CATECHISM CC - Part 3 - MAN'S RESPONSE TO GOD

SC Borromeo ^

[NYer]

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
SECOND EDITION

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PART ONE
THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

SECTION ONE
"I BELIEVE" - "WE BELIEVE"

CHAPTER THREE
MAN'S RESPONSE TO GOD

By his Revelation, "the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company."¹ The adequate response to this invitation is faith.

By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God.² With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred Scripture calls this human response to God, the author of revelation, "the obedience of faith".³

ARTICLE 1
I BELIEVE

I. THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH

144 To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to "hear or listen to") in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by Sacred Scripture. The Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment.

Abraham - "father of all who believe"

The Letter to the Hebrews, in its great eulogy of the faith of Israel's ancestors, lays special emphasis on Abraham's faith: "By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go."⁴ By faith, he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the promised land.⁵ By faith, Sarah was given to conceive the son of the promise. And by faith Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice.⁶

Abraham thus fulfills the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen":⁷ "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."⁸ Because he was "strong in his faith", Abraham became the "father of all who believe".⁹

The Old Testament is rich in witnesses to this faith. The Letter to the Hebrews proclaims its eulogy of the exemplary faith of the ancestors who "received divine approval".¹⁰ Yet "God had foreseen something better for us": the grace of believing in his Son Jesus, "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith".¹¹

Mary - "Blessed is she who believed"

The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith. By faith Mary welcomes the tidings and promise brought by the angel Gabriel, believing that "with God nothing will be impossible" and so giving her assent: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word."¹² Elizabeth greeted her: "Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."¹³ It is for this faith that all generations have called Mary blessed.¹⁴

Throughout her life and until her last ordeal¹⁵ when Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary's faith never wavered. She never ceased to believe in the fulfillment of God's word. And so the Church venerates in Mary the purest realization of faith.

II. "I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED"¹⁶

To believe in God alone

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. As personal adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature.¹⁷

To believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God

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"; God tells us to listen to him.¹⁸ The Lord himself said to his disciples: "Believe in God, believe also in me."¹⁹ We can believe in Jesus Christ because he is himself God, the Word made flesh: "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known."²⁰ Because he "has seen the Father", Jesus Christ is the only one who knows him and can reveal him.²¹

To believe in the Holy Spirit

One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to men who Jesus is. For "no one can say "Jesus is Lord", except by the Holy Spirit",²² who "searches everything, even the depths of God. . No one comprehends the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God."²³ Only God knows God completely: we believe in the Holy Spirit because he is God.

The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

III. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF FAITH

Faith is a grace

When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood", but from "my Father who is in heaven".²⁴ Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.'"²⁵

Faith is a human act

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 is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason. Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe what other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their promises (for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity to "yield by faith the full submission of. . . intellect and will to God who reveals",²⁶ and to share in an interior communion with him.

In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace: "Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace."²⁷

Faith and understanding

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".²⁸ 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."²⁹ Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability "are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all"; they are "motives of credibility" (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the mind".³⁰

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."³¹ "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt."³²

"Faith seeks understanding":³³ 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. The grace of faith opens "the eyes of your hearts"³⁴ to a lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of God's plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other and with Christ, the center of the revealed mystery. "The same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and more profoundly understood."³⁵ In the words of St. Augustine, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe."³⁶

Faith and science: "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."³⁷ "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. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are."³⁸

The freedom of faith

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."³⁹ "God calls men to serve him in spirit and in truth. Consequently they are bound to him in conscience, but not coerced. . . This fact received its fullest manifestation in Christ Jesus."⁴⁰ Indeed, Christ invited people to faith and conversion, but never coerced them. "For he bore witness to the truth but refused to use force to impose it on those who spoke against it. His kingdom. . . grows by the love with which Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws men to himself."⁴¹

The necessity of faith

Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation.⁴² "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.'"⁴³

Perseverance in faith

Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith."⁴⁴ To live, 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;⁴⁵ it must be "working through charity," abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church.⁴⁶

Faith - the beginning of eternal life

Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below. Then we shall see God "face to face", "as he is".⁴⁷ So faith is already the beginning of eternal life:

When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which our faith assures us we shall one day enjoy.⁴⁸

Now, however, "we walk by faith, not by sight";⁴⁹ we perceive God as "in a mirror, dimly" and only "in part".⁵⁰ Even though enlightened by him in whom it believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test. The world we live in often seems very far from the one promised us by faith. Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice and death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a temptation against it.

