Day 57: Consequences of Adam's Sin

All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St. Paul affirms: "By one man's disobedience many (that is, all men) were made sinners": "sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned." The Apostle contrasts the universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men." CCC 402

In today's reading, the Catechism expounds further on the consequences of original sin, which we still deal with today. The sin of our first parents wounded our human nature and left us broken and in need of redemption. As the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts it:

Every one of us is born into this fallen, wounded state. We remain essentially good, but original sin has led to certain consequences. We have an attraction to sin (called concupiscence), and we have a darkening of our intellect and a weakening of our will. We suffer and die. (p. 118)

The heresiarch Pelagius taught that we could freely overcome this state "without the necessary help of God's grace," while some Protestant Reformers believed that original sin made each of us totally depraved (CCC 406). Yet the Church teaches that neither of these is correct. What God created in us is good, not depraved. Due to original sin, we are instead deprived of the "original holiness and justice" that Adam & Eve enjoyed before the Fall, which after left our wounded and broken nature "subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin" (CCC 405). It is through redemption in Christ that our nature is healed. Yet, as the Catechism Companion states:

Baptism erases original sin. But those consequences are still in us. (p. 118)

 It may seem unfair, which many of us have said at some point in our lives, but we do see the consequences in this world. Ultimately, this is "a mystery that we cannot fully understand" (CCC 404). The Catechism Companion deals with this feeling of "unfairness" in explanation:

One way of looking at this is that we are all part of the same human family. As with our own families, the decisions and choices of family members can impact everyone - either for good or bad. Similarly, the decision of our first parents to distrust God and disobey him had negative consequences for the rest of the family - for their descendants. (p. 119)

Day 56: Man's First Sin

Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness. CCC 397

In today's reading, the Catechism speaks of that first sin which brought death and brokenness to the world. The first part of this section is entitled, "Freedom Put to the Test". Our first parents unfortunately failed that test and we haven't done any better ever since then. The "Father of lies" deceived our first parents and through their fall from grace "preferred [themselves] to God and by that very act scorned Him. [They] chose [themselves] over and against God" (CCC 398). All of us do the very same thing. In crying out for our "freedom" we forget what that actually means. As the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts it:

True freedom is the power to do what we ought to do. But man violated that freedom... When we sin, we prefer ourselves and our way to God's - which leads us to act against our own good. (p. 116)

Original sin would have drastic and cosmic consequences on not just Adam and Eve, but all of us and Creation itself. Tomorrow this will be further elaborated on, but for now though, the Catechism gives some of the immediate results:

After that first sin, the world is virtually inundated by sin There is Cain's murder of his brother Abel and the universal corruption which follows in the wake of sin. Likewise, sin frequently manifests itself in the history of Israel, especially as infidelity to the God of the Covenant and as transgression of the Law of Moses. and even after Christ's atonement, sin raises its head in countless ways among Christians. Scripture and the Church's Tradition continually recall the presence and universality of sin in man's history. (CCC 401)

The Last Judgement fresco by Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City (1536-1541)

Day 55: The Fall of the Angels

Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls "a murderer from the beginning", who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father. "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God. CCC 394

In today's reading, the Catechism focuses on another fall, one that predates ours: that of Satan and his demonic minions. Angels have free will as we do and though Scripture & Tradition do not give us the details we would wish, some of them rejected God and thus became the demons that torment us in this fallen world. Why exactly they chose to rebel against Him we do not know, but it was one made of their own free will. Whether it began from pride, or envy, or some combination of the two, the effect was instantaneous. God doesn't force us to return His love, just as He doesn't force angels. We must freely accept His will and love just as the angels do. The Catechism Companion, Vol I speaks on the devastating results of the poor choices made by Satan and his minions:

Their choice to reject God was made with a full understanding of the consequences. That is why it is "irrevocable" and "unforgivable" (see CCC 393)... God will not take away our freedom, and he will not take away the freedom of the Enemy. (p. 114)

It seems incredible to me that beings so intimately full of knowledge of God as angels could actually rebel against Him, but some of them still did. By their perverted reasoning, it seems to them that it is "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven" (Paradise Lost, 1.263).  The Catechism quotes St. John Damascene writing:

