrine there exists and order or hierarchy of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith.  90  All the faithful share in understanding and holding on revealed truth.  They have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, who instructs them and guides them in all truth.  91   Through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their hearts, it is in particular theological research (which) deepens knowledge of revealed truth.”  94  

“It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others.  Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.”  95

Can the Church err in questions of faith?  The faithful as a whole cannot err in faith, because Jesus promised his disciples that he would send them the Spirit of truth and keep them in the truth (Jn 14:17)  Although individual members of the Church can err and even make serious mistakes, the Church as a whole can never fall away from God’s truth.  The Church carries through the ages a living truth that is greater than herself.  We speak about a depositum fidei,  a deposit of faith that is to be preserved.  YOUCAT Q 13

SACRED SCRIPTURE

“In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is, the word of God.  In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.  104    God is the author of Sacred Scripture; (the words are) written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  105  The inspired authors teach the truth.  Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.  Still, the Christian faith is not a ‘religion of the book.’  If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.”  107-8   

“To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words.  109   Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.  The Second Vatican Council indicates three criteria for interpreting Scripture in accordance with the Spirit who inspired it.  111   1)Be especially attentive to the content and unity of the whole Scripture.  Different as the books which comprise it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God’s plan.  2) Read the Scripture within ‘the living Tradition of the whole Church.’  According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church’s heart, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God’s Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture.  113   3) Be attentive to the analogy of faith.  By ‘analogy of faith’ we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.”  114  

“According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses.  115  The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: ‘All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal.’  116   The spiritual sense.  Thanks to the unity of God’s plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.  1) The allegorical sense.  We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ’s victory and also of Christian Baptism.  2) The moral sense.  The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly.  As St. Paul says, they were written ‘for our instruction.’  3) The anagogical sense (Gr: anagoge, ‘leading’).  We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem.”  117  

“It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books.  This complete list is called the canon of Scripture.  It includes 46 boos for the Old Testament and 27 for the New.  120   The books of the Old Testament bear witness to the whole divine pedagogy of God’s saving love:  these writings are a storehouse of sublime teaching on God and of sound wisdom on human life, as well as a wonderful treasury of prayers; in them, too, the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden way.  122   The Word of God, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, is set forth and displays its power in a most wonderful way in the writings of the New Testament, which hand on the ultimate truth of God’s Revelation.  Their central object is Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son: his acts, teachings, Passion and glorification, and his Church’s beginnings under the Spirit’s guidance.”  124

“The Gospels are the heart of all the Scriptures because they are our principal source for the life and teaching of the Incarnate Word, our Savior.  We can distinguish three stages in the formation of the Gospels:  1) The life and teaching of Jesus   2) The oral tradition: For, after the ascension of the Lord, the apostles handed on to their hearers what he had said and done, but with that fuller understanding which they, instructed by the glorious events of Christ and enlightened by the Spirit of truth, now enjoyed.  3) The written Gospels.  The sacred authors, in writing the four Gospels, selected certain of the many elements which had been handed on, either orally or already in written form, in such a fashion that they have told us the honest truth about Jesus.”  125-6

“The Church, as early as apostolic times, and then constantly in her Tradition, has illuminated the unity fo the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology, which discerns in God’s works of the Old Covenant prefigurations of what he accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son.  128   The New Testament has to be read in the light of the Old.  Early Christian catechesis made constant use of the Old Testament.  129   The Church forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures.  ‘Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.’”  133