Summaries
of Catholic teaching

Revised version
6 October 2011

© 2017 Opus Dei
Information Office

www.opusdei.org

Presentation

All the baptised are called to testify how the Christian faith constitutes the only fully valid response – consciously perceived and stated by all in varying degrees – to the problems and hopes that life poses to every person and society. (St John Paul II, Ap Ex. Christifideles laici, 30 December 1988, no. 34). This task requires us to study, assimilate and think deeply about the message of the Gospel, so that Christ may conform our life to his Life. In this way we will be his witnesses – alter Christus, ipse Christus – in our family life, our life at work and in the different spheres of society, fulfilling the advice of the apostle Peter: in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord; always be prepared to make a defence to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15).

This collection of Summaries of the Christian Faith has been put together to help people deepen in the message of the Gospel. They are brief essays, prepared by theologians and canon lawyers, many of them teachers at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, which cover the range of teachings of the Catholic Church in a summarised way.

Their intended use is mainly catechetical, and therefore the main source is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and its Compendium, with appropriate references to Holy Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, and the Magisterium.

Particular reference is also made to the preaching of St Josemaría Escrivá, a master of the spiritual life for lay people and an inspiration for a theological understanding of daily life.

We hope that this series of articles may be useful both for personal study and for study in groups, and that we each are helped to place greater value on the precious gift of our faith, to grow it in our souls, and to share it with the people around us: How beautiful is our Catholic faith! It provides a solution for all our anxieties, calms our minds and fills our hearts with hope (St Josemaría, The Way, 582).

Jose Manuel Martin (Ed)

Contents

Detailed contents

Presentation

Topic 1: The Existence of God

Topic 2: Revelation

Topic 3: Supernatural Faith

Topic 4: God's Nature and Action

Topic 5: The Most Holy Trinity

Topic 6: Creation

Topic 7: Elevation to the Supernatural Order and Original Sin

Topic 8: Jesus Christ, True God and True Man

Topic 9: The Incarnation

Topic 10: Passion and Death on the Cross

Topic 11: Resurrection, Ascension and Second Coming

Topic 12: I Believe in the Holy Spirit. I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church.

Topic 13: I Believe in the Communion of Saints and the Forgiveness of Sins

Topic 14: History of the Church

Topic 15: The Church and the State

Topic 16: I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting

Topic 17: Introduction to the Liturgy and the Sacraments

Topic 18: Baptism and Confirmation

Topic 19: The Eucharist (I)

Topic 20: The Eucharist (II)

Topic 21: The Eucharist (III)

Topic 22: Penance (I)

Topic 23: Penance (II)

Topic 24: Anointing of the Sick

Topic 25: Holy Orders

Topic 26: Marriage

Topic 27: Freedom, Law and Conscience

Topic 28: Morality of Human Acts

Topic 29: Grace and the Virtues

Topic 30: The Person and Society

Topic 31: Personal Sin

Topic 32: The First Commandment

Topic 33: Second and Third Commandments

Topic 34: Fourth Commandment

Topic 35: Fifth Commandment

Topic 36: Sixth Commandment

Topic 37: Seventh Commandment

Topic 38: Eighth Commandment

Topic 39: Ninth and Tenth Commandments

Topic 40: Prayer

Topic 41: “Our Father who art in heaven”

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Detailed contents

Contents

Presentation

Topic 1: The Existence of God 1. Mankind's religious dimension 2. From material creatures to God: the cosmological proofs 3. The human spirit reveals God 4. The denial of God: the causes of atheism. 5. Agnosticism and religious indifferentism 6. Religious pluralism: there is only one true God and he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ.

Topic 2: Revelation 1. God's revelation of himself to mankind 2. Sacred Scripture, witness to Revelation 3. Revelation as the history of salvation culminating in Christ 4. The transmission of divine Revelation 5. The Church's Magisterium, guardian and authorized interpreter of Revelation 6. The unchangeable nature of the deposit of Revelation

Topic 3: Supernatural Faith 1. Notion and object of faith 2. Characteristics of faith 3. The motives of credibility 4. The knowledge of faith 5. Consistency between faith and life

Topic 4: God's Nature and Action

Topic 5: The Most Holy Trinity 1. The revelation of God, one and three. 2. God in his intimate life 3. Our life in God

Topic 6: Creation Introduction 1. The act of creation 1.1. “Creation is the common work of the Holy Trinity” (CCC, 292) 1.2. “The world was created for God’s glory” (First Vatican Council) 1.3. Conservation and Providence. Evil. 1.4. Creation and salvation 2. Created reality 2.1. The spiritual world: angels 2.2. The material world 2.3. Man 3. Some practical consequences of the truth about creation

Topic 7: Elevation to the Supernatural Order and Original Sin 1. Elevation to the supernatural order 2. Original Sin 3. Some practical consequences

Topic 8: Jesus Christ, True God and True Man 1. The Incarnation of the Word 2. Jesus Christ, true God and true man 3. The Hypostatic Union 4. Christ's Sacred Humanity

Topic 9: The Incarnation 1. The Work of the Incarnation 2. The Virgin Mary, Mother of God 3. Figures and Prophecies of the Incarnation 4. The Names of Christ 5. Christ is the only perfect Mediator between God and men. He is Teacher, Priest and King 6. The whole of Christ's life is redemptive

Topic 10: Passion and Death on the Cross 1. Introduction and meaning 1.1. Introduction 1.2. Meaning of the Mystery of the Cross 2. The Cross reveals God's mercy and justice in Jesus Christ 3. Sinners caused the Cross to happen 4. Sacrifice and Redemption 5. Effects of the Cross 6. Co-redeeming with Christ

Topic 11: Resurrection, Ascension and Second Coming 1. Christ was buried and descended into hell 2. General meaning of Christ's glorification 3. Resurrection of Jesus Christ 4. Christ's glorious exaltation: “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” 5. The Second Coming of Christ: “From thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.”

Topic 12: I Believe in the Holy Spirit. I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church. 1. I believe in the Holy Spirit 1.1. Third Person of the Blessed Trinity 1.2. Mission of the Holy Spirit 1.3. How do Christ and the Holy Spirit act in the Church? 2. I believe in the Holy Catholic Church 2.1. Revelation of the Church 2.2. Mission of the Church 2.3. Properties of the Church: one, holy, catholic, apostolic

Topic 13: I Believe in the Communion of Saints and the Forgiveness of Sins 1. Communion of Saints 1.1. The Church is a communion and a society. The faithful: hierarchy, laity and consecrated life. 2. I believe in the forgiveness of sins

Topic 14: History of the Church 1. The Church in history 2. Early Christianity (to 476, year of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West) 3. The Middle Ages (to 1492, the year of Columbus’ arrival in America) 4. The Modern Age (to 1789, year of the beginning of the French Revolution) 5. The Contemporary Era (from 1789)

Topic 15: The Church and the State 1. The Church’s mission in the world 2. Relationship between the Church and the State a) Moral values should guide political life b) The Church and the State differ in their nature and aims c) Collaboration between Church and State 3. Jurisdiction in “mixed matters” 4. Secularity and secularism 5. Pluralism in the social sphere among Catholics

Topic 16: I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting 1. The resurrection of the body 2. The Christian meaning of death 3. Eternal life in intimate communion with God 4. Hell as a definitive rejection of God. 5. The purification needed to meet God 6. Children who die before Baptism

Topic 17: Introduction to the Liturgy and the Sacraments 1. The Paschal Mystery: a living and life-giving mystery 2. The Paschal Mystery in the time of the Church: liturgy and sacraments 2.1. The sacraments: nature, origin and number 2.2. The effects and necessity of the sacraments 2.3. Effectiveness of the sacraments 3. The Liturgy

Topic 18: Baptism and Confirmation BAPTISM 1. Biblical foundations and institution 2. Justification and the effects of baptism 3. Necessity 4. Liturgical celebration 5. Minister and subject CONFIRMATION 1. Biblical and historical foundations. 2. Liturgical significance and sacramental effects. 3. Minister and subject

Topic 19: The Eucharist (I) 1. Sacramental nature of the Holy Eucharist. 1.1. What is the Eucharist? 1.2. Names given to this sacrament 1.3. The Eucharist in the sacramental order of the Church 2. The promise of the Eucharist and its institution by Christ 2.1. The promise 2.2. Institution of the sacrament and its Paschal context 2.3. Meaning and content of the Lord's command 3. Liturgical celebration of the Eucharist. 3.1. The fundamental structure of the celebration

Topic 20: The Eucharist (II) 1. The sacrificial character of the Holy Mass 1.1. In what sense is the Holy Mass a sacrifice? 1.2. The Eucharist, sacramental presence of Christ's redemptive sacrifice 1.3. The Eucharist, sacrifice of Christ and the Church 2. The ends and fruits of the Mass

Topic 21: The Eucharist (III) 1. The Real Eucharistic Presence 2. The Transubstantiation 3. Properties of the Eucharistic Presence 4. Eucharistic worship 5. The Eucharist, Paschal Banquet of the Church 5.1. Why is the Eucharist the Paschal Banquet of the Church? 5.2. Celebration of the Eucharist and Communion with Christ 5.3. Necessity of Holy Communion 5.4. The Eucharistic minister 5.5. Dispositions to receive Holy Communion 5.6. Age and Preparation for First Communion 5.7. Effects of Holy Communion

Topic 22: Penance (I) 1. Struggling against sin after Baptism 1.1. Need for conversion 1.2. Interior penance 1.3. Various forms of penance in Christian life 2. The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation 2.1. Christ instituted this sacrament 2.2. Names of this sacrament 2.3. Sacrament of Reconciliation with God and with the Church 2.4. Basic parts of Penance 3. Acts of the penitent 3.1. Contrition 3.2. Confession of Sins 3.3. Satisfaction

Topic 23: Penance (II) 1. Acts of the minister of the sacrament 1.1. The minister and his role 1.2. Sacramental absolution 2. Effects of the sacrament of Penance 3. Necessity and usefulness of Penance 3.1. Necessary for the forgiveness of grave sins 3.2. Usefulness of frequent confession 4. Celebration of the sacrament of Penance. 5. Indulgences

Topic 24: Anointing of the Sick 1. Anointing of the Sick, sacrament of purification and salvation 2. Structure of the sacramental sign and celebration of the sacrament 3. Minister of the Anointing of the Sick 4. Subject of the Anointing of the Sick 5. Necessity of this sacrament 6. Effects of the Anointing the Sick

Topic 25: Holy Orders 1. Christ's priesthood 2. The priesthood of the apostles and in the apostolic succession 2.1. Ordination liturgy 2.2. Nature and effects of the orders received 2.3. The degrees of the sacrament of Holy Orders 3. Minister and Subject

Topic 26: Marriage 1. The divine plan for marriage 2. The celebration of matrimony 3. Essential properties of marriage 4. Responsible parenthood 5. Matrimony and the family

Topic 27: Freedom, Law and Conscience 1. The freedom of God's children 2. Natural moral law 3. Divine-positive law 4. Civil laws 5. Ecclesiastical laws and the precepts of the Church 6. Freedom and law 7. Moral conscience 8. Forming one's conscience

Topic 28: Morality of Human Acts 1. The Morality of Human Acts 2. The Moral Object 3. Intention 4. Circumstances 5. Indirect Voluntary Actions 6. Responsibility 7. Merit

Topic 29: Grace and the Virtues 1. Grace 2. Justification 3. Sanctification 4. The theological virtues 5. Human virtues 6. Virtues and grace. The Christian virtues 7. The gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit 8. The influence of the passions in moral life

Topic 30: The Person and Society 1. Social nature of human beings 2. Society 3. Authority 4. The common good 5. Society and the human person's transcendent dimension 6. Participation by Catholics in public life

Topic 31: Personal Sin 1. Personal sin: offense against God, disobedience to the Divine Law 2. Mortal and venial sin 2.1. Effects of mortal sin 2.2. Effects of venial sin 2.3. The “fundamental option” 2.4. Other divisions 3. Proliferation of sin 4. Temptations

Topic 32: The First Commandment 1. The ten commandments of the Decalogue 2. The first commandment 3. Faith and hope in God 4. Love for others out of love for God 5. Love of self out of love for God

Topic 33: Second and Third Commandments 1. The second commandment 1.1. The name of God 1.2. Honoring God's name 1.3. The name of a Christian 2. The third commandment of the Decalogue 2.1. Sunday or the Lord's Day 2.2. Participating in Mass on Sunday 2.3. Sunday, day of rest 2.4. Public worship and the civil right to religious freedom

Topic 34: Fourth Commandment 1. Difference between first three commandments and the next seven 2. Meaning and scope of the fourth commandment 3. Duties of children to their parents 4. Duties of parents 5. Duties regarding those who govern the Church 6. Duties toward the civil authority 7. Duties of civil authorities

Topic 35: Fifth Commandment 1. “You shall not kill” 2. Deepest element of this commandment 3. Respect for human life 3.1. Intentional homicide 3.2. Abortion 3.3. Euthanasia 3.4. Suicide 3.5. Legitimate defense 3.6. The death penalty 4. Respect for the dignity of the human person 4.1. Respect for the soul of one's neighbor: scandal 4.2. Respect for the body's health 4.3. Organ transplants 4.4. Respect for physical freedom and for bodily integrity 4.5. Respect for the dead 5. Safeguarding peace

Topic 36: Sixth Commandment 1. Male and female he created them… 2. Vocation to chastity 3. Educating for chastity 4. Chastity in marriage 5. Chastity in celibacy 6. Sins against chastity

Topic 37: Seventh Commandment 1. The universal destiny and private ownership of goods 2. Use of goods: temperance, justice and solidarity 3. Respecting the goods of others 4. The social doctrine of the Church 5. Economic activity and social justice 6. Justice and charity

Topic 38: Eighth Commandment 1. Living in the truth 2. Truth and charity 3. Bearing witness to the truth 4. Offences against truth 5. Respect for privacy

Topic 39: Ninth and Tenth Commandments 1. Internal sins 2. Purifying the heart 3. Struggling for purity 4. Poor in heart

Topic 40: Prayer 1. What is prayer? [1] 2. Content of prayer 3. Ways or forms of praying 4. Conditions and characteristics of prayer

Topic 41: “Our Father who art in heaven” 1. Jesus teaches us to turn to God as our Father 2. Divine filiation and Christian fraternity 3. Awareness of our divine filiation: foundation of the spiritual life 4. The seven petitions of the Our Father

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TOPIC 1

The Existence of God

Can we know that God exists by reason alone? What are some of the main pathways for reaching God's existence. Can conscience and human freedom be paths to a personal God who loves us? These are some of the questions discussed in this summary of Catholic teaching.

1. Mankind's religious dimension

From the very beginning, mankind's history has had a religious dimension. The various expressions of this religiosity, once they are purified of the superstition that comes from ignorance and sin, show that the human person naturally has a conviction that there is a God who creates all things and on whom the world and our personal existence depend. Polytheism—the belief in many gods—has often appeared in human history, yet the deepest human religious experience and philosophical wisdom have sought the ultimate justification for the world and for human life in one, unique God. This God gives rise to all that exists and he is the fulfillment of our aspiration for happiness (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC] 28).1

Despite the great diversity that we see among the arts, philosophy and literature of various cultures, all cultures come together in their reflection on God and on the central themes of human existence: life and death, good and evil, our ultimate end, the meaning of all things.2 Since these manifestations of the human spirit have been present throughout history, we can say that reference to God belongs to human culture and constitutes an essential dimension of society and man. Hence, religious freedom is the first human right, and the search for God is the first human duty. All human beings are “impelled by nature and also bound by a moral obligation … to adhere to the truth, once it is known, and to order their whole lives in accord with the demands of truth.”3 The denial of God and the intent to exclude him from culture, society and political life are relatively recent phenomena, limited to some areas of the Western world. The fact that the great religious and existential questions remain unchanged over time4 refutes the idea that religion belongs to an “infantile” phase of human history, destined to disappear with the progress of science.

Christianity takes up all that is good in the search for God and the worship of him throughout mankind's religious history. Moreover, Christianity gives to that history it true meaning: a path leading to the one true God who revealed himself in the history of salvation given to the people of Israel and who came to meet us by becoming man in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word.5

2. From material creatures to God: the cosmological proofs

The human intellect can know the existence of God, approaching him along paths that begin with the created world. There are two basic routes, one that passes through material creatures and one that passes through the human person. These paths or ways to God have been developed especially by Christian authors, but they have also been expounded by many philosophers and thinkers in many different times and cultures.

These ways that lead to the existence of God are called “proofs,” but not in the sense that mathematics and natural science give to this term. Rather, they are called proofs because they are converging and convincing philosophical arguments that a person understands with greater or lesser depth depending on his or her specific formation (cf. CCC 31). That these proofs cannot be understood in the same way as the proofs used in experimental science is clearly seen from the fact that God is not an object of our empirical sense knowledge.

Depending on the particular philosophical approach used, each path to God's existence leads us to discover only one particular aspect or dimension of the absolute reality that is God. “Starting from movement, becoming, contingency and the world's order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe” (CCC 32). The richness and incommensurability of God are such that no one of these ways by itself can reach a complete picture of God. Each reaches only a certain facet: his existence, his intelligence, his providence, etc.

Among the so-called cosmological ways, some of the best known are the famous “five ways” elaborated by St. Thomas Aquinas, who gathered together the philosophical reflections of the thinkers who had preceded him. In order to understand these ways one must be familiar with certain elements of metaphysics.6 The first two ways are based on the idea of chains of causes that we observe in nature (seen in the movement from potency to actuality and in the movement from an efficient cause to its effect). Such chains of causes cannot go back infinitely but must arrive at a first mover and a first cause. The third way begins with the observation of contingency and limitation in natural beings and goes on to deduce that their cause must be a Being that is unconditioned and necessary. The fourth way focuses on the degrees of participated perfection that we find in things, and reaches the existence of a single infinite source of all these finite perfections. The fifth way observes the order and finality present in the world, a consequence of the stability of its laws, and goes on to reach the existence of an intelligence that orders all things and is their final cause.

Authors have set forth these and other analogous paths in diverse terms and in various forms right up to our own days. Consequently these ways remain applicable in our times. To understand these proofs, however, a person has to begin with a knowledge of things that is based on realism, and also reject any scientific reductionism that reduces our knowledge of reality to the findings of empirical science (and so avoid ontological reductionism as well); rather we must affirm that human thought can rise up from visible effects to invisible causes, as is affirmed by metaphysical thinking.

We can also reach knowledge of God through common sense, that is, through the spontaneous philosophical knowledge that is proper to every human being and arises from ordinary human experience: our wonder at the beauty and order of nature, our gratitude for the free gift of life, our grasp of the foundation of the goodness of things and of the reason for love. This type of knowledge is also important for grasping the subject to which the philosophical proofs for the existence of God refer. St. Thomas, for example, concludes each of his five ways with the same affirmation: “This is what everyone calls God,” implying that we already have an idea of who God is.

Likewise, the testimony of Sacred Scripture (e.g., Wisdom 13:1-9; Romans 1:18-20; Acts 17: 22-27) and the teachings of the Church's Magisterium confirm that the human intellect, beginning from the knowledge of creatures, can reach knowledge of God the Creator (cf. CCC 36-38).7 Also, both Scripture and the Magisterium point out that sin and twisted moral dispositions can make it more difficult to attain this knowledge.

3. The human spirit reveals God

Man recognizes his uniqueness and preeminence with regard to the rest of nature. Although biologically he has much in common with other species of animals, he also recognizes that in many crucial ways he is unique. He is able to reflect on himself and on his experience; he is capable of cultural and technological progress; he perceives the morality of his action. Because he possesses intellect and will, and above all because he enjoys freedom, he transcends the rest of the material cosmos.8 Briefly put, the human person is the subject of a spiritual life that transcends matter, although he continues to depend upon matter (his body).9 Right from the beginning, the culture and religious spirit of all peoples have explained this transcendence by affirming that the human person depends on God and that human life reflects God. Judeo-Christian revelation, in keeping with what reason shows, teaches that all men and women have been created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-28).

Actually, the human person himself constitutes a path to God, for there are ways that lead to God beginning with one's own experience: “With his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God's existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul” (CCC 33).

Our moral conscience approves the good and censures the evil we do or might want to do. It leads us to recognize a Supreme Good to which we must conform, and our conscience is, as it were, his messenger. Beginning with this experience of the human conscience—and even without knowing biblical revelation—many wise thinkers from ancient times reflected on the ethical dimension of human acts. In fact, every person is capable of such reflection insofar as he or she has been created in God's image.

In addition to his conscience, the human person is aware of his personal freedom as a condition for his moral acts. Because he is free, man realizes that he is responsible for his acts and that there exists someone to whom he is responsible. This Someone must be greater than any material thing and greater also than our fellow human beings, since they too, like us, are called to answer for their actions. Hence, the existence of human freedom and responsibility leads to the existence of a God, the guarantor of good and evil, the Creator, the Law-maker, and the one who rewards and punishes.

In our times the truth of human freedom is often denied. The human person is reduced to being little more than a highly developed animal, one whose acts are governed by necessary impulses. Some claim that the person's spiritual life (mind, conscience, soul) resides in the brain and in purely material neurophysiological processes which function according to necessary laws. Hence, they deny freedom and morality. These views can be countered with arguments based on reason and human phenomenology that show the transcendence of the person, the exercise of free-will even in choices conditioned by nature, and the impossibility of reducing the mind to the brain.

There are also many people who think that the presence of evil and injustice in the world are a proof for the non-existence of God, because if he did exist he would not allow evil. In reality even this uneasiness and this question are also “ways” to God. For we perceive evil and injustice as privations, as painful situations that ought not to exist, that clamor for a goodness and justice to which we aspire. If human beings, at the basic level of their natural structure, were not oriented toward the good, they would not be upset by the harm to the good and the privations that constitute evil.

The natural desires for the truth, the good, and happiness are signs of a natural human desire to see God. If such aspirations were frustrated, man would always be left unfulfilled, since these constitute the nucleus of a person's spiritual life and dignity. Their existence in the depths of our heart points to the existence of a Creator who calls us to himself through hope in him. If the “cosmological” ways do not give assurance of the possibility of reaching God as a personal being, the “anthropological” ways that begin with man and his natural desires allow us to see that the God we depend upon must be a person capable of love, a personal being who cares for his creatures.

Sacred Scripture contains explicit teachings about the existence of a moral law written by God in the human heart (cf Wis 15:11-20; Ps 19; Rom 2:12-16). Philosophy that is inspired by Christianity calls this the “natural moral law.” It states that this law is accessible to all men of all times and cultures, even though it also admits that the recognition of truths such as the existence of God can be obscured by sin. The Church's Magisterium has repeatedly underscored the existence of conscience and freedom as ways to God.10

4. The denial of God: the causes of atheism

The different philosophical arguments presented to “prove” the existence of God do not, by themselves, produce faith in (the revealed) God. Taken alone, they only show that such a faith is reasonable. There are several reasons why a person, despite these proofs, might not come to have faith in the God of revelation. First of all, these arguments, while they show that God exists and lead a person to consider philosophically some of his characteristics (his goodness, intelligence, etc.), do not tell us who the personal being is to whom one directs the act of faith. Second, faith is a free response of man to God who reveals himself and not a necessary philosophical deduction; despite proofs, a person may withhold the assent of faith. Third, it is primarily God and not the person himself who is the cause of faith. God reveals himself gratuitously and with his grace moves man's heart to adhere to him. Fourth, we need to recognize that sin has obscured man's mind and wrapped it in darkness, making difficult the recognition of God's existence and a response of faith to his Word (cf. CCC 37). For all these reasons, particularly the last, it is always possible for a person to deny God.11

Atheism takes on two forms. The theoretical form tries positively to deny the existence of God on the basis of reason. The practical form, on the other hand, effectively denies God by living as if he did not exist. To profess positive, theoretical atheism as a consequence of a rational analysis based on empirical science is contradictory, because God, as a spiritual being, is not the object of experimental scientific knowledge. It is possible to deny the existence of God on the basis of philosophical reasoning, but only when one begins with a preconceived view of reality, as happens with materialism and other ideologies. That such philosophical positions lack a sound basis can always be shown with the help of metaphysics and a theory of knowledge that is based on reality.

Positive atheism often results from the notion that to accept God implies a limitation on man: if God exists, then we are not free and we do not enjoy full autonomy here on earth. This way of looking at things fails to consider that a creature's freedom and autonomy flow from that creature's dependence on God.12 In fact, the truth is just the opposite. As history has shown, particularly in our times, when one denies God one ends up denying man and his transcendent dignity as well.

Others deny God because they think that religion, especially Christianity, is the fruit of ignorance and superstition and that it represents an obstacle to human progress. We can respond to this objection on historical grounds, for it is possible to show the positive influence of Christian revelation on the concept of the human person and human rights, and also on the origin and progress of science. The Catholic Church in fact has always considered ignorance (rightly) as an obstacle to the true faith. In general, those who deny God to affirm the perfection and the progress of humanity do so in order to defend a this-worldly view of historical progress that denies man's fulfillment in the world to come. The ends they propose are a political utopia or a purely material well-being incapable of fully satisfying the deeper desires of the human heart.

Among the causes of atheism, especially practical atheism, we must also include the bad example of believers, who “to the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral or social life … must be said to conceal rather then to reveal the authentic face of God and religion.”13 On the other hand, beginning with Vatican II the Church has always pointed to the testimony of Christians as the principal factor in carrying out the “new evangelization.”14

5. Agnosticism and religious indifferentism

Agnosticism, which is especially widespread in intellectual circles, teaches that human reason cannot conclude anything about God and his existence. Its defenders frequently put great effort into their personal and social life, but they do so without any reference to a last end. Thus they seek to live a humanism without God. This agnostic position frequently ends up merging with practical atheism, since a person who lives his daily life and chooses his partial ends without any commitment to the (one) ultimate end to which he naturally tends has in fact actually decided on an end for his life: a selfish, this-worldly end. The position taken by agnostics may merit some respect, but its supporters should be helped to show the honesty of their non-denial of God by remaining open also to the possibility of admitting his existence and the historical fact of revelation.

Today religious indifferentism is the principle manifestation of unbelief, and as such it has received increased attention from the Church's Magisterium.15 The topic of God is not taken seriously or simply ignored because in practice it is suffocated by a life devoted to material goods. Religious indifferentism coexists with a certain empathy for the sacred and even for the pseudo-religious, but without any moral considerations, as if they were simply consumer goods. Maintaining a position of religious indifferentism for a long time requires continuous distractions in order to avoid facing the more important problems in life. It takes an effort to keep questions like the meaning of life and death or the moral value of one's actions out of one's daily life and out of one's conscience. But in every person's life there come “pivotal” events (falling in love, becoming a father or a mother, unexpected deaths, joys and sorrows, etc.) and one simply cannot maintain a position of religious “indifferentism” throughout life. At some point all men and women have to ask themselves about God. When these significant events occur in peoples' lives, one needs to help them to take seriously the search for God and the reality of his existence.

6. Religious pluralism: there is only one true God and he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ

The religious spirit in man, which when it is authentic leads to recognizing the one true God, has manifested itself and found expression in the history and in the culture of many peoples in different ways. It has manifested itself in diverse ideas about the divinity and in the worship of different images. The world religions that reveal man's sincere quest for God and value the transcendent dignity of man must be respected. The Catholic Church considers that there is present in them a “spark” or a participation in the divine Truth.16 In studying the various religions, however, proper distinctions must be made. One must recognize the presence of superstitions and ignorance, of forms of irrationality, and of practices not in accord with the freedom and dignity of the human person.

Inter-religious dialogue is not opposed to evangelization. In addition, while respecting the freedom of each individual, the purpose of dialogue must always be that of announcing Christ. The seeds of truth that can be found in non-Christian religions are in fact seeds of the One Truth that is Christ. Consequently, these religions have the right to receive God's revelation and to be brought to maturity through the knowledge of Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. God does not deny salvation to those who without guilt do not know the Gospel but yet live according to the natural moral law and thus show that they consider that law to be based on the one true God.17

In this inter-religious dialogue Christianity can make clear that the world religions, when they are authentic expressions of our link to the one true God, reach their fulfillment in Christianity itself. Only in Christ does God reveal man to himself, offering the solution to the mysteries of his existence and unveiling the deepest meaning of his aspirations. Christ is the sole mediator between God and mankind.18

Christians can approach inter-religious dialogue with hope and optimism, because they know that every man and woman has been created in the image of the one true God. Every person who reflects in the silence of his heart, can listen to the witness of his own conscience, which will lead him to the one God revealed in Jesus Christ. “This is why I was born, and why I have come into the world,” Christ said to Pilate, “to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth, hears my voice” (Jn 18:37). In this sense Christians can speak about God without risk of being intolerant, because the God about whom they speak, the God that can be recognized in nature and in the conscience of each individual, the God who created the heavens and the earth, is the God of the history of the salvation who revealed himself to Israel and who became man in Jesus Christ. This is the path followed by the first Christians. They refused to adore Christ as one more among the gods of the Roman pantheon, because they were convinced of the existence of the one true God. At the same time they were bent on showing that the God glimpsed by the philosophers as cause, reason and foundation of the world was and is the very God of Jesus Christ.19

Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 27-49.

Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 4-22.

John Paul II, Fides et ratio, 14 September1998, 16-35.

Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, 30 November 2007, 4-12.

Contents

Footnotes

1Cf John Paul II, Enc. Fides et ratio, 14 September 1998, 1.

2“Transcending all the differences which distinguish individuals and peoples, there is a fundamental commonality. For different cultures are but different ways of facing the question of the meaning of personal existence. And it is precisely here that we find one source of the respect, which is due to every culture and every nation: every culture is an effort to ponder the mystery of the world and in particular of the human person: it is a way of giving expression to the transcendent dimension of human life. The heart of every culture is its approach to the greatest of all mysteries: the mystery of God.” John Paul II, Address to the United Nations, New York, 5 October 1995, no. 9.

3Cf. Vatican II, Dignitatis humanae, 2.

4Cf. Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 10.

5Cf. John Paul II, Tertio millennio adveniente, 10 November 1994, 6; Enc. Fides et ratio, 2.

6Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas , Summa Theologiae, I, q. 2, a. 3 ; Summa Contra Gentiles, I, c. 13. A more detailed explanation can be found in these two references as well as in other manuals of metaphysics and natural theology.

7Cf. Vatican I, Dei Filius ; Motu Proprio Sacrorum Antistitum (1910); Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum veritatis (1990), 10; John Paul II, Fides et ratio, 67.

8“We have learned with gratitude, because it makes us realize the happiness we are being called to, that all creatures have been created out of nothing by God and for God: both men, who are rational creatures, although we so often act unreasonably, and the irrational beings who roam the surface of the earth, or burrow in its inmost recesses, or sail the azure skies — some soaring so high that they come face to face with the sun. But in all this wonderful variety, it is only we men (I am not referring now to the angels) who can unite ourselves to the Creator by using our freedom. We are in a position to give him, or deny him, the glory that is his due as the Author of everything that exists.” St. Josemaria, Friends of God, 24.

9Cf. Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 18.

10Ibidem, 17-18. In particular, John Paul II has amply developed the doctrine on moral conscience and the responsibility linked to human freedom, while stressing that the human person is created in the image of God. Cf. Veritatis splendor (1993), 54-64.

11See Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 19-21.

12Ibidem, 36.

13Ibidem, 19.

14Ibidem, 21; Paul VI, Evangelii nuntiandi, 21; John Paul II, Veritatis splendor, 93; John Paul II, Novo millennio ineunte, chs. III and IV.

15Cf. John Paul II, Christifideles laici, 34; Fides et ratio, 5.

16Cf. Vatican II, Nostra aetate, 2.

17Cf. Vatican II, Lumen gentium, 16.

18Cf. John Paul II, Redemptoris missio, 5; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus (2000), 5, 13-15.

19Cf. John Paul II, Fides et ratio, 34; Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, 5.

TOPIC 2

Revelation

God wished to manifest himself as a personal Being through the history of salvation. He raised up and guided a people to be the custodian of his revealed word. Through that people he prepared the world for the Incarnation of his Word, Jesus Christ.

1. God's revelation of himself to mankind

“It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his will (see Eph 1:9). His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature (see Eph 2:18; 2 Pet 1:4). By this Revelation, then, the invisible God (see Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17), from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends (see Ex 33:11; Jn 15:14-15), and moves among them (see Bar 3:38), in order to invite and receive them into his own company”1 (see Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC] 51).

God's revelation starts with creation itself, where he offers a perennial witness to himself (CCC 288).2 Through creatures God manifests himself to people of all times, making his goodness and perfections known. Among these creatures the human being, being the image and likeness of God, is the creature that most fully reveals Him. Nevertheless, God has wished to manifest himself as a personal Being through the history of salvation, by raising up and guiding a people to be the custodian of his revealed word, and to prepare through that people for the Incarnation of his Word, Jesus Christ (see CCC 54-64).3 In Christ, God reveals the mystery of his Trinitarian life. He reveals the Father's plan to recapitulate all things in his Son and to choose and adopt all men and women as children in his Son (see Eph 1:3-10; Col 1:13-20), gathering them together to share in his divine life through the Holy Spirit. God reveals himself and carries out his plan of salvation through the missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit in history.4

The content of Revelation includes both natural truths that we can discover by human reason alone, and truths that exceed the grasp of human reason and can only be known by the free and gratuitous goodness of God who reveals them. The principal subject matter of divine Revelation is not abstract truths about the world and mankind, but rather God's self-revelation of the mystery of his own personal life and his invitation to share in it.

Divine Revelation is carried out “by deeds and words which are intrinsically bound up with each other”5 and shed light on each other. “By revealing himself God wishes to make [men and women] capable of responding to him, and of knowing him, and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity” (CCC 52).

In addition to the works and external signs by which he reveals himself, God grants the interior impulse of his grace to enable us to adhere wholeheartedly to the truths revealed (see Mt 16:17; Jn 6:44). This intimate Revelation of God in the hearts of the faithful should not be confused with so-called “private revelations,” which are occasionally given to select individuals. Although accepted as part of the Church's tradition of holiness, these do not transmit any new and original content but rather remind the faithful of the unique revelation by God carried out in Jesus Christ and exhort them to put it into practice (see CCC 67).

2. Sacred Scripture, witness to Revelation

The people of Israel, over the course of centuries and under God's inspiration and direction, put into writing the testimony of God's revelation in their own history, which they directly connected with the revelation given to Adam and Eve. In addition to the Old (or First) Testament, the Scriptures of Israel that would be embraced by the Church, Christ's apostles and the first disciples also put into writing the testimony of God's revelation as it has been fully accomplished in the Word, as witnesses to his earthly journey, especially the Paschal Mystery of his death and resurrection. Their writings gave rise to the books of the New Testament.

The truth that the God to whom Israel's Scriptures testify is the one true God, creator of heaven and earth, is made especially clear in the Wisdom Books. The content of these books transcends the confines of Israel and displays an interest in the common experience of the human race confronting the great issues of existence. The topics range from the meaning of the universe to the meaning of man's life (Wisdom); from questions about death and what comes after it, to the significance of man's activity on earth (Qohelet/ Ecclesiastes); from family and social relationships to the virtues which should govern them in order to live in accord with the plans of God the Creator and thus achieve the fullness of one's own humanity (Proverbs, Sirach, etc).

God is the author of Sacred Scripture. The sacred writers (hagiographers), who have written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are also authors of the text. For the composition of the sacred books, “God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers, so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more”6 (see Catechism 106). Everything that the sacred writers affirm can be considered as affirmed by the Holy Spirit: “we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture, firmly, faithfully and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.”7

To understand Sacred Scripture correctly, one needs to take into account two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. One must also take into account the various literary genres in which the sacred books, or parts thereof, have been composed (see CCC 110, 115-117). Sacred Scripture should always be read in the Church, that is, in the light of her living tradition and the analogy of faith (see CCC 111-114). Scripture should be read and understood in the same Spirit in which it was written.

Scholars who endeavor to interpret and go deeper into the contents of Scripture base the authority of their studies on their own academic authority. The Church's Magisterium, on the other hand, has the responsibility of formulating authentic interpretations binding on the faithful, based on the authority of the Spirit who assists the teaching ministry of the Pope and the bishops in communion with him. Thanks to this divine assistance, from the first centuries the Church identified the books containing the testimony of Revelation, in both the Old and New Testaments, thus drawing up the “canon” of Sacred Scripture (see CCC120-127).

Accepting the different senses and literary genres found in Sacred Scripture is necessary for interpreting correctly what the sacred writers say about aspects of the world that pertain to the natural sciences. These include the formation of the cosmos, the appearance on earth of different life forms, the origins of human life and natural phenomena in general. A “fundamentalist” interpretation of every passage in Scripture as a literal, historical event should be avoided, when other interpretations are possible. One should of course also avoid the error of those who interpret the biblical narratives as purely mythological, lacking in historical content or any information about God's direct intervention in the events described there.8

3. Revelation as the history of salvation culminating in Christ

As a dialogue between God and mankind in which God invites us to share in his own life, revelation from its beginnings is seen as a “covenant” that gives rise to a “history of salvation.” “And furthermore, wishing to open the way to heavenly salvation, he manifested himself to our first parents from the very beginning. After the fall, he buoyed them up with the hope of salvation, by promising redemption (see Gen 3:15); and he never ceased to take care of the human race. For he wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing (see Rom 2:6-7). In his own time God called Abraham, and made him into a great nation (see Gen 12:2). After the era of the patriarchs, he taught this nation, by Moses and the prophets, to recognize him as the only living and true God, as a provident Father and just judge. He taught them, too, to look for the promised Savior. And so, throughout the ages, he prepared the way for the Gospel.”9

The covenant of God with mankind began with the creation of our first parents and their elevation to the life of grace, enabling them to share in God's intimate life. The covenant was continued with God's cosmic pact with Noah, and explicitly revealed to Abraham and later, in a special way, to Moses, to whom God gave the Tablets of the Covenant. Both the numerous offspring promised to Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed, and the law entrusted to Moses with the sacrifices and priesthood that accompanied divine cult, are a preparation and figure of the new and eternal covenant in Jesus Christ, Son of God, made a reality by his Incarnation and paschal Sacrifice. The new covenant in Christ redeems us from the sin of our first parents, whose sin of disobedience broke off the first offer of a covenant on the part of God the Creator.

The history of salvation is manifested as an all-embracing divine pedagogy pointing to Christ. The prophets, sent to remind the people of the covenant and its moral demands, speak clearly about the promised Messiah. They announce the new covenant, both spiritual and eternal, to be written on the hearts of believers. Christ will reveal it with the beatitudes and all his teachings, promulgating the commandment of charity, the fullness of the Law.

Jesus Christ is simultaneously the mediator and the fullness of Revelation. He is both the Revealer and the Revelation, as the Word of God made flesh: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Heb 1:1-2). God, in his Word, has said everything and in a definitive way. “The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive covenant, will never pass away; and no new public Revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ”10 (see CCC 65-66). Divine Revelation is accomplished and brought to fulfillment especially in Christ's Paschal mystery, in his passion, death and resurrection. This is God's “definitive word” on the immensity of his Love and his determination to renew the world. It is only in Jesus Christ that God reveals man to himself and enables us to understand our true dignity and lofty vocation.11

Faith, considered as a virtue, is man's response to God's revelation; it is a personal adherence to God in Christ, moved by Christ's words and deeds. The credibility of this Revelation rests, above all, on the credibility of the person of Jesus Christ, indeed on his whole life. His role as mediator, as the fullness and ground of the credibility of Revelation, distinguishes the person of Jesus Christ from the founder of any other religion. Founders of other religions do not claim to be, in their own person, the fullness and accomplishment of what God wishes to reveal, but only to be a mediator who will lead others to this revelation.