"There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death." (CCC 393)

As can be seen, the consequences of their fall enabled the "Father of lies" to tempt our first parents in the Garden which sadly led to the Fall of Man. Thus Satan sought to derail God's creation and the possibility of our rejecting Him became a reality. The power of evil may seem to be overwhelming to us at times but Christ has already defeated Satan. His power is limited while that of God is infinite. He could destroy Satan and the demons by a mere thought, yet for whatever reason does not do so. The argument that this could jeopardize our free will is a possibility, but we cannot answer this fully. As the Catechism Companion notes:

It is a mystery why God allows the Devil to bring about evil and suffering in the world. But we know that God can bring good from it. (See CCC 395.) [p. 114]

The Fall of Rebellious Angels, by Frans Floris (1554). Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp

St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Lectures on the Christian Sacraments

Tonight is the second night with the discussion group on this work by St. Cyril of Jerusalem. This is an ecumenical group that Gospel Simplicity, a Protestant, has done a good job of running and so far I've been surprised by the mix of Catholics, Orthodox, and even Pentecostals! We've read through the On Pre-Baptismal Rites section and I'm really enjoying this work. We're using the SVS edition, but you can find an online version here. 

As a Catholic, I cannot help but see the clear sacramentalism in this work from baptismal regeneration to the Real Presence in the Eucharist. I'm sure the Orthodox would say something similar which makes me wonder what the Pentecostals will say...

St. Paul Center has a good intro video of this work:

Day 54: The Fall of Man

Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity's rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history. CCC 386

In today's reading, the Catechism discusses the reality of sin and Adam and Eve's first or original sin, which sparked the Fall. The Catechism calls this original sin "an essential truth of the faith". We know that there is suffering and sin in this life, we all have experienced it and the reality of our eventual deaths reveals that we do not live in that paradise of the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:4-25). Sin came from somewhere and I like how the Catechism says "We must know Christ as the source of grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin" (CCC 388). How Adam and Eve fell is recounted in Genesis 3, the reality of which the Catechism comments on: 

The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents. (CCC 390)

Whether the Genesis account is meant to be taken literally or figuratively isn't really relevant here. What is relevant is the "essential truth" of the Fall and the original sin of our first parents. So whether eating a forbidden "apple" was really the cause or something else, Adam & Eve's fall from grace was a "rejection of God and his moral law" (Catechism Companion, p. 112). In our modern age some try to explain away the broken condition we find ourselves in, but the reality is:

Sin is not just a "developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, [or] a mistake." It is a rejection of God. (p. 112)

Fr. Mike Schmitz in his discussion on this section spoke about this point that really made me think. Every time we sin we are essentially putting our desires ahead of our relationship with God. Whether we are consciously aware of this or not. We are saying that those desires are more important to us than Him. Looking at it that way, it's no wonder that our Creator, the Almighty and Ineffable God, would be offended by this. Our choosing sin spurns the love He wishes to share with us as His creations, His children. Jesus Christ took on flesh through the Incarnation, and suffered and died for us in order to redeem us from our sins (Isa 53:5).  As the Catechism Companion states:

[W]e cannot fully understand original sin unless we understand, to some degree, grace. Even with original sin, we remain good. We are still created in God's image, but we are broken. (p. 112)

Christ is that grace and His sacrifice for us is what will heal us from our brokenness (1 Pet 2:24). 

One last point I'd like to focus on is the blame that Eve usually gets for being responsible for the Fall. I've heard that before and jokes about how we'd all supposedly still be in the Garden if not for this woman. There is some truth to this if one goes strictly & literally by the Genesis account. However, she didn't act alone. Adam was also there and chose to sin as well. I like how Maria J. Cirurgião puts this:

We ought to beware of reading into Scripture what it does not say. If we insist on the literal meaning of Genesis, Adam received God’s Law, not Eve, who was not yet made when God instructed him. There is no basis, in Genesis, to suppose that Eve had heard God’s voice before the Fall. She could only know of the Law from Adam’s lips. Had Adam taken God’s Law to heart, communicated its importance to Eve, taken pains to preserve her and himself from breaking it? Hardly. He was by Eve’s side even as she plucked the forbidden fruit, relates Genesis. A sin of omission, just before the sin of commission?