It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who "in hope. . . believed against hope";⁵¹ to the Virgin Mary, who, in "her pilgrimage of faith", walked into the "night of faith"⁵² 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."⁵³

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1 DV 2; cf. Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17; Ex 33:11; Jn 15:14-15; Bar 3:38 (Vulg.).
2 Cf. DV 5.
3 Cf. Rom 1:5; 16:26.
4 Heb 11:8; cf. Gen 12:1-4.
5 Cf. Gen 23:4.
6 Cf. Heb 11:17.
7 Heb 11:1.
8 Rom 4:3; cf. Gen 15:6.
9 Rom 4:11,18; 4:20; cf. Gen 15:5.
10 Heb 11:2, 39.
11 Heb 11:40; 12:2.
12 Lk 1:37-38; cf. Gen 18:14.
13 Lk 1:45.
14 Cf. Lk 1:48.
15 Cf. Lk 2:35.
16 2 Tim 1:12.
17 Cf. Jer 17:5-6; Ps 40:5; 146:3-4.
18 Mk 1:11; cf. 9:7.
19 Jn 14:1.
20 Jn 1:18.
21 Jn 6:46; cf. Mt 11:27.
22 1 Cor 12:3.
23 1 Cor 2:10-11.
24 Mt 16:17; cf. Gal 1:15; Mt 11:25.
25 DV 5; cf. DS 377; 3010.
26 Dei Filius 3:DS 3008.
27 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,2,9; cf. Dei Filius 3:DS 3010.
28 Dei Filius 3:DS 3008.
29 Dei Filius 3:DS 3009.
30 Dei Filius 3:DS 3008-3010; Cf. Mk 16 20; Heb 2:4.
31 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,171,5,obj.3.
32 John Henry Cardinal Newman, Apologia pro vita sua (London: Longman, 1878) 239.
33 St. Anselm, Prosl. prooem.:PL 153,225A.
34 Eph 1:18.
35 DV 5.
36 St. Augustine, Sermo 43,7,9:PL 38,257-258.
37 Dei Filius 4:DS 3017.
38 GS 36 § 1.
39 DH 10; cf. CIC, can. 748 § 2.
40 DH 11.
41 DH 11; cf. Jn 18:37; 12:32.
42 Cf. 16:16; Jn 3:36; 6:40 et al.
43 Dei Filius 3:DS 3012; cf. Mt 10:22; 24:13 and Heb 11:6; Council of Trent:DS 1532.
44 1 Tim 1:18-19.
45 Cf. Mk 9:24; Lk 17:5; 22:32.
46 Gal 5:6; Rom 15:13; cf. Jas 2:14-26.
47 1 Cor 13:12; 1 Jn 3:2.
48 St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto, 15,36:PG 32,132; cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,4,1.
49 2 Cor 5:7.
50 l Cor 13:12.
51 Rom 4:18.
52 LG 58; John Paul II, RMat 18.
53 Heb 12:1-2.

[NYer]

Catholics say it occurred at Mary's birth.

The basis for the belief in the Immaculate Conception of Mary can be found in the Biblical revelation of holiness and the opposite of that state, sinfulness.

God is revealed as perfect interior holiness.

Is 6:3

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!" they (the Seraphim) cried one to the other.

No sin or anything tainted with sin can stand in the face of the holiness of God. "Enmity" is that mutual hatred between Mary and sin, between Christ and sin.

Gen 3:15

I will put enmity between you (the serpent, Satan) and the woman (Mary), and between your offspring (minions of Satan) and hers (Jesus); He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.

The salutation of the Angel Gabriel indicates that Mary was exceptionally "highly favored with grace" (Gk.: charitoo, used twice in the New Testament, in Lk 1:28 for Mary - before Christ's redemption; and Eph 1:6 for Christ's grace to us - after Christ's redemption).