4. The transmission of divine Revelation

Divine revelation is contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, which together constitute one sole deposit where the word of God is preserved.12 “Flowing out from the same divine well-spring,” the two are interdependent. Tradition transmits and interprets Scripture, and Scripture in turn verifies and confirms whatever is passed on in Tradition (see CCC 80-82).13

Tradition, based on the preaching of the Apostles, testifies to and transmits in a living and dynamic way what Scripture has set down in a fixed text. “The Tradition which comes from the apostles makes progress in the Church, with the help of the Holy Spirit. There is a growth in insight into the realities and words that are being passed on. This comes about in various ways. It comes through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their hearts (see Lk 2:19 and 51). It comes from the intimate sense of spiritual realities which they experience. And it comes from the preaching of those who have received, along with their right of succession in the episcopate, the sure charism of truth.”14

The teachings of the Church's Magisterium, the Church Fathers, liturgical prayer, the common view of the faithful who live in God's grace, and also daily realities such as the teaching of the faith by parents to their children or through Christian apostolate, all contribute to the transmission of divine Revelation. In fact, what was received by the Apostles and transmitted to their successors, the Bishops, comprises “everything that serves to make the People of God live their lives in holiness and increase their faith. In this way the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes.”15 The Church's “great apostolic Tradition” should be distinguished from the various traditions, whether theological, liturgical, disciplinary, or devotional, whose value can be quite limited and even passing (see CCC 83).

Divine revelation comprises both truth and life. Not only a body of teachings but also a way of life is transmitted: doctrine and example are inseparable. What is transmitted is a living experience, an encounter with the Risen Christ, and what that event has meant and continues to mean for the life of each person. Consequently, when speaking of the transmission of Revelation, the Church speaks of fides et mores, life and customs, doctrine and conduct.

5. The Church's Magisterium, guardian and authorized interpreter of Revelation

“The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ.”16 The Church's “living teaching office,” made up of the bishops in communion with St. Peter's successor, the bishop of Rome, is a service rendered to the word of God and has as its aim the salvation of souls. Therefore, “this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devoutly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith.”17 The teachings of the Church's Magisterium are the most important place where there the apostolic Tradition is found. With respect to this tradition, we could say that the Magisterium is, as it were, its “sacramental dimension,” that is, its outward, visible expression.

Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church constitute, therefore, a certain unity, such that no one of the three can exist on its own.18 The foundation of this unity is the Holy Spirit, Author of Sacred Scripture, protagonist of the living Tradition of the Church, guide of the Magisterium, which he assists with his charisms. The Protestant Reformation churches from the very beginning wished to follow the principle of sola scriptura, leaving scriptural interpretation in the hands of individual believers. This position has given rise to the great dispersion of Protestant denominations and has turned out to be well-nigh unsustainable. Every Scripture text requires a context, specifically a tradition, from which it is born and in which it is read and interpreted. “Fundamentalism” also tries to separate Scripture from Tradition and the Magisterium, erroneously seeking to maintain a unity of interpretation by adhering exclusively to the literal sense (see CCC 108).

The Church, in teaching the contents of the revealed deposit of faith, possesses infallibility in docendo (when she teaches),based on the promises of Jesus Christ with regard to her indefectibility, which enables her to carry out unfailingly the mission of salvation entrusted to her (see Mt 16:18; Mt 28:18-20; Jn 14:17-26). This infallible teaching office is carried out:

a) when the Bishops gather together in an ecumenical Council in union with the successor of Peter, head of the Apostolic college;

b) when the Pope promulgates a truth ex cathedra, or when by using a form of expression and type of document that makes explicit reference to his universal Petrine mandate, he promulgates a specific teaching which he considers necessary for the good of the People of God;

c) when the Bishops of the whole Church, in union with the successor of Peter, are unanimous in professing the same doctrine or teaching, even though they are not gathered together in one place. Although a bishop who sets forth on his own a specific teaching does not enjoy the charism of infallibility, the faithful are equally obliged to a respectful obedience. Just as they should observe the teachings coming from the College of Bishops or from the Pope, even though they are not expressed in a definitive and non-changeable manner19.

6. The unchangeable nature of the deposit of Revelation

Dogmatic teaching in the Church has existed from the very first centuries of the Christian era (the word dogma simply means 'doctrine' or 'teaching'). The principal elements of what the Apostles preached were put into writing and thus gave rise to the professions of faith asked of all those seeking baptism. These “professions of faith” helped define the identity of the Christian faith. The dogmas or teachings grew in number as the Church herself grew. This growth was not because of any need to change or increase what had to be believed, but rather because often some new need arose to confront a specific error or strengthen the faith of the Christian people by examining a question more deeply and defining a specific point clearly and precisely. When the Church's Magisterium sets forth a new dogma it is not creating something new, but rather simply explaining what is already contained in the revealed deposit of the faith. “The Church's Magisterium exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes, in a form obliging the Christian people to an irrevocable adherence of faith, truths contained in divine Revelation or also when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these” (CCC 88, revised version).

Dogmatic Church teaching, for example the articles of the Creed, is unchangeable since it presents the contents of a Revelation received from God and not drawn up by men. However, these dogmas allow for a certain harmonious development, whether because of a deeper understanding of the faith that is attained over time, or because of new problems arising in specific cultures and epochs that require a response from the Church in accord with God's word, making explicit what is already implicitly contained there.20

Fidelity and progress, truth and history, are not conflicting realities with regard to Revelation.21 Jesus Christ, uncreated Truth, is also the center and fulfillment of history. The Holy Spirit, Author of the deposit of Revelation, is the One who guarantees its fidelity and also helps mankind to go deeper into its meaning over the course of history, leading the faithful towards the “fullness of truth” (see Jn 16:13). “Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries” (CCC 66).

The factors that give rise to the development of dogma are the same factors that give rise to making the living Tradition of the Church more explicit: the preaching of the bishops, study by the faithful, prayer and meditation on the word of God, experience of spiritual realities, and the example of the saints. Often the Magisterium sets forth teachings in an authoritative way that have been previously studied by theologians, believed by the faithful, and lived by the saints.22

Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 50-133.

Second Vatican Council, Const. Dei Verbum, 1-20.

John Paul II, Enc. Fides et Ratio, 14 September 1998, 7-15.

Contents

Footnotes

1Vatican II, Constitution Dei Verbum, 2.

2cf. Vatican II, Const . Dei Verbum, 3; John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, 14 September 1998, 19.

3cf. Vatican I, Const. Dei Filius, 24 April 1870, DS 3004.

4cf. Vatican II, Const. Lumen Gentium, 2-4; Decree Ad Gentes, 2-4.

5cf. Vatican II, Const. Dei Verbum, 2.

6Vatican II, Const. Dei Verbum, 11.

7Ibid.

8Important guidelines for correctly interpreting Scripture with regard to science can be found in Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus, 18 November 1893; Benedict XV, Spiritus Paraclitus, 15 November 1920 and Pius XII, Humani Generis 12 July 1950.

9Vatican II, Const. Dei Verbum, 3.

10Vatican II, Const. Dei Verbum, 4.

11cf. Vatican II, Const. Gaudium et Spes, 22.

12“Forgive me for being so insistent, but I must remind you again that the truths of faith are not determined by majority vote. They make up the depositum fidei : the body of truths left by Christ to all the faithful and entrusted to the Magisterium of the Church to be authentically taught and set forth” St. Josemaria, Homily The Supernatural Aim of the Church, in In Love with the Church, 31 (Scepter, London/New York 1989).

13cf. Vatican II, Const. Dei Verbum, 9.

14Vatican II, Const. Dei Verbum, 8.

15Vatican II, Const. Dei Verbum, 8, cf. also, Council of Trent, Decree Sacrosancta, 8 April 1546, DS 1501.

16Vatican II, Const. Dei Verbum, 10.

17Ibid.

18cf. Ibid.

19cf Vatican II, Const. Lumen Gentium, 25; Vatican I, Const. Pastor aeternus, 18 July 1870, DS 3074.

20“It is good, therefore, that over the course of time, the understanding, knowledge and wisdom of the entire Church and of each of her members should grow and progress. But this growth should follow its own proper nature, i.e., it should be in agreement with the direction of dogma and should follow the dynamism of the one and same doctrine.” St Vincent of Lerins, Communitorium, 23.

21cf. John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, 11-12, 87.

22Vatican II, Const. Dei Verbum, 8 (cf. footnote no. 14 above).

TOPIC 3

Supernatural Faith

The virtue of faith is a supernatural virtue that enables us to assent firmly to all that God has revealed.

1. Notion and object of faith

The act of faith is man’s response to God who reveals himself (see Catechism, 142). “By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer” (Catechism, 143). Sacred Scripture calls this assent “obedience of faith” (See Rom 1:5, 16:26). The virtue of faith is a supernatural virtue which enables man, by enlightening his intellect and moving his will, to assent firmly to all that God has revealed, not because of the intrinsic evidence but because of the authority of God who is revealing. “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” (Catechism, 150).

2. Characteristics of faith

—“Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him (see Mt 16:17). Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God” (Catechism, 153).Reason does not suffice to enable one to embrace the revealed truth; the gift of faith is necessary.

—Faith is a human act. Although it is an act accomplished thanks to a supernatural gift, “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”(Catechism, 154).In faith, the intellect and will cooperate with God’s grace: “Faith is an act of the understanding which assents to the divine truth at the command of the will moved by God through grace.”1 —Faith and freedom.“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” (Catechism, 160).2 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” (Ibid.).

—Faith and reason. “Although faith is above reason, yet there can never be any real disagreement between faith and reason, since it is the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith and who has put the light of reason into the human soul. Now God cannot deny himself any more than the truth can ever contradict the truth.”3 “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” (Catechism, 159).

It would be senseless to try to prove the supernatural truths of the faith; on the other hand, one can always prove that anything which claims to be contrary to these truths is false.

—The “ecclesiality” of faith. “To believe” is an act of a believer as a believer, that is to say, as a member of the Church. One who believes, assents to the truth taught by the Church, which guards the deposit of Revelation. “The Church’s faith precedes, engenders, supports and nourishes our faith. The Church is the mother of all believers” (Catechism, 181). “No one can have God as his Father who does not have the Church as his mother.”4

—Faith is necessary for salvation (see Mk 16:16; Catechism, 161). “Without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Heb 11:6). “Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation.”5

3. The motives of credibility

“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’” (Catechism, 156).

Nevertheless, in order for the act of faith to be in conformity with reason, God has wanted to give us “motives of credibility, which show that the assent of faith is by no means a blind impulse of the mind.”6 The motives of credibility are sure signs that Revelation is the word of God.

These motives of credibility are, among others:

—the glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, a definitive sign of his divinity, and most certain proof of the truth of his words;

—“the miracles of Christ and the saints (see Mk 16:20; Acts 2:4)” (Catechism, 156);7

—the fulfillment of the prophecies (see Catechism, 156) made about Christ or by Christ himself (for example, the prophecies about the passion of our Lord; the prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem, etc.). This fulfillment is proof of the truthfulness of Sacred Scripture;

—the sublimity of Christian doctrine is also proof of its divine origin. Anyone who considers attentively the teachings of Christ, can discover in their profound truth, beauty and coherence, a wisdom which exceeds man’s capacity to understand and explain God’s nature, the world, and man’s transcendent meaning.

—the sanctity and spread of the Church, her fruitfulness and stability “are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all” (Catechism, 156).

The motives of credibility not only help those without faith to overcome their prejudices and accept it. They also strengthen those who already have faith, by confirming that it is reasonable to believe and preventing any “fideism.”

4. The knowledge of faith

Faith is a body of knowledge: by it we know natural and supernatural truths. The apparent obscurity which the believer experiences comes from the limitations of human intelligence when faced with the overwhelming light of divine truth. Faith is an anticipation of the vision of God “face to face” in heaven (I Cor 13:12; see I Jn 3:2).

The certainty of faith: “Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie” (Catechism, 157).“The certitude resulting from a divine light is greater than that which results from the light of natural reason.”8

Our intellect helps us to go deeper into the faith: “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” (Catechism, 158).

Theology is the science of faith: it tries, with the help of reason, to grasp better the truths that we possess by faith; not in order to make them clearer in themselves — which is impossible — but to make them more intelligible to the believer. This effort, when authentic, stems from love for God and is accompanied by an effort to get closer to him. The greatest theologians have been and always will be the saints.

5. Consistency between faith and life

A Christian’s entire life should be a manifestation of faith. Every corner of one’s life should be illuminated by faith. “The just man lives by faith” (Heb 2:4). Faith works through charity (see Gal 5:6) Without works, faith is dead (see Jas 2:20-26).

When this unity of life is missing, and one makes concessions to conduct not compatible with the faith, then one’s faith necessarily is weakened and is in danger of being lost.

Perseverance in the faith: Faith is a gratuitous gift of God. But we can lose this inestimable gift (see I Tim 1: 18–19). “To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it” (Catechism, 162). We should ask God to increase our faith (see Lk 17:5) and to make us “fortes in fide” (I Pet 5:9). With God’s help, we should make many acts of faith.

All Catholic faithful are obliged to avoid dangers to their faith. Among other means, they should abstain from reading publications contrary to faith or morals—not only those that the magisterium of the Church has expressly pointed out, but also those recognized by a well-formed conscience—unless there is a grave reason and circumstances which make this reading safe.

Spreading the faith. “Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men” (Mt 5:15-16). We have received the gift of faith in order to spread it, not to hide it (see Catechism, 166). We cannot set aside our faith in our professional activity.9 We must shape the whole of society with Christ’s teachings and spirit.

Francisco Diaz

Basic Bibliography

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 142-197.

Recommended Reading

The homily “Life of Faith,” in St. Josemaria, Friends of God, nos. 190-204.

Contents

Footnotes

1St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q.2, a.9.

2Cf. Second Vatican Council, Declar. Dignitatis Humanae, 10: C.I.C., can. 748, ¤ 2.

3First Vatican Council; DS 3017.

4St. Cyprian, De Catholicae Unitate Ecclesiae: PL 4,503.

5Second Vatican Council, Const. Lumen Gentium, 16..

6First Vatican Council: DS 3008–3010; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 156.

7The value of Sacred Scripture as a totally reliable historical source can be established by solid proofs; for example, showing its antiquity (some of the books of the New Testament were written only a few years after the death of Christ), or by the analysis of its contents (which shows the veracity of the testimonies).

8St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 171, a.5, ad 3.

9See Saint Josemaria, The Way, 353.

TOPIC 4

God's Nature and Action

The God we come to know through faith and reason is “spiritual, transcendent, omnipotent, eternal, personal, and perfect. He is truth and love.”

Throughout human history, all cultures have given importance to God. Indeed, the first signs of civilization are generally found within the religious sphere. The vital and creative power behind every culture is a spiritual one.

What differs from civilization to civilization is the nature of the god(s) that are believed in. In some pagan religions, the forces of nature were adored as concrete manifestations of the sacred, giving rise to a plurality of gods ordered in a hierarchical manner (polytheism). These gods were not transcendent to this world. In ancient Greece, for example, the supreme divinity in the pantheon, Zeus, was thought to be subject to the same absolute necessity (Fate) that governed the rest of the world, including the lower gods.1 Interestingly, several scholars of the history of religion have concluded that many polytheistic civilizations show evidence of a progressive loss from an “original revelation” of a single God. But even in the most degraded ancient religions we can find glimmers and signs of true religious devotion: adoration, sacrifice, priesthood, offering, prayer, thanksgiving, etc.

In Greece especially, reason attempted to purify religion, demonstrating that the supreme divinity had to be identified with the Good, the Beautiful, and with Being itself. Hence God is the source of all that is good, all that is beautiful, and all that exists. But this reasoning brought with it other problems. It led to the idea of a God who was so perfect that he ended up far removed from the life of mortals. The supreme divinity remained isolated in a perfect independence, and even the possibility of establishing relations with human beings was seen as a sign of weakness, since it would imply some lack or deficiency on God’s part. Also there did not seem to be any way of accounting for the presence of evil, except to say that it somehow flowed necessarily from the divine through the mediation of a series of created beings.

With the Judeo-Christian revelation this framework changes radically. God is presented in Scripture as the Creator of all that exists and of all the forces of nature. God’s existence precedes absolutely the existence of the world, which is radically dependent on him. Hence God is totally transcendent. The distance between God and the world is infinite. God exists through himself, and had no necessity to create. Rather, the created world exists through a free act of God, and all that is created did not have to be. From the point of view of created things, however, they necessarily depend on God for their being and existence. Since God does not need to create and the world does not flow from him with necessity means that all that exists is desired by God and results from a free decision of his will. Everything created is good and is the fruit of God’s love (cf. Gen 1).

God’s power is infinite. Only infinite power is capable of creating, i.e., bringing being out of nothing. God’s power is so great that he wants to maintain his relationship with his creatures, including saving them if, because of their freedom, they distance themselves from their Creator. Therefore, in the context of Christian revelation, one sees that the origin of evil is not to be found in matter (as in some of the ancient philosophers and religions) but rather in the mistaken use of freedom on the part of angels and mankind, the fall of the first man and woman being narrated in the Book of Genesis (ch. 3).

God is a personal being who acts with freedom and love, and who reveals his name to Moses, “I AM WHO AM.” (Ex 3: 14), as proof of his fidelity to his covenant and as a sign that he will accompany his people in the desert, a symbol of life’s temptations. This name, which is mysterious for us,2 reveals something about himself. “In revealing his name, God makes known the riches contained in the ineffable mystery of his being. He alone is from everlasting to everlasting. He is the One who transcends the world and history. It is he who made heaven and earth. He is the faithful God, always close to his people, in order to save them. He is the highest holiness, ‘rich in mercy’ (Ephesians 2:4), always ready to forgive. He is the One who is spiritual, transcendent, omnipotent, eternal, personal, and perfect. He is truth and love” (Compendium, 40).

In this context, revelation is seen as an absolute novelty, a gift we receive from on high and which we should accept with grateful acknowledgement and religious devotion. Faced with the revealed word of God, only adoration and gratitude is fitting. Man falls on his knees before the wonder of a God who, while totally transcendent, becomes interior intimo meo (“Thou art more inward to me than my most inward being”3), and who seeks us out in every circumstance: “The Creator of heaven and earth, the one God who is the source of all being, the sole Creator Logos, this creative Reason loves man personally, or better, loves him passionately and wants to be loved in turn. This creative Reason, who at the same time loves, therefore gives life to a history of love…, a love [that] shows itself rich in inexhaustible fidelity and mercy. It is a love that forgives beyond all limits.”4

All created beings reflect some aspect of God’s infinite perfection. God in himself is the fullness of Being without any limitation: infinite Truth, Goodness and Beauty. He is the Truth, the measure and source of all that is true (cf. Compendium, 14). He is infinite Life and Love, the source of all life and love in creatures.

Since all creatures participate in God’s infinite perfection and reflect it in some way (especially human beings, who are created in his image and likeness), their truth, goodness and beauty point back to him and tell us something about him. But no finite intelligence can embrace the Infinite One. That is why our knowledge of him acquired from creatures is always analogical. We can truly say that God is Good, and that God is Beautiful—a Goodness and Beauty we see reflected in creatures. But he is not good in the way creatures are good: he is the fullness of Goodness without limitation, in a way our limited human intellect can never fully grasp. Therefore Christian tradition stresses the need for a deep humility when attempting to speak about God based on the knowledge about him that we can acquire from creatures.

Giulio Maspero

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 199-231; 268-274.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 36-43; 50.

Recommended Reading

St. Josemaria, Homily “Humility,” Friends of God, 104-109.

Contents

Footnotes

1The fact that this Fate was often “blind” and seemingly devoid of rational meaning led to the tragic view of existence that characterizes much of the thought and literature of the Greeks.

2“God revealed himself to Moses as the living God: ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob’ (Exodus 3: 6). God also revealed to Moses his mysterious name: ‘I AM WHO I AM (YHWH).’Already in Old Testament times this ineffable name of God was replaced by the divine title Lord. Thus in the New Testament, Jesus who was called Lord is seen as true God” (Compendium, 38). The name of God revealed here has received three possible interpretations: 1) God reveals that he transcends all human knowledge, thus protecting us from the temptation to misuse our friendship with him, as happened with the pagan deities through the practice of magic; 2) the Hebrew expression used here implies that God will always be with Moses, because he is faithful and is always on the side of all who trust in him; 3) in the Greek translation of the Bible, this name was seen as God’s manifestation of himself as the fullness of being and perfection (cf. Compendium, 39), in accord with the insights of philosophy.

3St. Augustine, Confessions, III, 6, 11.

4Benedict XVI, Address to the Fourth Italian National Ecclesial Convention, Verona, Italy; October 19, 2006.

TOPIC 5

The Most Holy Trinity

Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is the central mystery of our faith and of Christian life.

1. The revelation of God, one and three

“The central mystery of the faith and of Christian life is the mystery of the most holy Trinity. Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 44). Jesus’ entire life is a revelation of God, one and three. At the Annunciation and the Nativity, when he is found in the Temple at the age of twelve, in his death and resurrection, Jesus reveals himself as Son of God in a new way with respect to the filiation known by Israel. In addition, at the beginning of his public life, at his Baptism, the Father himself testifies to the world that Christ is his beloved Son (cf. Mt 3:13-17 and parallels), and the Spirit descends upon Him in the form of a dove. This first explicit revelation of the Trinity is paralleled by the scene of the Transfiguration, which introduces the Paschal mystery (cf. Mt 17:1-5 and parallels). Finally, when departing from his disciples, Jesus sends them to baptize in the name of the three divine Persons, so that the whole world may come to share in the eternal life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 28:19).

In the Old Testament, God had revealed his oneness and his love for the chosen people: Yahweh was like a Father. But after having spoken many times through the prophets, God spoke through his Son (cf. Heb 1:1-2), revealing that Yahweh was not only like a Father but is the Father (cf. Compendium, 46). In his prayer, Jesus calls him Abba, an Aramaic term Israelite children used in addressing their own fathers (cf. Mic 14:36), and He always distinguishes his own filiation from that of his disciples. This is so astonishing that it might be said that the real cause of Christ’s crucifixion was his calling himself the only Son of God in the strict sense. This is a definitive and immediate revelation,1 for God is revealed by his Word; we cannot expect a further revelation since Christ himself is God (cf. Jn 20:17) who gives himself for us, bringing us the life that dwells in his Father.

In Christ, God open his intimate life to us, which would otherwise be inaccessible if we had to rely on our own powers.2 This very revelation is an act of love, for the personal God of the Old Testament freely opens his heart, and the Only-begotten of the Father comes to meet us, to make Himself one with us and lead us back to the Father (cf. Jn 1:18). Philosophy was unable to grasp this truth, since only the light of faith can make it known.

2. God in his intimate life

God not only possesses an intimate life, but is identical with it, a life characterized by vital eternal relations of knowledge and love that lead us to express the mystery of divinity in terms of “processions.”

In fact, the revealed names of three divine Persons require us to think of God as an eternal procession of the Son from the Father, and the mutual relation, also eternal, of Love that “proceeds from the Father” (Jn 15:26) and the Son (cf. Jn 16:14)—the Holy Spirit. Thus revelation tells us of two processions in God: the generation of the Word (cf. Jn 17:6) and the spiration of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, both are immanent relations within God—they are God himself, inasmuch as God is Personal.

When we speak of processions, we normally think of something that comes forth from another, implying change and movement. Since we ourselves have been created in the image and likeness of the triune God (cf. Gen 1:26-27), the best human analogy for the divine processions we can find is in the human soul, where the knowledge we have of ourselves remains within us: the concept we form of ourselves is distinct from us, but is not outside us. The same can be said of the love we have for ourselves.

Similarly in God, the Son proceeds from the Father and is his Image, just as the human concept is the image of the known reality. Except that this Image, in God, is so perfect that it is God himself, with all his infinity, eternity, and omnipotence: The Son is one with the Father, with the same existence (that is, with the unique and undivided divine nature, although being another Someone). The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed expresses this in the formula “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.” The Father engenders the Son by giving himself to him, giving his substance and his nature—not in part, as in human generation, but perfectly and infinitely.

The same can be said of the Holy Spirit, who proceeds as the Love of the Father and the Son for each other. He proceeds from both because he is the eternal and uncreated Gift that the Father gives to the Son in engendering him, and that the Son returns to the Father in response to his Love. The third Person is, therefore, the mutual love between the Father and the Son.3 The technical term for this second procession is “spiration.”

These two processions are called “immanent” and differ radically from creation, in which God acts outside of himself. The processions give rise to the distinctions in God, while their immanence accounts for his unity. Thus the mystery of the triune God cannot be reduced to a unity without distinctions, as though the three Persons were only three masks; or to three beings without perfect unity, as though three distinct “gods” were joined together.

The two processions are the foundation of the distinct relations that are identified in God as three divine Persons: to be Father, to be Son, and to be “spirated” by them. Just as it is impossible to be father and to be son of the same person in the same sense, so it is impossible to be at the same time the Person who proceeds by spiration and the two Persons from whom he proceeds. However, we need to keep in mind that in the created world relations are accidental, in the sense that they are not identical with their being. In God, since the whole divine substance is given in the two processions, the three relations are eternal and are identified with that same substance.

These three eternal relations not only characterize, but are identical with the three divine Persons, such that to think of the Father is to think of the Son; and to think of the Holy Spirit is to think of those in respect to whom he is the Spirit. Thus the divine Persons are three “Someones,” but a single God. This is not the same as three human beings who participate in the same nature without being identical to human nature. The three Persons are each the fullness of divinity, identical with the one divine nature.4

The three Persons are “in one another.” Thus Jesus tells the Apostle Philip that whoever sees Him sees the Father (Jn 14:6) inasmuch as He and the Father are one (cf. Jn 10:30, 17:21). This dynamic relationship, technically referred to as pericóresis or circumincession (terms that refer to a movement in which one is linked to another as in a circular dance), helps explain how the mystery of the Triune God is a mystery of Love: “He himself is an eternal communication of love—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in whom we are destined to participate” (Catechism, 221).

3. Our life in God

Since God is an eternal communication of Love, it makes sense that this Love should overflow externally in his action. All of God’s actions in history are joint actions of the three Persons, since the Persons are distinct only inside God. Nevertheless, each impresses his personal characteristics upon the divine actions “ad extra.”5 For example, we can say that the divine action is always one, as the gift we might receive from a family is the result of a single act. But whoever knows the persons in that family would be able to recognize the role each individual played through the personal traces left by them in that single gift.

This recognition is possible because we have known the divine Persons in their personal distinction through their “missions,” when God the Father sent forth the Son and the Holy Spirit into the world (cf. Jn 3:16-17, 14:26), to become present among us: “Above all, it is the divine missions in the Incarnation of the Son and the Gift of the Holy Spirit that manifest the properties of the divine Persons” (Catechism, 258). They are, as it were, the two “hands” of the Father reaching out to embrace the people of all times in order to bring them to the bosom of the Father.6 While God is present in all beings insofar as they exist, he becomes present in a new way through the missions of the Son and the Spirit.7 Christ’s Cross manifests to us the eternal Gift that God makes of himself, revealing in his death the intimate dynamic of Love that unites the three Persons.

Thus the ultimate meaning of reality—what all men desire, what philosophers and religions of all times have sought—is the mystery of the Father who eternally engenders the Son in the Love that is the Holy Spirit. It is in the Trinity that the original model of the human family is to be found.8 God’s intimate life is the true aspiration of all human love. God wants all men and women to form a single family—i.e., to be one with Himself—as his children in the Son. Each human being has been created in the image and likeness of the Trinity (cf. Gen 1:27), and is called to live in communion with all men and women, and above all with the heavenly Father. Here is to be found the ultimate foundation of the value of every person’s life, independently of one’s abilities or achievements.

Access to the Father is to be found only in Christ—the Way, the Truth, and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6). Through grace we come to form a single Mystical Body in the communion of the Church. By contemplating the life of Christ and receiving the Sacraments, we gain access to the intimate life of God. Through Baptism we are inserted into the dynamic of the love of the Family constituted by the three divine Persons. In our daily life, we have the perfect model for our own family life in the Holy Family of Nazareth: “Get to know the three Persons—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And to reach the Most Blessed Trinity, go through Mary.”9 In this way, we learn from the “trinity on earth”—Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—to raise our eyes to the Trinity in heaven.

Giulio Maspero

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 232-267.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 44-49.

Recommended Reading

St. Josemaría Escrivá, homily: “Humility,” Friends of God, 104-109.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The God of Jesus Christ: Meditations on the Triune God, Ignatius   Press, 1978.

Contents

Footnotes

1St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, I, 2.

2“God has left traces of his trinitarian being in creation and in the Old Testament, but the intimacy of his being as a Holy Trinity is a mystery inaccessible to human reason alone and even to the faith of Israel prior to the Incarnation of the Son of God and the sending of the Holy Spirit. This mystery as revealed by Jesus is the source of all the other mysteries” (Compendium, 45).

3“The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity. He is God, one and equal to the Father and the Son; ‘He proceeds from the Father’ (Jn 15:26), the beginning without a beginning, the origin of all trinitarian life. He proceeds also from the Son (Filioque), through the eternal gift that the Father makes to the Son. The Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and the incarnate Son, guides the Church toward the knowledge of the ‘whole truth’ (Jn 16:13)” (Compendium, 47).

4“The Church expresses her trinitarian faith by confessing one God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The three divine Persons are one God because each of them is identical with the fullness of the one and indivisible divine nature. The three are really distinct from each other through their reciprocal relations: the Father engenders the Son, the Son is engendered by the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son” (Compendium, 48).

5“Inseparable in their one substance, the divine Persons are also inseparable in their work: the Trinity performs one and the same operation. But in that single divine work, each Person is present according to the mode that is proper to Him in the Trinity” (Compendium, 49).

6St. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, IV, 20, 1.

7St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, q. 43, a. 1, c., a. 2, ad. 3.

8“The divine ‘We’ constitutes the eternal model of the human ‘we’—above all, that ‘we’ that is formed by man and wife, created in the divine image and likeness.” (John Paul II, Letter to Families, Feb. 2, 1994) 6.

9St. Josemaría, The Forge, 543.

TOPIC 6

Creation

The importance of the truth about creation comes from its being the foundation of God’s saving plans culminating in Christ. Both the Bible and the Creed begin with a confession of faith in God the Creator.

Introduction

The importance of the truth about creation comes from its being the “foundation of God’s saving plans … the beginning of the history of salvation, which culminates in Christ” (Compendium, 51). Both the Bible (Gen 1: 1) and the Creed begin with a confession of faith in God the Creator.

Unlike the other great mysteries of our faith (the Trinity and the Incarnation), creation is the “first answer to [the] fundamental questions regarding our very origin and destiny” (Compendium, 51), which the human spirit itself raises and also answers in part, as philosophical reflection demonstrates. Despite the accounts of the origin of the world contained in the religious culture of so many peoples (cf. CCC, 285), the specific notion of creation has only been grasped by Judeo-Christian revelation.

Thus creation is a mystery of faith, and at the same time it is a truth that is accessible to natural reason (cf. CCC, 286). This special positioning between faith and reason makes creation a good starting-point for the task of evangelization and for the dialogue that Christians are always (especially in our days) called to carry out,1 as St. Paul did at the Areopagus in Athens (cf. Acts 17: 16-34).

It is usual to distinguish between creation as the creative action of God (active), and creation as the created reality that is the effect of God’s action (passive).2 The explanation given below of the main dogmatic aspects of creation is set out accordingly.

1. The act of creation

1.1. “Creation is the common work of the Holy Trinity” (CCC, 292)

Revelation presents God’s creative action as the fruit of his omnipotence, wisdom and love. Creation is usually attributed especially to the Father (cf. Compendium, 52) just as redemption is attributed to the Son and sanctification to the Holy Spirit. At the same time the works of the Holy Trinity ad extra (external to God),the first of them being creation, are common to all the Persons, and therefore we can consider the specific role of each Person in creation, since “each divine Person performs the common work according to his unique personal property” (CCC, 258). This is the meaning of the equally traditional appropriation of the essential attributes (omnipotence, wisdom and love) to the creative work of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit respectively.

In the Nicene Creed we confess our faith in “one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth”, “in one Lord, Jesus Christ … through him all things were made”; and in the Holy Spirit “the Lord and giver of life” (DS 150). Christian faith speaks therefore, not only of creation ex nihilo, from nothing, which points to the omnipotence of God the Father, but also of creation done with intelligence, with the wisdom of God—the Logos through which all things were made (Jn 1: 3); and also of creation ex amore, done out of love (GS 19), the fruit of the freedom and love that is God himself, the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son. In other words, the eternal processions of the three divine Persons are the foundation of their creative work.3

Just as there is no contradiction between the oneness of God and his being three Persons, so too there is no contradiction between the one creative principle and the different ways in which each of the Persons works.

“Creator of heaven and earth”

“‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ Three things are affirmed in these first words of Scripture: the eternal God gave a beginning to all that exists outside of himself, he alone is Creator (the verb ‘create’—Hebrew bara —always has God for its subject). The totality of what exists (expressed by the formula ‘the heavens and the earth’) depends on the One who gives it being.” (CCC , 290).

Strictly speaking only God can create,4 which implies making things from nothing (ex nihilo) and not from something that pre-exists. For creation, an infinite active potency is required, which belongs to God alone (cf. CCC, 296-298). The appropriation of creative omnipotence to God the Father is therefore fitting, since in the Trinity (according to a classical expression) he is fons et origo, the source and origin: that is, the Person from whom the other two proceed, the beginning without beginning.

Christian faith holds that the fundamental distinction in all that exists is the distinction between God and his creatures. This was a novelty in the early centuries, in which the polarity between matter and spirit gave rise to mutually irreconcilable views (materialism and spiritualism, dualism and monism). Christianity broke these molds, particularly with its affirmation that material things too (like spirit) are the creation of the one transcendent God. Later on, St. Thomas developed a metaphysics of creation that describes God as Subsistent Being (Ipsum Esse Subsistens). As the first cause, God is absolutely transcendent to the world. At the same time, by virtue of the participation in his being by creatures, he is intimately present in them, and they depend for everything on him as the source of their being. God is superior summo meo and at the same time intimior intimo meo (higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self) (St. Augustine, Confessions 3, 6, 11; cf. CCC, 300).

“Through him all things were made”

The Wisdom literature of the Old Testament presents the world as the fruit of God’s wisdom (cf. Wis 9: 9). “It is not the product of any necessity whatever, nor of blind fate or chance” (CCC, 295), but it has an intelligibility that human reason, by participating in the divine Understanding, can grasp, though not without great effort, and only in a spirit of humility and respect towards the Creator and his work (cf. Job 42: 3; cf. CCC, 299). This development reaches its full expression in the New Testament. By identifying the Son, Jesus Christ, with the Logos (cf. Jn 1: 1 ff.) it affirms that God’s wisdom is a Person, the Incarnate Word, by whom all things were made (Jn 1: 3). St. Paul formulates this relationship of created things with Christ, by clarifying that all things were created in him, through him and for him (Col 1: 16-17).

Thus creative reason is at the origin of the cosmos (cf. CCC, 284).5 Christianity from its very beginning has had great confidence in the capacity of human reason to know, and great certainty that reason (scientific, philosophical, etc.) can never reach conclusions that are contrary to the faith, since both proceed from the same origin.

It is not unusual to come across people who raise false antitheses, as for example between creation and evolution. In reality, a sound epistemology not only distinguishes between the spheres proper to the natural sciences and faith respectively, but also acknowledges within philosophy a certain principle of mediation, since the sciences, with their own methods and objectives, do not cover the whole sphere of human reason; and faith, which refers to the same world as science, needs philosophical categories in order to formulate its meaning and enter into dialogue with human rationality.6

So it is natural that, from the beginning, the Church should have sought to dialogue with reason. Reason is aware of its created character, since it did not give existence to itself, nor does it govern its own future entirely. Reason is open to what transcends it, and in short, to the Reason that originated it. Paradoxically, reason that is closed in on itself, which thinks it can find within itself the answer to the deepest questions, ends up in nihilism, irrationalism, etc., affirming the absurdity of existence, and failing to recognize the intelligibility of what is real.

“The Lord and giver of life”

“We believe that [the world] proceeds from God’s free will; he wanted to make creatures share in his being, wisdom and goodness: ‘For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created’ (Rev 4: 11) … ‘The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made’ (Ps 154: 9).” (CCC, 295). As a consequence, “Because creation comes forth from God’s goodness, it shares in that goodness—‘and God saw that it was good …  very good’ (Gen 1: 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 31)—for God willed creation as a gift” (CCC, 299).

These characteristics, goodness and free gift, enable us to discover in creation the action of the Holy Spirit, “who hovered over the waters” (Gen 1: 2), the Person-Gift in the Trinity, subsistent Love between the Father and the Son. The Church confesses her faith in the creative work of the Holy Spirit, the giver of life and the source of all good.7

The Christian affirmation of God’s creative freedom enables us to overcome the limitations of other points of view that, placing a necessity upon God, end up maintaining fatalism or determinism. There is nothing “in” God or “outside” of God that obliges him to create. What then is the end that moves him? What is his purpose in creating us?

1.2. “The world was created for God’s glory” (First Vatican Council)

God created all things “not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it” (St. Bonaventure, In II Sent. I, 2, 2, 1). The first Vatican Council (1870) teaches that “This one, true God, of his own goodness and ‘almighty power,’ not for increasing his own beatitude, nor for attaining his perfection, but in order to manifest this perfection through the benefits which he bestows on creatures, with absolute freedom of counsel ‘and from the beginning of time, made out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal’” (DS 3002; cf. CCC, 293).

“The glory of God consists in the realization of this manifestation and communication of his goodness, for which the world was created. God made us ‘to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace ’(Eph 1: 5-6), for ‘the glory of God is man fully alive; moreover man’s life is the vision of God’ (St Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, 4, 20, 7)” (CCC, 294).

Far from being the dialectic of contradictory principles (as occurs in Manichean dualism, and also in Hegel’s monist idealism), affirming that God’s glory is the purpose of creation does not imply any negation of man, but is, rather, an essential premise for his fulfillment. The roots of Christian optimism are to be found in the joint exaltation of God and of man; “man is great only if God is great.”8 Christian optimism and reason affirm the absolute priority of good, but without being blind to the presence of evil in the world and in history.

1.3. Conservation and Providence. Evil

Creation is not limited just to the beginning. “With creation, God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final end” (CCC, 301). Sacred Scripture compares God’s action in history to the act of creation (cf. Is 44: 24; 45: 8; 51: 13). Wisdom literature further explains God’s action which maintains his creatures in existence. “How would anything have endured if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved?” (Wis 11: 25). St. Paul goes further and attributes this conserving action to Christ: “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col 1: 17).

The God of Christianity is not a watchmaker or an architect, who once he has done his work, takes no more notice of it. Such images are those of a deist outlook, according to which God does not intervene in this world. Thus they distort the notion of the true creator God, since they drastically separate creation from God’s conservation and governance of the world.9

The notion of conservation acts as a bridge between the act of creation and God’s governance of the world (providence). God not only creates the world and keeps it in existence, but he also “leads his creatures towards their ultimate end, to which he himself has called them” (Compendium, 55). Sacred Scripture shows us the absolute sovereignty of God, and constantly witnesses to his fatherly care, in the smallest things as well as in the great events of history (cf. CCC, 303). In this context, Jesus reveals himself as the “incarnate” providence of God, who as the Good Shepherd cares for the material and spiritual needs of mankind (Jn 10: 11, 14-15; Mt 14: 13-14, etc.), and he teaches us to abandon ourselves to his care (Mt 6: 31-33).

If God creates, sustains and directs everything with goodness, where does evil come from? “To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question … There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil” (CCC, 309).

Creation was not completed right from the beginning, but God created it “in a state of journeying” (in statu viae), that is, he directed it towards an ultimate goal which has yet to be attained. For the fulfillment of his designs, God makes use of the concurrence of his creatures, and he grants human beings a share in his providence, respecting their freedom even when they do wrong (cf. CCC, 302, 307, 311). What is truly surprising is that God “in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil” (CCC, 312). It is a great and mysterious truth that “in everything God works for good with those who love him” (Rom 8: 28).10

The experience of evil seems to show a tension between God’s omnipotence and his goodness, in their action in history. The answer (mysterious in itself) to this apparent conflict, is the event of Christ’s Cross, which reveals God’s “way of being,” and is therefore a source of wisdom for mankind (the sapientia crucis, the wisdom of the Cross).