Adam is just as much to blame for the Fall as Eve is. It is thanks to the New Adam, Jesus Christ, that we have redemption from this original sin. The New Adam, who was without sin (2 Cor 5:21), undid what the Old Adam did (1 Cor 15:44-49). Likewise, the New Eve, by God's grace, undid what the Old Eve did (Luke 1:38).

The Fall and Expulsion from Paradise, fresco painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City (1510–1564)

On the Canon of Scripture with Lee Martin McDonald

 A great interview by William Albrecht with one of my favorite scholars, Dr. Lee Martin McDonald!

Day 53: Man in Paradise

The first man was not only created good, but was also established in friendship with his Creator and in harmony with himself and with the creation around him, in a state that would be surpassed only by the glory of the new creation in Christ. The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original "state of holiness and justice". This grace of original holiness was "to share in. . .divine life". CCC 374-375

In today's reading, the Catechism speaks of the paradise our first parents, Adam & Eve, were in with God in the Garden of Eden. They were in a "state of holiness and justice", united with God in love and for his will. As I get older and look back on childhood, as is normal at this point in life, I can't help but get a bit nostalgic. The trials and problems have largely faded away from memory with mainly the good things being recalled. The 1970s - 90s were in a way much simpler times when compared to today, but as with all eras in human history, they had their own struggles to deal with and overcome. Today's younger generations will no doubt be saying the same one day. I say all this because it is akin to our yearning for that "state of holiness and justice" and intimate unity with God that Adam & Eve experienced before the Fall. The innocence of childhood, the lack of adult concerns and worries, the safety we felt growing up being cared for by our parents, all of these things every child should have, but still must be a shadow of what our first parents experienced in the Garden with God.

The Fall itself will be covered tomorrow, but today's reading does go a bit into the results of sin entering our world: suffering and death. More than that though was the loss of our innocence and intimate unity with God. All of these can be overcome of course through the sacrifice and redemption of Jesus Christ, but like childhood what we had before the Fall can never return in this life at least. The Catechism Companion, Vol I speaks of this:

The book of Wisdom says, "God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living" (Wisdom 1:13). The price of sin is that the harmony, relationship, and intimacy with God that he created us with, and made for us, was broken. We experience this brokenness every moment of our lives, but we also experience the incredible gift of God's grace. God enters into our brokenness. (p. 110)

With regard to death after the Fall, I'm reminded of a Jewish story I once heard. It apparently is from the Mishnah but where in it I do not know. The Hebrews had fled across the Red Sea after the miraculous parting, with Egyptian soldiers in hot pursuit. Before catching up to the Hebrews, they were drowned when the Red Sea came crashing over them. The angels wanted to sing for joy to God, who was not pleased, and He responded by asking, "My creations are drowning and you are singing before me?" All of our suffering and death in this life God is similarly not pleased with and He yearns for our turning to Him again as we were in the Garden.

Early Christian depiction of Adam and Eve in the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter

Day 52: Male and Female

Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. "Being man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator. Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity "in the image of God". In their "being-man" and "being-woman", they reflect the Creator's wisdom and goodness. CCC 369

In today's reading, the Catechism talks about God's creation of man and woman. They were created to "be with one another as helpmates and friends" (Catechism Companion, p. 109). They complement each other in temperament and physically. The continuance of our species through procreation has been given by God to them and "one cannot bring forth life without the other" (p. 108). Each is made "in the image of God" (Gen 1:27) and as the Catechism says, both "possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator". As "helpmates and friends" they form a bond when they come together in marriage, which is the will of God and reflects His plan of a loving union for all of us. I like the way the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts this:

If you are married, God has entrusted your spouse to you. If you have been blessed with children, God has entrusted them to you. Our siblings, parents, neighbors - all have been entrusted to you. (p. 108)

Creation of Eve by Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City (1509-10)

Day 51: Unity of Soul and Body

The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. the biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that "then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being." Man, whole and entire, is therefore willed by God. CCC 362