Lk 1:28

And coming to her (Mary), he (the angel Gabriel) said, "Hail, favored one (kecharitomene)"

Eph 1:4-6

(God) chose us in him (Jesus), before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace (echaritosen) that he granted us in the beloved.

The constant faith (paradosis) of the Church attests to the belief in the special preparation of the holiness of the person of Mary to bear in her body the most holy person of the Son of God.

Post-Apostolic:

Implicitly found in the Fathers of the Church in the parallelism between Eve and Mary (Irenaeus, Lyons, 140? - 202?); Found in the more general terms about Mary: "holy", "innocent", "most pure", "intact", "immaculate" (Irenaeus, Lyons, 140?-202?; Ephraem, Syria, 306-373; Ambrose, Milan, 373-397); Explicit language: Mary - free from original sin (Augustine, Hippo, 395-430 to Anselm, Normandy, 1033-1109).

[Desdemona]

Our source of knowledge is from His Word, which even He has magnified above ALL, which IMO, above tradition. We are to depend on His Word aabove all to reveal God.

Since the bible is regarded as the Word of God by TRADITION....

[Desdemona]

And please recall that the books of the bible were determined to be the word of God by criterea that is not in the document itself.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I do not believe that the Word of God IS the Word of God by tradition. I view it as the Word of God by faith that what He says is the truth. He says His Word is magnified above ALL.

IMO, no offence intended, to trust that the Word of God is the Word of God because of traditions from men, because it has been proven to you by men, shows a lack of faith in God's Word. I believe because God said. If you want to say to yourself (or even too me:), that I am fooling myself, that it is really tradition, that is fine, God knows my heart.

Becky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I believe the bible we have now is because it is the bible that GOD intended us to have, not because men got together and decided it.

Becky

[Desdemona]

Alright, that's enough. YOPIOS is not the issue here.

This thread has really degenerated. Do you have any comments on any of the rest of the original post?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

You asked for more comments on the article, which BTW, is an opinion on intreprtation. Why should I not give mine. I was comming down thru the article making comments. And now you say that's enough rather sharply. This does have to do with the article. This is about faith. Accepting God at his word and acting upon it. Faith that God is in control, that I do not have to place my faith in men, or men's traditions, because they will always disappoint. If we trust God's Word we will always have peace with Him.

Rom. 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. (not tradition)

Rom 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Becky

[american colleen]

From His Word. He said ALL have sinned. He said that if thou shalt believe in the Lord, thou shalt be saved. He did not say All have sinned except Mary.

I guess it depends on the meaning of "ALL" ;-) -- "As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." As far as physical death is concerned (the context of 1 Cor 15), not "all" people have died (e.g., Enoch: Gen 5:24; cf. Heb 11:5, Elijah: 2 Kings 2:11). Likewise, "all" will not be made spiritually alive by Christ, because some will choose to suffer eternal spiritual death in hell.

You don't put new wine in old wineskins - everybody knows that! ;-)

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

BTW, I meant to add that I am sorry you feel this has degenerated. I thought we had a very good discussion on different views of faith going. I apologize, I was only speaking in general terms, not specifically to you or anyone.

Becky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

This is just a possibility here, I cannot say for sure it is right. But did you ever think that Enoch and Elijah may be the two witnesses that Rev. speaks of that come and testify in front of the temple during the end times and then are killed? It is a definite possibility.

Becky

[Desdemona]

Why should it be, then, that ONLY what is in the bible is the word of God. The truth is that there are many more writings out there with the Holy Spirit's fingerprints on them, but because they were written after the cutoff date, they were not included. There are writings by saints which, I believe, to be Divinely inspired.

I don't believe that the bible alone is all there is to the Word of God. There's much more.

I said that's enough because the section of the Catechism here, really, does not deal with the the bible itself. That comes later.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Maybe not, but she is the only one God, through the Archangel Gabriel, asked to be the mother of His son. THAT says more than anything else. And in this case, too much tradition is there to ignore it

I am being as nice as I can to have a civil discussion. It's drizzily and chilly here so I have nothing else to do but freep.