1.4. Creation and salvation

Creation is “the first step towards the Covenant of the one God with his people” (Compendium, 51). In the Bible creation is open to the saving action of God in history, which reaches its fullness in the paschal mystery of Christ, and which will reach its final perfection at the end of time. Creation came about with a view to the Sabbath, the seventh day on which the Lord rested, a day which completes the first creation and opens up to the eighth day when a still more marvelous work begins: the Redemption, the new creation in Christ (cf. 2 Cor 5: 7; CCC, 345-349).

Thus we are shown the continuity and unity of God’s plan for creation and redemption. There is no hiatus, but rather a link, between them, since man’s sin did not totally corrupt God’s work. The relationship between the two—creation and salvation—can be expressed by saying that, on one hand, creation is the first event of salvation; and on the other hand, redemptive salvation has the characteristics of a new creation. This relationship throws light on certain important aspects of the Christian faith, such as the ordering of nature to grace or the existence of a single supernatural end of man.

2. Created reality

The effect of God’s creative action is the whole created world, the “heavens and earth” (Gen 1: 1). God is “the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, spiritual and corporeal; who by his omnipotent power at the beginning of time created from nothing each and every creature, spiritual and corporeal, that is to say the angelic and material world; and afterwards human beings, composed of spirit and of body.”11

Christianity overcomes both monism (which holds that matter and spirit are one, that the reality of God and the world are identical), and dualism (according to which matter and spirit are primordially equal opposing principles).

The act of creation pertains to God’s eternity, but the effect of this action is marked by temporality. Revelation states that the world was created with a temporal beginning,12 that is to say, the world was created together with time, which fully accords with God’s intention to reveal himself in the history of salvation.

2.1. The spiritual world: angels

“The existence of 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, 328). Both show them in their double function of giving praise to God and being messengers of his saving plan. The New Testament presents the angels in relation to Christ: created through him and for him (cf. Col 1: 16), they surround Christ’s life from his birth to his Ascension, being the announcers of his second glorious coming (cf. CCC, 333).

In the same way they are present from the beginning of the life of the Church, which benefits from their powerful help, and in her liturgy she unites herself to them in adoring God. From birth each human being is accompanied by an angel, who protects us and leads us to Life (cf. CCC, 334-336).

Theologians (especially St. Thomas Aquinas, the “AngelicDoctor”) and the magisterium of the Church have delved deeply into the nature of these purely spiritual beings, endowed with intellect and will, and have affirmed that they are personal, immortal creatures, who surpass in perfection all visible creatures (cf. CCC, 330).

The angels were created in a state of trial. Some rebelled irrevocably against God. Having fallen into sin, Satan and the other devils—who had been created good, but became evil by their own doing—tempted our first parents to sin (cf. CCC, 391-395).

2.2. The material world

God “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’ on the seventh day (Gen 1: 1-2, 4)” (CCC, 337). “On many occasions the Church has had to defend the goodness of creation, including that of the physical world (cf. DS 286; 455-463; 800; 1333; 3002)” (CCC, 299).

“By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth and excellence, its own order and laws” (GS 36, 2). The truth and goodness of created beings proceed from the one Creator God who is at the same time Three. Thus, the created world is a true reflection of the activity of the divine Persons: “In all creatures there is a representation of the Trinity by way of vestige”.13

The cosmos has beauty and dignity insofar as it the work of God. There is a solidarity and hierarchy between beings, which should lead us to a contemplative attitude of respect towards creatures and the natural laws that govern them (cf. CCC 339, 340, 342, 354). The cosmos was created for man, who received from God the command to have dominion over the earth (cf. Gen 1: 28). This command is not an invitation to a despotic exploitation of nature, but to participation in God’s creative power: by their work, human beings collaborate in the perfecting of creation.

Christians share the just demands raised by ecological sensitivity in the past decades, without falling into a vague divinization of the world, and affirm the superiority of man over all other creatures as the “summit of the Creator’s work” (CCC, 343).

2.3. Man

Human beings enjoy a particular position in the creative work of God, since we participate at the same time in material and spiritual reality. Scripture says that God created mankind alone “in our image and likeness” (Gen 1: 26). Human beings were placed by God at the head of visible creation, and we enjoy a special dignity, since “of all visible creatures only man is ‘able to know and love his creator.’ ‘He is the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake’ and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity” (CCC, 356; cf.1701-1703).

Men and women, in their diversity and their complementarity, both willed by God, possess equal dignity as persons (cf. CCC, 357, 369, 372). In both there is a substantial unity of body and soul, which is the form of the body. Since it is spiritual, the human soul is created immediately by God (it is not produced by the parents, nor does it pre-exist), and it is immortal (cf. CCC, 366). Both points (spirituality and immortality) can be demonstrated philosophically. Therefore it is reductionism to affirm that human beings proceed exclusively from biological evolution (absolute evolutionism). In reality there are ontological gaps that cannot be explained by evolution. The moral awareness and freedom of human beings, for example, show forth their superiority over the material world, and are a sign of their special dignity.

The truth of creation helps us to overcome both the negation of freedom (determinism) and the contrary extreme of an undue exaltation of freedom. Human freedom is created, not absolute, and it exists in mutual dependence on truth and goodness. The dream of freedom as pure power and arbitrariness proceeds from a deformed image not only of man but also of God.

By their activity and work, human beings participate in the creative power of God.14 Moreover, their intellect and will are a participation, a spark, of God’s wisdom and love. While the rest of the visible world is a simple vestige of the Trinity, human beings are a true imago Trinitatis, image of the Trinity .

3. Some practical consequences of the truth about creation

The radicalness of God’s creative and saving action demands from man a response that has the same characteristic of totality: “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut 6: 5; Mt 22: 37; Mk 12 30; Lk 10: 27). It is in our response to God that we find true happiness; that is the only thing that makes our freedom complete.

God creates and saves the whole man and all men. Responding to God’s call and loving him with our whole being is intrinsically united to bringing his love to the whole world.15

Our knowledge and wonder at God’s power, wisdom and love lead us to an attitude of reverence, adoration and humility, and to live in God’s presence, knowing that we are each a child of God. At the same time, faith in providence leads Christians to an attitude of filial trust in God in all circumstances: with gratitude for the benefits we have received, and with simplicity and abandonment to God in circumstances that may appear bad, since God brings greater good out of evil.

Aware that everything has been created for the glory of God, Christians try in all our actions to seek the true end that fills our lives with happiness: the glory of God, and not our own vainglory. We struggle to rectify our intention in our actions, so that we can say that the only purpose of our lives is this: Deo omnis gloria, all the glory to God!16

God has chosen to place human beings at the forefront of his creation, conferring on them dominion over the world, so that we may perfect it with our work. Human activity, therefore, can be considered as a participation in God’s work of creation.

The greatness and beauty of creatures stirs up in us a sense of wonder and awakens questions about the origin and destiny of the world and of mankind, helping us glimpse the reality of our Creator. Christians’ dialogue with non-believers can evoke such questions, helping people to open their minds and hearts to the light of the Creator. Moreover, in conversations with believers of other faiths, an excellent starting-point is the truth of creation, since it is a truth that can be partly shared and underlies some fundamental moral values regarding the dignity of the human person.

Santiago Sanz

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 279-374.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 51-72.

DS: Denziger-Schonmetzer, Enchridion Symbolorum etc., 36th ed. (Herder 1976), nos. 125, 150, 800, 806, 1333, 3000-3007, 3021-3026, 4319, 4336, 4341.

GS: Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes, 10-18, 19-21, 36-39.

John Paul II, God, Father and Creator. Catechism on the Creed (vol. 1), Pauline Books and Media, Boston, 1996, 181-218.

Recommended Reading

St. Augustine, Confessions, book XII.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, 1, qq. 44-46.

St. Josemaria, Homily “Passionately Loving the World,”in Conversations with Msgr. Escrivá de Balaguer, 113-123.

Joseph Ratzinger, In the Beginning: a Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall, OSV 1990.

John Paul II, Memory and Identity, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2005.

Contents

Footnotes

1Cf., among others, Benedict XVI, Speech to the members of the Roman Curia, 22 December 2005; “Faith, Reason and University” (Speech at Regensburg), 12 November 2006; Angelus, 28 January 2007.

2Cf. St. Thomas, De Potentia, q.3, a.3, co.: the Catechism follows the same division.

3Cf. St. Thomas, Super Sent., lib. 1, d. 14, q. 1, a. 1, co.: “they are the cause and the reason for the procession of creatures.”

4This why we say God does not need instruments in order to create, since no instrument has the infinite potency needed in order to create. Hence when we speak, for example, of a human being as creative, and even as capable of sharing in God’s creative power, the use of the adjective ‘creative’ is not analogous, but metaphorical.

5This point appears frequently in the teaching of Benedict XVI, e.g. Homily in Regensburg, 12 November, 2006; Speech in Verona, 19 October, 2006; Meeting with the clergy of the diocese of Rome, 22 February, 2007, etc.

6Both scientific rationalism and anti-scientific fideism need to be corrected by philosophy. At the same time it is also necessary to avoid the false apologetics of those who seek forced agreements, seeing in the facts presented by science an empirical verification or demonstration of the truths of faith, when in reality, as we have said, they are facts that belong to different methods and disciplines.

7Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem, 18 May, 1986, no. 10.

8Benedict XVI, Homily , 15 August, 2005.

9Deism implies an error in the metaphysical notion of creation, since creation as the giving of being involves an ontological dependence on the part of the creature, which is inseparable from its continuation in time. Both constitute a single act, even though we can distinguish between them conceptually. “The conservation of things by God does not occur by a new act, but by the continuation of the act that gives being, which is certainly an action without any motion and without time” (St. Thomas, I, q. 104, a. 1, ad 3).

10Continuing the experience of many saints in the history of the Church, this expression of St Paul’s was often on the lips of St. Josemaria Escriva, who lived and encouraged others to live in joyful acceptance of God’s will (cf. Josemaria Escriva, Furrow, 127; The Way of the Cross, IX, 4; Friends of God, 119). The last book by John Paul II, Memory and Identity, contains a deep reflection on the action of God’s providence in the history of mankind, in accordance with St. Paul’s assertion: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12: 21).

11Lateran Council IV (1215), DS 800.

12This is taught by the Fourth Lateran Council and, referring to the earlier council, by Vatican Council I (cf. respectively DS 800 and 3002). This is a revealed truth that cannot be demonstrated by reason, as St. Thomas taught in the famous medieval dispute about the eternity of the world: cf. Contra Gentiles, lib. 2, ch. 31-38; and his philosophical work De aeternitate mundi.

13St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae, 1, q. 45, a. 7, co.; cf. CCC, 237.

14Cf. Josemaria Escriva, Friends of God, 57.

15The fact that apostolate is the overflow of the interior life (cf. Josemaria Escriva, The Way, 961), is the correlation of the dynamic of God’s action within his own being and on other beings, that is to say, of the intensity of the Trinitarian being, wisdom and love which overflows into creatures.

16Cf. Josemaria Escriva, The Way, 780; Furrow, 647; The Forge, 611, 639, 1051.

TOPIC 7

Elevation to the Supernatural Order and Original Sin

In creating the first man and woman, God constituted them in a state of holiness and justice. He also granted them the possibility of sharing in his divine life through the proper use of their freedom.

1. Elevation to the supernatural order

When God created the first human couple, he constituted them in a state of holiness and justice, and offered them the grace of truly sharing in his divine life (cf. CCC 374, 375). This is how Tradition and the Magisterium throughout the centuries have interpreted the description of paradise contained in Genesis. Theology calls this state supernatural elevation, since it indicates a free gift, unachievable by our natural powers alone. This gift is not a requirement of human nature, but it is congruent with the creation of man in the image and likeness of God. To understand this point correctly, several aspects should be borne in mind:

a) It is not correct to separate man's creation from elevation to the supernatural order. Creation is not “neutral” with regard to union with God, but is directed towards it. The Church has always taught that our end or purpose is supernatural (cf. DH 3005), since we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him (Eph 1:4). That means there has never been a state of “pure nature,” since God offered his covenant of love to mankind from the very beginning.

b) Although the purpose for which mankind was created was friendship with God, Revelation teaches us that at the beginning of history the first human couple rebelled and rejected communion with their Creator. This is “original sin,” also called the “fall,” precisely because they had previously been elevated to intimacy with God. However, when they lost God's friendship, they were not reduced to nothingness, but continued to be human, created beings.

c) This teaches us that although it is not correct to imagine the divine plan as divided into airtight compartments (as if God first created a “complete” man and then “in addition” elevated him), we should distinguish different orders within a single divine intention.1 Based on the fact that, by their sin, the first human pair lost some gifts but kept others, Christian tradition distinguishes between the supernatural order (the call to friendship with God, and the special gifts lost by sin) from the natural order (all that God endowed them with when he created them, and which remains in spite of sin). These are not two juxtaposed or independent orders, since in fact what is natural was inserted in and directed towards the supernatural from the very beginning. The supernatural perfects the natural without cancelling it out. At the same time they should be distinguished from one another, as the history of salvation shows that the gratuitousness of God's gift of grace and redemption is different from the gratuitousness of his gift of creation; the former is a far greater manifestation of God's love and mercy.2

d) It is difficult to describe the state of innocence that was lost by Adam and Eve,3 about which there are few statements in Genesis (cf. Gen 1:26-31; 2:7-8, 15-25). This is why tradition generally characterises their state indirectly, inferring (from the consequences of the sin narrated in chapter 3 of Genesis) the gifts that our first parents enjoyed and that were meant to be transmitted to their descendents. Thus, besides the natural gifts that corresponded to their condition as creatures, they received supernatural gifts, i.e. sanctifying grace, the divinisation that this grace brings with it, and the ultimate call to the vision of God. Together with these, Christian tradition acknowledges in paradise the “preternatural gifts,” that is, gifts that were not demanded by nature but are congruent with it. They perfected nature on a natural level and constituted a manifestation of grace. These were the gifts of immortality, exemption from pain (impassibility) and mastery over concupiscence (integrity) (cf. CCC, 376).4

2. Original Sin

With the story of man's transgression of the command not to eat fruit from the forbidden tree, Sacred Scripture teaches that, at the serpent's instigation (cf. Gen 3:1-13), at the beginning of history our first parents rebelled against God, disobeying him and giving way to the temptation of wanting “to be like gods.” In consequence, they received God's punishment, losing in great part the gifts with which they had been endowed (cf. Gen 3:16-19), and they were expelled from paradise (cf. Gen 3:23). Christian tradition has interpreted this as the loss of the supernatural and preternatural gifts, and also damage done to human nature, although the latter is not corrupt in essence. As a result of their disobedience, of preferring themselves to God, the first human pair lost grace (cf. CCC 398-399), and also harmony with creation and within themselves; thus suffering and death made their entrance into history (cf. CCC, 399-400).

The first sin took the form of a temptation that was accepted, since behind the disobedience of Adam and Eve lies the voice of the serpent, who represents Satan, the fallen angel. Revelation speaks of a previous sin by Satan and other angels, who, although they had been created good, rejected God irrevocably. Ever since mankind's first sin, creation and history have remained under the evil influence of the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning (Jn 8:44). Although his power is not infinite, and is very inferior to God's power, it truly causes serious injuries to each person and to society. The fact that God allows diabolical activity does not cease to be a mystery (cf. CCC 391-395).

The biblical narrative also contains God's promise of a redeemer (cf. Gen 3:15). Thus redemption throws light on the extent and the gravity of man's fall, showing us the wonder of the love of a God who does not abandon his creatures, but comes to meet mankind in Christ's work of salvation. “We must know Christ as the source of grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin” (CCC, 388). “For 'the mystery of lawlessness' (2 Thes 2:7) is clarified only in the light of the 'mystery of our religion' (1 Tim 3:16)” (CCC, 385).

The Church has always understood this episode as an historical event—even though it has been transmitted to us in language that is certainly symbolic (cf. CCC, 390). Traditionally (since St Augustine) this has been called “original sin,” since it took place at mankind's origin. Sin entered the world as the result of the wrong use of freedom on the part of created beings (first the angels and then man). Moral evil, therefore, does not come from the structure of society or from our material being; nor, obviously, from God, nor from an immovable destiny. Christian realism makes us face up to our own responsibility: we can do evil as the result of our freedom, and the one responsible for it is no other than ourselves (cf. CCC, 387).

Throughout the course of history, the Church has formulated the dogma of original sin in contrast to exaggerated optimism and existential pessimism (cf. CCC, 406). Pelagius affirmed that man can do good by his natural strength alone, and that grace is merely an external aid, thus minimising the extent of Adam's sin and of Christ's redemption and reducing them to merely good or bad example respectively. Against this, the Council of Carthage (418), following St Augustine, taught the absolute priority of grace, since the human being has been wounded through sin (cf. DH 223, 227; cf. also the Council of Orange, in the year 529: DH 371-372). Against Luther, who maintained that through sin man is essentially corrupted in his nature, with his freedom cancelled out and sin in everything he does, the Council of Trent (1546) taught that Baptism truly cleanses us from original sin. However, the consequences of sin remain—among them concupiscence, which we should not identify, as Luther did, with sin itself. Each person is free in his or her actions, and, sustained by grace, can merit through good deeds (cf. DH 1511-1515).

At the heart of Luther's position, and also of some recent interpretations of Genesis chapter 3, there lies an inadequate understanding of the relationship between (1) nature and history, (2) the psychological-existential plane and the ontological plane, and (3) what is individual and what is collective.

(1) Although there are some mythical elements in Genesis (understanding the concept of “myth” in its best sense, i.e. a narrative that gives origin to and therefore lies at the basis of later history), it would be wrong to interpret the narrative of the fall as a symbolic explanation of mankind's original sinful condition. Such an interpretation would change a historical event into something that is “part of man's nature,” making a myth of it and therefore making it inevitable. Paradoxically, if the sense of guilt led us to acknowledge ourselves as “naturally” sinners, it would lead to a reduction or mitigation of our personal responsibility for sin, since we would be unable to avoid such a spontaneous tendency. Instead, it is true to say that sin belongs to man's historical condition, and not to his original nature.

(2) Since some consequences of sin remain after Baptism, Christians may strongly experience a tendency towards evil, and feel they are profoundly sinful, as is seen in the lives of the saints. However, this existential perspective is not the only one, nor indeed the most fundamental one, since Baptism really does cleanse away original sin and make us children of God (cf. CCC, 405). Ontologically, Christians in a state of grace are truly just in God's eyes. Luther radicalised the existential perspective, understanding the whole of reality from this viewpoint, and seeing it as ontologically marked by sin.

(3) The third point leads to the question of the transmission of original sin, “a mystery that we cannot fully understand” (CCC, 404). The Bible teaches that our first parents transmitted sin to the whole of mankind. The chapters in Genesis that come after the fall (cf. Gen 4-11; cf. CCC, 401) narrate the progressive corruption of the human race. Establishing a parallel between Adam and Christ, St. Paul says: For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's [Christ's] obedience many will be made righteous (Rom 5:19). This parallelism helps us to understand correctly the interpretation that is generally given to the term adamáh as a collective noun: just as Christ is only one and at the same time is head of the Church, so Adam is only one and at the same time head of mankind.5 “By this 'unity of the human race' all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are implicated in Christ's justice” (CCC, 404).

The Church understands the original sin of our first parents and the sin that has been inherited by mankind by way of analogy. “Adam and Eve committed a personal sin but this sin … will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called 'sin' only in an analogical sense: it is a sin 'contracted' and not 'committed'—a state and not an act” (CCC, 404). Thus, “although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants” (CCC, 405).6

Some people find it difficult to accept the idea of an inherited sin,7 especially if they have an individualistic view of the person and of freedom. What did I have to do with Adam's sin? Why do I have to pay the penalty for someone else's sin? These questions show a lack of understanding about the real solidarity that exists among all human beings as created by God. Paradoxically, this lack of understanding can actually be seen as a manifestation of the sin transmitted to each individual. In other words, original sin clouds our understanding of the deep fraternity of the human race that makes its transmission possible.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that, faced with the lamentable consequences of sin and their universal spread, we can ask ourselves, “But why did God not prevent the first man from sinning? St Leo the Great responds, 'Christ's inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon's envy had taken away' (Sermon, 73, 4). And St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, 'There is nothing to prevent human nature's being raised up to something greater, even after sin; God permits evil to draw forth some greater good. Thus St. Paul says, Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more (Rom 5:8); and the Exultet sings, O happy fault … which gained for us so great a Redeemer ' (Summa Theologiae, III, 1, 2, ad 3)” (CCC, 412).

3. Some practical consequences

The main practical consequences of the doctrine of our elevation to the supernatural order and original sin is the realism that should guide the lives of Christians, who are aware of both the greatness of being children of God and the wretchedness of their sinful condition. This realism:

a) prevents both naïve optimism and hopeless pessimism; it “provides lucid discernment of man's situation and activity in the world … Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education, politics, social action and morals” (CCC, 407);

b) gives serene trust in God, our merciful Creator and Father, who does not abandon those he has created, but always forgives, and leads everything to goodness, even in the midst of adversities. “Repeat: ' omnia in bonum, ' everything that happens, 'everything that happens to me' is for my good… Therefore the right conclusion is to accept, as a joyful reality, what seems so hard to you”;8

c) gives rise to an attitude of profound humility, which leads us to acknowledge our own sins without surprise, and to be sorry for them because they are offences against God, rather than because they are defect in ourselves;

d) helps us to distinguish what is proper to human nature as such, from what is a consequence of the wound of sin in our nature. After sin, not everything we experience as spontaneous is good. Human life entails a battle: we have to struggle in order to behave in a way that is both human and Christian (cf. CCC, 409). “The entire tradition of the Church has described Christians as milites Christi: soldiers of Christ, soldiers who bring serenity to others while continually fighting against their own bad inclinations”.9 Christians who struggle to avoid sin do not lose anything that makes life good and beautiful. There is a fairly widespread, but false, idea that it is necessary for people to do evil in order to experience their own autonomy, since a life without sin would be basically boring. In contrast, we see the figure of Mary, conceived immaculate, who shows us that a life completely dedicated to God, far from being boring, becomes an adventure filled with infinite surprises.10

Santiago Sanz

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 374-421.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 72-78.

John Paul II, God, Father and Creator. A Catechisis on the Creed (vol.1), Boston: Pauline Books and Media1996, pp. 216 ff.

Denziger-Schönmetzer (DH; DS), Enchiridion Symbolorum, 36th ed (Herder 1976), nos. 222-231; 370-395; 1510-1516; 4313.

Recommended Reading

John Paul II, Memory and Identity, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005.

Benedict XVI, Homily on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 8 December 2005.

Joseph Ratzinger, In the Beginning: a Catholic understanding of Creation and the Fall, London: T & T Clark, 1995.

Contents

Footnotes

1The Council of Trent does not say that man was created in grace, but constituted, precisely so as to avoid confusion between nature and grace (cf. DH 1511).

2The theological hypothesis of “pure nature” was coined precisely to emphasise the complete gratuitousness of the gift of grace with respect to creation. Not because such a state existed historically, but because in theory it could have done so, although in fact it never did. This doctrine was upheld against Baius, one of whose theories (which was condemned) was that “the integrity of the first creation was not an unmerited exaltation of human nature, but a condition natural to it” (DH 1926).

3This difficulty is more acute today owing to the influence of a basically evolutionist view of the totality of the human being. In this type of approach, reality evolves constantly from the smaller to the greater, while Revelation teaches us that at the beginning of history there was a fall from a higher to a lower state. This does not mean that there could not have existed a process of “hominisation,” which we have to distinguish from “humanisation”.

4As to immortality, we have to understand this with St Augustine not as being unable to die (non posse mori), but as the possibility of not dying (posse non mori). It is licit to interpret it as a situation in which the transition to a definitive state was not experienced through the trauma of death that man suffers because of sin. Since suffering is a sign and anticipation of death, immortality in some way brought with it an absence of pain. At the same time, this presupposed a state of integrity, by which man ruled his passions without difficulty. Traditionally a fourth gift is added, that of knowledge, proportionate to the state in which they found themselves.

5This is the main reason why the Church has always read the account of the fall from the point of view of monogenism (the descent of the human race from a single couple). The opposite hypothesis, polygenism, seemed to impose itself as scientific (and also exegetic) fact for a few years, but today at a scientific level, biological descent from a single pair (monophyletism) seems more plausible. From the standpoint of the faith, polygenism is problematic, since it is not possible to see how this can be reconciled with Revelation about original sin (cf. Pius XII, Encyclical Humani Generis, DH 3897), although it is a matter about which there is still room for inquiry and reflection.

6In this sense, a distinction has traditionally been made between the originating original sin (the personal sin committed by our first parents) and the originated original sin (the state of sin in which their descendants are born).

7Cf. John Paul II, General Audience , 24 September, 1986, 1.

8St. Josemaría, Furrow, 127; cf. Rom 8:28.

9St. Josemaría, Christ is Passing By, 74.

10Cf. Benedict XVI, Homily , 8 December 2005.

TOPIC 8

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man

Jesus Christ took on human nature without ceasing to be God. He is true God and true Man.

1. The Incarnation of the Word

But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman (Gal 4:4). Thus the promise of a Saviour that God had made to Adam and Eve as they were expelled from Paradise was fulfilled: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel (Gen 3:15). This verse from Genesis is sometimes called the “proto-gospel” or first gospel, because it is the first announcement of the good news of salvation. The traditional interpretation is that the “woman” of whom it speaks is both Eve, in a direct sense, and Mary in the full sense; and that the “seed” of the woman refers both to mankind and to Christ.

From then until the moment when the word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14), God was preparing mankind to welcome his only-begotten Son. God chose the people of Israel for himself, established his Covenant with them, and formed them progressively, intervening in their history, telling them his plans through the patriarchs and prophets, and sanctifying them for himself. All this was a preparation and figure of the new and perfect Covenant that was to be forged in Christ, and of the full and definitive revelation that was to be brought about by the Incarnate Word himself.1 Although God prepared the coming of the Saviour above all by choosing the people of Israel, this does not mean that he abandoned other people, “the Gentiles,” for he never ceased giving them testimony of himself (cf. Acts 14:16-17). Divine providence ensured that the Gentiles had some degree of awareness of the need for salvation, and the desire to be redeemed stretched to the very ends of the earth.

The origin of the Incarnation is God's love for mankind. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him (1 Jn 4:9). The Incarnation is the supreme sign of God's love for us, since God gives himself to us through the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity coming to share in our human nature in the unity of the Son's divine Person.

After the fall of Adam and Eve in paradise, the Incarnation has a saving and redemptive purpose, as we profess in the Creed. “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”2 Christ said of himself that the Son of man came to seek and to save what was lost (Lk 19:10; cf. Mt 18:11), and that God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved by him (Jn 3:17).

The Incarnation not only shows God's infinite love for mankind, his infinite mercy, justice and power, but also the divine wisdom shown in the way God decided to save man, which is the way that was most appropriate to human nature: through the Incarnation of the Word.

Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, “is not a myth, or an abstract idea; he is a man who lived in a specific context and who died after a life spent on earth in the course of history. Historical research about him is, therefore, required by Christian faith.”3

That Christ existed belongs to the doctrine of faith, as also that he really died for us and rose on the third day (cf. 1 Cor 15:3-11). Christ's existence is a fact proved by history, particularly by the analysis of the New Testament, whose historical value is beyond doubt. We have other ancient non-Christian testimonies, both pagan and Jewish, about Christ's life. Precisely because of this we cannot accept the position of those who set up a “historical Jesus” in opposition to the “Christ of faith,” and who defend the supposition that almost everything the New Testament says about Christ is an interpretation of faith made by Jesus' disciples, but not his true historical figure, which remains hidden from us. These points of view, which often include a strong prejudice against anything supernatural, fail to account for the fact, confirmed by contemporary historical research, that the representation of Christ offered by early Christian witnesses is underpinned by events that really took place.

2. Jesus Christ, true God and true man

The Incarnation “is the mystery of the wonderful union of the divine and human natures in the one person of the Word” (CCC, 483). The Incarnation of the Son of God “does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man” (CCC, 464). The divinity of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God, was dealt with in summary no. 5 on the Blessed Trinity. Here we will focus primarily on his humanity.

The Church defended and clarified this truth of faith during the first centuries against the heresies which denied or misrepresented it. As far back as the first century some Christians of Jewish origin, the Ebionites, held that Christ was simply a man, although a very holy man. “Adoptionism” arose in the second century, maintaining that Jesus was the adopted son of God: that Jesus was only a man in whom God's strength dwelt. According to this heresy, God was one single person. It was condemned by Pope St Victor in 190 A.D., by the Council of Antioch in 268, by the First Council of Constantinople and by the Roman Synod of 382.4 The Arian heresy, by denying the divinity of the Word, also denied that Jesus Christ was God. Arius was condemned by the Council of Nicaea in the year 325. Today the Church has again reminded us that Jesus Christ is the Son of God subsistent from all eternity and that in the Incarnation he assumed human nature in his one divine Person.5

The Church also confronted other errors that denied the reality of Christ's human nature. These included heresies that rejected the reality of Christ's body or of his soul. Amongst the former were various forms of docetism, which has a Gnostic and Manichean background. Some of its followers held that Christ had a celestial body, or that his body was merely apparent, or that he suddenly appeared in Judaea without having been born or grown up. St John already had to combat this error: for many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh (2 Jn 7; cf. 1 Jn 4:1-1).

Arius and Apollinarius of Laodicea denied that Christ had a true human soul. The latter was particularly important in spreading this error and his influence was felt for several centuries in the later Christological controversies. In an attempt to defend Christ's unity and impeccability, Apollinarius maintained that the Word fulfilled the functions of the human spiritual soul. This doctrine, however, meant a denial of Christ's true humanity, composed, as in all men, of body and spiritual soul (cf. CCC 471). He was condemned in the First Council of Constantinople and the Roman Synod of 382.6

3. The Hypostatic Union

At the beginning of the fifth century, after the preceding controversies, there was a clear need to firmly defend the integrity of the two natures, human and divine, in the one Person of the Word. Thus the personal unity of Christ became the centre of attention of patristic Christology and soteriology. New discussions contributed to this new depth of understanding.

The first great controversy originated with some statements by Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, who implied that in Christ there are two subjects: the divine subject and the human subject, united by a moral bond, but not physically. This Christological error was the origin of his rejection of the title of Mother of God, Theotókos, applied to our Lady. According to his view, Mary would be the Mother of Christ, but not the Mother of God. Against this heresy, St Cyril of Alexandria and the Council of Ephesus in 431 stressed that “Christ's humanity has no other subject than the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it and made it his own from his conception. For this reason the Council of Ephesus proclaimed in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb” (CCC, 466; DS 250 and 252).

Some years later the Monophysite heresy arose. This heresy has antecedents in Apollinarianism and a misunderstanding of St. Cyril's teaching and language by Eutyches, an elderly archimandrite in a monastery in Constantinople. Eutyches affirmed, amongst other things, that Christ was a Person who subsisted in a single nature, since his human nature would have been absorbed into his divine nature. This error was condemned by Pope Leo the Great, in his Tomus ad Flavianum,7 a real jewel of Latin theology, and by the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451, a necessary reference-point for Christology. This Council teaches that “we confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity.”8 It adds that the union of the two natures is “without confusion, change, division or separation.”9

The doctrine of Chalcedon was confirmed and clarified in the year 553 by the Second Council of Constantinople, which offered an authentic interpretation of the previous Council. After repeatedly emphasising the unity of Christ,10 it affirmed that the union of the two natures in Christ takes place by hypostasis.11 In this way it overcame the ambiguity of St Cyril's formula, which spoke of unity according to “physis.” The Second Council of Constantinople also indicated the true sense of St Cyril's well-known formula, “one incarnate nature of the Word of God”12 (a phrase that St Cyril thought came from St Athanasius, but which was in fact an Apollinarian falsification).

In these conciliar definitions, which aimed to clarify specific errors and not to expound the mystery of Christ in its totality, the Council Fathers used the language of their time. Just as Nicaea used the term “consubstantial,” Chalcedon used terms such as nature, person, hypostasis, etc., following the usual meaning that they had in ordinary language and in the theology of the time. This does not mean, as some have affirmed, that the Gospel message became hellenised. In reality, those who showed themselves to be rigidly hellenist were precisely those who proposed heretical doctrines, such as Arius or Nestorius, who could not see the limitations of the philosophical language of their time when trying to describe the mystery of God and of Christ.

4. Christ's Sacred Humanity

“In the Incarnation 'human nature was assumed, not absorbed' (GS 22, 2)” (CCC, 470). Therefore the Church defends “the full reality of Christ's human soul, with its operations of intellect and will, and of his human body. In parallel fashion, she had to recall on each occasion that Christ's human nature belongs, as his own, to the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it. Everything that Christ is and does in this nature derives from 'one of the Trinity.' The Son of God therefore communicates to his humanity his own personal mode of existence in the Trinity. In his soul as in his body, Christ thus expresses humanly the divine ways of the Trinity (cf. Jn 14:9-10)” (CCC, 470).

Christ's human soul possesses true human knowledge. Catholic doctrine has traditionally taught that, as man, Christ possessed acquired knowledge, infused knowledge, and the knowledge proper to the blessed in heaven. Christ's acquired knowledge could not in itself be unlimited. “This is why the Son of God could, when he became man, 'increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man' (Lk 2:52), and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from experience (cf. Mk 6:38; 8:27; Jn 11:34)” (CCC, 472). Christ, in whom the fullness of the Holy Spirit dwells with his gifts (cf. Is 11:1-3), also possesses infused knowledge, that is, knowledge that is not acquired directly by the work of the reason, but is infused directly by God in the human intellect. Thus, “the Son in his human knowledge also showed the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts (cf. Mk 2:8; Jn 2:25; 6:61)” (CCC, 473). Christ also possesses the knowledge proper to the blessed: “By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal (cf. Mk 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34; 14:18-20, 26-30)” (CCC 474).

For all these reasons it must be stated that Christ as man is infallible: to admit error in him would be to admit it in the Word, the one Person existing in Christ. With regard to ignorance as such, we have to bear in mind that “what he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal (cf. Acts 1:7)” (CCC, 474). We can understand that, on the human plane, Christ was aware of being the Word and of his saving mission.13 On the other hand, Catholic theology, in view of the fact that while on earth Christ already possessed the immediate vision of God, has always denied that the virtue of faith existed in Christ.14

Against the monoenergetic and monothelitic heresies which, following logically from the preceding monophysicism, affirmed that in Christ there is a single operation or a single will, the Church confessed in the third Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, in the year 681, that “Christ possesses two wills and two natural operations, divine and human. They are not opposed to each other, but co-operate in such a way that the Word made flesh willed humanly in obedience to his Father all that he had decided divinely with the Father and the Holy Spirit for our salvation (cf. DS 556-559). Christ's human will 'does not resist or oppose but rather submits to his divine and almighty will' (DS 556)” (CCC, 475). This is a fundamental question, since it relates directly to Christ's own being and to our salvation. St Maximus the Confessor was outstanding in his efforts to clarify this doctrine, making very effective use of the well-known passage of Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Olives, which shows the agreement of Christ's human will with the Father's will (cf. Mt 26:39).

A consequence of the duality of natures is also the duality of operations in Christ: the divine operations (or actions) that proceed from his divine nature, and the human operations that proceed from his human nature. We can also speak of theandric operations to refer to those in which the human action serves as an instrument of the divine; this is the case of the miracles worked by Christ.

The reality of Incarnation of the Word was also clarified in the last great Christological controversy of the patristic period: the dispute over images. The custom of representing Christ in frescos, icons, bas-reliefs, etc., is very ancient, going back at least to the second century. The iconoclast crisis in Constantinople at the beginning of the eighth century began with a decree by the Emperor. For centuries, theologians had shown themselves to be for or against the use of images, but both positions had co-existed peacefully. Those who were against images held that God's infinity cannot be enclosed or circumscribed within a limited painting. However, as St John Damascene stressed, the Incarnation itself circumscribed the “incircumscribable” Word. “Since the Word became flesh in assuming a true human nature, Christ's body was finite. Therefore the human face of Jesus can be portrayed (cf. Gal 3:1)” (CCC, 476). At the second ecumenical Council of Nicaea in the year 787, “the Church recognised its representation in holy images to be legitimate” (CCC, 476). Indeed, “the individual particularities of Christ's body express the divine Person of the Son of God. He has made his own the features of his own human body to the extent that, painted on a sacred image, they may be venerated because the believer who venerates his image, venerates the Person it represents.”15

Christ's soul, since it was not essentially divine, but human, was perfected, like the souls of the rest of men, by means of habitual grace, which is a “habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love” (CCC, 2000). Christ is holy, as the archangel Gabriel announced to Mary at the Annunciation (cf. Lk 1:35). Christ's humanity is radically holy, the source and model of the holiness of all men. Through the Incarnation, Christ's human nature was elevated to the greatest unity with the divinity—with the Person of the Word—to which any creature can be raised. From the point of view of Christ's humanity, the hypostatic union is the greatest gift one could receive, and is generally known as the grace of union. Through sanctifying grace, Christ's soul was divinised by the transformation that raises the operations of the soul to the plane of the intimate life of God, giving to its supernatural operations a co-naturalness that it would not otherwise have possessed. His fullness of grace also implies the existence of the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

From Christ's fullness of grace we all received grace upon grace (Jn 1:16). This grace and these gifts are bestowed upon Christ not only in accordance with his dignity as Son, but also in accordance with his mission as the new Adam and Head of the Church. This why we speak about a “capital” grace in Christ, which is not separate from Christ's personal grace but which highlights his sanctifying action on the members of the Church. For the Church “is the Body of Christ” (CCC, 805), a Body “of which Christ is the Head; she lives from him, in him and for him; he lives with her and in her” (CCC, 807).

The Heart of the Incarnate Word: “Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and gave himself up for each one of us: 'The Son of God… loved me and gave himself for me' (Gal 20:2). He has loved us all with a human heart” (CCC, 478). Hence the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the perfect symbol of the love with which he continually loves the eternal Father and all men and women (cf. ibid.).

José Antonio Riestra

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 422-483.

Benedict XVI – Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007, pp. 319-355.

Recommended Reading

F. Ocáriz, L. F. Mateo Seco, and J. A. Riestra, The Mystery of Jesus Christ: A Christology and Soteriology Textbook, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1994.

Contents

Footnotes

1Cf. Vatican Council II, Const. Lumen Gentium, 9.

2Council of Constantinople I, Symbolum, DS 150; cf. Vatican Council II, Const. Lumen Gentium, 55.

3Cf. M. Sharkey (ed), International Theological Commission, Texts and Documents 1969-1985, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989.

4Cf. DS 151 and 157-158.

5Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Mysterium Filii Dei, 21 February 1972, in AAS 64 (1972), 237-241.

6Cf. DS 151 and 159.

7Cf. DS290-295.

8Cf. DS 301; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 467.

9Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 467.

10Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 423.

11Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 425.

12Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 429.

13Cf. International Theological Commission, 'The Consciousness of Christ Concerning Himself and His Mission' (1985), in Sharkey M. (ed), International Theological Commission, Texts and Documents 1969-1985. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989).

14Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Notification, 26 November 2006, no. V.

15Council of Nicaea II, DS 601.

TOPIC 9

The Incarnation

The Incarnation is the supreme demonstration of God’s love for mankind, when the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity took on our human nature while remaining a divine Person.

1. The Work of the Incarnation

The assuming of human nature by God the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, is the work of all three Divine Persons. The Incarnation is the Incarnation of God the Son, not of the Father or of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, the Incarnation was the work of the whole Trinity. Therefore in Sacred Scripture it is sometimes attributed to God the Father (Heb 10:5 ; Gal 4:4), to the Son himself (Phil 2:7) or to the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:35; Mt 1:20). This emphasises that the work of the Incarnation was a single act, common to the three divine Persons. St. Augustine explained that “the fact that Mary conceived and bore a child is the work of the Trinity, since the works of the Trinity are inseparable.”1 This is a divine action ad extra, the effects of which are outside of God, in creatures, so that they are the work of the three Persons conjointly, since the divine Being, which is God's infinite power itself, is one and unique (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, hereafter CCC, 258).

The Incarnation of the Word does not affect God's freedom, since God could have decided that the Word should not become incarnate, or that another divine Person should become incarnate. However, to say that God is infinitely free does not mean that his decisions are arbitrary, nor does it deny that love is the reason for his actions. This is why theologians generally seek the “fitting reasons” that can be glimpsed in God's various decisions as shown in the existing economy of salvation. By doing so, they are only seeking to highlight the wonderful wisdom and inner consistency in every work of God, rather than any supposed necessity on God's part.

2. The Virgin Mary, Mother of God

The Virgin Mary was predestined to be the Mother of God from all eternity, in view of the Incarnation of the Word. “In the mystery of Christ she is present even 'before the creation of the world' as the one whom the Father 'has chosen' as mother of his Son in the Incarnation. And, what is more, together with the Father, the Son has chosen her, entrusting her eternally to the Spirit of holiness.”2 God's choice respects Mary's freedom, since “the Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by assent on the part of the predestined mother, so that just as a woman had a share in bringing about death, so also a woman should contribute to life (LG 56; cf. 61)” (CCC, 488). Because of this, from the earliest times, the Fathers of the Church have seen Mary as the new Eve.

“To become the Mother of the Saviour, Mary 'was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role' (LG 56)” (CCC, 490). The Archangel Gabriel greeted her at the moment of the Annunciation as “full of grace” (Lk 1:28) before the Word had become incarnate. Through God's gifts and her response, Mary was already full of grace. The grace that Mary received made her pleasing to God and prepared her to be the virgin Mother of the Saviour. Wholly possessed by God's grace, she was able to give her free consent to the announcement of her vocation (cf. CCC, 490). “Thus, giving her consent to God's word, Mary becomes the Mother of Jesus. Espousing the divine will for salvation whole-heartedly, without a single sin to restrain her, she gave herself entirely to the person and to the work of her Son; she did so in order to serve the mystery of redemption with him and dependent on him, by God's grace (cf. LG 56)” (CCC, 494). “The Fathers of the Easter tradition call the Mother of God 'the All-Holy' (Panagia)and celebrate her as 'free from any stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature' (LG 56). By the grace of God, Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long” (CCC, 493).

Mary was redeemed from the moment of her conception. “That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: 'the most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin' (DS 2803)” (CCC, 491). The Immaculate Conception makes clear the gratuitous love of God, since it was an initiative on God's part and not merited by Mary, but by Christ. Indeed, “'the splendour of an entirely unique holiness' by which Mary is 'enriched from the first instant of her conception' (LG 56) comes to her wholly from Christ: 'she is redeemed in a more exalted fashion by reason of the merits of her Son' (LG 53)” (CCC, 492).

Mary is the Mother of God: “In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly' Mother of God ' (Theotokos)(cf. DS 252)” (CCC, 495). She did not engender the divinity, but the human body of the Word, to which his rational soul, created by God like all others, was immediately united, thus giving rise to the human nature that was assumed by the Word at that very instant.

Mary was always a Virgin. From the earliest times the Church has confessed in the Creed and celebrated in her liturgy “Mary …ever-Virgin” (cf. LG 52) (CCC, 499; cf. CCC, 496-507). This faith of the Church is reflected in the ancient formula “Virgin before childbirth, during childbirth and after childbirth.” From the beginning, “the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary solely by the power of the Holy Spirit, affirming also the corporeal aspect of this event; Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit 'without human seed'(Lateran Council, 649; DS 503)” (CCC, 496). Mary was also a virgin during childbirth, since “she gave birth to him without detriment to her virginity, just as she had conceived him without loss of her virginity … Jesus was born of a virginal womb by a miraculous birth.”3 In fact “Christ's birth 'did not diminish his mother's virginal integrity but sanctified it' (LG 57)” (CCC, 499). Mary remained perpetually a virgin after childbirth. The Fathers of the Church, in their explanations of the Gospels and in their replies to certain objections, have always affirmed this fact, which manifests her total availability and absolute dedication to God's plan of salvation. St. Basil summarised this when he wrote: “those who love God will not hear that the Mother of God ceased to be a virgin at any stage.”4

Mary was assumed into heaven. “The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from any stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.”5 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians (cf. CCC, 966). Mary's royal status is based on her divine maternity and her association with the work of the Redemption.6 On 1 November 1954, Pius XII instituted the feast of the Queenship of Mary.7

Mary is the Mother of the Redeemer. Because of this her divine motherhood includes her co-operation in the salvation of mankind: “Thus the daughter of Adam, Mary, consenting to the word of God, became the Mother of Jesus. Committing herself whole-heartedly and impeded by no sin to God's saving will, she devoted herself totally, as a handmaid of the Lord, to the person and work of her Son, under and with him, serving the mystery of redemption, by the grace of Almighty God. Rightly, therefore, the Fathers see Mary not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely co-operating in the work of man's salvation through faith and obedience.”8

This co-operation is also manifested in her spiritual maternity. Mary, the new Eve, is the true mother of men in the order of grace since she co-operates in the birth of the faithful to the life of grace and in their spiritual development: Mary “in a wholly singular way co-operated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the Saviour's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace”9 (cf. CCC, 968). Mary is also the mediatrix; her motherly mediation, always subordinate to the one mediation of Christ, began with her fiat at the Annunciation and continues in heaven: “Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation … Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix”10 (cf. CCC, 969).

Mary is the type and model of the Church: “The Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity. 'Thus she is a pre-eminent and wholly unique member of the Church' (LG 53); indeed, she is the 'exemplary realisation' of the Church (LG 63)” (CCC, 967). Paul VI, on 21 November 1964, solemnly proclaimed Mary the Mother of the Church, so as to emphasise explicitly the motherly role that the Blessed Virgin fulfils towards the Christian people.11

In view of all the above, we can understand why the Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is an intrinsic part of Christian worship.12 “The Church rightly honours 'the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honoured with the title of Mother of God, to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs … This very special devotion … differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the Incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration.'13 The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God (cf. SC 103) and Marian prayer such as the Rosary, express this devotion to the Virgin Mary” (CCC, 971).

3. Figures and Prophecies of the Incarnation

The previous article discussed how after the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, God did not abandon mankind, but promised us a Saviour (cf. Gen 3:15; CCC, 410).

After original sin and the promise of a Redeemer, God himself took the initiative once again and established a Covenant with men: with Noah after the flood (cf. Gen 9-10) and afterwards above all with Abraham (cf. Gen 15-17), to whom he promised many descendants whom he would make a great people, giving them a new land, and in whom one day all nations would be blessed. The Covenant was renewed later with Isaac (cf. Gen 26:2-5) and with Jacob (cf. Gen 28:12-15; 35:9-12). In the Old Testament, the Covenant reached its highest expression with Moses (cf. Ex 6:2-8; Ex 19-34).

An important moment in the history of the relationship between God and Israel was Nathan's prophecy (cf. 2 Sam 7:7-15), which announced that the Messiah would be a descendant of David and that he would reign over all peoples, not only over Israel. Other prophetic texts told that his birth would take place in Bethlehem (cf. Mic 5:1), that he would come from the seed of David (cf. Is 11:1; Jer 23:5); that he would be given the name “Emmanuel,” that is, God with us (cf. Is 7:14); that he would be called “Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Is 9:5), etc. Besides the texts that describe the Messiah as king and a descendant of David, there are others that prophesy the redemptive mission of the Messiah, calling him the Servant of God, man of sorrows, who will make peace and reconcile us in one body (cf. Eph 2:14-18): Is 42:1-7; 49:1-9; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12. In this context the text of Dan 7:13-14 is important, about the Son of man, who mysteriously, through humility and abasement, overcomes the human condition and restores the messianic kingdom in its final and permanent phase (cf. CCC, 440).

The principal “types” or figures of the Redeemer in the Old Testament are the innocent Abel, the high priest Melchizedek, the sacrifice of Isaac, Joseph sold by his brothers, the paschal lamb, the bronze serpent raised by Moses in the desert, and the prophet Jonah.

4. The Names of Christ

Throughout the centuries many names and titles have been attributed to Christ by theologians and spiritual authors. Some are taken from the Old Testament, others from the New. Some are used or accepted by Jesus himself; others have been applied to him by the Church throughout the centuries. The following are the main and most frequently-used names.

Jesus (cf. CCC, 430-435), which in Hebrew means “God saves.” “At the Annunciation, the Angel Gabriel gave him the name Jesus as his proper name, which expresses both his identity and his mission” (CCC, 430), that is, he is the Son of God made man in order to save “his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). The name Jesus “signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of his Son (cf. Acts 5:41; 3 Jn 7), made man for the universal and definitive redemption from sins. It is the divine name that alone brings salvation (cf. Jn 3:18; Acts 2:21), and henceforth all can invoke his name, for Jesus united himself to all men through his Incarnation” (CCC, 432). “The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer” (cf. CCC, 435).

Christ (cf. CCC, 436-440), the name that comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew term “Messiah,” which means “anointed.” It became the name proper to Jesus “because he accomplished perfectly the divine mission that 'Christ' signifies. In effect, in Israel those consecrated to God for a mission that he gave were anointed in his name” (CCC, 436). This was the case for priests, kings and, exceptionally, prophets. All the more would it apply to the Messiah whom God would send to restore his kingdom definitively. Jesus fulfilled the messianic hope of Israel in his triple function as priest, prophet and king (cf. ibid.). “Jesus accepted his rightful title of messiah (cf. Jn 4:25-26; 11:27), though with some reserve because it was understood by some of his contemporaries in too human a sense (cf. Mt 22:41-46), as essentially political (cf. Jn 6:15; Lk 24:21)” (CCC, 439).

Jesus Christ is the Only Son of God (cf. CCC, 441-445). Jesus' sonship in relation to his Father is not an adoptive sonship like ours, but the natural sonship of God, that is to say, “the unique and eternal relationship of Jesus Christ to God his Father: he is the only Son of the Father (cf. Jn 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18); he is God himself (cf. Jn 1:1). To be a Christian one must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (cf. Acts 8:37; 1 Jn 2:23)” (CCC, 454). The Gospels “report that at two solemn moments, the Baptism and the Transfiguration of Christ, the voice of the Father designates Jesus his 'beloved Son' (Mt 3:17; 17:5). Jesus calls himself the 'only Son of God' (Jn 3:16) and by this title affirms his eternal pre-existence” (CCC, 444).

Lord (cf. CCC, 446-451): “In the Greek translations of the Old Testament, the ineffable Hebrew name YHWH, by which God revealed himself to Moses (cf. Ex 3:14) is rendered as Kyrios, 'Lord.' From then on Lord becomes the more usual name by which to indicate the divinity of Israel's God. The New Testament uses this full sense of the title 'Lord' both for the Father and — what is new — for Jesus, who is thereby recognised as God Himself (cf. 1 Cor 2:8)” (CCC, 446). By attributing to Jesus the divine title of Lord, “the first confessions of the Church's faith affirm from the beginning (Acts 2:34-36) that the power, honour and glory due to God the Father are due also to Jesus (cf. Rom 9:5; Tit 2:13; Rev 5:13), because 'he was in the form of God' (Phil 2:6), and the Father manifested the sovereignty of Jesus by raising him from the dead and exalting him into his glory (cf. Rom 10:9; 1 Cor 12:3; Phil 2:11)” (CCC, 449). “Christian prayer, both liturgical and personal, is characterised by the title 'Lord'” (cf. CCC, 451).

5. Christ is the only perfect Mediator between God and men. He is Teacher, Priest and King

“Jesus Christ is true God and true man, in the unity of his divine person; for this reason he is the one and only mediator between God and man” (CCC, 480). In the New Testament the most profound expression of Christ's mediation is to be found in the first letter to Timothy: For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all (1 Tim 2:5). These words present the Mediator and his action. In the letter to the Hebrews Christ is presented as the mediator of a New Covenant (cf. Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24). Jesus Christ is mediator because he is perfect God and perfect man, but he is mediator in and through his humanity. These texts of the New Testament present Christ as prophet and the one who reveals the truth, as high priest and as the Lord of all creation. These are not three distinct ministries, but three different aspects of the saving function of the one mediator.

Christ is the prophet announced in Deuteronomy (18:18). The people considered Jesus to be a prophet (cf. Mt 16:14; Mk 6:14-16; Lk 24:19). The beginning of the Letter to the Hebrews sets this out clearly. But Christ is more than a prophet: he is the Teacher, that is, the one who teaches by his own authority, with an authority unknown until then, which surprised those who listened to him. The supreme character of Jesus' teachings is founded on the fact that he is God and man. Jesus not only teaches the truth, He is the Truth, made visible in the flesh. Christ, the eternal Word of the Father, “is the Father's one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one” (CCC, 65). Christ's teaching is also definitive in the sense that, with it, God's Revelation to men in history has been finally fulfilled.

Christ is priest. Jesus Christ's mediation is a priestly mediation. In the Letter to the Hebrews, which has Christ's priesthood as its central theme, Jesus Christ is presented as the High Priest of the New Covenant, “'high priest after the order of Melchizedek' (Heb 5:10); 'holy, blameless, unstained' (Heb 7:26), who “by a single offering has perfected for all time those who are sanctified' (Heb 10:14), that is, by the unique sacrifice of the cross” (CCC, 1544). In the same way as the sacrifice of Christ — his death on the Cross — is unique because of the unity that exists between the priest and the victim (of infinite value), so also his priesthood is unique. He is the one victim and the one priest. The sacrifices of the Old Testament were a figure of Christ's sacrifice, and they received their value precisely because they were orientated to Christ. Christ's priesthood, the eternal priesthood, is participated in by the ministerial priesthood and by the priesthood of the faithful, which neither add to nor take away from that of Christ (cf. CCC, 1544-1547).

Christ is King. He is King not only as God, but also as man. Christ's sovereignty is a fundamental aspect of his saving mediation. Christ saves because he has the effective power to do so. The faith of the Church affirms Christ's royalty and confesses in the Creed that “his kingdom will have no end,” thus repeating what the archangel Gabriel said to Mary (cf. Lk 1:32-33). Christ's royal dignity had already been announced in the Old Testament (cf. Ps 2:6; Is 7:6; 11:1-9; Dan 7:14). However, Christ did not speak much about his royalty, since among the Jews of his day a worldly concept of the messianic Kingdom was very widespread. He acknowledged it, indeed, at a particularly solemn moment, when he replied to a question of Pilate's: You say that I am a king (Jn 18:37). Christ's royalty is not metaphorical, but real, and includes the power to legislate and to judge. It is a royalty based on the fact that he is the Word incarnate and that he is our Redeemer.14 His kingdom is spiritual and eternal. It is a kingdom of holiness and justice, of love, truth and peace.15 Christ exercises his royalty by drawing all men to himself through his death and resurrection (cf. Jn 12:32). Christ, the King and Lord of the universe, became the servant of all, not having “come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt 20:28)” (CCC, 786). All the faithful “participate in these three offices of Christ and bear the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them” (CCC, 783).

6. The whole of Christ's life is redemptive

Concerning the events in Christ's life, “the Creed speaks only about the mysteries of the Incarnation (conception and birth) and the Paschal mystery (passion, crucifixion, death, burial, descent into hell, resurrection and ascension). It says nothing explicitly about the mysteries of Jesus' hidden or public life, but the articles of faith concerning his Incarnation and Passover do shed light on the whole of his earthly life” (CCC, 512).

The whole of Christ's life is redemptive and any human action of his possesses a transcendent salvific value. Even in the simplest and apparently least important of Jesus' actions there is an effective exercise of his mediation between God and men, since they are all the actions of the incarnate Word. St. Josemaria understood this teaching with particular depth. He taught people to turn all the paths of the earth into divine paths of holiness: “When the fullness of time comes to fulfil that mission … a child is born in Bethlehem. He it is who is to redeem the world. But before he speaks he loves with deeds. It is no magic formula he brings, because he knows that the salvation he offers must pass through human hearts. What does he first do? He laughs and cries and sleeps, as a helpless baby, although he is God incarnate. And he does this so that we may fall in love with him, so that we may learn to take him in our arms.”16

The years of Christ's hidden life are not simply a preparation for his public ministry, but are truly redemptive actions, directed towards the consummation of the Paschal Mystery. The fact that Jesus shared the condition of most people for the greater part of his life is of great theological relevance: his daily family life and his life of work in Nazareth. Nazareth is therefore a lesson in family life, and a lesson in work.17 Christ also carries out our redemption during the many years of work in his hidden life. Thus he gave to the daily work of Christians, and to that of millions of men and women of good will, all its divine significance in the history of salvation: “The fact that Jesus grew up and lived just like us shows us that human existence and all the ordinary activities of men have a divine meaning.”18

José Antonio Riestra

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 484-570, 720-726 and 963-975.

Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, Bloomsbury, London, 2007.

Recommended Reading

J. L. Bastero, Mary, Mother of the Redeemer: A Mariology Textbook, Four Courts Press, 2006.

F. Ocáriz, L. F. Mateo Seco and J. A. Riestra, The Mystery of Jesus Christ: A Christology and Soteriology Textbook, trans. Michael Adams and James Gavigan. Portland, OR: Four Courts Press, 1994.

Contents

Footnotes

1St. Augustine, De Trinitate, 2, 5, 9; cf. Lateran Council IV: DS 801.

2John Paul II, Enc. Redemptoris Mater, 25 March 1987, 8; cf. Pius IX, Bull Ineffabilis Deus; Pius XII, Bull Munificentissimus Deus, AAS 42 (1950) 9768; Paul VI, Apost. Exhort. Marialis Cultus, 25; CIC, 488.

3St. Leo the Great, Ep. Lectis Dilectionis Tuae, DS 291-294.

4St. Basil, In Christi Generationem, 5.

5Vatican Council II, Const. Lumen Gentium, 59; cf. the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Pope Pius XII in 1950; DS 3903.

6Cf. Pius XII, Enc. Ad Coeli Reginam, 11 October 1954; AAS 46 (1954) 625-640.

7Cf. AAS 46 (1954) 662-666.

8Vatican Council II, Const. Lumen Gentium, 56.

9Ibid., 61.

10Ibid., 62.

11Cf. AAS 56 (1964) 1015-1016.

12Cf. Paul VI, Exhort. Marialis Cultus, 56.

13Vatican Council II, Const. Lumen Gentium, 66.

14Cf. Pius XI, Enc. Quas Primas, 11 November 1925, AS 17 (195) 599.

15Cf. Roman Missal, Preface of the Mass of Christ the King.

16St. Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, 36.

17Cf. Paul VI, Speech in Nazareth, 5 January 1964: Insegnamenti di Paolo VI 2 (1964) 25.

18St. Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, 14.

TOPIC 10

Passion and Death on the Cross

Christ died for our sins, to free us from them and redeem us from the slavery that sin introduced into mankind’s life.

1. Introduction and meaning

1.1. Introduction

The meaning of creation is determined by its supernatural end, which is union with God. However, sin profoundly upset the order of creation: mankind ceased to see the world as a work full of goodness and turned it into something equivocal. People placed their hope in creatures and established false earthly goals for themselves.

The purpose of Jesus Christ's coming into the world is to re-establish God's plan and lead the world to its true destiny of union with God. To do this, Jesus, the true Head of the human race,1 took upon himself the whole of human nature degraded by sin, made this nature his own, and offered it as a Son to the Father. In this way Jesus restored to every human relationship and situation their true meaning, which is their dependence on God the Father.

This meaning or purpose of Christ's coming is fulfilled through the whole of his life, through each of the mysteries in his life, in which Jesus fully glorifies the Father. Each event and stage in Christ's life has a specific purpose ordered to this salvific goal.2

1.2. Meaning of the Mystery of the Cross

The real purpose of the mystery of the Cross is to cancel out the sin of the world (cf. Jn 1:29), which is absolutely necessary if we are to achieve filial union with God. This union is, as stated above, the ultimate goal of God's plan (cf. Rom 8:28-30).

Jesus rids the world of sin by taking it upon his own shoulders and destroying sin in the justice of his holy heart.3 The mystery of the Cross consists essentially in the following.

a) He took our sins upon himself. This is seen, in the first place, in his passion and death as related in the Gospels. Since these events happened to the Son of God incarnate and not just to a man, however holy, they have a universal value and effectiveness that applies to the whole human race. In the Gospels we see that Jesus was given by the Father into the hands of sinners (cf. Mt 26:45) and that he himself allowed their wickedness to determine his fate. As Isaiah says in his powerful portrait of the “Suffering Servant”:4 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth (Is 53:7).

A lamb without blemish, Christ freely accepted the physical and mental suffering imposed on him by the injustice of sinners, and through it, he took upon himself all the sins of men, every offence committed against God. Every human affront is, in some way, the cause of Christ's death. In this sense we say that Jesus “bore” our sins on Golgotha (cf. 1 Pet 2:24).

b) He eliminated sin through his self-giving. Christ did not limit himself to bearing our sins, he also “destroyed” them. They were eliminated because he accepted his sufferings with filial righteousness, in obedient and loving submission to his Father God; and with innocent righteousness, as one who loves sinners even though they do not deserve it; seeking to forgive our offences out of love (cf. Lk 22:42; 23:34). He offered his sufferings and death to his Father on our behalf and for our forgiveness: With his stripes we are healed (Is 53:5).

The fruit of the Cross is, therefore, the elimination of sin. We can make this fruit our own through the sacraments (especially sacramental Confession), and we will do so definitively after this life, if we have been faithful to God. The Cross offers all men and women the possibility of avoiding sin and of integrating Christ's sufferings and death into their own path to holiness.

2. The Cross reveals God's mercy and justice in Jesus Christ

God chose to save the world by way of the Cross, but not because he loves pain or suffering, since God only loves good and does good. He did not want the Cross with an unconditional will, like his will, for example, that creatures should exist, but he willed it praeviso peccato, presupposing sin. The Cross is there because sin exists. But love also exists. The Cross is the fruit of God's love in response to men's sins.

God chose to send his Son into the world to bring about the salvation of mankind through the sacrifice of his own life, and this tells us much about God himself. Specifically the Cross reveals to us the mercy and justice of God:

a) God's mercy. Holy Scripture frequently refers to the Father giving his Son into the hands of sinners (cf. Mt 26:54), not sparing his own Son. Through the unity of the divine Persons of the Trinity, the Father who sent him is always present in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word. Therefore, behind Jesus' free decision to give his life for us, there is the Father's surrender of his beloved Son for us, handing him over to sinners; this surrender shows, more than any other gesture in the history of salvation, the Father's love for mankind and his mercy.

b) The Cross also reveals to us God's justice. This does not consist so much in making human beings pay for their sins as in setting us again on the path of truth and goodness, and restoring the gifts destroyed by sin. Christ's faithfulness, obedience and love towards his Father God; his generosity, charity and forgiveness of mankind, his brothers and sisters; his truthfulness, justice and innocence, maintained and reaffirmed at the moment of his passion and death, do all of this. They empty sin of its power to send us to hell, and open our hearts to holiness and justice, since he gives himself for us. God frees us from our sins through justice, Christ's justice.

As the result of Christ's sacrifice and through the presence of his saving power, we are always able to behave as children of God, whatever the situation in which we find ourselves.

3. Sinners caused the Cross to happen

Jesus knew from the beginning, in a way appropriate to the progress of his mission and of his human awareness, that his life was leading to the Cross. And he accepted it fully: he came to do the Father's will down to the very last detail (cf. Jn 19:28-30), and doing so led him to give his life as a ransom for many (Mk 10:45).

In carrying out the task his Father had entrusted to him, he met with the opposition of the religious authorities in Israel, who considered Jesus to be an impostor. “Some of the leaders of Israel accused Jesus of acting against the law, the temple in Jerusalem, and in particular against faith in the one God because he proclaimed himself to be the Son of God. For this reason they handed him over to Pilate so that he might condemn him to death” (Compendium, 113).

The people who condemned Jesus to death sinned by rejecting the Truth that is Christ. In reality, every sin is a rejection of Jesus and of the truth that he brought us from God. In that sense, every sin has its place in the Passion of Jesus. “The passion and death of Jesus cannot be imputed indiscriminately either to all the Jews that were living at that time or to their descendants. Every single sinner, that is, every human being is really the cause and the instrument of the sufferings of the Redeemer; and the greater blame in this respect falls on those above all who are Christians and who the more often fall into sin or delight in their vices” (Compendium, 117).

4. Sacrifice and Redemption

Jesus died for our sins (cf. Rom 4:25), to free us from them and redeem us from the slavery that sin introduced into mankind's life. Holy Scripture says that the passion and death of Christ are: a) a covenant sacrifice; b) a sacrifice of expiation, c) a sacrifice of atonement and reparation for sins, d) an act of the redemption and liberation of mankind.

a) Jesus, by offering his life to God on the Cross, instituted the New Covenant, that is to say, the new form of union of God with men that had been prophesied by Isaiah (cf. Is 42:6), Jeremiah (cf. Jer 31:31-33) and Ezekiel (cf Ez 37:26). The new Alliance is the covenant sealed in the body of Christ offered up for us, and in his blood shed for us (cf. Mt 26:27-28).

b) Christ's sacrifice on the Cross has an expiatory value, that is to say, the value of cleansing and purifying us from sin (cf. Rom 3:25; Heb 1:3; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10).

c) The Cross is a sacrifice of atonement and reparation for sin (cf . Eph 2:16, 5:2; Phil 2:8-9; Heb 5:1-10, 13:11-12). Christ rendered to his Father the love and obedience that we human beings had denied him through our sins. His self-giving manifested justice and satisfied the fatherly love of God which we had rejected from the very beginning of history.

d) Christ's Cross is an act of the redemption and liberation of mankind. Jesus paid for our freedom with the price of his blood, that is, of his suffering and death (cf. 1 Pet 1:18). By giving his life he merited our salvation so as to incorporate us into the kingdom of heaven: He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:13-14).

5. Effects of the Cross

The main effect of the Cross is to eliminate sin and everything opposed to our union with God.

As well as destroying sin, the Cross also frees us from the devil, who, while remaining hidden, engineers the whole trauma of sin and eternal death. The devil can do nothing against those who are united to Christ (cf . Rom 8:31-39), and death ceases to be an eternal separation from God, and becomes instead the gateway to our final destiny (cf. 1 Cor 15:55-56).

The Cross removes all the obstacles and opens up the way of salvation and the possibility of grace for all mankind.

Together with Christ's Resurrection and his glorious Exaltation, the Cross is the cause of man's justification, that is, not only the destruction of sin and all the other obstacles, but also the infusion of new life (Christ's grace which sanctifies the soul). Each sacrament is a different way of participating in Christ's Pasch and of making our own the salvation that flows from it. Baptism in particular frees us from the death introduced by original sin and enables us to live the new life of the risen Christ.

Jesus is the one, universal cause of human salvation, the only mediator between God and men. Each saving grace given to men proceeds from Christ's life, and in particular, from his paschal mystery.

6. Co-redeeming with Christ

As stated above, the Redemption worked by Christ on the Cross is universal: it extends to the whole human race. But the fruit and merits of Christ's Passion need to be applied to each person, principally by means of faith and the sacraments.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and men (cf. 1 Tim 2:5). But God the Father has willed that we should not only be redeemed but also be co-redeemers (cf. Catechism, 618). He calls us to take up his Cross and follow him (cf. Mt 16:24), because he suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps (cf. 1 Pet 2:21).

Saint Paul writes:

a) I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Gal 2:20). To reach identification with Christ we have to embrace the Cross.

b) In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church (Col 1:24). We can be co-redeemers with Christ.

God has not chosen to free us from all the hardships in this life. By accepting them we can identify ourselves with Christ, merit eternal life and co-operate in the work of bringing the fruits of Redemption to others. Sickness and pain, offered to God in union with Christ, achieve great redeeming value, as does corporal mortification practised in the same spirit in which Christ suffered, freely and voluntarily, in his Passion: out of love, to redeem us, expiating for our sins. On the Cross Jesus Christ sets us an example of all the virtues:

a) charity: Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (Jn 15:13);

b) obedience: He became obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:8);

c) humility, meekness and patience. He bore his sufferings without avoiding them or diminishing them, like a meek lamb (cf. Jer 11:19);

d) detachment from the things of earth: the King of kings and Lord of those who rule appears on the Cross naked, mocked, spat upon, scourged, crowned with thorns, for Love.

Our Lord chose to associate his Mother with the mystery of redemptive suffering more closely than anyone else (cf. Lk 2:35; Catechism, 618). Our Lady teaches us to stand by her Son's Cross.5

Antonio Ducay

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 599-618.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 112-124.

John Paul II, “The Redemptive Value of Christ's Passion,” Catechesis: 7 September 1988, 8 September 1988, 5 October 1988, 19 October 1988, 26 October 1988.

John Paul II, “Christ's Death: its Redemptive Character,” Catechesis: 14 December 1988, 11 January 1989.

Recommended Reading

St Josemaría, Homily “Christ's Death is the Christian's Life,” in Christ is Passing By, 95-101.

Contents

Footnotes

1He is our Head because he is the Son of God and because he made himself one with us in everything except sin (cf. Heb 4:15).

2Christ's infancy, his life of work, his baptism in the Jordan, his preaching, and everything else, contributes to the Redemption of mankind. Referring to Christ's life in the town of Nazareth, St Josemaría said, “His hidden years are not without significance, nor were they simply a preparation for the years which were to come after — those of his public life. Since 1928 I have understood clearly that God wants our Lord's whole life to be an example for Christians. I saw this with special reference to his hidden life, the years he spent working side by side with ordinary men. Our Lord wants many people to ratify their vocation during years of quiet, unspectacular living” (Christ is Passing By, 19).

3Cf. Col 1:19-22; 2:13-15; Rom 8:1-4; Eph 2:14-18; Heb 9:26.

4The four poems dedicated to the mysterious “Servant of God” are a moving prophecy in the Old Testament of Christ's Passion. (Is 42:1-9; 49:1-9; 50:4-9; 52:13–53:12).

5Cf. Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, 508.

TOPIC 11

Resurrection, Ascension and Second Coming

Christ’s Resurrection is a fundamental truth of our faith, as St Paul tells us (cf. 1 Cor 15:13-14). Thereby God inaugurated the life of the future world and put it at the disposition of mankind.

1. Christ was buried and descended into hell

After suffering and dying, Christ's body was buried in a new tomb, not far from the place where he had been crucified. His soul, on the other hand, descended into hell. Christ's burial showed that he truly died. God ordained that Christ should undergo the condition of death, that is, the separation of the soul from the body (cf. Catechism, 624). While he remained in the tomb, both his soul and his body, though separated from each other by death, continued being united to his divine Person (cf. Catechism, 626).

Because Christ's dead body continued to belong to the divine Person, it did not undergo the corruption of the tomb (cf. Catechism, 627, Acts 13:37). Christ's soul went down into hell. “This 'hell' was different from the hell of the damned. It was the state of all those, righteous and evil, who died before Christ” (Compendium, 125). The just lived in a state of happiness (they rested in “Abraham's bosom”), though they still did not have the vision of God. By the phrase “went down into hell,” we understand Christ's being present in “Abraham's bosom” so as to open heaven's gates to the just who had gone before him. “With his soul united to his divine Person Jesus went down to the just in hell who were awaiting their Redeemer so they could enter at last into the vision of God” (Compendium, 125).

With his descent into hell, Christ displayed his dominion over the devil and death by freeing the holy souls who were retained there and bringing them to eternal glory. Thus the Redemption, which had to reach the men and women of all epochs, was applied to those who had gone before Christ (cf. Catechism, 634).

2. General meaning of Christ's glorification

Christ's glorification consists in his Resurrection and his Exaltation in heaven, where he is seated at the right hand of the Father. The general meaning of Christ's glorification is tied to his death on the Cross. Just as by Christ's Passion and Death, God abolished sin and reconciled the world to himself, so likewise, by Christ's Resurrection, God inaugurated the life of the future world and put it at mankind's disposition.

The blessings of salvation stem not only from the Cross, but also from Christ's Resurrection. These fruits are applied to men through the Church's mediation and the Sacraments. Specifically, through Baptism, we receive pardon for our sins (both original sin and personal sins) and are clothed in the new life of the Risen One.

3. Resurrection of Jesus Christ

“On the third day” (of his death), Jesus was raised to a new life. His body and soul, completely transfigured with the glory of his divine Person, were reunited. His soul once again animated his body, and the glory of his soul was communicated to his entire body. Therefore, “the Resurrection of Christ was not a return to earthly life. His risen body is that which was crucified and bears the marks of his passion. However it also participates in the divine life, with the characteristics of a glorified body” (Compendium, 129).

The Lord's Resurrection is the foundation of our faith, since it attests beyond any doubt to the fact that God has intervened in human history in order to save mankind. And it guarantees the truth of what the Church preaches about God, about the divinity of Christ and the salvation he brings. As St Paul says, if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is futile (1 Cor 15:17).

The Apostles could hardly have been deceived, or have invented the Resurrection. First of all, if Christ's tomb had not been empty, they wouldn't have ventured to speak of the Resurrection; furthermore, if Jesus had not appeared to them on various occasions and also to many others, both men and women, many of Christ's disciples would not have been able to accept it, as initially happened with the Apostle Thomas. Still less would they have been willing to give up their lives for a lie. As St Paul says: If Christ has not been raised … we are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise (1 Cor 15: 14, 15). And when the Jewish authorities wished to silence the preaching of the Gospel, St Peter replied: We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. …. And we are witnesses to these things (Acts 5:29-30, 32).

Besides being an historical event, verified and attested to by signs and testimonies, Christ's Resurrection is a transcendent happening, because “insofar as it is the entrance of Christ's humanity into the glory of God, (it) transcends and surpasses history as a mystery of faith” (Compendium, 128). Therefore, the risen Jesus, though still possessing a true, physical, corporal identity, is not subject to physical, earthly laws, except when he so wills: “the risen Jesus was utterly free to appear to his disciples how and where he wished and under various aspects” (Compendium, 129).

Christ's Resurrection is a mystery of salvation. It shows the goodness and love of God who rewards the self-lowering of his Son, and with his omnipotence imbues mankind with life. The Risen Jesus possesses the fullness of divine life in his humanity so that he might communicate it to men and women. “The risen Christ, the conqueror of sin and death, is the principle of our justification and our Resurrection. The Resurrection procures for us now the grace of filial adoption, which is a real share in the life of the only begotten Son. At the end of time he will raise up our bodies” (Compendium, 131). Christ is the first-born among the dead and we too will rise again through Him and in Him.

From our Lord's Resurrection we should draw:

a) A living faith: “Stir up your faith! Christ is not a figure of the past. He is not a memory lost in history. He lives! 'Iesus Christus heri et hodie: ipse et in saecula!' As St Paul says 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today—yes, and forever!'”1

b) Hope: “Never despair. Lazarus was dead and decaying: “iam foetet, quatriduanus est enim'— by now he will smell; this is the fourth day,' Mary told Jesus. If you hear the inspiration of God and follow it— 'Lazare, veni foras!'— 'Lazarus, come forth!'—you will return to Life.”2

c) The desire that grace and charity might transform us and lead us to live a supernatural life, which is the life of Christ—in other words, to truly strive to be saints (cf. Col 3:1 & ff.) And also the desire to be cleansed of our sins in the Sacrament of Penance, which enables us to rise again to supernatural life (if we have lost it through mortal sin) and begin anew: nunc coepi (Ps 76:11).

4. Christ's glorious exaltation: “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”

The glorious exaltation of Christ comes about through his Ascension into heaven, which took place forty days after his Resurrection (cf. Acts 1:9-10), and his glorious enthronement in heaven, to share as man the Father's glory and power, and to be Lord and King of creation.

When we make our confession of faith in this article of the Creed that Christ “is seated at the right hand of the Father,” “by this expression we understand the glory and honor of the divinity, where he who existed as Son of God before all ages, indeed as God, of one being with the Father, is seated bodily after he became incarnate and his flesh was glorified.”3

With the Ascension, the mission of the Redeemer—the sending of Christ among men in human flesh to bring about their salvation—comes to an end. After his Resurrection, Jesus continued his presence among us so as to manifest his new life and complete the disciples' formation. But this presence ends on the day of the Ascension. However, when he returns to heaven to be with the Father, Jesus nevertheless stays with us in other ways, principally in a sacramental manner through the Holy Eucharist.

The Ascension is the sign of Jesus' new condition. He goes up to heaven to share the Father's throne, not only as the eternal Son of God, but also insofar as he is true man, the victor over sin and death. The glory that he had bodily received with the Resurrection is now completed with his public enthronement in heaven as Sovereign of creation, alongside the Father. Jesus also receives the homage and praise of the blessed in heaven.

Since Christ came into the world to redeem us from sin and lead us to perfect communion with God, his Ascension inaugurates humanity's entrance into heaven. Jesus is the supernatural Head of mankind, as Adam was in the order of nature. Since our Head is in heaven, we who are his members have the real possibility of reaching heaven too. Moreover, he has gone to prepare a place for us in the Father's house (cf. Jn 14:3).

Seated at the right hand of the Father, Jesus continues his ministry as universal Mediator of salvation. “He is the Lord who now in his humanity reigns in the everlasting glory of the Son of God and constantly intercedes for us before the Father. He sends us his Spirit and he gives us the hope of one day reaching the place he has prepared for us” (Compendium, 132).

Indeed, ten day after his Ascension into heaven, Jesus sent the disciples the Holy Spirit as he had promised. Since then, Jesus continually sends the Holy Spirit to mankind to give them the life-giving power he possesses and gather them together in the Church, so they might form one people of God.

After the Lord's Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the Virgin Mary was raised in body and soul to heaven, for it was fitting that the Mother of God, who had carried God in her womb, should not undergo corruption in the tomb, in imitation of her Son.4

The Church celebrates the feast of our Lady's Assumption on August 15. “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians” (Catechism, 966).

The glorious Exaltation of Christ:

a) Encourages us to live with our gaze fixed on the glory of Heaven: quae sursum sunt, quaerite (Col 3:1); to remember that here we have no lasting city (Heb 13:14); and to strive to sanctify all human realities;

b) Impels us to live by faith, since we know that we are accompanied by Jesus Christ, who knows and loves us from heaven and who continually gives us the grace of his Spirit. With God's strength we are able to carry out the apostolic work entrusted to us, and help bring all souls to him (cf. Mt 28: 19) and place Christ at the summit of all human activities (cf. Jn 12:32),so that his Kingdom might become a reality (cf. 1 Cor 15:25). Furthermore, he always accompanies us from the Tabernacle.

5. The Second Coming of Christ: “From thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.”

Christ the Lord is King of the universe, but all created realities are not yet subject to him (cf. Heb 2:7; 1 Cor 15:28). He gives men and women time to prove their love and fidelity. But his definitive triumph will take place at the end of time when the Lord will appear with power and great glory (cf. Lk 21:27).

Christ has not revealed the time of his Second Coming (cf. Acts 1:7), but he encourages us always to be vigilant; and he tells us that before this Second Coming, or parusía, a final assault by the devil will take place with great calamities and other signs (cf. Mt 24:20-30; Catechism, 674-675).

Then Christ will come as Supreme and Merciful Judge to judge the living and the dead. This is the universal judgment, when the secrets of each one's heart will be revealed, along with each person's conduct towards God and neighbor. This judgment will confirm the sentence each person received at death. All men and women, according to their deeds, will be filled with life, or condemned for eternity. Thus will the Kingdom of God be consummated, that God may be everything to every one (1 Cor 15:28).

In the final judgment, the saints will receive, publicly, the reward they merited for the good they did. Justice will thereby be reestablished, since in this life it often happens that those who do evil are praised, while those who do good are despised or forgotten.

“The message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving them 'the acceptable time….the day of salvation' (2 Cor 6:2). It inspires a holy fear of God and commits them to the justice of the Kingdom of God. It proclaims the 'blessed hope' (Tit 2:13) of the Lord's return when he will come 'to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed' (2 Thess 1:10).” (Catechism, 1041).

Antonio Ducay

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 638-679; 1038-1041.

Recommended Reading

John Paul II, The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Catechesis: 25 January 1989; 1 February 1989; 22 February 1989; 1 March 1989; 8 March 1989; 15 March 1989.

John Paul II, The Ascension of Jesus Christ, Catechesis: 5 April 1989; 12 April 1989; 19 April 1989.

St. Josemaria, Homily “The Ascension of our Lord,” in Christ Is Passing By, 117-126.

Contents

Footnotes

1St Josemaria, The Way, 584.

2Ibid, 719.

3St John Damascene, De fide ortodoxa, 4. 2: PG 94, 1104; cf. Catechism, 663.

4Cf. Pius XII, Const. Munificentissimus Deus, 15 August 1950: DS 3903.

TOPIC 12

I Believe in the Holy Spirit. I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church

The Holy Spirit intimately unites the faithful to Christ so that they form a single body, the Church, with a diversity of members and functions.

1. I believe in the Holy Spirit

1.1. Third Person of the Blessed Trinity

In Sacred Scripture, the Holy Spirit is given various names: Gift, Lord, Spirit of God, Spirit of Truth and Paraclete, among others. Each of these terms highlights a particular characteristic of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is “Gift” because the Father and the Son send him to us gratuitously: the Spirit comes to dwell in our hearts (cf. Gal 4:6); he comes in order to remain always with us. Moreover, from him come all graces and gifts, the greatest of which is eternal life together with the other divine Persons: in him we have access to the Father through the Son.

The Spirit is called “Lord” and “Spirit of God” (names used by Sacred Scripture only for God) because he is God with the Father and the Son. He is the “Spirit of Truth” because he teaches us all that Christ has revealed in its fullness, and he guides and sustains the Church in the truth (cf. Jn 15:26; 16:13-14). He is the “other” Paraclete (Consoler, Advocate) promised by Christ, who is the first Paraclete (the Greek text speaks of the “other” Paraclete, and not a “distinct” paraclete, to stress the communion and continuity between Christ and the Spirit).

In the Nicene-Constantinople Creed we pray Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem: qui ex Patre [Filioque] procedit. Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur, et conglorificatur: qui locutus est per Prophetas. With these phrases the Fathers of the Council of Constantinople highlighted some of the biblical expressions for naming the Spirit. By the expression “giver of life,” reference is made to the gift of divine life to mankind. As Lord and giver of life, he is God, with the Father and the Son, and therefore receives the same adoration they do. The last phrase points to the mission the Spirit carries out among men: he has spoken through the prophets. The prophets are those who, moved by the Spirit, spoke in God's name to stir his people to convert. The revelation by the Spirit in the Old Testament prophecies reaches its fullness in the mystery of Jesus Christ, God's definitive Word.

“There are many symbols of the Holy Spirit: living water which springs from the wounded heart of Christ and which quenches the thirst of the baptized; anointing with oil, which is the sacramental sign of Confirmation; fire which transforms what it touches; the cloud, dark or luminous, in which the divine glory is revealed; the imposition of hands by which the Holy Spirit is given; the dove which descended on Christ at his baptism and remained with him” (Compendium, 139).

1.2. Mission of the Holy Spirit

The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity “is at work with the Father and the Son from the beginning to the completion of the plan for our salvation. But in these 'end times,' ushered in by the Son's redeeming Incarnation, the Spirit is revealed and given, recognized and welcomed as a person” (Catechism, 686). Through the action of the Spirit, the Son of God became man in the most pure womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and received his anointing as Messiah. Christ, in turn, “revealed the Spirit in his teaching, fulfilled the promises made to the Fathers, and bestowed him upon the Church at its birth when he breathed on the apostles after the Resurrection” (Compendium, 143). On Pentecost, the Spirit was sent to remain continually in the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, vivifying it and guiding it with his gifts and his presence. Therefore the Church is also said to be the Temple of the Holy Spirit, who is, as it were, the soul of the Church.

On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit descended on the apostles and the first disciples, showing with external signs the giving of life to the Church founded by Christ. “The mission of Christ and of the Spirit became the mission of the Church, which is sent to proclaim and spread the mystery of the communion of the Trinity” (Compendium, 144). The Spirit initiates in the world the “last days,” the time of the Church.

The vivifying of the Church by the Holy Spirit guarantees that all that Christ said and taught during the days he lived on earth until his Ascension is always preserved without loss and ever more deeply understood.1 Furthermore, through the sacraments, the Spirit sanctifies the Church and the faithful, and enables the Church to continually bring souls to God.2

“In the indivisible Trinity, the Son and the Spirit are distinct but inseparable. From the very beginning until the end of time, when the Father sends his Son he also sends his Spirit who unites us to Christ in faith so that as adopted sons we can call God 'Father' (Rom 8:15). The Spirit is invisible but we know him through his actions, when he reveals the Word to us and when he acts in the Church” (Compendium, 137).

1.3. How do Christ and the Holy Spirit act in the Church?

Through the Church's sacraments, Christ communicates his Spirit to the members of his Body, and offers them God's grace, which bears the fruit of new life in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit also grants special graces to some Christians for the good of the whole Church. He is also the Teacher who reminds all Christians what Christ revealed (cf. Jn 14:25 ff.).

“The Spirit builds, animates and sanctifies the Church. As the Spirit of Love, he restores to the baptized the divine likeness that was lost through sin and causes them to live in Christ the very life of the Holy Trinity. He sends them forth to bear witness to the Truth of Christ and he organizes them in their respective functions so that all might bear 'the fruit of the Spirit' (Gal 5:22)” (Compendium, 145).

2. I believe in the Holy Catholic Church

2.1. Revelation of the Church

The Church is a mystery (cf. Rom 16:25-27), that is, a reality in which God and men come into contact and enter into communion. The term “church” comes from the Greek “ekklesia,” which means the assembly of those who are “convoked.” In the Old Testament it was the term used to translate “quahal Yaweh,” the assembly gathered by God to honor him with due worship. Examples of this were the Sinaitic assembly, and the assembly convoked in the times of King Josiah to praise God and return to the purity of the Law. In the New Testament, in continuity with the Old Testament, it has several different meanings; but it especially designates the people God calls and gathers together from all over the world to form the assembly of those who, through faith in his Word and Baptism, have become children of God, members of Christ and temple of the Holy Spirit (cf. Catechism, 777, Compendium, 147).

In Sacred Scripture the Church receives a number of different names, each of which expresses some particular aspect of the mystery of the communion of God with mankind. “People of God” is a title that Israel had received. When applied to the Church, the “new Israel,” it signifies that God did not choose to save men as isolated individuals, but rather by making them into one people gathered into unity by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that they might acknowledge him in truth and serve him in holiness.3 It also signifies that the Church has been chosen by God as a visible community among the nations, journeying toward its final homeland. In this people, all have the common dignity of being God's children, a common mission to be salt of the earth, and a common end, which is the Kingdom of God. And all share in the three functions of Christ, namely, the priestly, prophetic and royal (cf. Catechism, 782-786).

When we say that the Church is the “Body of Christ,” we mean that Christ, by sending the Holy Spirit, unites the faithful to himself in an intimate way, especially in the Eucharist. He incorporates them into himself through the Spirit, so that they grow in union through charity and form a single body, while preserving the diversity of members and functions. By this term we also express that the health or infirmity of any member has repercussion on the whole body (cf. 1 Cor 12:1-24), and that the faithful, as members of Christ, are his instruments for acting in the world (cf. Catechism, 787-795). The Church is also called the “Bride of Christ” (cf. Eph 5:26 ff.), which highlights both the union and the distinction between Christ and his Church. This name also implies that God's covenant with mankind is definitive, because God is faithful to his promises, and the Church, in turn, faithfully corresponds by being a fruitful Mother of all the sons and daughters of God.

The Church is also the “temple of the Holy Spirit,” since he lives in the body of the Church and builds it up in charity through the Word of God, the sacraments, the virtues and the charisms.4 Since the true temple of the Holy Spirit was Christ (cf. Jn 2:19-22), this image also implies that each Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit. The charisms are “special gifts of the Holy Spirit which are bestowed on individuals for the good of others, the needs of the world, and in particular for the building up of the Church. The discernment of charisms is the responsibility of the Magisterium” (Compendium, 160; cf. 1 Thess 5:20-22).

“The Church finds her origin and fulfillment in the eternal plan of God. She was prepared for in the Old Covenant with the election of Israel, the sign of the future gathering of all the nations. Founded by the words and actions of Jesus Christ, fulfilled by his redeeming death and Resurrection, the Church has been manifested as the mystery of salvation by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. She will be perfected in the glory of heaven as the assembly of all the redeemed of the earth” (Compendium, 149; cf. Catechism, 778).

God in revealing his eternal plan of salvation also shows us how he intends to carry it out. This plan was not achieved in one action; rather he prepared mankind over time to accept the salvation that was fully revealed in Christ. This offering of salvation in communion with God and in unity amongst men and women was definitively granted through the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out in the hearts of believers, putting them into personal and permanent contact with Christ. On becoming children of God in Christ, we recognize ourselves as brothers and sisters of the other children of God. There is no fraternity or unity among men that is not based on this common divine filiation offered us by the Father in Christ: there is no fraternity without a common Father, whom we reach through the Holy Spirit.

The Church was not founded by men, nor is it a noble human response to the work of salvation achieved by God in Christ. In the mysteries of Christ's life, the Man anointed by the Spirit fulfilled the promises announced in the Law and Prophets. We can also say that the founding of the Church coincides with the life of Jesus Christ; the Church takes form in relation to Christ's mission among men, and for men. There is no particular moment when Christ can be said to have founded the Church, for he founded it throughout his entire life, from the Incarnation right up to his death, through his Resurrection, Ascension and sending of the Paraclete. Throughout his life, Christ, in whom the Spirit dwells, was making known how his Church was to be. After his Ascension, the Spirit was sent to the Church and remains in her, uniting her to Christ's mission, reminding her of what the Lord has revealed, and guiding her though history towards her fullness. The Spirit is the cause of the Christ's presence in his Church through the sacraments and the Word, and continually adorns it with different hierarchical and charismatic gifts.5 By his presence, the Lord's promise to always be with us until the end of time is fulfilled (cf. Mt 28:20).

Vatican Council II reclaimed an ancient expression in describing the Church as “communion.” This term indicates that the Church is the extension to mankind of the intimate communion of the Blessed Trinity and that on earth she is already communion with the Trinity, though not yet in all its fullness. Furthermore, the Church is for all men and women the sign and instrument of this communion: through her we participate in God's intimate life and belong to God's family as sons in the Son through the Spirit.6 This is accomplished in a specific manner in the sacraments, principally the Eucharist, which also is frequently called communion (cf. 1 Co 10:16). Lastly, the Church is also called “communion” because she engenders a spirit of prayer (cf. Catechism, 2655, 2672, 2790).

2.2. Mission of the Church

The Church has to proclaim and establish among all people the Kingdom of God inaugurated by Christ. On earth she is the seed and beginning of this Kingdom. After his Resurrection, the Lord sent out his Apostles to preach the Gospel, baptize and teach all nations to observe what he had commanded (cf. Mt 28:18 ff.). The Lord gave his Church the same mission that the Father had entrusted to him (cf. Jn 20:21). From the Church's beginning, this mission was accomplished by all Christians (cf Acts 8:4; 11, 19), even with the sacrifice of their lives in many cases. The Lord's missionary mandate has its source in the eternal love of God, who sent his Son and his Spirit because he wanted all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4).

This mission contains the Church's three functions on earth: the munus propheticum (to proclaim the good news of salvation in Christ), the munus sacerdotale (to make present and transmit the saving life of Christ through the sacraments), and the munus regale (to help Christians fulfill their mission and grow in holiness). Although all the faithful share in the same mission, not all have the same role. Some of them were chosen by Christ to exercise particular functions such as that of the Apostles and their successors; these are conformed to Christ the Head of the Church in a specific and exclusive manner through the sacrament of Orders.

Since the Church has received from God a saving mission on earth for men and has been prepared by him to carry it out, she is said to be the universal sacrament of salvation; for she has as her aim the glory of God and the salvation of mankind (cf. Catechism, 775). She is the sacrament of salvation because she is the sign and instrument of reconciliation and communion of mankind with God and the unity of all men and women.7 The Church is also said to be a mystery since in her visible reality, a spiritual and divine reality perceivable only by faith is made present and active.

The affirmation that “outside the Church there is no salvation” means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church, which is his Body. Those could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded by Christ for the salvation of men, would refuse to enter it or to remain in it. At the same time, thanks to Christ and his Church, those can attain salvation who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ and his Church, but who nonetheless seek God with a sincere heart, and strive under the influence of grace to fulfill his will as it is known to them through the dictates of their conscience. All that is good and true in other religions comes from God and can prepare for the reception of the Gospel and lead towards the unity of mankind in the Church of Christ (cf. Compendium, 170 and ff.).

2.3. Properties of the Church: one, holy, catholic, apostolic

The properties of the Church are the four characteristics that indicate essential features of the Church and her mission (cf. Catechism, 811). These are found in many of the Symbols of the Faith from very early times of the Church. All these properties are a gift of God that entails a task for Christians to carry out. “The Church is one because she has as her source and exemplar the unity of the Trinity of Persons in one God. As her Founder and Head, Jesus Christ re-established the unity of all people in one body. As her soul, the Holy Spirit unites all the faithful in communion with Christ” (Compendium, 161). This unity is shown by the fact that the faithful profess the same faith, celebrate the same sacraments, are united in a single hierarchy, have one common hope and one and the same charity. “The Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him.”8 Only in the Church can the fullness of the means of salvation be obtained, since our Lord entrusted the blessings of the New Covenant to the apostolic college alone, whose head is Peter.

In the non-catholic churches and communities many elements of sanctification and truth can be found. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to catholic unity. The Holy Spirit uses these as means of salvation since their power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ entrusted to the Catholic Church (cf. Catechism, 819). Members of these churches and communities are incorporated into Christ by Baptism, so we recognize them as brothers and sisters. We can help foster unity by drawing closer to Christ ourselves and helping other Christians to come closer to him; by seeking unity in what is necessary, freedom in what is not essential, and charity in everything;9 by making God's house more attractive for others; and by increasing veneration and respect for the Pope and the hierarchy, assisting them and following their teachings.

The ecumenical movement is an ecclesial task by which the restoration of unity among Christians is sought in the one and only Church founded by Christ. This is the Lord's desire (cf. Jn 17:21). It is achieved through prayer, conversion of heart, fraternal knowledge and theological dialogue.

The Church is Holy since the All-Holy God is her author; Christ has given himself for her to sanctify her and make her the fount of sanctification, and the Holy Spirit vivifies her with charity. Since she has the fullness of the means of salvation, holiness is the vocation of each of her members and the aim of all her activity. She is holy because she constantly yields the fruit of holiness on earth and because her holiness is the source of the sanctification of her children—although here on earth all must recognize themselves as sinners ever in need of conversion and purification. The Church's faithful are called to strive always to grow in holiness, by personal conversion and the struggle to become more like Christ. The Church is holy also because of the holiness attained by her members who are in heaven, especially the Blessed Virgin Mary, who are their models and intercessors (cf. Catechism, 823-829).

The Church is Catholic, that is, universal, because Christ is present in her and she herself preserves and administers all the means of salvation entrusted to her by Christ—a treasure she has received and transmits with total integrity. She is universal because her mission embraces the whole human race, and she has the capacity to adapt to every setting, elevating and improving any culture. Catholicity increases in extension and intensity as the Church's mission grows and develops. Every particular Church, that is, every portion of God's people that shares in the communion of faith and the sacraments, with its bishop ordained in apostolic succession, and formed in the image of the universal Church and in communion with the whole Church (which precedes the particular church ontologically and chronologically) is catholic.

Since her mission embraces all humanity, each person, in various ways, belongs to or at least is ordered to the catholic unity of the People of God. “Fully incorporated into the Church are those who, possessing the Spirit of Christ, are joined to the Church by bonds of the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government and communion” (Compendium, 168). The baptized that do not persevere in charity, although incorporated into the Church, belong to her only in body but not in heart. “The baptized that do not fully enjoy this catholic unity are in a certain, though imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church” (Compendium, 168).

The Church is Apostolic because Christ has built her on the Apostles, chosen witnesses of the Resurrection and the foundation of his Church, and because with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, she teaches, watches over and faithfully transmits the deposit of faith received from the Apostles. The Church is apostolic also by reason of her structure, since she is taught, sanctified and guided until Christ's return by the apostles and their successors, the bishops, in communion with the successor of Peter. “Apostolic succession is the transmission by means of the sacrament of Holy Orders of the mission and power of the Apostles to their successors, the bishops. Thanks to this transmission, the Church remains in communion of faith and life with her origin, while through the centuries she carries on her apostolate for the spread of the Kingdom of Christ on earth” (Compendium, 176). All the Church's members, according to their specific function, share in the mission received by the Apostles to bring the Gospel to the whole world. The Christian vocation, by its very nature, is a vocation to the apostolate (cf. Catechism, 683).

Miguel de Salis Amaral

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 683, 688; 731-741.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 136-146.

John Paul II, Enc. Dominum et vivificantem, 18 May 1986, 3-26.

John Paul II, Catechesis on the Holy Spirit, 8 December 1989.

St Josemaria, Homily The Great Unknown, in Christ Is Passing By, 127-138.

Recommended Reading

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 748-945.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 147-193.

St Josemaria, Homily Loyalty to the Church, in In Love with the Church.

Contents

Footnotes

1Cf. Vatican Council II, Const. Dei Verbum, 8.

2“The solemn coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was not an isolated event. There is hardly a page in the Acts of the Apostles where we fail to read about him and the action by which he guides, directs and enlivens the life and work of the early Christian community … The profound reality which we see in the texts of holy Scripture is not a remembrance from the past, from some golden age of the Church which has since been buried in history. Despite the weaknesses and the sins of every one of us, it is the reality of today's Church and the Church of all time” (St Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, nos. 127-128.

3Cf. Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium, 4 and 9; St Cyprian, De Orat. Dom., 23 (CSEL 3, 285).

4“When you invoke God the Father, then, remember that the Spirit is the one who has given you this prayer by stirring your soul. If the Holy Spirit did not exist, there would be no word of wisdom or knowledge at all in the Church., because it is written: the word of wisdom is given by the Spirit (1 Cor 12:8)…If the Holy Spirit were not present, the Church would not exist. But, if the Church exists, it is certain that the Holy Spirit is not lacking” (St John Crysostom, Sermones paneghrici in solemnitates D.N. Iesu Christ, hom. 1, De Sancta Pentecostes, . no. 3-4, PG 50, 457).

5Cf. Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium, 4 and 12.

6Cf. Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes, 22.

7Cf. Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium, 1.

8Ibidem, 8.

9Cf. Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes, 92.

TOPIC 13

I Believe in the Communion of Saints and the Forgiveness of Sins

The Church is a communion of saints—the community of all men and women who have received the grace of regeneration from the Spirit, making them children of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.

1. Communion of Saints

The Church is communio sanctorum, a communion of saints—the community of all those who have received the grace of regeneration from the Spirit, uniting them to Christ and making them children of God; that is why they are called “saints.” This communion includes not only the members of the Church now on earth, but also those being purified in Purgatory (whom we can help with our prayers); and finally those who already enjoy the vision of God in Heaven and who help us by their intercession. The communion of saints also refers to the fact that all of Christ's faithful share in the holy gifts received from God: the faith, the sacraments, with the Eucharist as their center, the charisms, and other spiritual gifts, especially charity (cf. Compendium, 195, 194).

Through the communion of saints, the merits of Christ and of all the saints help us carry out the mission our Lord himself has entrusted to us. The saints in Heaven show their great concern for the pilgrim Church by the assistance they render her; they spur us on by their intercession before the throne of God and eagerly await the full communion of saints that will become a reality with Christ's second coming, the final judgment and the resurrection of the body. The fidelity of each of the baptized is very important for the accomplishment of the Church's mission, for the conversion of many souls and for their sanctification.1

The communion of saints is organically structured on earth because Christ and the Spirit founded the Church as the sacrament of salvation, that is, a sign and instrument through which God offers us salvation. In her earthly journey, the Church is also externally structured through the communion among the particular Churches; each formed in the image of the universal Church and presided over by its own bishop. In these particular Churches, a special communion exists among the faithful, with their patrons, founders and principal saints. An analogous communion exists within other ecclesial communities.

We are also in a communion of prayers and other spiritual benefits with Christians who do not belong to the Catholic Church, since they are in some real way joined to us in the Holy Spirit.2

1.1. The Church is a communion and a society. The faithful: hierarchy, laity and consecrated life

The Church on earth is simultaneously a communion and a society, structured by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, the sacraments and the charisms. The Church's structure, therefore, cannot be separated from her communal dimension, nor was it created to provide laws and government for the Church after the first period of “charismatic” fervor had come to an end. The very sacraments that “make” the Church also structure her so that she might be on earth the universal sacrament of salvation. Specifically, by the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders, the faithful share, each in their own way, in Christ's priestly mission, and therefore, in his priesthood.3

The Holy Spirit's action in the sacraments and charisms has brought about the three main groups we see in the Church: the laity, sacred ministers (who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders and form the hierarchy of the Church), and the religious (cf. Compendium, 178). All of them share in common the condition of being Christian faithful, that is, those who, “incorporated in Christ through Baptism, have been constituted as the people of God; for this reason, since they have become sharers in Christ's priestly, prophetic and royal office in their own manner, they are called to exercise the mission which God has entrusted to the Church. There exists a true equality among them in their dignity as children of God” (Compendium, 177).

Christ instituted the ecclesiastical hierarchy with the mission of making him present among the faithful by the celebration of the sacraments and the preaching of the word of God, carried out with the authority and mandate received from him. The members of the hierarchy also receive the task of governing the People of God (cf. Mt 28:18-20). The hierarchy is made up of the sacred ministers: bishops, presbyters and deacons. The ministry of the Church has a collegial character as well as a personal one since the sacred ministers act in communion with one another as well as in a personal way to serve the communion of the faithful.

The bishops have received the task of teaching as authentic witnesses of the apostolic faith; of sanctifying by dispensing the grace of Christ in the ministry of the word and the sacraments, in particular the Eucharist; and of governing the People of God on earth (cf. Compendium, 184, 186 and ff.). Every bishop exercises his ministry as a member of the episcopal college (which succeeds the apostolic college), and in union with its head, the Pope; together with the other bishops, he shares with him in the care of the universal Church. Every bishop, moreover, has usually been entrusted with a particular Church, which he governs in the name of Christ and with the authority he has received, in communion with the entire Church and under the Holy Father (cf. Compendium, 187). The episcopal ministry also has a personal character, insofar as each bishop is responsible before Christ, who has called him personally and conferred on him his mission when receiving the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders (cf. Compendium, 181).

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome and Successor of Saint Peter; he is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the Church's unity. He is the Vicar of Christ, the head of the College of bishops and pastor of the universal Church over which he has, by divine institution, full, supreme, immediate and universal power. The College of bishops, in communion with the Pope and never without him, also exercises supreme and full power over the Church.

Christ promised that his Church would always preserve the faith (cf. Mt 16:19), and he guarantees it with his presence, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This property (of always adhering to the faith in its fulness) is possessed by the Church in her totality, not by every member. The faithful as a whole should adhere indefectibly to the faith under the guidance of the living Magisterium of the Church, under the action of the Holy Spirit. This divine assistance has been given to the Magisterium precisely so it might faithfully and authentically teach the word of God. In certain specific cases, this assistance of the Spirit guarantees that the declarations of the Magisterium will contain no error. In such cases, it is commonly held that the Magisterium shares in the same infallibility that Christ promised his Church. “Infallibility is exercised when the Roman Pontiff, in virtue of his office as the Supreme Pastor of the Church, or the College of Bishops, in union with the Pope especially when joined together in an Ecumenical Council, proclaim by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals. Infallibility is also exercised when the Pope and Bishops in their ordinary Magisterium are in agreement in proposing a doctrine as definitive. Every one of the faithful must adhere to such teaching with the obedience of faith” (Compendium, 185).

“The lay faithful have as their own vocation to seek the Kingdom of God by illuminating and ordering temporal affairs according to the plan of God. They carry out in this way their call to holiness and to the apostolate, a call given to all the baptized.”4 Since they share in the priesthood of Christ, lay people also participate in his sanctifying, prophetic and royal mission (cf. Compendium, 189-191; Christifideles Laici, 14). They share in the priestly mission of Christ when they offer as a spiritual sacrifice, especially in the Eucharist, their own life with all their works. They share in the prophetic mission when they welcome in faith Christ's teaching and proclaim it to the world by their words and the testimony of their life. They share in the kingly mission when they struggle to overcome sin in themselves and in the world through self-denial and holiness of life, and when they imbue temporal activities and the institutions of society with moral values.5

From the ranks of the lay faithful and the hierarchy come some persons who are consecrated to God in a special way by the profession of the evangelical counsels: chastity (in celibacy or virginity), poverty and obedience. They live in a permanent state of consecrated life recognized by the Church; and thereby participate in her mission through a complete dedication to Christ and to their brothers and sisters, bearing witness to the hope of the kingdom of heaven (cf. Compendium, 192-193).

2. I believe in the forgiveness of sins

Christ had power to forgive sins (cf. Mk 2:6-12). He passed it on to his disciples when he gave them the Holy Spirit, and conferred on them the “power of the keys,” sending them to baptize and forgive sins: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained (Jn 20:22-23). St Peter ends his first discourse after Pentecost by urging the Jews to do penance and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). The Church, then, has two channels for the grace of forgiveness. “The first and chief sacrament for the forgiveness of sins is Baptism. For those sins committed after Baptism, Christ instituted the sacrament of Reconciliation or Penance through which a baptized person is reconciled with God and with the Church” (Compendium, 200).

It is always through Christ's blood and the Spirit's action in and through the Church that sins are forgiven. There is no offense the Church cannot forgive since God can always pardon; and he is always willing to do so as long as we turn to him and asks for his forgiveness (cf. Catechism, 981-982). The Church is the instrument of holiness and sanctification; and strives to help each of us come ever closer to Christ. Christians in turn, by their words and holy deeds, can help others to convert and to come closer to Christ.

Miguel de Salis Amaral

Basic Bibliography

Catchism of the Catholic Church, 946-959; 976-987.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 177-201.

Contents

Footnotes

1“Many great things depend—don't forget it—on whether you and I live our lives as God wants” (St Josemaría, The Way, 755.

2Cf. Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium, 15.

3Cf. Ibidem, 10.

4Ibidem, 31.

5“Our task as Christians is to proclaim this kingship of Christ, announcing it through what we say and do. Our Lord wants men and women of his own in all walks of life. Some he calls away from society, asking them to give up involvement in the world, so that they remind the rest of us by their example that God exists. To others he entrust the priestly ministry. But he wants the vast majority to stay right where they are, in all earthly occupations in which they work: the factory, the laboratory, the farm, the trades, the streets of the big cities and the trails of the mountains.” St Josemaría, Christ is Passing By, 105.

TOPIC 14

History of the Church

The Church continues to make Christ present in human history. In the history of the Church, we find the divine and the human closely intertwined.

1. The Church in history

The Church continues to make Christ present in human history. It obeys the apostolic mandate given by Jesus before ascending into heaven: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age (Mt 28:19-20). In the history of the Church, we find the divine and the human closely intertwined.

Certain aspects of the Church’s history are quite striking, even for a non-believer:

a) unity in time and space (catholicity). The Catholic Church has continued throughout the centuries to be the same reality, with the same doctrine and same fundamental elements: unity of faith, of sacraments, and of hierarchy (through the apostolic succession). Furthermore, throughout the centuries it has gathered together men and women of the most varied races and cultures all over the world;

b) the missionary activity of the Church in all times and places has taken advantage of even the most adverse events in history to preach the Gospel;

c) the power, in every generation, to produce fruits of sanctity in people of all races and conditions;

d) a surprising ability to recuperate after suffering crises, sometimes very grave ones.

2. Early Christianity (to 476, year of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West)

In the first century Christianity began to spread under the guidance of St. Peter and the Apostles, and afterwards of their successors. The number of Christ’s followers steadily increased, above all within the confines of the Roman Empire. At the beginning of the fourth century, Christians made up approximately 15% of the population of the Empire, concentrated in the cities and in the Eastern portion of the Roman state. The new religion also spread to Armenia, Arabia, Ethiopia, Persia, and India, outside the Empire’s boundaries.

The Roman political power saw in Christianity a threat to its authority, since this new religion claimed a sphere of freedom of conscience vis-à-vis the state. Christ’s followers, consequently, had to endure repeated persecutions that brought many of them to martyrdom. The last and cruelest of these took place at the beginning of the fourth century, under the Emperors Diocletian and Galerius.

In the year 313, the Emperor Constantine I, who was favorable to the new religion, granted Christians freedom to profess their faith and initiated a very benevolent policy towards them. Under the Emperor Theodosius I (379-395), Christianity became the official religion of the Roman. Empire, and by the end of the fourth century, Christians were now a majority of the population.

In the fourth century, the Church also had to face a serious crisis: Arianism. Arius, a priest from Alexandria, Egypt, held heterodox opinions that denied the divinity of the Son (as well as of the Holy Spirit).  He viewed the Second Person as the first among all creatures, although superior to them. This doctrinal crisis, aggravated by frequent interventions by the emperors, shook the Church for over 60 years. It was finally overcome thanks to the first two Ecumenical Councils: the First Council of Nicaea (325) and the First Council of Constantinople (381). In them, Arianism was condemned, and the divinity of the Son (consubstantialis Patri, homoousios in Greek) was solemnly proclaimed, as well as that of the Holy Spirit. The true faith was set forth in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Symbol or Creed. Arianism survived until the seventh century because Arian missionaries succeeded in converting to their beliefs many Germans, who only gradually accepted the Catholic teaching.

In the fifth century, two Christological heresies had the positive effect of obliging the Church to consider more thoroughly the dogma of the Incarnation and to formulate it with greater precision. The first of these was Nestorianism, which, in practice, claimed the existence of two persons in Christ, along with the two natures. It was condemned at the Council of Ephesus (431), which reaffirmed the oneness of the person of Christ. From Nestorianism stem the Eastern Syrian and Malabar Churches, which are still separated from Rome. The other heresy was Monophysitism, which held, in practice, that only one nature existed in Christ, the divine one. The Council of Chalcedon (451) condemned Monphysitism and stated that there are two natures in Christ, one divine and the other human, united in the Person of the Word without confusion or change, and without division or separation. The four adverbs used by Chalcedon were inconfuse, immutabiliter, indivise, inseparabiliter. From the Monophysites came the Coptic, Western Syrian, Armenian and Ethiopian Churches that are separated from the Catholic Church.

The first centuries of the history of Christianity witnessed a great flowering of Christian literature—homiletic and theological, as well as spiritual—found in the works of the Fathers of the Church. These works were very important in establishing Sacred Tradition. The most important figures were, in the West, Irenaeus of Lyon, St. Hilary de Poitiers, St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Jerome and  St. Augustine; and in the East, St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzus, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Alexandria and St. Cyril of Jerusalem.

3. The Middle Ages (to 1492, the year of Columbus’ arrival in America)

In 476 the Roman Empire in the West fell, invaded by a series of Germanic people, some of whom were Arians and others pagans. The Church worked in the following centuries to evangelize and help civilize these people, and later on, the Slavs, Scandinavians and Magyars. The High Middle Ages (up to the year 1000) was undoubtedly a difficult period for Europe, marked by political and social upheaval, cultural impoverishment and economic regression, due to the continuous barbarian invasions, which lasted until the tenth century. The Church’s activity gradually helped lead these young peoples towards a new civilization that would reach its height between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries.

Benedictine monasticism, born in the sixth century, provided oases of peace, tranquility and culture in areas surrounding the monasteries. In the seventh century, Irish and Scottish monks carried out important missionary activity throughout all of Europe, as did the English Benedictines in the eighth century. In this century, the Patristic Age came to an end with the last of the Fathers of the Church, St. John Damascene in the East, and St. Bede the Venerable in the West.

At the end of the sixth century, the Islamic religion came to birth in Arabia. After Mohammed’s death, the Arabs set out on a wave of warfare and conquest that led to a vast empire. Among those subjugated were the Christian peoples of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. This helped bring about the separation of the Byzantine world from the Latin-Germanic world. For approximately 300 years, this state of affairs was a real scourge for the Mediterranean people of Europe, victims of the incursions, raids, plundering and deportations that went on systematically and unabatedly.

At the end of the eighth century, the temporal power of the papacy was formally established (the Papal States), which had already existed, in fact, since the end of the sixth century to fill the power vacuum in central Italy caused by the weakening of the Imperial Byzantine authority. The latter, nominally sovereign in the region, was incapable of providing the administration and defense the population required. Over time, the popes realized that a limited temporal power was an effective guarantee of independence with respect to the various political powers of the time (emperors, kings, feudal lords, etc.).

On Christmas Eve in the year 800, the empire was reestablished in the west (the Holy Roman Empire) with Charlemagne’s coronation by the pope in St. Peter’s Basilica. A Catholic state thereby came into being, with universal aspirations, characterized by a strong sacralization of political power, intertwining politics and religion, which would last until 1806.

In the tenth century, the papacy suffered a grave crisis resulting from the noble families of central Italy interfering in the election of the Pope; and, on a more widespread scale, kings and feudal lords claimed the authority to name the occupants of many ecclesiastical offices. Effective papal reaction to this situation awaited the 11th century Gregorian reform and the so-called “investiture controversy,” when the ecclesiastical hierarchy managed to recover a wide measure of freedom from the political powers.

In the year 1054, the patriarch de Constantinople, Michael Cerularius, brought about the final separation of the Greeks from the Catholic Church (the Eastern schism). This was the last episode in the history of disputes and ruptures that dated back to the fifth century, due in large part to the grave interferences by the Roman emperors of the East in the life of the Church (caesaro-papism). This schism affected all the people dependent on the Patriarchy, and even to this day it affects the Bulgars, Romanians, Ukrainians, Russians and Serbs.

At the beginning of the eleventh century, the Italian maritime republics had wrested control of the Mediterranean from the Moslems and restrained Islamic aggression. Towards the end of the century, the growth of military power in Christian countries took the form of crusades to the Holy Land (1096-1291). These were military expeditions of a religious nature whose aim was the recovery and defense of Jerusalem.

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries marked the zenith of medieval civilization, with the great theological and philosophical works of  St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, and Bl. Duns Scotus, along with other literary and artistic accomplishments. Of great importance for religious life was the appearance of the “mendicant” orders at the beginning of the thirteenth century, especially the Franciscans and Dominicans.

Confrontation between the papacy and the empire, already seen in the “investiture controversy,” continued unabated during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and only ended with the weakening of both institutions. The empire dwindled to a single Germanic state, while the papacy suffered a severe crisis. From the 1305 to 1377, the papal residence was transferred from Rome to Avignon in southern France. And soon after the pope’s return to Rome in the year 1378, the great Schism of the West began. This was a very difficult situation in which two popes appeared on the scene, and some years later, three (due to the different parties of cardinals gathered in conclave at Avignon, Rome, and Pisa). During all this upheaval, the Catholic people remained perplexed as to who was the legitimate pope. The Church only overcame this harsh trial when unity was finally restored with the election of a new pope at the Council of Constance (1415-1418).

In the year 1453, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, bringing to an end the thousand-year history of the Roman Empire of the East (395-1453); and they went on to conquer the Balkan people, who remained for four centuries under Muslim dominion.

4. The Modern Age (to 1789, year of the beginning of the French Revolution)

The Modern Age opens with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America, an event which, along with the explorations in Africa and Asia, began the European colonization of other regions in the world. The Church took advantage of this historical event to spread the Gospel in continents outside Europe. Missions arose in the French colonies of Canada and Louisiana in North America, in Spanish America, in Portuguese Brazil, in the Congo, India, Indochina, China, Japan and the Philippines. To coordinate these endeavors for spreading the faith, the Holy See in 1622 instituted the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide.

Meanwhile, the Church was entering the grave crisis of the “Reformation” initiated by Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin (all founders of different denominations of Protestantism), along with the schism provoked by Henry VIII, king of England (Anglicanism). This resulted in the separation from the Church of a large part of the world: Scandinavia, Estonia and Lithuania, part of Germany, Holland, half of Switzerland, Scotland, England, besides their respective colonial territories already possessed or subsequently conquered (Canada, North America, the Antilles, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand). The Protestant Reformation had the damaging effect of breaking up the long-standing religious unity in the western Christian world, and caused the various states to become confessional. It thereby brought about the social, political and cultural division of Europe and some of its dependent regions into two camps, Catholic and Protestant. This situation crystallized in the formula, cuius regio, eius et religio, according to which the subjects of each region were obliged to follow the religion of their respective rulers. Confrontation between these two worlds led to the wars of religion, which especially affected France, the German territories, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Hostilities in this conflict ended only with the Peace of Westphalia (1648) on the continent, and with the capitulation of Limerick (1692) in the British Isles.

Although deeply wounded by the defection of so many people in so few decades, the Catholic Church was able to draw upon unsuspected interior reserves to react and begin carrying out an authentic reform. This historical process came to be known as the Counter-Reformation., whose high point was the Council of Trent (1545-1563). There some dogmatic truths were clearly proclaimed that had been placed in doubt by the Protestants, such as the canon of Scripture, the sacraments, justification, and original sin. Disciplinary measures were also taken that strengthened and consolidated the Church, for example, the establishment of seminaries, and the obligation of residency in the diocese for bishops. The efforts of the Counter-Reformation were assisted by many religious orders in the sixteenth century. These were initiatives of reform by the mendicant Capuchins and Discalced Carmelites, and institutes of regular clerics, Jesuits, Theatines, Barnabites, etc. The Church thus emerged from the crisis deeply renewed and strengthened, and was able to make up for the loss of some European regions with a truly universal growth, thanks to the work in the missions.

In the eighteenth century, the Church had to fight two enemies: “royalism” and the enlightenment. The first was closely tied to the development of absolute monarchy. Supported by the organization of a modern bureaucracy, the European sovereigns established a system of total, autocratic power, eliminating the barriers that had formerly been present, namely, the institutions of medieval origin such as the feudal system, ecclesiastical privileges, the rights of cities, etc. In this effort to centralize power, the Catholic monarchs often infringed on ecclesiastical jurisdiction in striving to create a Church submissive to the power of the king. This process took on different names, depending on the particular country concerned: “royalism” in Portugal and Spain, Galicanism in France, Josephism in the Hapsburg territories of Austria, Bohemia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Lombardy, Tuscany, Belgium, and “jurisdictionalism” in Naples and Para. It reached its zenith with the expulsion of the Jesuits by many governments, and the hostile pressure exerted on the papacy to suppress the order, as in fact happened in 1773.

The other enemy the Church had to contend with in the eighteenth century was the enlightenment, a movement that was above all philosophical, and that was very popular among the ruling class. Underlying it was a cultural current that exalted reason and nature, while fostering an indiscriminant criticism of tradition. It combined many complex strands, with a strong materialistic tendency, a naive exaltation of science, rejection of revealed religion in the name of “deism” or incredulity, an unrealistic optimism regarding man’s natural goodness, an excessive anthropocentrism, a utopian confidence in human progress, a widespread hostility against the Catholic Church, a self-sufficient attitude and scorn of the past, and finally, a deeply rooted tendency to hold simplistic and “reductionist” views. It spawned many modern ideologies that restrict the vision of reality by eliminating supernatural revelation, the spirituality of man, and ultimately, any aspiration to seek the truth about the human person and God.

In the eighteenth century, the first Masonic Lodges were founded, with a tone and agenda that were often clearly anti-Catholic.

5. The Contemporary Era (from 1789)

The French Revolution, which started with deportation of the lower clergy, subsequently took on a clearly anti-Christian agenda: the establishment of worship of the Supreme Being, the abolition of the Christian calendar, etc., and in the end a cruel persecution of the Church (1791-1801). Pope Pius VI died in 1799 while a prisoner of the French revolutionaries.  The rise to power of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was always very pragmatic, brought religious peace with the signing of the 1801 Concordat. But later, with Pius VII, disagreements arose due to the constant intrusions by the French government in the Church’s life. As a result, the Pope was taken prisoner by Bonaparte for nearly five years.

With the restoration of the pre-revolutionary monarchies in 1815, a period of peace and tranquility returned for the Church. But soon a new ideology arose that was deeply opposed to Catholicism—liberalism. Heir to the ideas of the French Revolution, it gradually succeeded in establishing itself as a political force promoting legislation that discriminated against and even persecuted the Church. Liberalism allied itself with nationalism in many countries, and later, in the second half of the century, with imperialism and positivism. All of these forces eventually contributed to de-Christianizing society.  As a reaction to the social injustices caused by the liberal legislation policies, new ideologies sprang up, seeking to give voice to the aspirations of the classes oppressed by the new economic system: utopian socialism, “scientific” socialism, communism, and anarchism, all with the goal of social revolution and with an underlying materialistic bent.

In almost every country, Catholicism in the nineteenth century lost the protection of the state, which often became an adversary.  In 1870 the popes’ temporal power came to an end with the Italian conquest of the Papal States and the unification of Italy. But at the same time, the Church was able to take advantage of this crisis to strengthen the union of all Catholics around the Holy See and to free itself from the intrusions by state authorities in the internal government of the Church. This culminated in the solemn declaration of the dogma of papal infallibility in 1870 by Vatican Council I, which took place during the pontificate of Pius IX (1846-1878).  During this century, moreover, the Church was blessed with a great missionary expansion in Africa and Asia, the foundation of many women’s congregations of active life; and the organization of a widespread lay apostolate.

In the twentieth century, the Church was confronted by many challenges. Pius X was forced to counteract modernist theological tendencies within the Church. These currents, in their most radical manifestations, were characterized by a religious inmanentism; even when they kept the traditional formulations of the faith, in reality they emptied these of their traditional content. Benedict XV faced the calamity of the First World War; he maintained a policy of impartiality towards the contending parties and organized a humanitarian effort on behalf of war prisoners and the population suffering from the conflict.  Pius XI opposed the various forms of totalitarianism that persecuted the Church more or less openly during his pontificate: communism in the Soviet Union and in Spain, national-socialism in Germany, fascism in Italy, and masonry in Mexico. This Pope also fostered the vocation of native priests and bishops in the missionary territories of Africa and Asia. This effort, continued by his successor Pius XII, enabled the Church to show its solidarity with peoples undergoing decolonization, rather than appearing as a foreigner.

Pius XII had to face the terrible trial of the Second World War, during which he acted in a variety of ways to save as many Jews as he could from Nazi persecution. (According to some people’s calculations, the Church saved approximately 800,000 lives).  With a sense of realism, he did not consider it opportune to issue a public condemnation since this would only have worsened the grave situation of Catholics who were also being persecuted in various territories occupied by the Germans; such a denunciation by the pope, moreover, would have made it all but impossible for him to intervene successfully on behalf of the Jews. Many prominent Jews after the War publicly acknowledged the great merit of this pope’s help for their people.

John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which was closed by Paul VI. This Council opened up a new pastoral era in the Church, by stressing the universal call to holiness, the importance of ecumenical effort, the positive aspects of modernity, and the broadening of dialogue with other religions. During the years following the Council, the Church suffered a profound internal crisis, both doctrinal and disciplinary. The long pontificate of John Paul II (1978-2005) helped to counteract this crisis; he was a pope with an extraordinary personality who raised the Holy See to a level of popularity and prestige unknown before, both inside and outside of the Catholic Church.

Carlo Pioppi

Basic Bibliography

J. Orlandis, A Short History of the Catholic Church, Four Courts Press, County Dublin, 1993.

Contents

TOPIC 15

The Church and the State

The salvation achieved by Christ, and hence the mission of the Church, is directed to the human person in his or her integral being.

1. The Church’s mission in the world

The salvation achieved by Christ, and hence the mission of the Church, is directed to the human person in his or her integral being. Hence when the Church sets forth her social doctrine, not only is she not departing from her mission, but rather she is faithfully fulfilling it. Moreover, evangelization would not be authentic if it did not take into account the relationship between the Gospel and personal behavior, both at the individual and social level. The Church carries out her activity in the world and should be related to it harmoniously, by respecting the structure and finality of the various human organizations.

Thus the Church has the mission, and also the right, to be concerned about social problems. In doing so “she can not be accused of going outside her own specific field of competence and, still less, outside the mandate received from the Lord.”1

The Church’s mission in this area is not limited to setting forth ethical guidelines. Rather it entails making clear the implications of the Gospel for social life, in accord with the integral truth about man, and the conduct this entails, while urging people to make it a reality in the world.

A deep and essential union exists between Christian life and human development.2 But this harmony does not imply confusing the two domains. The goal of Christian conduct is identification with Christ. The liberation Jesus brings is at its core liberation from sin, which certainly also requires striving to further human liberation in the earthly domain.3 This distinction is the basis for the autonomy of earthly realities.

The teachings of the Magisterium in this area do not, therefore, touch on technical aspects or propose systems of social organization. Rather they seek to foster the formation of people’s consciences, without compromising the autonomy of temporal realities.4

Hence the hierarchy does not have a direct role in the organization of society; its task is to teach and interpret the moral principles in this area in an authentic way. The Church accepts any social system that respects human dignity, while the faithful should receive her social teaching with an adherence of intellect, will and deeds (cf. Lk 10:16; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2032 and 2037).

2. Relationship between the Church and the State

Religion and politics, although distinct in their scope, are not separate realms, since each person is called to fulfill his or her religious duties in tandem with the social, economic and political duties that fall to each citizen. Nevertheless, “the faithful should learn to distinguish carefully between the rights and the duties which are theirs as members of the Church, and those which they have as members of human society. They will strive to unite the two harmoniously, remembering that in every temporal affair they are to be guided by a Christian conscience, since not even in temporal business may any human activity be withdrawn from God’s dominion. In our times it is most necessary that this distinction and harmony should shine forth as clearly as possible in the manner in which the faithful act, in order that the mission of the Church may correspond more fully with the special circumstances of the world today.”5 These words can be seen as showing Catholics today how to live our Lord’s teaching: Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s (Mt 22:21).

The relationship between the Church and the State entails, therefore, a distinction without separation, a union without confusion. (cf. Mt 22:15-21 and parallels). This relationship will be correct and fruitful if three fundamental principles are kept in mind: accepting a sphere of moral values that precede and guide the political sphere; distinguishing the mission of religion from that of politics; fostering the collaboration between both spheres.

a) Moral values should guide political life

The proposal of a so-called “ethical state” that seeks to regulate the behavior of its citizens, is today broadly rejected, since it frequently leads to totalitarianism or at least implies a markedly authoritarian tendency. It is not the State’s role to decide what is good or what is evil; rather it has the obligation to seek and promote the common good, and to do so it will sometimes need to make laws concerning the behavior of its citizens.

This rejection of an “ethical state” should not, however, lead to the opposite error: upholding the moral “neutrality” of the State, which does not nor can not exist. The State needs to be informed by moral values that foster the integral development of persons, and that development, in its social dimension, forms part of the earthly common good.

b) The Church and the State differ in their nature and aims

The Church has received its apostolic mandate from Christ: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19-20). With her doctrine and apostolic activity, the Church contributes to the right ordering of temporal realities, so that these may help men and women attain their ultimate end and not lead them astray.

The means the Church employs to carry out her mission are, above all, spiritual: preaching the Gospel, administering the Sacraments, prayer. She also needs to use material means, appropriate to the embodied nature of human persons (cf. Acts 4:32-37; 1 Tim 5:18), means which must always be in conformity with the Gospel. In addition, the Church should dispose of the independence needed to carry out her mission in the world, but not political or economic dominion (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2246; Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 426).6

The aim of the State is the earthly common good of civil society; this good is not only material but also spiritual, since the members of society are persons with a body and a soul. Social progress requires, besides material goods, many other goods of a spiritual nature: peace, order, justice, freedom, security, etc. These goods can only be achieved through the exercise of social virtues, which the State should foster and safeguard (for example, public morality).

The difference between the religious and political sphere entails that the State does not enjoy a “sacred” character nor should it govern people’s consciences, since the moral foundation of politics lies outside its provenance. In addition, the Church does not possess coercive political power; her power is a spiritual one, and should never seek to impose any single political solution. Thereby the State and Church adhere to their own proper functions, fostering religious and social freedom.

From here stem two important rights: the Church’s right to religious freedom, which consists in immunity from coercion on the part of the State in religious matters; and the right of Catholics to freedom of action with respect to the hierarchy in temporal matters, although with the obligation of following the Magisterium (cf. C.I.C., canon 227). Moreover, “by preaching the truths of the Gospel, and bringing to bear on all fields of human endeavor the light of her doctrine and of a Christian witness, the Church respects and fosters the political freedom and responsibility of citizens.”7

c) Collaboration between Church and State

The distinction between the Church and the State does not imply (as mentioned above) a total separation, nor does it mean that the Church should restrict her activity to the private and spiritual sphere. Certainly the Church “cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice.”8 Therefore the Church has the right and the duty “to teach her social doctrine, to exercise her role freely among men, and also to pass moral judgment in those matters which regard public order when the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls require it.”9

Thus, for example, the Church can and should declare that a law is unjust because it is contrary to the natural law (laws on abortion or divorce), or that certain customs or situations are immoral even though permitted by the civil power, or that Catholics should not lend their support to persons or parties that set forth goals contrary to the law of God, and therefore to the dignity of the human person and to the common good.10

Both the Church and those who govern society are seeking to serve mankind (although under different titles), and they “will carry out this service with greater efficacy, for the good of all, the healthier and better is the cooperation between them.”11

The practical ways of regulating these relations can vary according to circumstances: for example, they will not be the same in countries with a Catholic tradition as in others in which the presence of Catholics is a minority.

An essential right that should always be safeguarded is the protection of religious freedom.12 Ensuring respect for this right means ensuring respect for the entire social order. The right to social and civil freedom in religious matters is the source and synthesis of all human rights.13

In many countries the constitution or civil laws guarantee religious freedom for all citizens and religious groups; thus the Church can find sufficient freedom to fulfill her mission and space to carry out her apostolic initiatives.14

Also where possible, the Church can establish agreements with the State, generally referred to as Concordats, in which specific solutions are agreed upon related to the interaction of the State and the Church: the freedom to carry out her mission, agreements on economic matters, feast days, etc.

3. Jurisdiction in “mixed matters”

There are matters in which both the Church and the State should intervene according to their respective competencies and goals (called “mixed matters”); these include education, marriage, social media, and assistance for the needy.15 In these matters, collaboration is particularly necessary, so that each one can achieve its own mission without any impediment by the other.16

a) The Church has the right to regulate the marriage of Catholics, even when only one of the spouses is Catholic; among other reasons, because marriage is a sacrament and the Church is responsible for establishing norms for how it is administered. While the State has the responsibility to regulate its civil effects: the division of goods between the spouses, etc. (cf. C.I.C., canon 1059). The State has the duty to recognize the right of Catholics to contract canonical marriage.

b) The education of children, also in religious matters, is the responsibility of the parents by natural law; they are the ones who ought to determine the teaching they wish their children to receive, the school or catechism class they will attend, etc.17 Where there is insufficient initiative on the part of parents or social groups, the State should subsidiarily establish its own schools, always respecting the parents’ right to choose the orientation of their children’s education.

The parents also have the right to establish and direct schools in which their children can receive an appropriate education, which given their social value should be recognized and subsidized by the State.18 And they have the right that their children receive at school—also when state run—teaching in accord with their religious convictions.19

The State has the right to establish norms related to educational matters required by the common good (access to instruction for everyone, minimum requirements, recognition of diplomas, etc.). For the State to reserve education to itself as a monopoly, even if indirectly, is tyranny (cf. C.I.C., 797).

It always falls to the Church to determine and watch over all that refers to the teaching and spread of the Catholic religion: programs, content, books, teacher qualifications. This is part of the Church’s right to defend and guarantee her own identity and the integrity of her doctrine. No one, therefore, can presume to teach Catholic doctrine (in schools at any level) if he or she is not approved by the ecclesiastical authority (cf. C.I.C., 804-805).

c) The Church also has the right to promote social undertakings consistent with her religious mission (hospitals, communications media, orphanages, shelters), as well as the right that the State recognize these “Catholic” undertakings with the same conditions as initiatives promoted by other parties (tax exemptions, qualification of employees, subsidies, possibility of collecting donations, etc.).

4. Secularity and secularism

A very relevant topic today is the distinction between secularity and secularism. Secularity means that the State is autonomous with respect to ecclesiastical laws, while secularism claims the autonomy of the political realm from the moral order and divine plan, and tends to restrict religion to the sphere of the purely private. In this way it violates the right to religious freedom and harms the social order (cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 572). An authentic secularity avoids two extremes: the attempt to transform civil society into the arbiter of morals,20 and the a priori rejection of the moral values stemming from culture, religion, etc., which people adhere to freely and which should not be dictated from the seat of power.21

It should also be emphasized that it is illusory and unjust to ask the faithful to act in the political realm “as if God did not exist.” Every person acts on the basis of his or her cultural convictions (be they religious, philosophical, political, etc.), whether derived from religious faith or not; these are convictions, therefore, that influence the social behavior of citizens.

Acting in the political realm in accord with one’s own faith, if consistent with the dignity of the human person, does not mean subordinating politics to religion. It means that politics is at the service of persons and therefore ought to respect moral demands, which is simply to say that it should respect and foster the dignity of every human being.

5. Pluralism in the social sphere among Catholics

All the above accords with the legitimate pluralism of Catholics in the social sphere. The same good objectives can be achieved by different pathways; it is reasonable, therefore, that there be a pluralism of opinions on how to achieve a specific social goal. It is natural that the backers of each solution legitimately seek to carry it out. Nevertheless, no option has the guarantee of being the only appropriate alternative (among other reasons because politics to a great extent is concerned with future events, and thus is the art of the possible), and even less so, of being the only one that accords with the Church’s teaching.22 “No one is allowed in the aforementioned situations to appropriate the Church’s authority for his opinion.”23

Therefore all the faithful, particularly the laity, have the right that their legitimate autonomy be recognized in the Church to take part in temporal affairs in accord with their own convictions and preferences, as long as these are in agreement with Catholic teaching. And they have the duty not to implicate the Church in their own decisions and social activity, never presenting their solutions as “Catholic” solutions.24

Pluralism, while a positive good, should never be confused with ethical relativism.25 Pluralism is morally admissible when the goal is a true personal or social good; but not if the decision is contrary to the natural law, to public order, and to the fundamental rights of the human person (cf. Catechism of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 1901). But outside these extreme cases, pluralism should be fostered in temporal matters, as a good for personal, social, and ecclesial life.

Enrique Colom

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2104-2109; 2244-2246; 2419-2425.

Vatican II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 74-76; Decl. Dignitatis humanae, 1-8; 13-14.

John Paul II, Apost. Exhort. Christifideles laici, December 39, 1988, 36-44.

Recommended Reading

Saint Josemaria, Homily “Passionately Loving the World,” in Conversations with Msgr. Escrivá de Balaguer, 113-123.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life, November 24, 2002.

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 49-55; 60-71; 189-191; 238-243; 377-427.

Contents

Footnotes

1John Paul II, Enc . Sollicitudo rei socialis, December 30, 1987, 8. Cf. Paul VI, Apost.Exhort. Evangelii nuntiandi, December 8, 1975, 29 and 30; John Paul II, Discourse in Puebla, III; Enc. Redemptor hominis, March 4, 1979, 15; Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 64 and 71.

2Cf. Paul VI, Apost. Exhort. Evangelii nuntiandi, 31. Uniting the human with the divine is very proper to Opus Dei. The Founder said that the entire life of its faithful is “a service with exclusively supernatural aims, because Opus Dei is not, and will never be—nor could it be—a tool for temporal ends. But at the same time, it is a service to mankind, because all you are doing is trying in an upright way to achieve Christian perfection, acting most feely and responsibly in all the areas of civil life. It is a self-sacrificing service that is not degrading, but uplifting; it expands the heart (making it more Roman, in the most noble meaning of the word) and leads one to pursue the honor and the good of people of every nation—to try to see that every day there are fewer people who are poor and uneducated,  fewer souls without faith, without hope; fewer wars, less uncertainty, more charity and peace” (St. Josemaría, Letter, May 31, 1943, no. 1; in J. L. Illanes, F. Ocáriz, P. Rodríguez, Opus Dei in the Church, Scepter Publishers, p. 131.

3Cf. Paul VI, Apost. Exhort. Evangelii nuntiandi, 9, 33-35; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instr. Libertatis conscientia, March 23, 1986, 23.

4Speaking of the values that foster the development of human dignity, the Compendium states: “Respect for the legitimate autonomy of earthly realities prompts the Church not to claim specific competence in the technical or temporal order; but it does not prevent her from intervening to show to how, in the different choices made by men and women, these values are either affirmed or denied” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 197). Cf. Vatican Council II, Gaudium et spes, 36 and 42; Paul VI, Enc. Populorum progressio, March 26, 1967, 13; Juan Pablo II, Enc. Sollicitudo rei socialis, 41; Compendiim, 68 and 81.

5Vatican Council II, Const. Lumen gentium, 36. Cf. Cathechism of the Catholic Church, 912.

6Cf. Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 76; Decl. Dignitatis humanae, 13.

7Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 76.

8Benedict XVI, Enc. Deus caritas est, December 25, 2005, 28. Cf. Benedict XVI, Discourse in Verona, October 19, 2006.

9Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 76.

10Cf. Ibid., 40 and 41.

11Ibid., 76. Cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 425.

12This right does not consist in the freedom before God to choose any religion one pleases, because there is only one true religion and all men and women have the obligation to seek the truth and, once found, to embrace it (cf. Vatican Council II, Decl. Dignitatis humanae, 1). The right to religious freedom means that “all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits” (Vatican Council II, Decl. Dignitatis humanae, 2).

“Respect on the part of the State for the right to religious freedom is a sign of respect for the other basic human rights, because it is the implicit recognition of an order that transcends the political dimension of life” (John Paul II, Discourse, January 9, 1989, 6).

13Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Centesimus annus, May 1,1991, 47. The right to freedom in the sphere of religion “is tied to all the other freedoms;” moreover, all of these “require it as a foundation” (John Paul II, Discourse, March 23, 1991, 2).

14Cf. Vatican Council II, Decl. Dignitatis humanae, 13.

15Whenever circumstances allow it, the Holy See seeks to establish diplomatic relations with the world’s countries in order to keep open a channel of permanent dialogue in the questions that concern both parties.

16“It is not true that there is opposition between being a good Catholic and serving civil society faithfully. In the same way there is no reason why the Church and the State should clash when they proceed with the lawful exercise of their respective authorities, in fulfilment of the mission God has entrusted to them” (St. Josemaría, Furrow, 301).

17“The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2221). Cf. John Paul II, Apost. Exhort. Familiaris consortio, November 22,1981, 36.

18Cf. John Paul II, Apost. Exhort. Familiaris consortio, 40.

19“As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. As far as possible parents have the duty of choosing schools that will best help them in their task as Christian educators. Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2229).

20Cf. Paul VI, Apost. Letter Octogesima adveniens, May 14, 1971, 25; John Paul II, Enc. Centesimus annus, 25.

21Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life, November 24, 2002, 6; Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 571.

22Cf. Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 75; Paul VI, Apost. Letter, Octogesima adveniens, 50; Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 417.

23Ibid., 43.

24Cf. St. Josemaría, Conversations, 117.

25“Such relativism, of course, has nothing to do with the legitimate freedom of Catholic citizens to choose among the various political opinions that are compatible with faith and the natural moral law, and to select, according to their own criteria, what best corresponds to the needs of the common good. Political freedom is not—and cannot be—based upon the relativistic idea that all conceptions of the human person’s good have the same value and truth, but rather, on the fact that politics are concerned with very concrete realizations of the true human and social good in given historical, geographic, economic, technological and cultural contexts. From the specificity of the task at hand and the variety of circumstances, a plurality of morally acceptable policies and solutions arises” (Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life, November 24, 2002, 3). Cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 569 and 572.

TOPIC 16

I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting

By this truth we affirm the immortality to which mankind is destined; it is thus a reminder of the dignity of the human person, and in particular of the body.

At the end of the Apostles Creed the Church proclaims 'I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.' This formula contains in brief the fundamental elements of the Church's hope about the last things.

1. The resurrection of the body

The Church has frequently proclaimed her faith in the resurrection of the dead at the end of time. It forms, as it were, the “continuation” of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the firstborn of many brethren (Rom 8:29), extended to all men and women, living and dead, just and sinners, that will take place when He comes at the end of time. At death the soul is separated from the body; with the resurrection, body and soul are reunited again for ever (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 997). The dogma of the resurrection of the dead refers to the fullness of immortality to which mankind is destined, but at the same time it is a vivid reminder of our dignity, and in particular of the dignity of the body. It speaks to us of the goodness of the world, of the body, of the value of a life lived out day by day, of the eternal vocation of matter. That is why in the second century when writing against the Gnostics, the phrase resurrection “of the flesh” was used—that is to say, human life in its most material aspect, temporal, changeable, apparently fleeting.

St Thomas Aquinas considered the doctrine of the resurrection to be natural in respect to its final cause (because the soul is made to be united to the body and vice versa), but supernatural in respect to its efficient cause (that is, God).1

The risen body will be real and material, but not earthly or mortal. St Paul rejected the idea of resurrection as a transformation happening within human history, and spoke of the resurrected body as “glorious” (cf. Phil 3:21) and “spiritual” (cf. Col 15:44 ). The resurrection of every man and woman, as happened with Christ, will take place after death.

The Church in the name of Christian faith does not promise us a successful life on this earth. She does not talk of a “utopia,” since our earthly life will always be marked by the Cross. However, through the reception of Baptism and the Eucharist, the process of resurrection has is some way already begun (cf. CCC, 1000). According to St Thomas, at the resurrection the soul will inform the body so deeply that it will reflect the soul's moral and spiritual qualities.2 Thus the final resurrection, which will take place when Christ comes in glory, will make possible the definitive judgement of the living and the dead.

With respect to the doctrine of the resurrection four points can be made:

—the doctrine of the final resurrection excludes theories of reincarnation, according to which the human soul after death migrates to another body, repeatedly if necessary, until it is finally purified. In this regard, Vatican Council II referred to “the one life we live,”3 for it is established that men die only once (Heb 9:27);

—the veneration of relics of the saints is a clear manifestation of the Church's faith in the resurrection of the body;

—although cremation of the human body is not illicit, unless it has been chosen for reasons that go against faith (cf. CCC, 1176), the Church strongly advises maintaining the pious custom of burying the dead. “The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in the faith and hope of the resurrection. The burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy: it honours the children of God, who are temples of the Holy Spirit.” (CCC 2300);

—the resurrection of the dead accords with what Holy Scripture calls the coming of “the new heavens and the new earth” (cf. CCC, 1042; 2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1) Not only will mankind attain glory, but the entire cosmos in which we live and move will be transformed. “The Church to which all have been called in Christ Jesus and in which, by the grace of God, we achieve sanctity,” we read in Lumen Gentium (no. 48), “will not achieve its full perfection until 'the time comes for the restoration of all things' (Acts 3:21), and when along with human kind the whole universe, so intimately united with man and through him achieving its end, will be perfectly renewed.” There will certainly be continuity between this world and the new world, but also an important discontinuity. The hope of the definitive installation of Christ's kingdom shouldn't weaken but rather strengthen, with the theological virtue of hope, our effort to achieve progress on earth (CCC 1049).

2. The Christian meaning of death

The enigma of death can only be understood in the light of Christ's resurrection. In fact, death, the loss of human life, seems to be the greatest possible evil in the natural order, precisely because it is something so definitive that it can only be overcome completely when God in Christ raises all men and women.

On the one hand, death is natural in the sense that the soul can separate itself from the body. From this point of view, death marks the end of our earthy pilgrimage. After death a person can no longer merit or offend God. “Man's choice in life is made definitive at death.”4 It is no longer possible to repent. Immediately after death the person goes to heaven, hell or purgatory. For this to happen there exists what the Church calls the particular judgement (cf. CCC 1021-1022). The fact that death marks the limit of the period of trial gives us the opportunity to put our life in order, to make good use of our time and talents, to act uprightly and serve others.

On the other hand, Holy Scripture teaches us that death has come into the world through original sin (cf. Gen 3:17-19; Wis 1:13-14; 2:23-24; Rom 5:12; 6:23; CCC, 1007). In this sense it must be regarded as a punishment for sin: someone who wants to live separated from God must accept the disagreeable consequences of rupture with society and with oneself. However, Christ “faced death in an act of complete and free submission to his Father's will” (CCC 1009). By his obedience he conquered death and won resurrection for humanity. For the one who lives in Christ through Baptism, death continues to be painful and abhorrent, but it is no longer a vivid reminder of sin, for is becomes a valuable opportunity to co-redeem with Christ, through mortification and self-giving to others. If we die with Christ we shall also live with him (2 Tim 2:11).

3. Eternal life in intimate communion with God

In creating and redeeming us God has destined us to eternal communion with himself, to what St John calls 'eternal life' or what is commonly called “heaven.” Jesus communicated the Father's promise to his followers in these words: well done, good and faithful servant. Because you have been good and faithful over small things enter into the joy of your Lord (Mt 25:21). Eternal life should not be seen as a “continuous succession of days of the calendar, but rather as a moment full of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality. It will be the moment to submerge ourselves in oceans of limitless love, in which time—the before and after—no longer exists. We can only try to think that this moment is life in its fullest sense, submerging ourselves ever anew in immeasurable being at the same time as we are simply overwhelmed with joy.”5

Eternal life is what gives meaning to human life, to observing ethical norms, to generous self-giving and unselfish service, and to the effort to communicate Christ's teaching and love to all men and women. A Christian's hope in reaching heaven is not individualist, but encompasses every other person.6 Thus a Christian can be totally convinced that it is “worthwhile” to live a fully Christian life. “Heaven is the ultimate end and the fulfilment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme and definitive blessedness” (CCC, 1024). As St Augustine said in his Confessions : “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”7 Eternal life is the main goal of Christian hope.

“Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified, live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they 'see him as he is' (1 Jn 3:2), that is face to face (1 Cor 13:12)” (CCC, 1023). Theology has called this state the “beatific vision”. “Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up the mystery to man's immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it” (CCC, 1028). Heaven is the maximum expression of divine grace.

On the other hand, heaven does not consist in a purely abstract, immobile contemplation of the Blessed Trinity. In God souls can contemplate all realities that in one way or another refer to their life, rejoicing in them, and in particular loving those they have loved on earth with a pure and everlasting love. “Never forget: after death you will receive Love. And in God's love you will find in addition all the clean loves that you have had on earth.”8 The joy of heaven comes to its full culmination with the resurrection of the dead. According to St Augustine eternal life consists in eternal rest, and in a pleasant and supreme activity.9

That heaven lasts forever does not mean that we cease to be free there. In heaven we are unable to sin, because in seeing God face to face, seeing him also as the living source of all created good, it is no longer possible to “want” to sin. Freely and filially, the saved person will be in communion with God for ever. Our freedom has reached its fulfilment.

Eternal life is the definitive fruit of God's self-giving to man, and therefore it has something of infinity about it. Nevertheless, divine grace does not eliminate human nature, neither in our being or our faculties, or in our personality or in what we have merited in life. Hence among those who rejoice in the vision of God there is distinction and diversity, not in the object, which is God himself contemplated without intermediaries, but rather in the quality of the subject: “the one who has more charity partakes more in the light of glory, sees God more perfectly and will be happy.”10

4. Hell as a definitive rejection of God

Holy Scripture teaches repeatedly that men who do not repent of their grave sins lose the eternal prize of communion with God, suffering perpetual misery. “To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of self exclusion from communion with God and with the blessed is called 'hell'” (CCC, 1033). God does not predestine anyone to perpetual condemnation, it is a man himself who by seeking his ultimate goal outside of God and his will, makes himself an isolated world into which the light and love of God cannot penetrate. Hell is a mystery, the mystery of rejected love, a sign of the destructive power of human freedom when it abandons God.11

When considering hell it is traditional to distinguish between the “pain of loss” and the “pain of the senses.” The pain of loss is the more fundamental and involves the most suffering; it consists in the unending separation from the God for whom the human heart always longs. The pain of the senses we find frequently referred to in the gospels under the figure of eternal fire.

The teaching on hell in the New Testament is a call to us to be responsible in the use we make of gifts and talents we have received, a call to conversion. The existence of hell make the gravity of mortal sin very clear and the need to take every measure to avoid it, chiefly, as stands to reason, through trusting and humble prayer. The possibility of being condemned reminds Christians of the need to live a life that is completely apostolic.

Without doubt, the existence of hell is a mystery, the mystery of the justice of God for those who shut themselves off from his merciful pardon. Some authors have thought of the possibility of the annihilation of impenitent sinners when they die. This theory is difficult to reconcile with the fact that God out of love has given spiritual and immortal existence to each person.12

5. The purification needed to meet God

“Those who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation, but after death they undergo purification to achieve the holiness needed to enter the joy of heaven” (CCC, 1030). Many people may not have lived a holy life on earth, but neither have they shut themselves up in sin. The possibility after death of being cleansed from the impurities and imperfections of a more or less misspent life then appears as a new sign of God's goodness, an opportunity to prepare themselves to enter into intimate communion with God's holiness. “Purgatory shows God's great mercy and washes away the defects of those who long to become one with him.”13

The Old Testament speaks about purification beyond death (cf. 2 Mac. 12: 40-45). St Paul in the first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 3: 10-15) presents Christian purification in this world and the next through the image of fire: fire which in some way comes from Jesus Christ, saviour, judge and foundation of the Christian life.14 Even though the doctrine of purgatory was not formally defined until the Middle Ages,15 the ancient and unanimous practice of offering prayers for the dead, especially the holy sacrifice of the Mass, is a clear indication of the Church's belief in purification in the next world. It would not make sense to pray for the dead if they were either saved and in heaven or condemned and in hell. Most Protestants deny the existence of purgatory since they think that it shows an excessive confidence in human works and in the ability of the Church to intercede for those who have left this world.

Rather than being a “place,” purgatory should be thought of as a “state” of temporary and painful separation from God in which venial sins are pardoned and the soul is cleansed from the inclination to evil left by sin, and the temporal punishment due to sin is fulfilled. Sin not only offends God and damages the sinner himself, but because of the communion of the saints it damages the Church, the world and humanity. The Church's prayer for the dead re-establishes right order and justice to some extent, principally through the Mass, almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance (cf. CCC, 1032).

Theologians teach that those in purgatory suffer greatly, according to each one's situation. Nevertheless, it is a suffering filled with meaning, “a blessed suffering.”16 Hence Christians are invited to seek purification from sin in their present life through contrition, mortification, reparation and a holy life.

6. Children who die before Baptism

The Church entrusts children who die without being baptised to the mercy of God. There are reasons to think that God in some way welcomes them, whether because of the great affection Jesus showed for children (cf. Mk 10:14), or whether because his Son was sent so that all might be saved (cf. 1 Tim 2:4)). At the same time, relying on divine mercy is no reason for delaying the administration of the Sacrament of Baptism to newborn babies.17 It confers a particular configuration to Christ: “it signifies and actually brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity through configuration to the Pascal mystery of Christ” (CCC 1239).

Paul O'Callaghan

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 988–1050

Recommended Reading

John Paul II, Catechises on Creed IV: I believe in life everlasting. (Audiences from 25 May 1999 to 4 August 1999).

Benedict XVI, Enc. Spe Salvi, 30 November 2007.

St Josemaria, Homily “The Christian's Hope,” Friends of God, 205-221.

Contents

Footnotes

1Cf. St Thomas, Summa Contra Gentiles, IV,81.

2Cf. St Thomas, Summa Theologiae, III. Suppl., qq 78-86.

3Vatican Council II Const. Lumen Gentium, 48.

4Benedict XVI, Ency. Spe Salvi, 30-XI-2007, 45.

5Ibid., 12.

6Ibid., cf. 13-15, 28, 48.

7St Augustine, Confessions, 1,1,1.

8St Josemaria, Friends of God, 221.

9Ref. St Augustine, Letter s, 55,9.

10St Thomas, Summa Theologiae, 1.q.12, a.6,c.

11“With death our life-choice becomes definitive--our life stands before the judge. Our choice, which is the course of an entire life takes on a certain shape, can have a variety of forms. There can be people who have totally destroyed their desire for truth, and readiness to love, people for whom everything becomes a lie, people who have lived for hatred and have suppressed all love within themselves. This is a terrifying thought, but alarming profiles of this type can be seen in figures of our own history. In such people all would be beyond remedy and the destruction of good would be irrevocable: this is what is meant by the word Hell”(Benedict XVI, Enc. Spe Salvi, 45).

12Cf. Ibid., 47.

13St Josemaria, Furrow, 889.

14“Some theologians are of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself the Judge and Saviour.” (Benedict XVI, Enc. Spes Salvi, 47).

15Cf. DS 856, 1304.

16Benedict XVI, Enc. Spe Salvi, 47.

17Code of Canon Law 1983, no 867.

TOPIC 17

Introduction to the Liturgy and the Sacraments

The liturgy is an “action of God” that unites us to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit (cf. “Sacramentum Caritatis,” no. 37).

1. The Paschal Mystery: a living and life-giving mystery

Jesus' words and actions during his hidden life in Nazareth and his public ministry were saving acts that anticipated the fullness of his paschal mystery. “When his Hour comes he lives out the unique event in history which does not pass away: Jesus dies, is buried, rises from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Father once for all (Rom 6:10; Heb 7:27; 9:12). His Paschal Mystery is a real event that occurred in our history, but it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and then they pass away swallowed up in the past. The Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past because by his death he destroyed death. All that Christ is—all that he did and suffered for men—participates in the divine eternity and so transcends all times while being made present in them all. The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything to life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1085).

As Benedict XVI wrote, “Being a Christian starts with the encounter with an event, a Person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”1 Hence “our Faith and the Eucharistic liturgy both have their source in the same event: Christ's gift of himself in the Paschal Mystery.”2

2. The Paschal Mystery in the time of the Church: liturgy and sacraments

Christ our Lord “carried out the redemption of humanity principally by the Paschal Mystery of his blessed passion, resurrection from the dead and glorious ascension.”3 “It is this Mystery that the Church proclaims and celebrates in her liturgy” (CCC, 1068).

“The liturgy then is rightly seen as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. It involves the presentation of man's sanctification under the guise of signs perceptible by the senses and its accomplishment in ways appropriate to each of these signs. In it a full public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Christ, that is to say by the Head and his members.”4 “The whole liturgical life of the Church revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments” (CCC, 1113).

“Seated at the right hand of the Father and pouring out the Holy Spirit on his Body which is the Church, Christ now acts through the sacraments he instituted to communicate his grace” (CCC, 1084).

2.1. The sacraments: nature, origin and number

“The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament” (CCC, 1131). “The sacraments are perceptible signs (actions, words) accessible to our human nature” (CCC, 1084).

“Adhering to the doctrine of the scriptures, apostolic traditions and the unanimous sentiment of the Fathers,” we profess that “the sacraments of the new Law were all instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ.”5

“There are seven sacraments in the Church: Baptism, Confirmation or Chrismation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony” (CCC, 1113). “The seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life; they give birth and increase, healing and mission to the Christian life of faith. There is thus a certain resemblance between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life” (CCC, 1210). They form an organic whole centered on the Eucharist, which contains the very Author of the sacraments (cf. CCC, 1211).

The sacraments signify three things: the sanctifying cause, which is the Death and Resurrection of Christ; the sanctifying effect or grace; the sanctifying end, which is eternal glory. “A sacrament is a sign that commemorates what preceded it: Christ's Passion; it demonstrates what is accomplished in us through Christ's Passion: grace; and it prefigures what the Passion pledges to us: future glory.”6

The sacramental sign, proper to each sacrament, is made up of material realities (water, oil, bread, wine) and human gestures (washing, anointing, laying on of hands, etc.) which are called the matter ; and also of words said by the minister of the sacrament, which are called the form. In reality, “a sacramental celebration is a meeting of God's children with their Father, in Christ and the Holy Spirit; this meeting takes the form of a dialogue through actions and words” (CCC, 1153).

The liturgy of the sacraments contains an unchangeable part (what Christ himself established about the sacramental sign), and parts that the Church can change for the good of the faithful and greater veneration of the sacraments, adapting them to the circumstances of place and time.7 “No sacramental rite may be modified or manipulated at the will of the minister or the community” (CCC, 1125).

2.2. The effects and necessity of the sacraments

All the sacraments confer sanctifying grace on those who place no obstacles.8 This grace “is the gift of the Holy Spirit who justifies us and sanctifies us” (CCC, 2003). In addition, the sacraments confer the sacramental grace that is proper to each sacrament (cf. CCC, 1128): this is a specific divine help to obtain the aim of the particular sacrament.

We receive not only sanctifying grace, but the Holy Spirit himself. “Through the Church's sacraments, Christ communicates his Holy and sanctifying Spirit to the members of his Body” (CCC, 739).9 The result of the sacramental life is that the Holy Spirit “deifies” the faithful, uniting them in a living union with Christ (cf. CCC, 1129).

The three sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders, in addition to conferring grace, confer a sacramental character, an indelible spiritual seal impressed on the soul,10 by which a Christian shares in Christ's priesthood and is made a member of the Church according to different states and functions. The sacramental character remains for ever as a positive disposition for grace, as a promise and guarantee of divine protection, and as a vocation to divine worship and the service of the Church. For this reason these three sacraments cannot be repeated (cf. CCC, 1121).

The sacraments that Christ has given his Church are necessary (at least the desire to receive them) for salvation and for obtaining sanctifying grace; and none of them is superfluous, even though not all of them are necessary for everyone.11

2.3. Effectiveness of the sacraments

The sacraments “are effective because in them Christ himself is at work; it is he who baptises, he who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies” (CCC, 1127). The sacramental effect is produced ex opere operato (by the very fact of the action, the sacramental sign, being performed).12 “The sacrament does not act in virtue of the justice of the one who gives it or who receives it; it acts by the power of God.”13 “From the moment that a sacrament is celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ and his Spirit acts in and through it, independently of the holiness of the minister” (CCC, 1128).

The person who administers the sacrament puts himself at the service of Christ and the Church, which is why he is called the minister of the sacrament; and this person cannot be just any member of the faithful, but ordinarily requires the special configuration to Christ the Priest that is given by Holy Orders.14

The effectiveness of the sacraments derives from Christ himself who acts in each sacrament; “nevertheless the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them” (CCC, 1129). The stronger one's faith, the deeper one's conversion of heart and adhesion to the will of God, the more abundant are the effects of grace that one receives (cf. CCC, 1098).

“Holy Mother Church has, moreover, instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs that bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effects of the sacraments, and various occasions of life are rendered holy.”15 “Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that the sacraments do, but by the Church's prayer they prepare us to receive grace and predispose us to co-operate with it” (CCC, 1670). “Among sacramentals, blessings (of persons, meals, objects and places) come first” (CCC, 1671).

3. The Liturgy

Christian liturgy “is essentially an actio Dei, an action of God which draws us into Christ through the Holy Spirit;”16 and it has a dual dimension, ascending and descending.17 “The liturgy is an 'action' of the whole Christ (Christus totus)” (CCC, 1136), and thus “it is the whole community, the Body of Christ united with its Head, that celebrates” (CCC, 1140). In the midst of the assembly Christ himself is present (cf. Mt 18:20), risen and glorious. Christ presides over the celebration. He, who acts inseparably united to the Holy Spirit, convokes, unites, and teaches the assembly. He, the Eternal High Priest, is the principle protagonist of the ritual action that makes present the salvific event, while making use of his ministers to re-present (to make present, really and truly, in the here and now of the liturgical celebration) his redeeming sacrifice, and to make us sharers in the life-giving gifts of his Eucharist.

While forming “as it were one mystical person” with Christ the Head,18 the Church acts in the sacraments as a “priestly society” that is “organically structured.” Thanks to Baptism and Confirmation the priestly people become able to celebrate the liturgy. Therefore “liturgical services are not private functions, but are celebrations of the Church…and pertain to the whole Body of the Church. They manifest it, and have effects upon it. But they touch individual members of the Church in different ways, depending on their orders, their role in the liturgical services, and their actual participation in them.”19

The whole Church, in heaven and on earth, God and men, takes part in each liturgical celebration (cf. Rev 5). Christian liturgy, even though it may take place solemnly here and now in a specific place and express the yes of a particular community, is by its very nature “catholic.” In union with the Pope, with the bishops in communion with the Roman Pontiff, and with the faithful of all times and places, the liturgy is directed towards all mankind, so that God be all in all (1 Cor 15:28). Hence this fundamental principle: the true subject of the liturgy is the Church, specifically the communion sanctorum, the communion of saints of all places and times.20 Therefore, the more fully a celebration is imbued with this awareness, the more specifically does it fulfil the spirit of the liturgy. One expression of this awareness of the unity and universality of the Church is the use of Latin and Gregorian chant in some parts of the liturgical celebration.21

Thus we can say that the assembly that celebrates is the community of the baptised who “by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, that through all the works of Christian faithful they may offer spiritual sacrifices.”22 This “common priesthood” is that of Christ, the Eternal High Priest, shared in by all his members.23 “Thus in the celebration of the sacraments all the assembly is leitourgos, each one according to their function, but in the unity of the Holy Spirit who acts in all” (CCC, 1144). For this reason taking part in liturgical celebrations, even though it does not encompass the entire supernatural life of the faithful, constitutes for them, as for the entire Church, the summit to which all their activity tends and the source from which they draw their strength.24 For “the Church receives and at the same time expresses what she herself is in the seven sacraments, thanks to which God's grace concretely influences the lives of the faithful, so that their whole existence, redeemed by Christ, can become an act of worship pleasing to God.”25

When we refer to the assembly as the “subject” of the liturgical celebration, we mean that each of the faithful, acting as a member of the assembly, carries out what and only what corresponds to him or her. The members do not all have the same function (Rom 12:4) Some are called by God in and through the Church to a special service of the community. These servants are chosen by the sacrament of Holy Orders, by which the Holy Spirit configures them to Christ the Head for the service of all the members of the Church.26 As John Paul II clarified on several occasions, “in persona Christi means more than offering 'in the name of' or 'in the place of' Christ. In persona means in specific sacramental identification with the Eternal High Priest who is the author and the principle subject of this sacrifice of his, a sacrifice in which, in truth, nobody can take his place.”27 As the Catechism graphically says, “the ordained minister is, as it were, the icon of Christ the priest” (CCC, 1142).

“The mystery celebrated in the liturgy is one, but the forms of its celebrations are diverse. The mystery of Christ is so unfathomably rich that it cannot be exhausted by its expression in any single liturgical tradition” (CCC, 1200-1201). “The liturgical rites presently in use in the Church are the Latin (principally the Roman rite, but also the rites of certain local churches, such as the Ambrosian rite, or those of certain religious orders) and the Byzantine, Alexandrian or Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite and Chaldean rites” (CCC, 1203). “Holy Mother Church holds all lawfully recognised rites to be of equal right and dignity, and wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way.”28

Juan Jose Silvestre

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1066-1098; 1113-1143; 1200-1211 and 1667-1671.

Recommended Reading

Saint Josemaría, Homily “The Eucharist, Mystery of Faith and Love,” in Christ is Passing By, nos 83-94; cf. also Conversations, no. 115.

Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, Ignatius Press.

Contents

Footnotes

1Benedict XVI, Enc. Deus Caritas Est, 25 December 2005.

2Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 22 February 2007.

3Vatican II, Sacrosantum Concilium, 5; cf. also CCC 1067.

4Ibid., no 7. CCC, 1070.

5Council of Trent: DZ 1600–1601; cf. also CCC, 1114.

6St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, q.60, a 3; cf. also CCC, 1130.

7Cf. CCC, 1205; Council of Trent: DZ 1728; Pius XII: DZ 3857.

8Cf. Council of Trent: DZ 1606.

9“The desire and work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the Church is that we may live from the life of the risen Christ” (CCC, 1091). “He unites the Church to the life and mission of Christ” (CCC, 1092); “the Holy Spirit heals and transforms those who receive him by conforming them to the Son of God” (CCC, 1129).

10Cf. Council of Trent: DZ 1609.

11Ibid., DZ 1604.

12Ibid., DZ 1608.

13St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, q.68 art.8.

14The ordained priesthood “guarantees that it really is Christ who acts in the sacraments through the Holy Spirit for the Church. The saving mission entrusted by the Father to his incarnate Son was committed to the apostles and through them to their successors: they receive the Spirit of Jesus to act in his name and in his person. (cf. Jn 20:21-23; Lk 24:47; Mt 28:18-20). The ordained minister is the sacramental link that ties the liturgical action to what the apostles said and did and through them to the words and actions of Christ, source and foundation of the sacraments” (CCC, 1120). Even though the effectiveness of the sacrament does not depend on the moral qualities of the minister, nevertheless his faith and devotion, as well as contributing to his own personal sanctification, can be of considerable help to foster the good dispositions of the recipient of the sacrament and in consequence the fruit obtained.

15Vatican II,. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 60; (cf. CCC, 1667).

16Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 37.

17“On the one hand, the Church, united with her Lord and 'in the Holy Spirit' (Lk 10:21), blesses the Father 'for his inexpressible gift' (2 Cor 9:15) in her adoration, praise and thanksgiving. On the other hand, until the consummation of God's plan, the Church never ceases to present to God the Father the offering of his own gifts, and to beg him to send the Holy Spirit upon that offering, upon herself, upon the faithful and upon the whole world, so that through communion in the death and resurrection of Christ the Priest, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, these divine blessings will bring forth the fruits of life, 'to the praise of his glorious grace' (Eph 1:6)” (CCC, 1083).

18Cf. Pius XII, Enc. Mystici Corporis (quoted in CCC, 1119).

19Vatican II,. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 26 (quoted in CCC, 1140).

20“May this sacrifice be effective for all mankind-- Orate, fratres, the priest invites the people to pray--because this sacrifice is yours and mine, it is the sacrifice of the whole Church. Pray, brethren, although there may not be many present, although materially there may be only one person there, although the celebrant may find himself alone, because every Mass is a universal sacrifice, the redemption of every tribe and tongue and people and nation (cf. Rev 5:9)”.

“Through the communion of the saints, all Christians receive grace from every Mass that is celebrated, regardless of whether there is an attendance of thousands of persons or whether it is only a boy with his mind on other things who is there to serve. In either case, heaven and earth join with the angels of the Lord to sing Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus…” (St Josemaria Escriva, Christ is Passing By, no 89).

21Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 62; Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 54.

22Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 10.

23Ibid. 10 and 34; Decr. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2.

24Cf. Vatican II Sacrosanctum Consilium, 20.

25Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 16.

26Cf. Vatican II, Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2 and 15.

27John Paul II, Enc. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 29. Footnote 59 cites the following words from Pius XII's encyclical Mediator Dei : “The minister of the altar acts in the person of Christ in as much as he is head, making an offering in the name of all the members.”

28Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium. 4.

TOPIC 18

Baptism and Confirmation

Baptism “justifies” us in God’s sight, while Confirmation brings us the supernatural gifts of Christian maturity.

BAPTISM

1. Biblical foundations and institution

Among the numerous foreshadowings of Baptism in the Old Testament, some stand out because they are cited in the New Testament as explicitly connected to Baptism: the Flood, the crossing of the Red Sea, the rite of circumcision (see 1 Pet 3:20-21; 1 Cor 10:1; Col 2:11-12).

Jesus was baptized in the waters of the Jordan at the beginning of his public ministry (see Mt 3:13-17), not because he needed it, but through solidarity with us. Water was thereby definitively indicated as the material element of the sacramental sign. In addition, the skies opened up, and the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove and the voice of God the Father testified to Christ's divine filiation. Thus we see in the Head of the future Church what was to take place sacramentally in his members.

Later, in his meeting with Nicodemus, Jesus affirms the spiritual link between the waters of baptism and salvation, and testifies to its necessity: unless one is he born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God (Jn 3:5).

The paschal mystery is what gives Baptism its salvific value. Jesus “had already spoken of his Passion, which he was about to suffer in Jerusalem, as a 'Baptism' with which he had to be baptized (Mk 10:38; cf. Lk 12:50). The blood and water that flowed from the pierced side of the crucified Jesus are types of Baptism and the Eucharist, the sacraments of new life”(CCC, 1225).

Before ascending to heaven, our Lord told the apostles: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Mt 28:19-20).Ever since Pentecost his command has been faithfully followed, signaling what continues to be the primary objective of evangelization.

Commenting on these texts, St. Thomas Aquinas said that the institution of Baptism took place in several steps: with respect to the matter, in the baptism of Christ; its necessity was stressed in Jn 3:2; its usage started when Jesus sent his apostles out to preach and baptize; its effectiveness comes from the Passion; its spread to the whole world is seen in Mt 28:19.1

2. Justification and the effects of baptism

We read in Rom 6:3-4: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ have been baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Baptism reproduces in the faithful Jesus' passage on earth and his saving action, conferring justification on the Christian. As Col 2:12 says, you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. We see here the need for faith, which, together with the rite of water, “clothes us in Christ,” as Gal 3:26-27 tells us: for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

This reality of justification brought about by Baptism produces specific effects in the Christian's soul, which theology calls “healing” and “elevating” effects. The first refer to the pardon of sins, as the teaching of St. Peter stressed: And Peter said to them, 'Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit' (Acts 2:38). This forgiveness includes original sin and, in adults, all personal sins. In addition, all temporal and eternal punishment is remitted. Nevertheless “certain temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized, such as suffering, illness, death, and such frailties inherent in life as weakness of character, and so on, as well as an inclination to sin that Tradition calls concupiscence, or metaphorically, 'the tinder for sin' (fomes peccati)” (CCC, 1264).

The elevating aspect comes from the infusion of the Holy Spirit, for by the one Spirit we were all baptized (1 Cor 12:13). And since this is the same Spirit of Christ (Rom 8:9), we receive the spirit of adopted children (Rom. 8:15), as sons and daughters in the Son. God confers on the baptized sanctifying grace, the theological and moral virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Moreover, “Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his belonging to Christ. No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents Baptism from bearing the fruits of salvation. Given once for all, Baptism cannot be repeated” (CCC, 1272).

Since we were baptized in the one Spirit into one body (1 Cor 12:13), incorporation into Christ is at the same time incorporation into the Church, and in her we are linked to all Christians, including those who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church.

We recall, finally, that the baptized are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nations, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9).Thus they share in the common priesthood of the faithful, and so “'must profess before men the faith they have received from God through the Church' (LG, 11), and participate in the apostolic and missionary activity of the People of God” (CCC, 1270).

3. Necessity

The New Testament categorically teaches regarding Christ that there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we may be saved (Acts 4:12).And since being “baptized in Christ” means being “clothed in Christ” (cf. Gal. 3:27), we can grasp the full force of Jesus' words when he says, he who believes and is baptized will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned (Mk 16:16). This is the source of the Church's faith regarding the necessity of Baptism for salvation.

This last statement must be understood according to the careful formulation of the Magisterium: “Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament (see Mk 16:16). The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are 'reborn of water and the Spirit.' God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments” (CCC, 1257).

There are, in practice, special situations in which the principle fruits of Baptism can be obtained without the intervention of the sacrament. However, precisely because there is no sacramental sign, there can be no certainly of the grace conferred. What the Church traditionally calls baptism of blood and baptism of desire are not “received acts,” but rather a collection of circumstances affecting a particular person, making it possible to speak about salvation. As the Catechism states, “the Church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the sake of the faith without having received Baptism are baptized by their death for and with Christ” (CCC, 1258). Similarly,the Church teaches that “every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known of its necessity” (CCC, 1260).

The situations of baptism by blood and baptism by desire do not cover the case of children who die before Baptism. “The Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved (see 1 Tim. 2:4) … allows us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism” (CCC 1261).

4. Liturgical celebration

The “rites of reception” have the purpose of carefully discerning the will of the candidates, or of the parents, to receive the sacrament and to take on its consequences. This is followed by readings from Scriptures that illustrate the baptismal mystery and are commented on in the homily. Then the intercession of the saints is invoked, in communion with whom the baptized person is soon to be placed. The prayer of exorcism and the anointing with the oil of the catechumens signify divine protection against the wiles of the evil one. Then the baptismal water is blessed with words that stress the close tie between water and the Spirit. Faith and conversion are stressed through the Trinitarian profession and the renouncing of Satan and sin.

The sacramental phase of the rite then begins, through the bathing with water in the strength of the word (Eph 5:26). Whether done by immersion or by pouring, care should be taken that the water runs over the head, thus signifying the real washing of the soul. The valid matter for this sacrament is water, seen to be such according to people's common judgment. As the minister pours the water three times over the head of the candidate, or submerges the person, he pronounces the words “N., I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

The post-baptismal rites (or explanatory rites) illustrate the mystery that has been carried out. The head of the candidate is anointed with sacred chrism (unless Baptism is followed immediately by Confirmation), which signifies the gift of the Holy Spirit received by the newly baptized and the sharing in the common priesthood, as well as being a reminder of the future anointing that will take place in Confirmation. A white garment is given as an exhortation to conserve one's baptismal innocence and as a symbol of the new life that has been received. The candle, lit from the Easter candle and given to the newly baptized, symbolizes the light of Christ, and reminds them to live as children of the light. The rite of the effeta (from Christ's words “be opened”), on the ears and mouth of the newly baptized, signifies the attitude of listening to and proclaiming the word of God. Finally, the recitation of the Our Father before the altar (in the baptism of adults, this take place within the Eucharistic liturgy) expresses the baptized person's new condition as a child of God.

5. Minister and subject

The ordinary ministers are the bishop and priest and, in the Latin Church, also the deacon. In case of necessity, any man or woman can baptize, even if not a Christian, as long as they intend to do what the Church does when she baptizes.

Baptism is intended for all men and women who have not yet received it. The qualities necessary in the candidate depend upon whether they are children or adults. A child who has not yet reached the age of reason should be baptized during the first days of its life, as soon as its health and that of the mother permit. To act otherwise, using a strong expression from St Josemaria, is “to offend seriously against justice and against charity.”2 Baptism, the gateway to the life of grace, is an absolutely gratuitous gift; for it to be valid all that is needed is that it should not be rejected. Moreover, the faith of the candidate, necessarily an ecclesial faith, is present in the faith of the Church. Nevertheless, certain limits exist regarding the practice of the Baptism of children. It is illicit if done without the consent of the parents, or without a sufficient guarantee that the child will be brought up a Catholic. This last point explains why godparents are needed, chosen for their exemplary life.

Adult candidates are prepared through the catechumenate, structured according to local practice with a view to the candidate receiving the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and first Holy Communion at the same time. This period of preparation seeks to foster the person's desire for grace, which includes the intention of receiving the sacrament, and which is a condition for its validity. Candidates are also given doctrinal instruction, which step by step seeks to strengthen in them the supernatural virtue of faith and a true conversion of heart, which sometimes may demand radical changes in the person's life.

CONFIRMATION

1. Biblical and historical foundations

The prophesies about the Messiah had announced that the spirit of the Lord shall rest on him (Is 11:2): Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations (Is 42:1). The prophetic text is even more explicit when the Messiah himself speaks. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted (Is 61:1).

Something similar is announced for the entire people of God: I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes (Ez 36:27). In Joel the universality of this outpouring is stressed: even on the slaves, men and women, I shall pour out my spirit in those days (Jl 3:23).

In the mystery of the Incarnation the messianic prophecy is made a reality (see Lk 1:35), shown forth publicly in the anointing by the Jordon (see Lk 3:21-22), when the Holy Spirit descended on Christ in the form of a dove and the voice of the Father confirmed the prophecy of his election. Our Lord himself, at the beginning of his ministry, declares that he is the Lord's Anointed in whom the prophecies are being fulfilled (seeLk 4:18-10), and he lets himself be guided by the Spirit. (see Lk 4:1; 4:14; 10:21) right up to the moment of his death (see Heb 9:14).

Before offering his life for us, Jesus promised to send us the Spirit (see Jn 14:16; 15:26; 15:13), as truly happened at Pentecost (see Acts 2:1-4), with explicit reference to the prophecy of Joel (see Acts 2:17-18) , thus beginning the universal mission of the Church.

The same Spirit poured out on the apostles in Jerusalem is through them communicated to the baptized by the laying on of hands and prayer (see Acts 8:14-17; 19:6). This practice became so well known in the primitive Church that the Letter to the Hebrews testifies to it as part of the “elementary teaching” and “fundamental topics” (Heb 6:1-2). This biblical picture is completed by the teaching of both John and Paul, which highlights the “anointing” and “sealing” by the Spirit poured out on Christians (see 2 Cor 1:21-22; Eph 1:13; 1 Jn 2:20-27). This is given liturgical expression in the earliest documents, in the anointing of the candidate with perfumed oil.

These same documents bear witness to the unity of the primitive rite of the three sacraments of initiation conferred during the paschal celebration presided over by the bishop in the cathedral. When Christianity began to spread outside the cities and the baptism of infants became generalized, it was no longer possible to follow the primitive practice. While in the Latin Church Confirmation was reserved to the bishop, separating it from Baptism, in the East the unity of the sacraments of initiation was preserved, given simultaneously to the new-born child by the priest. Eastern Christianity gave a growing importance to the anointing of various parts of the body with the “myron” consecrated by the bishop, while in the Latin Church the laying on of hands became a general one over all the candidates, with the forehead of each being anointed with oil.

2. Liturgical significance and sacramental effects

The chrism, a mixture of olive oil and balsam, is consecrated by the bishop or patriarch, and only by him, during the Chrism Mass. The anointing with holy oil of the person being confirmed is a sign of his or her consecration. “By Confirmation Christians, that is, those who are anointed, share more completely in the mission of Jesus Christ and the fullness of the Holy Spirit … so that their lives may give off 'the aroma of Christ' (2 Cor. 2:15). By this anointing the confirmand receives the 'mark,' the seal of the Holy Spirit” (CCC, 1294-1295).

When the sacrament is administered separately from Baptism, this anointing is preceded liturgically by the renewal of the baptismal promises and the profession of Faith by those being confirmed. “This shows clearly that Confirmation follows on from Baptism” (CCC, 1298). In the Roman rite, the bishop extends his hands over all those being confirmed, while pronounces a prayer of invocation and supplication. Then comes the specifically sacramental rite: the “anointing with chrism on the forehead, which is done by the laying on of the hand and through the words, Accipe signaculum doni Spiritus Sancti, 'Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.' In the Eastern Churches of Byzantine rite … the more significant parts of the body are anointed with myron: forehead, eyes, nose, ears, lips, chest, back, hands, and feet. Each anointing is accompanied by the formula 'the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit'” (CCC, 1300). The ceremony concludes with the sign of peace, as a manifestation of ecclesial communion with the bishop (see CCC, 1301).

Thus Confirmation has an intrinsic unity with Baptism, even though two separate liturgical ceremonies may be involved. It completes the baptismal patrimony of the candidate with the supernatural gifts characteristic of Christian maturity. Confirmation is given only once, because “it imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual mark, the 'character,' which is the sign that Jesus Christ has marked a Christian with the seal of his Spirit by clothing him with his power from on high so that he may be his witness” (CCC, 1304). Through Confirmation Christians receive in special abundance the gifts of the Holy Spirit; they become more closely bound to the Church and “hence they are more strictly obliged to spread the faith by word and deed.”3

3. Minister and subject

As successors of the apostles, only bishops are “the original ministers of Confirmation.”4 In the Latin rite, the ordinary minister is exclusively the bishop: a priest may confirm validly only in specific cases (baptism of adults, reception into the Catholic Church, danger of death) or when a priest has received special faculties from the bishop. In the eastern Churches, not only the bishop but also the priest is an ordinary minister, but the priest must always use chrism consecrated by the patriarch or bishop.

As a sacrament of initiation, Confirmation is meant for all Christians, not just selected ones. In the Latin rite, it is conferred once the candidate has reached the age of reason; the specific age will depend on local practice, which should respect the character of initiation that Confirmation has. To receive this sacrament, a person needs previous instruction, a true intention and to be in the state of grace.

Philip Goyret

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1212 -1321.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 251-270.

Contents

Footnotes

1St Thomas Aquinas, In IV Sent, d.3, q.1, a.5, sol. 2.

2St Josemaria Escriva, Christ is Passing By, 78.

3Lumen Gentium, 11.

4Ibid., 26.

TOPIC 19

The Eucharist (I)

The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ’s Paschal mystery, making present his unique sacrifice in the liturgy of the Church.

1. Sacramental nature of the Holy Eucharist

1.1. What is the Eucharist?

The Eucharist is the sacrament that makes present in the liturgical celebration of the Church the Person of Jesus Christ, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, and his redeeming sacrifice, in the fullness of the Paschal mystery of his passion, death and resurrection. This presence is not static or passive (as an object in a place), but rather an active presence where Christ makes himself present with the dynamism of his saving love. In the Eucharist he invites us to accept the salvation he offers us and to receive the gift of his Body and Blood as the food of eternal life. This enables us to enter into communion with him, with his Person and his sacrifice, and also with all the members of his Mystical Body, the Church.

As Vatican II teaches, “At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet, 'in which Christ is consumed, the soul is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.'”1

1.2. Names given to this sacrament

Both in Sacred Scripture and in the Tradition of the Church the Eucharist is called by various names that reflect the multiple aspects of this sacrament and express its limitless richness, though no name can exhaust its meaning. The following are some of the more significant ones.

a) Names that recall the origin of the rite: Eucharist,2 Breaking of Bread, Memorial of the Lord's Passion, Death and Resurrection; the Lord's Supper.

b) Other names that underline the sacrificial aspect of the Eucharist: the Holy Sacrifice; the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; the Sacrament of the Altar; the Host (the Victim who is immolated).

c) Other names that try to express the reality of Christ's presence in the consecrated elements: the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Bread of Heaven (cf. Jn 6:32-35; Jn 6:51-58), the Blessed Sacrament (because the Holy of Holies is there, the very holiness of God Incarnate).

d) Other names that refer to the effects the Eucharist brings about in each of the faithful and in the whole Church: Bread of Life, the true bread of children, the Cup of Salvation, Viaticum (so that we may not grow weary on our way to our heavenly Homeland), Communion. This last name indicates that through the Eucharist we are united to Christ (personal communion with our Lord Jesus Christ) and to all the members of his Mystical Body (ecclesial communion in our Lord Jesus Christ).

e) Finally, the Eucharistic celebration is called the Mass, or the Holy Mass, from the term in the Latin rite that refers to the “sending forth” of the faithful after communion.

Among all these names, “the Eucharist” is the one that has prevailed in the West, and has become the most common name for both the Church's liturgical action in which the Lord's memorial is celebrated, and for the Lord's Body and Blood.

In the Eastern Church, the Eucharistic celebration, especially since the 10th century, has usually been designated by the expression “Holy and Divine Liturgy.”

1.3. The Eucharist in the sacramental order of the Church

“Because of the Blessed Trinity's love for man, the presence of Christ in the Eucharist brings all graces to the Church and to mankind.”3 The Eucharist is the most exalted sacrament. “For in the most Blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch and the Living Bread which gives life to men through his Flesh—that Flesh which is given life and gives life through the Holy Spirit.”4 The other sacraments possess a sanctifying power that flows from Christ, but the Eucharist makes the very Person of Christ truly, really and substantially present. The incarnate Son of the Eternal Father, who now reigns in glory at his side, is made present, with the saving power of his redeeming love, so that all men and women might enter into communion with him and live through him and in him (cf. Jn 6:56-57).

Moreover, the Eucharist is the summit towards which all the other sacraments lead in the spiritual growth of each of the faithful and the whole body of the Church. Thus Vatican II affirmed that the Eucharist is the source and the summit of Christian life, the center of all the Church's life.5 All the other sacraments and all the works of the Church are directed towards the Eucharist because their aim is to lead the faithful to union with Christ, present in this sacrament. (cf. CCC, 1324).

Even though the Eucharist contains Christ himself, the channel through whom divine life comes to humanity and the goal to which all the other sacraments are ordered, the Eucharist is not a substitute for any of them, neither Baptism, nor Confirmation, nor Penance, nor the Anointing of the Sick; indeed the Eucharist can only be consecrated by someone who has validly received the sacrament of Holy Orders. Each sacrament has its role in the sacramental economy and in the life of the Church. In this sense the Eucharist is considered the third sacrament of Christian initiation. Ever since the first centuries of Christianity, Baptism and Confirmation have been seen as a preparation for taking part in the Eucharist, as necessary steps for entering into sacramental communion with the Body of Christ and his Sacrifice and thus to be more vitally inserted in the mystery of Christ and his Church.

2. The promise of the Eucharist and its institution by Christ

2.1. The promise

During his public life our Lord foretold the Eucharist in the synagogue at Capharnaum, in the presence of those who have become his followers after witnessing the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes with which he fed the multitude. (cf. Jn 6:1-13). Jesus made use of that sign to reveal his identity and mission, and to promise the Eucharist. Jesus said to them truly, truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world. They said to him Lord, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst … I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh … He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me (Jn 6:32-35, 51, 54-57).

2.2. Institution of the sacrament and its Paschal context

Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. The three synoptic Gospels (cf. Mt 26:17-30; Mk 14:12-26; Lk: 22:7-20) have passed on the account of the institution. The following is the synthesis of the accounts given in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John saying, 'Go and prepare the Passover meal for us, that we may eat it…' They went…and prepared the Passover. And when the hour came, he sat at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, 'I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.'… And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' And likewise the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood.'” (CCC, 1339).

Jesus, then, celebrated the Last Supper in the context of the Jewish Passover, but at the Lord's Supper something completely new took place. The center was not the lamb of the Old Testament, but rather Christ himself, the Body that he gave up (offered in sacrifice to his Father for mankind), and his Blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Mt 26:28). Thus we can say that Christ, rather than celebrating the Old Passover, announced and carried out, anticipating it sacramentally, the New Passover.

2.3. Meaning and content of the Lord's command

Christ's explicit command, Do this in remembrance of me (Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24-25), makes clear the institution that took place at the Last Supper. Thus he asks us to respond to his gift and to make it sacramentally present (the presence of the Body he gave up for us and Blood he shed, that is to say, his sacrifice for the remission of our sins).

“Do this.” With these words he designated those who can celebrate the Eucharist, the Apostles and their successors in the priesthood; and he conferred the power to celebrate it and determined the basic elements of the rite: the same ones that he employed. Therefore the celebration of the Eucharist requires bread and wine, the prayer of thanksgiving and blessing, the consecration of the gifts into the Body and Blood of the Lord, and the distribution of and communion with this most Sacred Sacrament.

“In remembrance of me,” as a memorial of me. Thus Christ directed the apostles (and in them their successors in the priesthood) to celebrate a new “memorial” that would replace the one celebrated in the Jewish Passover. This memorial rite has a special efficacy: it not only helps the community of believers to “remember” Christ's redeeming love, his words and gestures during the Last Supper, but also, as a sacrament of the New Law, makes the reality signified truly present: Christ himself, 'our Paschal Lamb' (1 Cor. 5:7), and his redeeming sacrifice.

3. Liturgical celebration of the Eucharist

The Church, obedient to our Lord's command, celebrated the Eucharist in Jerusalem without delay (Acts 2:42-48) , in Troas (Acts 20: 7-11), in Corinth (1 Cor 10:14, 21; 1 Cor 11:20-34), and everywhere that Christianity spread. “It was above all on 'the first day of the week,' Sunday, the day of Jesus' Resurrection, that the Christians met 'to break bread' (Acts 20:7). From that time down to our own day the celebration of the Eucharist has been continued so that today we encounter it everywhere in the Church with the same fundamental structure” (CCC, 1343).

3.1. The fundamental structure of the celebration

Faithful to Jesus' commandment, the Church, guided by the Spirit of truth (Jn 16:13), the Holy Spirit, when she celebrates the Eucharist does no more than follow the Eucharistic rite as performed by Jesus at the Last Supper. The essential elements must be the same as those at the original Eucharist: a) the assembly of Christ's disciples, called by him and united around him, and b) the carrying out of the new memorial rite.

The Eucharist assembly

From the beginning of the Church's life, the Christian assembly celebrating the Eucharist has been hierarchically structured. “At its head is Christ himself, the principal agent of the Eucharist. He is high priest of the New Covenant; it is he himself who presides invisibly over every Eucharistic celebration. It is in representing him that the bishop or priest acting in the person of Christ the head (in persona Christi capitis) presides over the assembly, speaks after the readings, receives the offerings, and says the Eucharistic Prayer. All have their own active parts to play in the celebration, each in his own way: readers, those who bring up the offerings, those who give communion, and the whole people whose 'Amen' manifests their participation” (CCC, 1348). Each should fulfil their own ministry with no confusion between the ministerial priest, the common priesthood of the faithful, and the ministry of the deacon and other possible ministers.

The role of the ministerial priest in the celebration of the Eucharist is essential. Only a validly ordained priest can consecrate the Holy Eucharist, pronouncing the words of consecration in persona Christi (that is to say, in specific sacramental identification with the Eternal High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ) (CCC, 1369). On the other hand, no Christian community is able on their own initiative to appoint someone a priest. “This minister is a gift which the assembly receives through episcopal succession going back to the Apostles. It is the Bishop who, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, makes a new presbyter by conferring on him the power to consecrate the Eucharist.”6 Structure of the celebration

The action of the Memorial has involved, since the very beginning of the Church, two important parts, which form a single act of worship: the “Liturgy of the Word” (which includes the proclamation and reception of God's word) and the “Eucharistic Liturgy” (which includes the offering of bread and wine, the Eucharistic prayer with the words of consecration, and communion). These two principle parts are enclosed by the introductory and concluding rites (cf. CCC, 1349-1355). No one on their own initiative can take away or add to what has been established by the Church for the Liturgy of the Mass.7 The sacramental sign

The essential and necessary elements for the sacramental sign of the Eucharist are bread made from wheat flour8 and wine made from grapes,9 along with the words of consecration that the priest pronounces in persona Christi in the Eucharistic Prayer. Thanks to the effectiveness of our Lord's words and the power of the Holy Spirit, the bread and the wine are converted into efficacious signs, with ontological reality and not merely as a sign, of the presence of the “Body given up for us” and the “Blood poured out” by Christ, that is, his Person and his redemptive sacrifice (cf. CCC, 1333 and 1375).

Ángel García Ibáñez

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1322-1355.

John Paul II, Enc. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 17 April 2003, 11-20; 47-52.

Benedict XVI, Apost. Exhort. Sacramentum Caritatis, 22 February 2007, 6-13; 16-29; 34-65.

Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacramental Discipline, Instruction, Redemptionis Sacramentum, 25 March 2004, 48-79.

Recommended Reading

St Josemaria, Homily, “The Eucharist, Mystery of Faith and Love,” in Christ is Passing By, 83-94.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life, Ignatius Press.

Contents

Footnotes

1Vatican II, Const . Sacrosanctum Concilium, 47.

2The term “eucharist” means act of thanksgiving and recalls Jesus' words at the Last Supper: And he took the bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them saying …. (Lk 22:19; cf. 1 Cor. 11:24).

3St Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, 86.

4Vatican II, Decr. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5.

5Vatican II Const. Lumen Gentium, 11.

6John Paul II, Enc. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 29.

7Cf. Vatican II, Const. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 22; Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instr. Redemptionis Sacramentum, 14-18.

8Cf. Roman Missal, Institutio Generalis, no. 320. In the Latin rite, the bread must be unleavened, that is, with no raising agents (cf. ibid.).

9See Roman Missal, Institutio Generalis, no. 319. In the Latin Church a little water is added to the wine. The words that the priest says as he adds the water give the meaning of this liturgical gesture: “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity” (Offertory). For the Fathers of the Church, this action also signified the union of the Church with Christ in the sacrifice of the Eucharist (St Cyprian, Letter 63, 13).

TOPIC 20

The Eucharist (II)

The Holy Mass is a true sacrifice because it makes present, in the “today” of the Church’s liturgical celebration, the unique sacrifice of our redemption carried out on the Cross.

1. The sacrificial character of the Holy Mass

1.1. In what sense is the Holy Mass a sacrifice?

The Holy Mass is a sacrifice in the proper sense, although “new” with respect to the sacrifices found in natural religions and in the ritual sacrifices of the Old Covenant. It is a sacrifice because the Holy Mass “re-presents” (makes present), in the “today” of the Church's liturgical celebration, the unique sacrifice of our redemption, and because it is its memorial and applies its fruit (cf. CCC, 1362–1367).

Each time the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she is called upon to accept the gift Christ offers her and thus to take part in her Lord's sacrifice, offering herself with Him to the Father for the salvation of the world. Hence we can say that the Holy Mass is the sacrifice of Christ and of the Church.

1.2. The Eucharist, sacramental presence of Christ's redemptive sacrifice

The Holy Mass is a true and proper sacrifice because of its direct relationship—its sacramental identity—with the unique, perfect and definitive sacrifice of the Cross.1 This relationship was instituted by Christ at the Last Supper, when He gave the Apostles, under the species of bread and wine, his Body offered up in sacrifice and his Blood poured out for the remission of sins, anticipating in that memorial rite what took place on Golgotha a short while later. Since then the Church, under the guidance and with the power of the Holy Spirit, has never ceased fulfilling Christ's command to his disciples: Do this in memory of me (Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24-25). For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes (1 Cor 11:26; cf. Eph 5:2; Heb 9:26).

This sacramental proclamation of our Lord's Paschal Mystery is of special effectiveness. It is not only a sign or figure of Christ's redeeming sacrifice: it truly makes present his Person and the salvific event commemorated. “The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the making present and the sacramental offering of his unique sacrifice, in the liturgy of the Church which is his body” (CCC, 1362).

Hence, when the Church celebrates the Eucharist, through the consecration of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, the very Victim of Golgotha, now glorious, becomes present; the same Priest, Jesus Christ; the same act of sacrificial offering (the primordial offering of the Cross), inseparably united to the sacramental presence of Christ, an offering that is always present in the risen and glorious Christ.2 Only the external manifestation of this self-giving changes. On Calvary, it was through Christ's passion and death on the Cross. In the Mass, it is through the memorial-sacrament: the double consecration of the bread and wine in the context of the Eucharistic Prayer, a sacramental image of the immolation on the Cross.3

In conclusion, the Last Supper, the sacrifice of Calvary, and the Eucharist are intimately related. The Last Supper was the sacramental anticipation of the sacrifice on the Cross. The Eucharist, which Christ instituted there, perpetuates (makes present) down through the centuries, wherever it is celebrated sacramentally, his unique redeeming sacrifice, so that all generations can enter into contact with Him and accept the salvation He offers to all humanity.4

1.3. The Eucharist, sacrifice of Christ and the Church

The Holy Mass is the sacrifice of Christ and the Church. “The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church. The Church which is the Body of Christ participates in the offering of her Head. With him, she herself is offered whole and entire. She unites herself to his intercession with the Father for all men. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ's sacrifice present on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with his offering” (CCC, 1368).

This teaching is affirmed by the living tradition of the Church, both in liturgical texts and in the Fathers and the Magisterium.5 As the Second Vatican Council teaches: “Christ, indeed, always associates the Church with himself in this great work in which God is perfectly glorified and men are sanctified. The Church is his beloved bride who calls to her Lord, and through Him offers worship to the eternal Father.”6 The Church offers with Christ

The participation of the Church, the People of God, hierarchically structured, in the offering of the Eucharistic sacrifice is made possible by Christ's command, Do this in memory of me. This is reflected in the liturgical prayer, memores…offerimus…(tibi Pater) …gratias agentes…hoc sacrificium, frequently found in the Eucharistic prayers of the ancient Church,7 and also present in the current Eucharistic prayers.8

As the words from the Eucharistic liturgy bear witness to, the faithful are not merely spectators at the act of worship offered by the celebrant. They all can and should join in the offering of the Eucharistic sacrifice, because by Baptism they have been incorporated into Christ and form part of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people (1 Pet 2:9). Christians form part of the new People of God in Christ, which he himself continuously gathers around himself, so that from one end of the earth to the other a perfect sacrifice may be offered to the Lord's name (cf. Mal 1:10-11). Christians offer not only the spiritual worship of the sacrifice of their own works and their entire existence, but also—in Christ and with Christ—the pure, holy, and immaculate Victim. Thus the common priesthood of the faithful is exercised in the Eucharist.

The faithful do not offer a different sacrifice from the sacrifice of Christ, for in uniting themselves with Him they make it possible for the Church's oblation to be incorporated with his, so that the Church's offering becomes the same offering as that of Christ. And it is He, Christ Jesus, who offers the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful, incorporating it into his own.

The Church is offered with Christ

The Church, in union with Christ, not only offers the Eucharistic sacrifice, but is also offered up in Him, for as Christ's Body and Bride she is inseparably united to her Head and Spouse.

The teaching of the Fathers is very clear in this regard. For St. Cyprian, the “Church being offered” (the invisible oblation of the faithful) is symbolised in the liturgical offering of the gifts of bread and of wine mixed with a few drops of water, as the matter of the Sacrifice of the Altar.9 For St. Augustine, in the Sacrifice of the Altar the whole Church is offered with her Lord, as the sacramental celebration itself makes clear: “This city fully redeemed, that is the assembly and society of the saints, is offered to God as a universal sacrifice by the High Priest who, in the form of a slave, offered himself for us in his passion to make us the body of so great a Head… Such is the sacrifice of Christians who 'though many, are one body in Christ' (Rom 12:5). The Church celebrates this mystery in the Sacrament of the Altar, as the faithful well know, where, in what she offers, she offers herself.”10 For St. Gregory the Great, the celebration of the Eucharist is a spur for us to imitate the example of our Lord, offering our lives to the Father as Christ did; and thus the salvation that stems from our Lord's Cross reaches us too. “When we celebrate this Eucharistic Sacrifice, we should offer ourselves to God with a contrite heart, for we who celebrate the mysteries of the Lord's passion must imitate what we do. And thus the Victim takes our place before God, if we make an offering of ourselves.”11

The Eucharistic liturgy clearly expresses how the Church, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, takes part in Christ's sacrifice. Look with favor on your Church's offering and see the Victim whose death has reconciled us to yourself. Grant that we, who are nourished by his Body and Blood, may be filled with his Holy Spirit and become one body, one spirit in Christ. May he make us an everlasting gift to you…12 Similarly, in Eucharistic Prayer IV: Look upon this sacrifice which you have given to your Church; and by your Holy Spirit, gather all who share this one bread and one cup into the one body of Christ, a living sacrifice of praise.