In today's reading, the Catechism talks about the unity of body and soul in man. Both are created out of love by God for us. The soul isn't trapped in a "meat sack", i.e. our bodies, waiting to be freed as the Gnostics believed, but it is united with our bodies which makes us a whole human person. When death comes, as it must for us all in this world, our souls will at the end of days be reunited with our resurrected bodies, changed from the corruptible we experience now to the incorruptible in Christ. We see this in the epistles of St. Paul, for example, such as in 1 Cor 15:50-54 & Phil 3:20-21. The Catechism Companion, Vol I explains:

A person's body is "created" by his or her human parents. But an individual's soul is created immediately by God, with no human involvement at all. We cannot treat our bodies with contempt. Our bodies are good and must be treated with respect... The soul is immortal, and it will be reunited with the body at the resurrection of the dead at the end of time... The Church teaches that the body and soul are truly one. God does not put someone in the wrong body. (p. 106)

On that last point, this is why I cannot understand transgenderism. God doesn't make mistakes. He made each of us male or female for whatever mysterious reason. Why God made me male I do not know, but it is a part of what makes me ME. I believe there will be more on this later so will save further comments till then.

Fr. Mike Schmitz explains the unity of the body and soul pretty well, using St. John Paul II's teachings in what came to be called the Theology of the Body.

When I was younger, I never appreciated what St. John Paul II tried to teach us about this and didn't listen to it. Now that I'm older, I can appreciate more what Fr. Mike says in this video and will have to learn the in-depth specifics about these teachings.

Day 50: The Dignity of Man

"God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them." Man occupies a unique place in creation: (I) he is "in the image of God"; (II) in his own nature he unites the spiritual and material worlds; (III) he is created "male and female"; (IV) God established him in his friendship. CCC 355

In today's reading, the Catechism focuses on the dignity of man. Of all of God's creations, we are the most unique, in being of spirit and body, made "in the image of God" (Gen 1:27). We are self-aware and have self-knowledge and self-possession. It is the combination of all these things that reveal the love of God at work, and our uniqueness in Creation. Not to angels or animals were all of these given, but to man it was as He willed. I'm reminded of this scene from Shakespeare's play, Hamlet:

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals. (Act II, Scene II)

In this Hamlet may be seen as boasting, and perhaps he is a little, but probably more in admiration of what God created. We also see this echoed somewhat in Psalm 8. Because of this dignity that God created in us, I would say that we are obligated to serve Him out of loving gratitude and treat one another with the respect such dignity placed within each of us deserves. How could we do any different without offending the Creator? Any action on our part which mars that dignity He gave us is sinful. From slavery, racism, and bigotry, to murder, all of these alienate us from the One who made us. There is no greater image of His love for us than the sacrifice and redemption through the Son of the Living God despite our sins (John 3:16). I like how the Catechism quotes from St. Peter Chrysologus on a related aspect of this:

St. Paul tells us that the human race takes its origin from two men: Adam and Christ. . . the first man, Adam, he says, became a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit. the first Adam was made by the last Adam, from whom he also received his soul, to give him life... the second Adam stamped his image on the first Adam when he created him. That is why he took on himself the role and the name of the first Adam, in order that he might not lose what he had made in his own image. the first Adam, the last Adam: the first had a beginning, the last knows no end. the last Adam is indeed the first; as he himself says: "I am the first and the last." CCC 359

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City (c. 1512)

Day 49: We Are Created for Worship

Creation was fashioned with a view to the sabbath and therefore for the worship and adoration of God. Worship is inscribed in the order of creation. As the rule of St. Benedict says, nothing should take precedence over "the work of God", that is, solemn worship. This indicates the right order of human concerns. CCC 347

In today's reading, we find the Catechism speaking again that all of Creation comes from God, "from minerals, atoms, and even time itself". This is to draw attention to the Sabbath and the belief that man was created for worship. Indeed, "all of creation, everything that exists, is oriented toward worship". I really like this line from the Catechism Companion, Vol I about this:

Every time we go to Mass, we enter into the place where time and eternity meet. (p. 102)

We find in the Old Testament that the Sabbath was "a sign of [God's] irrevocable covenant with [the Jews]". Yet Christians quickly came to worship on the "eighth day" or Sunday. The Catechism explains that this is because:

The seventh day completes the first creation. the eighth day begins the new creation. Thus, the work of creation culminates in the greater work of redemption. The first creation finds its meaning and its summit in the new creation in Christ, the splendor of which surpasses that of the first creation. CCC 349

Mass celebrated in the field during World War II (1944)

Day 48: Creation in Order

God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity, and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine "work", concluded by the "rest" of the seventh day. On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation, permitting us to "recognize the inner nature, the value and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God." CCC 337

In today's reading, we are directed back to the visible world of God's Creation. As much of this was covered before, I'll just focus on the highlights in this section:

• CCC 338: "Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator."
• CCC 339: "Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection."
• CCC 340: "God wills the interdependence of creatures."
• CCC 341: "The beauty of the universe"
• CCC 342: "The hierarchy of creatures is expressed by the order of the "six days", from the less perfect to the more perfect."
• CCC 343: "Man is the summit of the Creator's work"

I like how the Catechism talks of the "beauty of the universe," for everything was created by Him and it is "very good" (Gen 1:31). Even in our broken world after the Fall, the stunning beauty of what God created can be clearly seen. This is one reason why I do not understand atheism as if everything around us were by mere chance and not made by the Creator (Rom 1:20). There is an order and purpose to Creation, which I understand that the former at least can be seen more clearly for those who really understand higher math. We should praise God for all that He has created and cherish our gifts on this world in the time we have been given. The Catechism Companion, Vol I has some good comments on this:

The world reflects God's order. So he does not need to directly cause rain to fall; secondary causes, such as gravity, play a role. Material creation is endowed with its own order and laws. We are stewards of the earth, not owners of it. The world is here for our use, not our abuse. (p. 100)

One of my favorite online videos comes from Carl Sagan's speech "The Pale Blue Dot". Whoever originally put together this video did a great job and the version I'm posting here ironically is found on an atheist YouTube channel. While they may see Sagan's words bolstering their nonbelief I see the opposite. Sagan may not have intended it but I see the splendor of God and Creation in this, along with a warning to us to care for each other and the home He has given us.

Day 47: The Angels

[T]he whole life of the Church benefits from the mysterious and powerful help of angels. In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance (in the Roman Canon's Supplices te rogamus. . .["Almighty God, we pray that your angel..."]; in the funeral liturgy's In Paradisum deducant te angeli. . .["May the angels lead you into Paradise. . ."]). Moreover, in the "Cherubic Hymn" of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels). CCC 334-335

Today's reading is short but finishes what the Catechism teaches us about angels in this section. Angels play an important role in the life of the Church and as guardians, in our own lives as well. 

As the Catholic Companion, Vol I states:

Tradition teaches that each of us has a guardian angel. As St. Basil says, "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life" (quoted in CCC 336). (p. 98)

Angels protect us and intercede for us. Even though we might sympathize with angels doing the former, given our propensity to ignore God at times and sin, they are "fully surrendered to the Lord" and His will. Angels protect us but are not our servants. It is God alone to Whom they serve. I like how the Catechism Companion puts this:

Jesus does not force us to respond to him; therefore, he does not send his angels to overpower us... Like them, we are free beings who must choose to reveal ourselves to respond to Christ's love. We must freely cooperate with their protective care. And after we die? Jesus tells us movingly about the joy in heaven of the angels if we do respond to his saving grace and come home to our Father (see Luke 15:1-10). (p. 99)

Angels are spirits and serve the Lord completely. We are made in the image of God (Gen 1:27), and like the angels are called to serve Him as well. 

Angels icon by an anonymous Russian icon painter (mid-19th century)

The Sermon That Made A Protestant Minister Catholic

Powerful and moving!

