Day 10: The Apostolic Tradition

God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth": that is, of Christ Jesus. Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so that this revelation may reach to the ends of the earth: God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation of all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be transmitted to all generations. CCC 74

 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed and revealed to us through Divine Revelation, which is mainly through the Scriptures and Tradition, which "go hand in hand" and "we need both" (Catechism Companion, p. 24). This was given to his Church and is maintained in unity through Apostolic Succession.

That basically sums up today's reading. What I liked about this was it succinctly addressed what we hear some Protestants claim, which is in essence a "just me and the Bible" approach, with the label of sola Scriptura slapped on it. I personally find that approach to be arrogant, ahistorical, and flawed. I realize that this is simplifying the sola Scriptura view of many Protestants, but a lot do hold to this. Christ established his Church and through it passed down to us Scripture and Tradition. Divorcing oneself from the Church because your own understanding is superior is unwise in my view.

At any rate, I want to keep this short given the late hour and I believe I'm slipping into an apologetics mode which I don't intend this to be about. Pax Christi.

Day 9: The Fullness of Revelation

Ok, so after an unexpected week off, I've resumed doing this program on the Catechism. I had fun on Independence Day and this is Summer Break for me, so... At any rate, back to it!

In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say. . . because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty. (St. John of the Cross quoted in CCC 65)

 

I'm reminded of Jesus' answer to Satan when tempted in the desert, "You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test" (Matthew 4:7). I've had those crises in life where I seriously questioned God's existence or his love, even desiring something more explicit to clear up all the misunderstandings and divisions that Christians have. In the end, though, he has revealed enough of himself that he does indeed love us (1 John 4:7-21) and through Nature itself to help us believe (Psalm 19:1-4; Rom 1:20). Being a mere mortal, this all can be extremely difficult to remember though at times. Something else St. John of the Cross' quote makes clear though, is that the "revelations" from later sects are clearly false. From Marcionism, Manicheanism, Islam, to Mormonism, and others, they all hold to peculiar "revelations" that attempt to falsify or even nullify the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Catechism makes clear that 

God has revealed himself fully by sending his own Son, in whom he has established his covenant forever. the Son is his Father's definitive Word; so there will be no further Revelation after him. CCC 73

The one item that has made me uncomfortable at times is some of the Marian revelations. I'm not talking about dogma. I firmly hold to Theotokos, Immaculate Conception, and the Assumption, all of which make good historical and theological sense to me. No, I'm talking about Lourdes, Fatima, Medjugorje, etc., and the devotion some Catholics express for these. No doubt my years of being in Protestantism still have some impact. Nevertheless, I'm comforted by this part in the Catechism, which eases my mind:

Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church. CCC 67

Fr. Mike has some good commentary in today's podcast, but this particular line really stuck out to me:

We are not really a religion of the book, we are a religion of the Word. 

In other words, the Logos, Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Day 8: God Forms His People

Through the prophets, God forms his people in the hope of salvation, in the expectation of a new and everlasting Covenant intended for all, to be written on their hearts. The prophets proclaim a radical redemption of the People of God, purification from all their infidelities, a salvation which will include all the nations. Above all, the poor and humble of the Lord will bear this hope. (Catechism 64)

 

In today's reading, we get more of God slowly revealing himself to man. We start with Abraham, whom Scripture recognizes will become of "Father of Many Nations" (Gen 17:5). But first, he is Abram of Ur, from which God will call him out to leave and travel to a land unknown to him (Gen 12:1). It's a great story in Genesis, with all the trials & tribulations he endured with his wife and kin, due to a strange, unknown God. This is especially true when you recall just how old he and his wife were at this time. How incredibly scary the whole thing must have been for them, and disruptive to what they had known all their lives up to this point. An unknown god tells you to leave the place you've lived all your life and take your elderly wife and all your kin into the wilderness to settle a land you may not have ever heard of before. The level of trust and faith one would have to have is enormous (don't even get me started on the story of the sacrifice of Isaac!). He and others must have thought that he was stark raving mad at times. Yet he did it through God's grace, as did his wife and all his kin who traveled with him which is why we still honor him today, thousands of years later.

The Catechism next briefly mentions the "patriarchs, prophets and certain other Old Testament figures" who followed and are "saints in all the Church's liturgical traditions" (I like this part; Sts. Abraham, Sarah, & Isaac). "God forms his people Israel" from whom the Scriptures would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Their story and example gives us a "great cloud of witnesses" that surrounds us and helps us to "persevere in running the race that lies before us" (Heb 12:1).

All in all a good synopsis of Old Testament people and events, especially if one has read the stories.  I like how this section ends by listing the great women of the Old Testament and ends with "the purest figure among them is Mary," which as Theotokos she certainly is.

Day 7: God Reveals Himself

God, who "dwells in unapproachable light", wants to communicate his own divine life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten Son. By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing him and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity. (Catechism 52)

 

Through reason and observation of his creation, we can have assurance of God's existence. Yet it is only through Divine Revelation, freely given by God to us, that we come to truly know more about him. In today's reading from the Catechism, it's all about God slowly revealing himself to us. From the "intimate communion with himself" that he offered to Adam & Eve, our first parents, down to the covenant he established with Noah after the Flood with more to come afterward. It's a pity that our first parents in effect rejected that intimate communion with God through their sin, though I'm quite sure I wouldn't have done any better in their place. It does show, however, the deep love God has for us that even after the Fall he gave us hope of redemption, which of course would be fulfilled through Jesus Christ.

I like how the Catechism Companion puts it by quoting from this early saint:

As St. Irenaeus of Lyons writes, "The Word of God dwelt in man and became the Son of man in order to accustom man to perceive God and to accustom God to dwell in man, according to the Father's pleasure" (quoted in CCC 53).

Day 6: Knowing God With Certainty

Man is by nature and vocation a religious being. Coming from God, going toward God, man lives a fully human life only if he freely lives by his bond with God. Man is made to live in communion with God in whom he finds happiness... Without the Creator, the creature vanishes (GS 36). This is the reason why believers know that the love of Christ urges them to bring the light of the living God to those who do not know him or who reject him. (Catechism 44-49)

 

Today's reading is short, covering the In Brief section at the end of Chapter 1. This section summarizes what was covered in the chapter on man's built-in desire for God and our capacity for knowing Him. I like how the Catechism Companion puts it:

The very fact that you exist reveals that God wanted you to exist, which means he loves you. He does not have to love you, but he chose to love you when he chose to create you. You are alive on purpose. (p. 16)

Remembering this, especially in the hard times that life can throw at us, can be a struggle. In some ways, figuring out what God's purpose is in our lives can be even more difficult. It is good to be reminded of these truths, for not only do we have a "crisis in meaning" in modern culture but the mind does tend to wander in life.

Lastly, I like how the Catechism Companion points out that contrary to popular belief in modern culture, faith and science are not opposed to each other. 

Faith asks about supernatural realities, and science asks about natural realities. (p. 16)

Again, the teaching from Pope St. John Paul II in Fides et Ratio comes to mind, as well as Thomas Woods' excellent book How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization.