Catholic & Christian: A Book of Essential Catholic Catechesis

CATHOLIC &

CHRIST

A BOOK OF ESSENTIAL

CATHOLIC CATECHESIS

PATRICK MIRON

©

Copyright 2016 Patrick Miron.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-7559-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-7561-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-7560-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016912358

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CONTENTS

Chapter One: Discovering Our God

Lesson No. 1: The Mystery of Who God Is

Chapter Two: God Acts through His Church

Lesson No. 1: How and Why the Catholic Church Exists

Chapter Three: The Good Book

Lesson No. 1: The Bible Is a Catholic Book

Chapter Four: Meeting Truth Head-On

Lesson No. 1: The Rocky Road to Truth

Lesson No. 2: Only One Proven by the Bible

Chapter Five: Peter, Primacy, and the Pope

Lesson No. 1: Keys to the Kingdom Explained

Lesson No. 2: Catholic Church Authority: The Bible’s Testimony

Chapter Six: Prayer and Its Necessity in Our Lives

Lesson No. 1: Pray Always

Lesson No. 2: Catholics and the New Old Creed

Chapter Seven: No/Know Greater Love

Lesson No. 1: The Stations of the Cross

Chapter Eight: Things All Catholics Should Know

Lesson No. 1: The Four Identifying Marks of the Catholic Church

Lesson No. 2: The Catholic Church as Teacher

Lesson No. 3: The Seven Capital Sins and Their Offsetting Virtues

Chapter Nine: Unlocking Salvation’s Door

Lesson No. 1: The Ten Commandments

Lesson No. 2: A Brief History of Salvation

Chapter Ten: Godly Gifts: From Profound to Sublime

Lesson No. 1: The Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church

Lesson No. 2: Catholics, Priests, Confession, and Sin

Lesson No. 3: Catholics and Purgatory: Fact or Fiction?

Chapter Eleven: Holy Mary, Mother of God

Lesson No. 1: Mary and Our Catholic Faith

Chapter Twelve: The Four Last Things

Lesson No. 1: The Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell

Lesson No. 2: Seeking Truth

To Al and Maureen Glombowski,

who first suggested this book and then made it possible.

God bless you. Thanks seems insufficient.

CATECHESIS. That form of ecclesiastical action that leads both communities and individual members of the faithful to maturity of faith. Because of varied circumstances and multiple needs, catechetical activity takes on various forms.

In regions that have been Catholic from past ages, catechesis most often takes the form of religious instruction given to children and adolescents in schools or outside a school atmosphere. Also found in those regions are various catechetical programs for adults, whether in preparation for baptism or reception into the Church, or to deepen one’s understanding of the faith. Sometimes the actual condition of the faithful demands that some form of evangelization of the baptized precede catechesis.

In churches that have been established recently, special importance is placed on evangelizing in the strict sense. This becomes the well-known catechumenate for those who are being introduced to the faith in preparation for baptism.

For individuals whose minds are open to the message of the Gospel, catechesis is an apt means to understand God’s plan in their own lives and in the lives of others. Having come to know this divine plan, they can more effectively co-operate with God’s grace and become better instruments for the extension of Christ’s kingdom. (Etym. Greek atechizo, to teach by word of mouth.)

—Father Hardon’s Catholic Dictionary

FOREWORD

I’m a now-retired midlevel retail executive and a lifelong Catholic, who was blessed with twelve years of solid Catholic school formation and education in grades 1–12, when Catholic education was still very well done, in the pre–Vatican II period. This faith formation would later be extended by several more years of intense study, which was associated with my becoming a trained and certified Catholic catechist.

Now retired after having been involved in several of the parish’s religious education programs for twenty-plus years—which included grades 3–12, confirmation preparation, and RCIA (Rites of Christian Initiation for Adults), which is normally required faith formation for entry into our Catholic faith by those of differing faith backgrounds—the Holy Spirit led me to develop a totally free-of-all-cost home study, weekly e-mailed lesson course, to augment and supplement the gaps in formation wrought by time constraints often associated with RCIA programs. It’s impossible to teach well and thoroughly our two thousand years of developed and Holy Spirit–guided traditions and teachings in the times allotted. Thus, there is a period of mystagogy, advanced and prolonged study, required but sometimes overlooked.

My retirement ministry is now into its seventh year and has led to this book, which consists of some of the e-mailed, shared lessons from my e-course, which Al has encouraged me to publish.

The course is entitled Building Blocks of Our Catholic Faith because that’s the approach I try to take. That same mind-set is found in this book, which covers instruction in our Catholic faith in an individual lesson format. Many topics I address are seldom taught in parish catechesis programs because of time restraints or are simply being overlooked by them. A secondary goal of this book and my course is to provide the evidence of our beliefs and practices and thus enable others to also share our faith with facts and confidence.

Just a note about the format of this book: this is not a novel. The book’s format introduces category chapters and lesson numbers and the titles of the individual lessons. Some chapters for this book will only have a single lesson, while others will have multiple lessons.

God bless you. Please pray much.

May Mary be ever on our lips and remembrance of her always in our hearts.