Day 46: Heaven and Earth

The Apostles' Creed professes that God is "creator of heaven and earth". the Nicene Creed makes it explicit that this profession includes "all that is, seen and unseen"... The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls "angels" is a truth of faith. the witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition. CCC 325 & 328

In today's reading, the Catechism goes a bit into "heaven and earth" that the Creeds speak of, which includes angels. We see angels throughout Holy Scripture acting as messengers of God (e.g. Luke 1:5-38; Acts 8:26); carrying out some of God's judgments (e.g. 2 Sam 24:16–17; Acts 12:23); patrolling the earth for the Lord (e.g. Zech 1:10–11); battling Satan & his demonic minions (e.g. Dan 10:13; Rev 12:7–8); glorifying the Lord (e.g. Isa 6:2-3); and more. In modern times we have this image of angels as cute, cherubic babies, when the stories of Sts. Gabriel & Michael the Archangels destroys such portrayals. Angels among other things are mighty warriors for God. In modern entertainment, we also have the strange notion that human beings will become angels when we die. For example, in this beloved Christmas classic, It's A Wonderful Life:

As heartwarming as this movie scene is, it still is false. As the Catechism Companion, Vol I states: 

Humans do not become angels after death. Humans and angels are different creatures. The angels were created to glorify God, and they do. We were also created to glorify God. Only we can glorify God in our bodies. (p. 96)

Angels are "purely spiritual creatures" while we are not (CCC 227 & 230).

Jacob's Ladder fresco at the Orthodox Dionysiou Monastery on Mount Athos (16th century)

Day 45: Summary of Creation

In the creation of the world and of man, God gave the first and universal witness to his almighty love and his wisdom, the first proclamation of the "plan of his loving goodness", which finds its goal in the new creation in Christ. Though the work of creation is attributed to the Father in particular, it is equally a truth of faith that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit together are the one, indivisible principle of creation.  God alone created the universe, freely, directly and without any help. CCC 315-317

Today's reading is a short summary, an "In Brief" for what has been covered the past few days in this section. We learned the very nature of God, as much as been revealed and our finite minds can comprehend, His loving act in Creation, and the scandal of sin in this life. I like how the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts it for God in Creation:

God did not create the world arbitrarily. He did not create the world because he was bored. God created the world because he is love - and he desired to share his love with free creatures he made in his image and likeness. (p. 94)

God permitting evil in this life is a mystery to us. We may not see it, but He can and does turn evil into a force for good and it "illuminates by his Son Jesus Christ who died and rose to vanquish evil". As the Catechism Companion says:

Jesus entered into our suffering. He entered into both physical and moral evil. He allowed physical evil to afflict him. He allowed moral evil to crucify him. In his resurrection, he conquered, transformed, and redeemed this evil. (p. 94)

As followers of Christ, we are called to "deny [ourselves] and take up [our] cross and follow [Him]" (Matt 16:24). As my late grandmother used to say, which drove me crazy as a kid not understanding, "Offer it up and follow Him!" 

Trinity in Creation from the "Glorification of the Eucharist" by Ventura Salimbeni (1600)

Day 44: The Scandal of Evil

Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it. CCC 311

In today's reading, the Catechism covers one of the most difficult topics that mankind has struggled with probably since just after the Fall: the existence of evil and why God allows it. This section is rightly titled in part, "The Scandal of Evil" because to us with our finite minds, it is scandalous. I have no insights better than the best that great minds have offered down through the centuries. On this, I'm forced to plead my inability to adequately explain it fully, and really no one I've read ever has. I'm left with Job's response to the Lord after he had demanded an answer from the Ineffable God to his suffering: "I have spoken but did not understand; things too marvelous for me, which I did not know" (Job 42:3). 

In this powerful scene from the 2008 movie God On Trial, Jewish concentration camp victims during the Holocaust render a verdict of "guilty" on Him in their anguish:

While this scene is fictional, man has cried out in anger and grief to God many times throughout our history when stricken by such horrendous evil. Yet God gave us free will, the ability to choose goodness or to do evil. As the Catechism Companion, Vol I comments on this:

God's answer to evil is himself, in the person of his Son, Jesus. He freely allows evil to overwhelm him so that he can conquer and transform it. He doesn't remove evil from the earth, but he redeems it... God is the Lord of all the events of history. But we do not always know the details of the divine plan (see CCC 314). (p. 92)

In a sense, evil can give us the ultimate form of trust in God: do we say yes to Him and accept that we will never fully understand things in this life, or not? He understands our anger and grief but calls us to do more and turn to Him despite this. Just like Job did.