If you will note, you brought "traditions" into the discussion.

You were the one that commented/complained on the fact that Mary was the only thing being discussed from the artilce. So I tried to change to get along. I know Mary is a touchy subject. You have also in your last post given you opinion, after you said enough. But you are also inferring that you do not want me to discuss it anymore. Fine. I know exactly where this will go if I give a rebuttal to your response. Your right, it has degenerated.

So I will go back to coming down thru the article and giving MOPIOS.

Becky

[Pyro7480]

I checked out the link where this is excerpt of the Cathechism is from. The home page is for St. Charles Borromeo parish in Picayune, MS. For a church that was just concecrated in the past 5 years, it is truly beautiful. Here are some pictures from the inside of the Church.

Picture of the Tabernacle, which is modeled after the Ark of the Covenant.

The Sanctuary, with its six statues of angels

The Vestibule

The Nave

Marian Grotto

[Desdemona]

Fine, whatever. You're not the only one with bad weather. And I have a craky dog recovering from surgery.

I brought up tradition because someone on this thread brought up "the bible doesn't say..." which in the Catholic teaching is not a defense. Sola scriptura is not our way.

It has degenerated. Quite a lot.

[Desdemona]

Love the angels.

[american colleen]

Enoch and Elijah were thought to be the two witnesses by many of the Church fathers, as far as I know. I've also read that Moses may be one of the witnesses... based on a tradition that says that Moses was also taken up to heaven - also that Moses appeared with Elijah during Jesus' Transfiguration.

End-times - let's not even go there! ;-)

[Salvation]

Here is a reflection on this subject from today's One Bread, One Body.

It fits, so I hope people don't mind if I post it.

One Bread, One Body

<< Saturday, May 17, 2003 >>

Acts 13:44-52

Psalm 98

John 14:7-14

View Readings

BELIEVING OR BE LEAVING

“Believe Me.” —John 14:11

Did you know that the word “believe” is used eighty-two times in the gospel of John? Indeed, the very purpose of John’s gospel is that all who read it may “believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, so that through this” belief you may have eternal life in His name (Jn 20:31).

When a book or passage of Scripture uses the same word that many times, the Lord wants us to get the message. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus refers to believing in Him four times.

If we believe in Jesus and prove that belief by living a new life in Him, we will have eternal life with Him (Jn 6:47; 8:31; 20:31). If we refuse to believe in Him, we will die in our sins (Jn 8:24) and spend eternity separated from Jesus in hell.

John lists some reasons people refuse to believe in Jesus:

• not reading the gospel or ignoring its message (Jn 5:38, 46-47),
• not being willing to come to Jesus for help (Jn 5:39-40),
• a lack of love (Jn 5:42),
• the pride of preferring human approval to God’s approval (Jn 5:43-44), and
• a refusal to believe Jesus’ witnesses (Jn 20:25).

Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the One the Father sent” (see Jn 6:29).  Jesus implores us: “Believe Me” (Jn 14:11).

Prayer: Jesus, “I do believe. Help my” unbelief! (Mk 9:24)

Promise: “All who were destined for life everlasting believed in it. Thus the word of the Lord was carried throughout that area.” —Acts 13:48-49

Praise: Rosa, a teenage single mother, turned to God after the birth of her baby, joined the Catholic Church, and joyfully received the Sacraments for the first time on Pentecost Sunday.

(This teaching was submitted by one of our editors.)

[american colleen]

What a beautiful Church - thanks for the pix. It's refreshing to know that not all parishes built in the last 40 years are boxes and angles and could have been constructed using cinderblocks.

If you go to amywelborn.blogspot.com she posted a picture of a new church in Munich (yesterday or today, I forget) and it is a CUBE with made out of glass with one entire side serving as a door - hideous, IMO. But I never liked modern art anyway. Something is wrong when I can do just as good a job on stuff as most modern artists do. I have absolutely no artisic talent except for good handwriting (thx to the good sisters).

[Salvation]

Beautiful!

[Salvation]

You have it right here, Becky!