—Fr. John A. Hardon’s Catholic Prayer Book

Chapter One

Discovering Our God

And God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me."

—Exodus 20:1–3; emphasis added

I will take you for my people, and I will be your God.

—Exodus 6:7; emphasis added

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

—2 Corinthians 6:16; emphasis added

Lesson No. 1

The Mystery of Who God Is

What’s your image of God? When you think about God, is it only Jesus? Does it really matter?

Certainly, all thoughts of God are in and of themselves good. But who is, what is, and where is God for you? And where are you for God? (I’ll leave this part for you to answer for yourselves.)

Does it really matter? It does for a fuller understanding of the divine mystery of who God is and a better understanding of how God has chosen to interact with us. And it’s important because we are able as humans to respond more readily with persons than with spirits. God, of course, knows this, and it is complementary to God’s desire for a highly personalized relationship with each of us. Our God therefore has chosen to reveal himself as the divine triune Godhead, the blessed Trinity, to share a bit more about the mystery of who God is. Keep in mind this is for the benefit of our understanding and in no way benefits God, who, being perfect, cannot be added to or improved in any way or even changed.

234 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the hierarchy of the truths of [our Catholic] faith. The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin.

237 The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God. To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel’s faith before the Incarnation of God’s Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit . . . .

253 The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God [each sharing fully 1 perfect and divine nature] in three persons, the consubstantial Trinity. The divine persons do not share [as in split up] the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God. In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature.

261 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. (Catechism of the Catholic Church; emphasis added)

This mystery of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—has had numerous attempts at being explained by saints and teachers far brighter than I am. It is and shall remain a mystery, until God himself explains it to us in our promised life to come.

Still, there is a profound example used by Saint Patrick: the shamrock, with its three separate leaves still being only one shamrock. When I was teaching high school students, I came up with another visual example. It’s not profound, but it does nevertheless give an illustration of the three in one possibility.

I had three identical clear glasses and a clear glass pitcher of water. I marked the glasses one inch from the top and filled them water from the glass pitcher carefully to the line. I then had the class look closely to see if there were any differences. None were found. I then took premade labels with God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit written on them and stuck them to each of the three glasses. And I asked if everyone thought the contents were equal. Yes, they are! So I went on to explain that each of the three divine persons are "coequal and coeternal, meaning that they are very much the same." They share fully, not a section of only one divine and perfect nature. But each contains the entirety of that one divine and perfect nature. What one knows, all know; what one desires, all desire; what one commands, all command. They cannot disagree with one another because they share the same one divine nature fully and completely. I then fielded their questions.

I then poured the water from the three glasses back into the same pitcher while naming each of the divine persons and ended the demonstration with the words three in one, only one nature, only one God but three separate persons.

We then shared some catechism teachings and this passage from the Bible: "Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John [Saint John the Baptist], to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized [the Son of God], he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove [God the Holy Spirit] and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven [God the Father], saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3:13–17; emphasis added). All three persons" of the blessed Trinity are at one time and in one place for our benefit.

Three in one. Every thought, every teaching, every dogma, and every doctrine in the Bible is there because God wants it there. That’s the primary reason the Bible ought not be altered, and as Peter himself points out in 2 Peter 1:20–21, First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. And Paul explains who God assigns to handle this task in Ephesians 3:9–12: And to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; that through the church [singular: the Catholic Church] the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in him.

254 The divine persons are really distinct from one another. God is one but not solitary. Father, Son, Holy Spirit are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds. The divine Unity is Triune [which explains why this is a mystery, and by definition, a mystery is not comprehensible].

264 The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father as the first principle and, by the eternal gift of this to the Son, from the communion of both the Father and the Son (St. Augustine, De Trin. 15, 26, 47: PL 42, 1095). (Catechism of the Catholic Church; emphasis added)

It might surprise you to discover that this mystery of the blessed Trinity was actually introduced in the Old Testament’s first book, Genesis.

St. Paul used the concept of the re’shiyt or the firstborn when he wrote about Christ as the firstborn, meaning the head or first in rank, of all Creation and the the Beginning, the firstborn from the dead, meaning that as the heir of the Father Jesus was the first in rank and in order in leading his brothers and sisters in the resurrection from the dead: He is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, ruling forces, sovereignties, powers—all things were created through him and for him. He exists before all things and in him all things hold together, and he is the Head of the Body that is the Church. He is the Beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that he should be supreme in every way… [emphasis in original].

St. John spoke of Jesus’ pre-existence in John 1:1–2: In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. St. John also spoke of Jesus’ pre-existence in verse 15: John witnesses to him. He proclaims: "This is the one of whom I said: He who comes after me has passed ahead of me because he existed before me (repeated in John 1:30). St. John identified Jesus as the force behind Creation in John 1:3–5 and verse 10: Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him . . . .