Finally, Fr. Mike Schmitz has a pretty good video on this subject:

Saint Michael Vanquishing Satan

Day 43: Creation is Good

To human beings, God even gives the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of "subduing" the earth and having dominion over it. God thus enables men to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbors. Though often unconscious collaborators with God's will, they can also enter deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers, and their sufferings. They then fully become "God's fellow workers" and co-workers for his kingdom.  CCC 307

In today's reading, the Catechism wraps up in this section about God and Creation. Through the infinite power and wisdom of God, he willed Creation into being. Out of His love, He "willed creation as a gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined for and entrusted to him". There are times when we can look around and weep or feel ashamed of what we have done with that gift of love, but God still created an "ordered and good world". He is not a part of Creation, He is "infinitely greater than all his works", and "transcends creation and is present to it". Part of what this means is that He is always there for us as a Father, with a love for us that is far greater than anything or anyone else. As is written in Scripture, and which the Catechism quotes:

For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living. (Wis 11:24-26)

God didn't just create everything and then take quite a long break, letting us do as we please. No. As the Catechism notes, "God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures' cooperation." He wants us to cooperate with Him, for as this poem attributed to St. Teresa of Ávila states: "Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours".

I like how the Catechism Companion, Vol I finishes out this section:

God chose to create us as free beings, with the ability to freely participate in the providence and his plan of salvation for the world We can say yes to God or no to him. Our Father in heaven watches over us, and so Jesus calls us to have a child's trust in his care (see CCC 305). (p. 90)

Jesus Christ the Divine Architect

Jesus & the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist

I recently finished another outstanding book by Brant Pitre. I cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone who wants to understand more about the origins of the Eucharist!

I found this excellent talk online by him wherein he goes through some of what he puts in this book:

Day 42: The Work of Creation

"In the beginning was the Word. . . and the Word was God. . . all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made." The New Testament reveals that God created everything by the eternal Word, his beloved Son. In him "all things were created, in heaven and on earth.. . all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." The Church's faith likewise confesses the creative action of the Holy Spirit, the "giver of life", "the Creator Spirit" (Veni, Creator Spiritus), the "source of every good". CCC 291

In today's reading, the Catechism makes clear that Creation was "the common work of the Holy Trinity," that is, of all Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's not as if One Person did all the work and the other Two slacked off. No, as the One God, all of the Persons were involved. We see this in the opening lines of the Gospel of John and elsewhere in Scripture. Unlike what we see in many pagan myths, "God need[ed] no pre-existent thing or any help in order to create". God willed Creation ex nihilo and therefore everything that exists or will ever exist comes from Him. In this belief, Scripture is unique in the Ancient World. No male and female divinities having sexual intercourse and using the former's genitalia for Creation, as with Greeks. No using the corpse of a divinity for Creation, as with Babylonians. And the list goes on. Scripture reveals to us that God Himself created everything out of nothing of His own free will and "according to his wisdom." He didn't need to create anything, but chose to. As the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts it:

Why did God create the world? For his glory. Not because he needed anything, nor "to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it" (CCC 293)... God gains nothing from our worship; he gains nothing from revealing his glory to us. He does it for our benefit. (p. 88) 

Ultimately, what we need to understand is that God created us out of love.

The Holy Trinity creating Adam

Day 41: Origins and Ends

Among all the Scriptural texts about creation, the first three chapters of Genesis occupy a unique place. From a literary standpoint, these texts may have had diverse sources. The inspired authors have placed them at the beginning of Scripture to express in their solemn language the truths of creation - its origin and its end in God, its order and goodness, the vocation of man, and finally the drama of sin and the hope of salvation. Read in the light of Christ, within the unity of Sacred Scripture and in the living Tradition of the Church, these texts remain the principal source for catechesis on the mysteries of the "beginning": creation, fall, and promise of salvation. CCC 289

In today's reading, the Catechism completes the section on the Catechesis on Creation. Even with our finite minds, we can use reasoning to question the origins of everything and come to know the existence of God, even if that "knowledge is often obscured and disfigured by error". It is with faith that we confirm what our reasoning tells us about these and leads us to a "correct understanding of truth". To be sure, we have found ourselves led astray in seeking faith in God, even to this day, mistaking other views for the truth. As the Catechism Companion, Vol I notes:

Ancient religions and cultures have many myths about the origin of the world. Polytheism, Manichaeism, Gnosticism, Deism, and materialism are some of the worldviews that are incompatible with Christianity (see CCC 285). (p. 86)

It is through divine revelation that we have come to know God, as He slowly revealed the truth about Himself and Creation. From the patriarchs to prophets, to finally, the coming of His Son, we have been given more insight into God beyond what our reasoning can discern from the wonders found in science and the splendor of His creation. It is through His grace, by faith, that we gain this more so than anything our intellect alone can muster. 

I like how the Catechism Companion wraps up this section in pointing us to what is most important in this:

God has revealed everything we need to know (but not every fact there is) about creation. God created the world so that we could have a relationship with him. (p. 86)

The first day of creation, by Jean Colombe from the Heures de Louis de Laval

 

Day 40: God Is the Creator

Creation is the foundation of "all God's saving plans," the "beginning of the history of salvation" that culminates in Christ. Conversely, the mystery of Christ casts conclusive light on the mystery of creation and reveals the end for which "in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth": from the beginning, God envisaged the glory of the new creation in Christ. CCC 280

Today's reading is about God and Creation. The majesty and splendor of the cosmos and everything that was, is now, or ever will be, all things "visible and invisible", come from God Almighty. Creation reveals the omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence of the Eternal God. In our modern world, this can be ignored or pushed aside as a "fairy tale" in favor of science. Yet the Catechism makes clear that while science has its role, the mystery of Creation is still bound with the mystery of God. Science cannot give us "meaning and orientation of our life and actions". Only by faith in God and His grace can we receive both.

As the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts it:

In a purely material world, there is no such thing as free will, no right, no wrong, no objective morality. God made heaven and earth; he created all that is visible and all that is invisible. This is why there is a world instead of no world; this is why there is something rather than nothing: because God loves us, and he wants each of us to have eternal life with him. (p. 84)

So we can see how science answers the "how" questions about Creation, while faith the "why" and "Whom" ones. For the former one may wonder whether Catholics can believe in evolution. The Catechism Companion has an answer to that:

If the term "evolution" means the theory that life on earth developed from random chance or purely "natural selection" (the view of Darwin) with no divine role or direction, then the answer is no... Some theories which have suggested that God used an evolutionary process to create the world, do not contradict revealed truth. (p. 85)

God remains at the center of all life and Creation. That is the supreme truth when it comes to this.

The Ancient of Days, a 14th-century fresco from Ubisi, Georgia.

Day 39: The Father Almighty

"Nothing is more apt to confirm our faith and hope than holding it fixed in our minds that nothing is impossible with God. Once our reason has grasped the idea of God's almighty power, it will easily and without any hesitation admit everything that [the Creed] will afterwards propose for us to believe - even if they be great and marvellous things, far above the ordinary laws of nature." CCC 274

In today's reading, we get more than in previous days, but it is just as densely packed. Such is to be expected when speaking about how almighty God truly is. The Catechism is right that the "Holy Scriptures repeatedly confess the universal power of God" (CCC 269). He is omnipotent with everything and everyone is subject to His will. There is nothing that He cannot do, which unfortunately leads sometimes in our fallible minds to cry out about His allowing suffering in this life. Yet, as the Catechism says,

[I]n the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil. Christ crucified is thus "the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." CCC 272

We sometimes get angry and confused about this in times of pain and grief. As the Catechism Companion puts it: 

God's power is absolute but also loving. God does not remove suffering; he redeems it. (p. 82)

God is all-loving, even when we think He isn't showing us love. It is through the sacrifice and redemption of Christ that we can come to understand that.

William Albrecht Open Mic Discussion on the Canon

Good discussion by William Albrecht taking questions from many people. I'm on there for a bit as well, starting at the 15:40 mark!

Day 38: Summary of the Trinity

The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. CCC 261

In today's reading, we are given another "In Brief" section summarizing what has gone over the past few days. There's really not much to add to what I've already said on this, but I did like this from the Athanasian Creed:

"Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal." CCC 266 

As the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts it:

There is a sense that when one Person of the Trinity is present, all are present. When one acts, all act, yet in a distinctive way. (p. 80) 

Representation of the Trinity in the form of the mercy seat (epitaph from 1549)