The Church teaches that the Creation event was the unified work of the Most Holy Trinity [emphasis mine]: The Old Testament suggests and the New Covenant reveals the creative action of the Son and the Spirit, inseparably one with that of the Father. This creative cooperation is clearly affirmed in the Church’s rule of faith: There exists but one God… he is the Father, God, the Creator, the author, the giver of order. He made all things by himself, this is, by his Word and by his Wisdom, by the Son and the Spirit who, so to speak, are his hands. Creation is the common work of the Holy Trinity. (AGAPE Bible Study)

God chose to speak through ordinary men whom he made very special (an early indication of the future role of Peter and the new faith, church, and new covenant of the New Testament) and slowly began unfolding the mystery of who God is to humanity in a manner never before revealed, and such was beyond the comprehension of the early Jewish fathers; his name (Yahweh) which they would not even say out loud for both fear and awe of him.

It is highly significant that, in doing so, God chose to reveal himself directly to only one nation (the Hebrews’ or Jews’) but allowed other nations and other peoples to look on and gaze in wonder and awe upon him. Why God chose to do this is also a mystery without an immediate answer. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8–9). This is a great example that faith as a requirement is conditionally imposed upon us; it’s God’s right to choose. And it’s God’s right to limit our understanding. You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay; that the thing made should say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’? (Isaiah 29:16).

Later on, God used the kings and the prophets; and through pain and patience, the understanding of one true God slowly became evident, which is also supported by Deuteronomy 10:17, Joshua 24:23, and Daniel 2:47.

God’s self-introduction was somewhat of an on-again-off-again series of his reactions based on the degree of obedience shown by the Hebrew nation. While God never deserted the Hebrews, they often abandoned him. Similar to an onion being peeled layer by layer, God made himself more fully known with and through just judgments, continual adjustments, and the carrot and the stick type of reward and punishment, dependent on the choices that they freely made relating to their level of understanding of Yahweh, who was demanding to be their "one God, their only God, and the one true God, amid the proliferation of pagan religions with their numerous man-invented gods, which was constantly an opposing influence and a conflicting stimulus on their acceptance of the One—one God, one faith, and one chosen people. That same struggle still exists today in the very many Protestant faiths and churches, who too struggle mightily to grasp the reality of just one." At that point in time in history, Yahweh was focusing solely on the Hebrew nation, which he would use as a model for all to see and the choice that Jesus would later affirm in choosing to establish only one God with just one faith in and through just one true church, from the time of its formation until the End Times.

God guides, guards, and protects only his one Catholic Church with the fullness of his truths and sort of leaves the man-made, come-along, competing faiths to deal with the realities of trying to cope, live, teach, and believe with only partial and/or incomplete truths. Exodus 34:14 says, For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4:35, 39 states, To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. Know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Deuteronomy 5:7 says, You shall have no other gods before me. From this foundation, it seems logically to express clearly and exactly what Jesus both desired and accomplished—one God, one faith, and only one church (Ephesians 4:1–7).

Here, to clarify for us, are some of the things that really seem to stand out in the Bible history of Christianity that can aid and should direct our understanding of God, not in any specific order, rather only as they occur to me.

The Bible always seems to be pointing forward, predicting what’s to come, what needs to be done, what has to be obeyed and followed. There is an amazing continuity of prophesy and forewarning from the beginning to the end of the Bible. Clearly, this is, as it must be, a guide of sorts inspired by God’s accounting. There is an inherent optimism, at times partially hidden yet always present, that is astounding. The realization of God’s love for us is clearly evident throughout the Bible. "Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability" (2 Peter 3:14–17; italics added).

The most profound and thought to be correctly understood message by many, if not all, Christians in the entire Bible is the undeniable, persistent love of God for sinful humanity, which is articulated clearest in this statement from Saint Paul: But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). This we ought never to forget.

Also evident is God’s incredible patience in dealing with the Hebrew nation of the past and equally sinful man in our time and displaying astounding tolerance for our many sins, which are ever increasing in number and severity and led on by secular humanism’s ramped, unabated existence and warped morality, eagerly sought and embraced by so many; atheism’s rapid growth; and the ever-present relativism, which teaches that all religious or nonreligious opinions are of equal value and equal merit if I say so. These lies are believed by uncounted millions and are competing successfully with our Catholic faith as are Christianity’s many varieties—Buddhism, Islam, Mormonism, and everything else so often seen as being equal choices to Catholicism, which are believed to be able to be freely chosen without consequences. Yet in the end, God reigns supreme (Matthew 16:19).

God’s benevolent love for all of his created humanity, like a single candle in a darkened dungeon, makes evident the need for his light of truth and love and permits the virtue of hope to exist. This is yet another indication of God’s unyielding, unquenchable love for us. Christ’s preferential candle continues to be his Catholic Church.

To be clear here, I am not suggesting that salvation outside of the Catholic Church is impossible. It is less likely and certainly less than assured, but conditional salvation might be possible for those who through no fault of their own are unaware of the Catholic Church as God’s chosen path to his salvation, which is why, mysteriously, all salvation must and does flow through her (the Catholic Church).

God is just, according to Hebrews 6:10: For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love which you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. Revelation 2:23 says, And I will strike her children dead. And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.

What God permits is a great mystery—abortion, wars, natural disasters, the many competing Christian faiths—and can only be understood and judged by God, while we stand in the background in bewilderment of God’s seemingly infinite, patient endurance. Trying to understand the justice of cancer, early death, lack of faith, secular humanism, divorce, and