The faithful's participation consists above all in uniting themselves interiorly to Christ's sacrifice, made present on the altar through the ministry of the celebrant. However, it can never be said that that the faithful “concelebrate” with the priest,13 since it is only he who acts in persona Christi Capitis, in the person of Christ the Head of the Church. But through the common priesthood received at Baptism, the faithful truly share in the sacrificial offering. This interior participation should be shown externally: receiving Holy Communion (if in the state of grace); in the responses and prayers that the faithful pray with the priest; in their posture and also sometimes participating in the Readings and the Prayers of the Faithful.

Therefore all the faithful are called to take part in the Holy Mass, putting into practice the true priesthood they share in. That is, they should have the intention of offering to the Father their own life and the struggle to free it from sin, with Christ, the immaculate Victim, repaying with filial love and thanksgiving all that they have received from Him. Thus divine charity, the current of Trinitarian love at work in the celebration of the Eucharist, will transform their whole existence.

The faithful should strive to make the Holy Mass “the center and root of their interior life,”14 thus giving expression to their “priestly soul.” As St Josemaria urged us: “Keep struggling, so that the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar becomes the center and root of your interior life, and so your whole day will turn into an act of worship—an extension of the Mass you have attended and a preparation for the next. Your whole day will then be an act of worship that overflows in aspirations, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and the offering up of your professional work and your family life.”15

Masses celebrated with none of the faithful present still have a public and social character. The effects of each Mass reach all places and times. Therefore it is very fitting that priests celebrate Mass every day, even when none of the faithful can be present.16

2. The ends and fruits of the Mass

The Holy Mass, in as much as it is the sacramental “making present” of Christ's sacrifice, has the same ends as the sacrifice of the Cross.17 These ends are: that of “latria,” that is, to praise and adore God the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit; the Eucharistic aim, to give thanks to God for creation and the redemption; the propitiatory aim, to make amends for our sins; and the impetratory end, to beseech God for his gifts and graces. This is expressed in various prayers that form part of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist, especially in the Gloria and Credo, in various parts of the Eucharistic Prayer (Preface, Sanctus, Epiclesis, Anamnesis, intercessions, final Doxology), in the Our Father, and in the prayers proper to each Mass: the Collect, Prayer over the offerings, Prayer after Communion.

The “fruits” of the Mass are the effects that the saving power of the Cross, made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice, produces in souls when freely accepted with faith, hope and love for the Redeemer. These fruits entail a growth in sanctifying grace and a closer conforming of one's life to Christ.

These fruits of holiness do not equally reach everyone who takes part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, but vary in accord with the degree to which each one participates in the liturgical celebration and with the measure of their faith and devotion. Hence sharing in different ways in the fruits of the Holy Mass are: the whole Church, the celebrant and those who, united with him, come together for the Eucharistic celebration, those who, without taking part in the Mass, unite themselves spiritually to the celebrant; and those for whom the Mass is offered, whether living or dead.18

When a priest receives an offering to apply the fruits of the Mass for a particular intention, he is gravely obliged to offer the Mass for that intention.19

Ángel García Ibáñez

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1356-1372.

John Paul II, Enc. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 17 April 2003, 11-29.

Benedict XVI Apost. Exhort. Sacramentum Caritatis, 22 February 2007, 6-15, 34-65.

Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction, Redemptionis Sacramentum, 25 March 2004, 36-47, 48-79.

Recommended Reading

St Josemaria Escriva, Homily, “The Eucharist, Mystery of Faith and Love,” in Christ Is Passing By, 83-94.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life, Ignatius Press.

Contents

Footnotes

1“The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice” (CCC, 1367).

2“In the liturgy of the Church, it is principally his own Paschal Mystery that Christ signifies and makes present. During his earthly life, Jesus announces his Paschal Mystery by his teaching and anticipates it by his actions. When his Hour comes, he lives out the unique event in history which does not pass away: Jesus dies, is buried, rises from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Father 'once for all.' His Paschal Mystery is a real event that occurred in our history, but it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past. The Paschal Mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed death, and all that Christ is—all that he did and suffered for all men—participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them all. The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything towards life” (CCC, 1085).

3The sacramental sign of the Eucharist does not cause again or reproduce the reality that is made present. It does not renew the bloody sacrifice of the Cross, because Christ has risen and death no longer has dominion over him (Rom 6:9). Nor does it cause in Christ anything that he does not already possess fully and definitively: it does not involve a new act of immolation and sacrificial offerings by Christ in glory. The Eucharist simply makes present a pre-existing reality: the Person of Christ, the Incarnate Word, who was crucified and has risen, and, in Him, the sacrificial act of our redemption. The sign gives Him a new way of being present, a sacramental presence, making possible the Church's participation in the Lord's sacrifice.

4“As often as the sacrifice of the Cross by which 'Christ our Pasch is sacrificed' (I Cor 5:7) is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out ” (Const. Lumen Gentium, 3).

5Cf. CCC, 1368-1370.

6Vatican II, Const . Sacrosanctum Concilium, 7.

7Cf. Eucharistic prayer from the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus; Anaphora of Addai and Mari; Anaphora of St. Mark.

8Cf. Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer I (Unde et memores y Supra quae); Eucharistic Prayer III (Memores igitur; Respice, quaesumus e ipse nos tibi). Similar expressions are found in Eucharistic Prayers II and IV.

9St Cyprian, Letter 63:13.

10St Augustine, City of God, 10:6.

11St Gregory the Great, Dialogue 4.61.1.

12Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer III , Respice, quaesumus e Ipse nos tibi.

13Pius XII, Enc. Mediator Dei, Dz 3850; Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, 42.

14St Josemaria Escriva, Christ is Passing By, 87.

15St Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, 69.

16Council of Trent, Teaching on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, ch. 6, Dz 1747; Vatican II, Decree Presbyterorun Ordini s, 13; John Paul II, Enc. Ecclesia de Eucharistica, 31; Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 80.

17This identity of ends is based not only on the intention of the celebrating Church, but above all on the sacramental presence of Jesus Christ himself, who continues to renew the ends for which he offered his life to the Father on Calvary (cf. Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25).

18This special prayer of intercession does not imply anything automatic about salvation: grace is not applied mechanically to these members of the faithful, but rather through their union with God by faith, hope and love.

19Cf. CCC, 945- 958. With this particular application of the Mass's fruits, the celebrant does not exclude the blessings of the Eucharistic sacrifice from reaching other members of the Church, and all humanity, but rather he simply includes some of the faithful in a special way.

TOPIC 21

The Eucharist (III)

Faith in Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist has led the Church to offer adoration to the Blessed Sacrament, both during and outside the liturgy of the Mass.

1. The Real Eucharistic Presence

During the celebration of the Eucharist, the Person of Christ becomes present—the Word made flesh, who was crucified, died and rose for the salvation of the whole world—in a mysterious, supernatural and unique form of presence. The source of this doctrine can be found in the very institution of the Eucharist, when Jesus identified the gifts He was offering with his Body and his Blood (“this is my Body … this is my Blood”), that is, with his physical being inseparably united to the Word, and thus with his entire Person.

Christ Jesus is present in many ways in his Church: in his word, in the faithful when they pray (cf. Mt 18:20), in the poor, the sick, the imprisoned (cf. Mt 25: 31-46), in the sacraments and especially in the person of the ministerial priest. But above all He is present in the Eucharistic species (cf. CCC, 1373).

What makes the Eucharistic presence of Christ unique is the fact that the Blessed Sacrament truly, really and substantially contains the Body and Blood together with the Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and perfect Man, the same who was born of the Virgin Mary, died on the Cross and now is seated in Heaven at the right hand of the Father. “This presence is called 'real' — by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense; that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present” (CCC, 1374).

The word “substantial” endeavours to capture the reality of Christ's personal presence in the Eucharist. This is not simply a “figure,” able to “signify” and help us to think about Christ, present in reality somewhere else, in Heaven. Nor is it a mere “sign” through which we are offered the “saving strength,” the grace, which comes from Christ. Rather the Eucharist is an objective presence, the real being, the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ, that is, of his entire Humanity—inseparably united to the Divinity through the hypostatic union—though veiled by the “species” or appearances of bread and wine.

Hence, the presence of the true Body and the true Blood of Christ in this sacrament “cannot be apprehended by the senses, says St Thomas, but only by faith, which relies on divine authority” (CCC, 1381). This is expressed very well in the following verse from the hymn Adoro Te attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas himself: Visus, tactus, gustus, in Te fallitur / Sed audito solo tuto creditur./ Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius/ Nil hoc verbo Veritatis verius. (Sight, touch, taste in You fail / Only hearing can be relied on / I believe whatever God the Son says / There is no truer word than Truth himself).

2. The Transubstantiation

Christ's real and substantial presence in the Eucharist requires an extraordinary, supernatural and unique change. This change is grounded in our Lord's clear words: Take, eat; this is my Body … drink of it, all of you, for this is my Blood of the new covenant (Mt 26: 26-28). These words require that the bread and wine cease to be bread and wine and are converted into the Body and Blood of Christ, because it is impossible for the same thing to be simultaneously two different things, bread and the Body of Christ, wine and the Blood of Christ.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: 'Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation'” (CCC, 1376). Nevertheless the appearances of the bread and wine, that is, the Eucharistic “species,” remain unaltered.

Although what the senses truly perceive are the appearances of bread and wine, by the light of faith we know that what is really contained under the veil of the Eucharistic species is the substance of the Body and Blood of our Lord. Thanks to the permanence of the sacramental species of bread, we can say that the Body of Christ, his entire Person, is really present on the altar or in the ciborium or in the tabernacle.

3. Properties of the Eucharistic Presence

Christ's mode of presence in the Eucharist is a marvelous mystery. According to Catholic faith Jesus Christ is entirely present, with his glorified Body, under each of the Eucharistic species, and also in each fragment that results from the division of the species, such that even though the bread may be broken in pieces Christ is not divided. (cf. CCC, 1377).1 This is a unique mode of presence, one that is invisible and intangible; it is also permanent: once the Consecration has taken place, it lasts as long as the Eucharistic species last.

4. Eucharistic worship

Faith in Christ's real presence in the Eucharist has led the Church to offer the cult of latria (that is, adoration) to the Blessed Sacrament, both during the liturgy of the Mass (and therefore she asks us to genuflect or bow deeply before the consecrated species) and also outside the celebration of Mass: reserving the consecrated hosts with utmost care in the Tabernacle, presenting them to the faithful for solemn veneration, carrying the Host in procession, etc. (cf. CCC, 1378).

Reasons for reserving the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle:2

—principally to be able to give Holy Communion to the sick and other faithful who cannot get to Mass;

—also so that the Church can offer adoration to God our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament (especially during Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, in Benediction, in the Procession with the Blessed Sacrament on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, etc.);

—and also so that the faithful can always adore our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, through frequent visits. As John Paul II said, “Let us be generous with our time in going to meet him in adoration and in a contemplation that is full of faith and be ready to make reparation for the great faults and crimes of the world. May our adoration never cease.”3

There are two great liturgical feasts (solemnities) on which this Sacred Mystery is celebrated in a special way: Holy (or Maundy) Thursday, the commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist and Holy Orders, and Corpus Christi, the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, dedicated especially to the adoration and contemplation of our Lord in the Eucharist.

5. The Eucharist, Paschal Banquet of the Church

5.1. Why is the Eucharist the Paschal Banquet of the Church?

“The Eucharist is the Paschal Banquet in as much as Christ sacramentally makes present his Passover [his 'passing' from this world to the Father through his passion, death, resurrection and glorious ascension4 ] and gives us his Body and Blood, offered as food and drink, uniting us to himself and to each other in his sacrifice” (Compendium, 287).

5.2. Celebration of the Eucharist and Communion with Christ

“The Mass is at the same time, and inseparably, the sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the Cross is perpetuated and the sacred banquet of communion with the Lord's Body and Blood. But the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice is wholly directed towards the intimate union of the faithful with Christ through communion. To receive communion is to receive Christ himself who has offered himself for us” (CCC, 1382).

Holy Communion, ordained by Christ (Take, eat … drink of it, all of you … (Mt 26:26-28. Cf. also Mk 14:22-24; Lk 22:14-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26) forms part of the basic structure of the Eucharistic celebration. Only when Christ is received by the faithful as the food of eternal life does his making himself food for us achieve its deepest meaning, and the memorial He instituted is carried out.5 This is why the Church so ardently recommends sacramental Communion to all who take part in the Eucharistic celebration, when they fulfill the necessary conditions to receive the Blessed Sacrament worthily.6

5.3. Necessity of Holy Communion

When promising us the Eucharist, Jesus stated that this food is not only useful, but that it is necessary if his disciples are to have life. Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you (Jn 6:53).

Just as natural food keeps us alive and gives us strength in this world, similarly the Eucharist strengthens in us the life in Christ received at Baptism, and gives us strength to be faithful to our Lord on this earth until we reach the Father's house. The Fathers of the Church saw in the bread and water that the angel gave Elias a “type” or foreshadowing of the Eucharist (1 Kg 19:1-8).After receiving these gifts, Elias recovered his strength and was able to fulfill God's mission.

Holy Communion, then, is not just a necessity for some of the faithful more especially involved in the Church's mission, but rather it is a vital necessity for everyone. Only those who nourish themselves on Christ's own life can live in Christ and spread his Gospel.

Christians should always have the desire to receive Holy Communion, just as the desire to achieve our last end should always be present in our life. This desire to receive Communion, explicit or at least implicit, is necessary for attaining salvation.

Moreover, the actual reception of Holy Communion is necessary, with the necessity stemming from Church law, for all who have reached the age of reason “The Church obliges the faithful to take part in the Divine Liturgy on Sundays and feast days and, prepared by the sacrament of Reconciliation, to receive the Eucharist at least once a year, if possible during the Easter season” (CCC, 1389). This Church law is just a minimum, which will seldom be enough to develop a genuine Christian life. That is why “the Church strongly encourages the faithful to receive the holy Eucharist on Sundays and feast days, or more often still, even daily” (CCC, 1389).

5.4. The Eucharistic minister

The ordinary minister of Holy Communion is the bishop, the priest or the deacon.7 The acolyte is a permanent extraordinary minister.8 Other members of the faithful to whom the Ordinary of the diocese has given the faculty of distributing Communion can be extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion when it is judged necessary for the pastoral good of the faithful and there is no priest, deacon or acolyte available.9

“It is not licit for the faithful to take by themselves and still less to hand from one to another the sacred host or the sacred chalice.”10 Holy Communion has the value of a sacred sign, a sign that should make clear that the Eucharist is a gift from God to man. Hence under normal conditions, when the Eucharist is distributed, there should be a distinction between the minister who distributes God's gift, offered by Christ himself, and the subject who receives it with gratitude, faith and love.

5.5. Dispositions to receive Holy Communion

Dispositions of the soul

To receive Holy Communion worthily, one must be in the state of grace. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks of the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, proclaims St Paul, will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself (1 Cor 11: 27-29). Anyone with a grave sin on their conscience, however contrite they may be, must first go to Confession before receiving Communion (cf. CCC, 1385).

To receive Holy Communion fruitfully, besides being in the state of grace, we need to make a serious effort to receive our Lord with the greatest possible devotion: this requires remote and immediate preparation, acts of love and reparation, adoration and humility, thanksgiving, etc.

Dispositions of the body

Interior reverence for the Sacred Eucharist should also be reflected in the bearing of the body. The Church prescribes a fast. For the faithful of the Latin rite the fast consists in abstaining from all food and drink (except water and medicines) for an hour before receiving Holy Communion.11 Attention should also be paid to personal grooming, a suitable manner of dress, and to bodily gestures of veneration that show respect and love for our Lord, present in the Blessed Sacrament, etc. (cf. CCC, 1387).

The traditional way of receiving Holy Communion in the Latin rite—a reflection of faith and love, and of the piety of the Church over the centuries—is kneeling and on the tongue. The reasons that gave rise to this pious and ancient custom are still fully valid. One can also receive communion standing and, in certain dioceses, it is allowed—but never required—to receive the Sacred Host in the hand.12

5.6. Age and Preparation for First Communion

The precept regarding Holy Communion obliges all those who have reached the age of reason. Children should be well prepared, and their First Communion should not be delayed. Let the children come to Me and do not hold them back, because to such belong the Kingdom of God (Mk 10:14).13

For a child to receive First Communion, knowledge of the principle mysteries of the Faith is required, in accord with the child's capacity to understand, and the ability to distinguish between the Eucharistic Bread and ordinary bread. “It is primarily the duty of parents and those who take the place of parents, as well as the duty of pastors, to take care that children who have reached the use of reason are prepared properly and, after they have made sacramental confession, are refreshed with this divine food as soon as possible.”14

5.7. Effects of Holy Communion

What food produces in the body for the good of physical life, the Eucharist produces in the soul, in an infinitely higher way, for the good of spiritual life. But whereas food becomes part of our bodily substance, on receiving Holy Communion it is we who are “transformed” into Christ. “You do not transform Me into you as food into your flesh; rather you become transformed into Me.”15 Through the Eucharist the new life in Christ begun in the believer at Baptism (cf. Rom 6:3-4; Gal 3: 27-28) is strengthened and can reach its fullness (cf. Eph 4:13), even to the point of the ideal announced by St Paul: I live, but not I; it is Christ who lives in me (Gal 2:20).16

Thus the Eucharist infuses Christ's way of being into us, enabling us to share in the Son's life and mission. The Eucharist identifies us with his intentions and feelings, gives us the strength to love as Christ asks us to (cf. Jn 13:34-35), in order to enkindle in all men and women the fire of divine love that He came to the earth to bring (cf. Lk 12:49). “If we have been renewed by receiving our Lord's body, we should show it. Let us pray that our thoughts be sincere, full of peace, self-giving, and service. Let us pray that we be clear and true in what we say—the right thing at the right time—so as to console and help and especially bring God's light to others. Let us pray that our actions be consistent and effective and right, so that they give off the good fragrance of Christ (2 Cor 2:15), evoking his way of doing things.”17

Through Holy Communion God makes us grow in grace and virtue, pardons our venial sins and the temporal punishment due to them, preserves us from mortal sins and helps us persevere in doing good. He draws us closer to himself (cf. CCC, 1394-1395). But the Eucharist was not instituted for the forgiveness of mortal sins; that is proper to the sacrament of Confession (CCC, 1395).

The Eucharist draws all Christian faithful into unity with the Lord, bringing about the unity of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ (cf. CCC, 1396).

The Eucharist is the “pledge of future glory,” that is, of the resurrection and eternal life and happiness with our triune God, with the angels and all the saints. “Having passed from this world to the Father, Christ gives us in the Eucharist the pledge of glory with him. Participation in the Holy Sacrifice identifies us with his Heart, sustains our strength along the pilgrimage of this life, makes us long for eternal life, and unites us even now to the Church in heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the saints” (CCC, 1419).

Angel Garcia Ibañez

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1373-1405.

John Paul II, Enc. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 17 April 2003, 15, 21-25, 34-46.

Benedict XVI, Apost. Exhort. Sacramentum Caritatis, 22 February 2007, 14-15, 30-32, 66-69.

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction, Redemptionis Sacramentum, 25 March 2004, 129-160.

Recommended Reading

St Josemaria Escriva, Homily, “On the Feast of Corpus Christi,” in Christ Is Passing By, 150-161.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life, Ignatius Press.

Contents

Footnotes

1“Since Christ is sacramentally present under each of the species, communion under the species of bread alone makes it possible to receive all the fruit of Eucharistic grace” (CCC, 1390).

2See Paul VI, Enc. Mysterium Fidei, 56; John Paul II, Enc. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 29; Benedict XVI, Apost. Exhort. Sacramentum Caritatis, 66-69; Instr. Redemptionis Sacramentum, 129-145.

3John Paul II, Letter, Dominicae Cenae, 3.

4The noun “passover” (and the adjective “paschal”) comes from the Hebrew word meaning passage or transit. In the book of Exodus (Ex 12:1-14 and Ex 12:21-27), it is linked to the “passing over” of the Lord and his angel during the night of the liberation of the chosen People (when the Passover meal is celebrated), and the transit of the People of God from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of the promised land.

5This does not mean to say that the Eucharistic celebration is invalid if all the faithful present do not go to Communion or that they must go to Communion under both species. This is necessary only for the celebrant.

6Cf. Roman Missal, Institutio Generalis, 80; John Paul II, Enc Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 16; Instr. Redemptionis Sacramentum, 81-83, 88-89.

7Cf. Code of Canon Law, 910; Institutio Generalis, 92-94.

8Cf. Code of Canon Law, 910,2; Institutio Generalis, 98; Redemptionis Sacramentum, 154-160.

9Cf. Code of Canon Law, 910, 2 and 230, 3; Institutio Generalis, 100 and 162; Redemptionis Sacramentum, 88.

10Redemptionis Sacramentum, 94; Institutio Generalis, 160.

11Cf. Code of Canon Law, 919,1.

12Cf. John Paul II, Letter, Dominicae Cenae, 11; Institutio Generalis, 181; Redemptionis Sacramentum, 92.

13Cf. St Pius X, Decree, Quam Singulari, 1: Denzinger 3530; Code of Canon Law, 913-914; Redemptionis Sacramentum, 87.

14Code of Canon Law, 914; cf. CCC, 1457.

15St Augustine, Confessions, 7,10.

16If the saving effects of the Eucharist do not achieve their plentitude all at once “it is not because of any limitation of Christ's power, but rather through the defective devotion of man” (St. Thomas Aquinas, S.Th., III, q. 79, a.5, ad 3).

17St Josemaria Escriva, Christ Is Passing By, 156.

TOPIC 22

Penance (I)

Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance to offer us a new possibility of converting and recovering, after Baptism, the grace of justification.

1. Struggling against sin after Baptism

1.1. Need for conversion

Baptism erases every sin and makes us children of God, preparing us to receive the divine gift of the glory of heaven. But in this life we are always exposed to the danger of falling into sin; no one is exempt from this struggle and from frequent falls. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, Jesus taught us to pray, and not just from time to time, but daily, often each day. St. John also tells us, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 Jn 1:8). And St Paul exhorted the Christians of the first hour at Corinth, We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20).

Jesus' exhortation to convert, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe in the gospel (Mk 1:15), is not directed just to those who do not yet know him, but rather to all the Christian faithful, who also need to convert and to re-enkindle their faith. “This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church” (CCC, 1428).

1.2. Interior penance

Conversion starts in our heart: a conversion limited to external appearances is not true conversion. It is impossible to counteract sin, which is an offence against God, without a truly good act, an act of virtue, by which we repent of acting against God's will and actively try to eliminate this disorder with all its consequences. This is the meaning of the virtue of penance.

“Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace” (CCC,1431).

Penance in not an exclusively human endeavor, as though it were merely an interior readjustment based on strong self control, putting into play every resource of self-knowledge and will-power. “Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him: 'Restore us to Thyself, O Lord, that we may be restored!' (Lam 5:21). God gives us the strength to begin anew” (CCC, 1432).

1.3. Various forms of penance in Christian life

Conversion is born in the heart, but it has to bear fruit in external deeds involving the whole person, body and soul. Among these in first place come those that are part of the Eucharistic celebration and the sacrament of Penance, which Christ instituted so that we might be victorious in the fight against sin.

In addition, Christians have many other ways to put into practice their desire for conversion. “Scripture and the Fathers insist above all on three forms, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving (cf. Tob 12:8; Mt 6:1-18), which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others” (CCC, 1434).These three forms sum up all our efforts to rectify the disorder of sin.

Fasting includes not just denying ourselves in a prudent way in what we like to eat, but also anything that means making demands on the body and not giving in to its comfort, with the aim of dedicating ourselves to whatever God is asking of us for the good of others and also for our own good. Prayer involves applying all our spiritual faculties—intellect, will, memory—to uniting ourselves to our Father God in intimate and familiar conversation. Almsgiving is not just giving money or material goods to the needy, but also other types of gifts: sharing our time, caring for the sick, forgiving those who have offended us, correcting what needs changing, consoling those who suffer, and many other ways that we have of giving ourselves to others.

The Church encourages us, especially at certain times, to engage in works of penance that also help us to be more united with our brethren in the faith. “The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church's penitential practice” (CCC, 1438).

2. The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation

2.1. Christ instituted this sacrament

“Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and have wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification” (CCC, 1446).

During his public life Jesus not only exhorted people to do penance: he welcomed sinners and reconciled them to his Father.1 “It was when he gave the Holy Spirit to his apostles that the risen Christ conferred on them his own divine power to forgive sins: 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained'(Jn 20:23)” (CCC, 976). This power is transmitted to the bishops, successors of the Apostles as pastors of the Church, and to the presbyters, who are also priests of the New Testament and the bishops' collaborators in virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders.“Christ has willed that in her prayer and life and action his whole Church should be the sign and instrument of the forgiveness and reconciliation that he acquired for us at the price of his blood. But he entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry” (CCC, 1442).

2.2. Names of this sacrament

This sacrament has a number of names depending on which aspect is being stressed. “It is called the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the Christian sinner's personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction” (CCC, 1423). “It is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles” (CCC, 1424). “It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament” (Ibid.). “It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest's sacramental absolution God grants the penitent pardon and peace” (Ibid.). “It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus' call to conversion” (CCC, 1423).

2.3. Sacrament of Reconciliation with God and with the Church

“Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from the mercy of God for the offence committed against Him and are at the same time reconciled with the Church, which they have wounded by their sins, and which by charity, example, and prayer seeks their conversion” (Lumen Gentium, 11).

“As sin is an offence against God, which breaks our friendship with Him, penance 'has as its aim love and abandonment in God.' The sinner, therefore, moved by the grace of merciful God, sets out on the way of conversion, returns to the Father, 'who first loved us,' and to Christ, who gave Himself up for us, and to the Holy Spirit, who has been poured out on us abundantly.”2

“'Through God's ancient and mysterious designs, men are united together by supernatural ties, such that the sin of one hurts all the rest, in the same way that the holiness of one benefits everyone else.' Hence penance always has an element of reconciliation with everyone else, in the same way that the holiness of one benefits those whose own sin has injured them.”3

2.4. Basic parts of Penance

“The essential elements are two: the acts of the penitent who comes to repentance through the action of the Holy Spirit, and the absolution of the priest who in the name of Christ grants forgiveness and determines the ways of making satisfaction” (Compendium, 302).

3. Acts of the penitent

These are “the acts of the person who undergoes conversion through the action of the Holy Spirit: namely, contrition, confession and satisfaction” (CCC, 1448).

3.1. Contrition

“Among the penitent's acts contrition occupies first place. Contrition is 'sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again'” (CCC, 1451).4

“When it arises from a love by which God is loved above all else, contrition is called 'perfect' (contrition of charity). Such contrition remits venial sins; it also obtains forgiveness of mortal sins if it includes the firm resolution to have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as possible” (CCC, 1452).

“The contrition called 'imperfect' (or 'attrition') is also a gift of God, a prompting of the Holy Spirit. It is born of the consideration of sin's ugliness or the fear of eternal damnation and the other penalties threatening the sinner (contrition of fear). Such a stirring of conscience can initiate an interior process which, under the prompting of grace, will be brought to completion by sacramental absolution. By itself however, imperfect contrition cannot obtain the forgiveness of grave sins, but it disposes one to obtain forgiveness in the sacrament of Penance” (CCC, 1453).

“The reception of this sacrament ought to be prepared for by an examination of conscience made in the light of the Word of God. The passages best suited to this can be found in the Ten Commandments, the moral catechesis of the Gospels and the apostolic Letters, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the apostolic teachings” (CCC, 1454).

3.2. Confession of Sins

“Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance: 'All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue (cf. Ex 20:17; Mt 5:26); for these sins sometimes wound the soul more grievously and are more dangerous than those which are committed openly'” (CCC, 1456).5

“Individual and integral confession and absolution continue being the only ordinary way for the faithful to be reconciled with God and with the Church, unless physical or moral impossibility excuses from this mode of confession.”6 The confession of one's faults is born from true self knowledge before God that comes from examining one's conscience, and from contrition for one's sins. It is much more than a human unburdening. “Sacramental confession is not a human, but a divine dialogue.”7

On confessing his or her sins a Christian penitent submits to the judgment of Jesus Christ, who exercises this judgment through the priest. The priest prescribes works of penance and absolves the penitent's sins. The penitent fights sin with the weapons of humility and obedience.

3.3. Satisfaction

“Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused. Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must 'make satisfaction for' or 'expiate' his sins. This satisfaction is also called 'penance'” (CCC, 1459).

The confessor, before giving absolution, imposes a penance, which the penitent must fulfill afterwards. This penance serves as satisfaction for the sins committed. Its value comes above all from the sacrament. The penitent, by obeying Christ, fulfills what He himself has established in this sacrament, and Christ offers to the Father this satisfaction by one of his members.

Antonio Miralles

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1422-1484.

Recommended Reading

John Paul II, Apost. Exhort. Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 2 December 1964, 28-34.

Paul VI, Apost. Const. Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 1 January 1967.

Contents

Footnotes

1“And when he saw their faith he said, 'Man your sins are forgiven you'” (Lk 5:20). “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Lk 5:31-32). “And he said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven'” (Lk 7:48).

2Ordo Paenitentiae, Praenotanda, 5. (Translated from the Spanish version of the Spanish Episcopal Conference.) The enclosed quotation in the first sentence is from the Const. Pænitemini, 17 February 1966, of Paul VI.

3Ibid. The enclosed quotation is from Paul VI's Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 1 January 1967, 4.

4The quotation cited by the Catechism is from the Council of Trent (Dz 1676).

5The quotation cited by the Catechism is from the Council of Trent (Dz 1680).

6Ordo Paenitentiae, Praenotanda, 31. (As in note 5 above, this is translated from the Spanish version of the Spanish Episcopal Conference).

7Saint Josemaria Escriva, Christ is Passing By, 78 .

TOPIC 23

Penance (II)

Priests receive from God the power to forgive sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

1. Acts of the minister of the sacrament

1.1. The minister and his role

“Christ has entrusted the ministry of reconciliation to his apostles, to the bishops who are their successors and to the priests who are the collaborators of the bishops, all of whom become thereby instruments of the mercy and justice of God. They exercise their power of forgiving sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Compendium, 307).

The confessor carries out the ministry of reconciliation through the priestly power received in the sacrament of Holy Orders. The exercise of this power is regulated by Church law in such a way that the priest must have the faculty to exercise it either over a determined section of the faithful or over all of them.

“When he celebrates the sacrament of Penance, the priest is fulfilling the ministry of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep, of the Good Samaritan who binds up wounds, of the Father who awaits the prodigal son and welcomes him on his return, and of the just and impartial judge whose judgment is both just and merciful. The priest is the sign and the instrument of God's merciful love for the sinner” (CCC,1465).

“Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to people, every confessor, without any exception and under very severe penalties, is bound to maintain 'the sacramental seal' which means absolute secrecy about the sins revealed to him in confession” (Compendium, 309).

1.2. Sacramental absolution

Among the confessor's actions, some are necessary to enable the penitent to carry out his own part; specifically the confessor must listen to the penitent's confession and give a penance. In addition, using the priestly power of the sacrament of Holy Orders, the confessor must give absolution by reciting the formula prescribed in the Ritual, “of which the essential words are 'I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.'”1

Thus “the Father receives the penitent son who comes back to him, Christ places the lost sheep on his shoulders and brings it back to the sheepfold, and the Holy Spirit sanctifies his temple again or lives more fully in it.”2

2. Effects of the sacrament of Penance

“The effects of the sacrament of Penance are: reconciliation with God and therefore the forgiveness of sins; reconciliation with the Church; recovery, if it has been lost, of the state of grace; remission of the eternal punishment merited by mortal sins, and remission, at least in part, of the temporal punishment which is the consequence of sin; peace, serenity of conscience and spiritual consolation; and an increase of spiritual strength for the struggle of Christian living” (Compendium, 310).

St. Josemaria Escriva gives a clear summary of these effects: “In this wonderful sacrament our Lord cleanses your soul and fills you with joy and strength to prevent you from giving up the fight, and to help you keep returning to God unwearied, when everything seems black.”3 “In this sacrament, the sinner, placing himself before the merciful judgment of God, anticipates in a certain way the judgment to which he will be subjected at the end of his earthly life” (CCC, 1470).

3. Necessity and usefulness of Penance

3.1. Necessary for the forgiveness of grave sins

“This sacrament of penance is, for those who have fallen after baptism, necessary for salvation, as baptism is for those who have not yet been regenerated.”4 “According to the Church's command, 'after having attained the age of discretion, each of the faithful is bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious sins at least once a year' (Code of Canon Law, canon 989)” (CCC, 1457).

“A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to … receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible” (Code of Canon Law, canon 916;cf. CCC, 1457).

3.2. Usefulness of frequent confession

“Without being strictly necessary, confession of everyday faults (venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church Indeed the regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the life of the Spirit” (CCC, 1458).

“Frequent and careful celebration of this sacrament is also very useful as a remedy for venial sins. This is not a mere ritual repetition or psychological exercise, but a serious striving to perfect the grace of baptism so that, as we bear in our body the death of Jesus Christ, his life may be seen in us ever more clearly.”5

4. Celebration of the sacrament of Penance

“Individual integral confession and absolution remain the only ordinary way for the faithful to reconcile themselves with God and with the Church, unless physical or moral impossibility excuses from this kind of confession.”6

“The priest should welcome the penitent with fraternal charity … The penitent then makes the sign of the cross saying, 'In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.' Next the priest briefly urges the penitent to have confidence in God.”7

“The priest, or the penitent himself, may read a text from Sacred Scripture, or this may be done as part of the preparation for the sacrament. Through the word of God the Christian receives light to recognise his sins and is called to conversion and to confidence in God's mercy.”8

“The penitent then confesses his sins.”9 The priest urges the penitent to repentance and offers suitable advice to help him start anew and gives him a penance to do. “After this the penitent manifests his contrition and resolution to begin a new life by means of a prayer for God's pardon.”10 Then the priest gives him absolution.

Once absolution has been received, the penitent may proclaim God's mercy and give Him thanks with a brief acclamation taken from Sacred Scripture, or the priest may recite words of praise for God and dismissal of the penitent.

“The sacrament of Penance can also take place in the framework of a communal celebration in which we prepare ourselves together for confession and give thanks together for the forgiveness received. Here, the personal confession of sins and individual absolution are inserted into a liturgy of the word of God with readings and a homily, an examination of conscience conducted in common, a communal request for forgiveness, the Our Father and a thanksgiving in common” (CCC, 1482).

“Confessionals are regulated by the norms issued by the respective Episcopal Conferences, who shall ensure that confessionals are located 'in an open area' and have 'a fixed grille,' so as to permit the faithful and confessors themselves who may wish to make use of them to do so freely.”11 “Confessions are not to be heard outside a confessional without a just cause.”12

5. Indulgences

Someone who has sinned needs not only forgiveness for having offended God, but also remission of the punishment warranted by this offense. The pardoning of serious faults frees the sinner from the punishment of eternal separation from God, but normally there still remains temporal (non-eternal) punishment due to the sin committed. Venial sins as well incur temporal punishment. “These punishments are imposed by the just and merciful judgment of God for the purification of souls, the defense of the sanctity of the moral order and the restoration of the glory of God to its full majesty. Every sin in fact causes a perturbation in the universal order established by God in His ineffable wisdom and infinite charity, and the destruction of immense values with respect to the sinner himself and to the human community.”13

“An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints” (CCC, 1471).

“We call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints, the Church's treasury, which is 'not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the treasury of the Church is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ's merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their efficacy.' 'This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission in the unity of the Mystical Body'”14 (CCC, 1476-1477).

“An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin. The faithful can gain indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead.”(CCC, 1471).

“The faithful who at least with a contrite heart perform an action to which a partial indulgence is attached obtain, in addition to the remission of temporal punishment acquired by the action itself, an equal remission of punishment through the intervention of the Church.”15 “To acquire a plenary indulgence it is necessary to perform the work to which the indulgence is attached and to fulfill three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. It is further required that all attachment to sin, even to venial sin, be absent. If this disposition is in any way less than complete, or if the prescribed three conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence will be only partial.”16

Antonio Miralles

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1422-1484.

Recommended Reading

Ordo Paenitentiae, Praenotanda, 1-30.

John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 2 December 1964, 28-34.

Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 1 January 1967.

Contents

Footnotes

1Ordo Paenitentiae, Praenotanda, 19.

2Ibid., 6, d.

3St. Josemaria Escriva, Friends of God, 214.

4Council of Trent, session XIV, Doctrine on the Sacrament of Penance, ch.2.

5Ordo Paenitentiae, Praenotanda, 7, b.

6Ibid., 31.

7Ibid., 16.

8Ibid., 17.

9Ibid., 18.

10Ibid., 19.

11John Paul II, Moto propio Misericordia Dei, 7 April 2002, 9, b.

12Code of Canon Law, canon 964, 3.

13Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 1 January 1967, 2.

14The two internal quotes are from Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 5.

15Ibid., norm 5.

16Ibid., norm 7.

TOPIC 24

Anointing of the Sick

For a Christian sickness and death can and should be a means to seek holiness and to redeem with Christ. This is the purpose of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

1. Anointing of the Sick, sacrament of purification and salvation

Nature of this sacrament

The Anointing of the Sick is a sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ, implied as such in St. Mark's Gospel (Mk 6:13), and recommended to the faithful by the apostle St. James: Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven (Jas 5:14-15). The Church's living tradition, reflected in texts of the Magisterium, has seen in this rite, especially dedicated to comforting the sick and purifying them from sin and its consequences, one of the seven sacraments of the New Law.1

Christian meaning of suffering, death and preparing for a good death

In the Ritual for the Anointing of the Sick, the meaning of human suffering and death is explained in the light of God's salvific plan, and more specifically in the light of the salvific value of the sufferings undergone by Christ, the Incarnate Word, in the mystery of his passion, death and resurrection.2 As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “By his passion and death on the cross Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion” (CCC, 1505). “Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their cross in their turn (cf. Mt 10:38). By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick” (CCC, 1506).

Sacred Scripture points to a close relationship between sickness and death, and sin.3 But it would be a mistake to think of sickness as a punishment for personal sins (Jn 9:3). The meaning of innocent suffering can only be understood by the light of faith, believing firmly in the Goodness and Wisdom of God, in his loving Providence, and contemplating the mystery of Christ's passion, death and resurrection, thanks to which the Redemption of the world became possible.4

Our Lord taught us the positive value of suffering for carrying out the Redemption, but at the same time he wanted to cure many sick people, showing his power over suffering and illness and, above all, his power to forgive sins (cf. Mt 9:2-7). After the Resurrection he sent out his apostles: In my name … they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover (Mk 16: 17-18) (cf. CCC, 1507).5

For a Christian sickness and death can and should be a means to seek holiness and to redeem with Christ. The sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick helps us to live these sorrowful realities of human life with a Christian sense. “In the Anointing of the Sick, as Extreme Unction is now called, we find a loving preparation for the journey which ends in the Father's house.”6

2. Structure of the sacramental sign and celebration of the sacrament

According to Ritual for the Anointing of the Sick, the appropriate matter for the sacrament is olive oil, or in case of necessity, vegetable oil.7 This oil should be blessed by the bishop or by a priest with this faculty.8

The anointing is done on the forehead and the hands.9 The sacramental form of words in the Latin rite by which the sacrament is conferred is as follows: Per istam sanctam Unctionem et suam piisimam misericordiam adiuvet te Dominus gratia Spiritus Sancti, / ut a peccatis liberatum te salvet atque propitius allevet. “Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. / May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up.”10

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “It is very fitting to celebrate [the Anointing of the Sick] within the Eucharist, the memorial of the Lord's Passover. If circumstances suggest it, the celebration of the sacrament can be preceded by the sacrament of Penance and followed by the sacrament of the Eucharist. As the sacrament of Christ's Passover the Eucharist should always be the last sacrament of the earthly journey, the 'viaticum' for 'passing over' to eternal life” (CCC, 1517).

3. Minister of the Anointing of the Sick

The minister of this sacrament must be a priest or bishop.11 Pastors have the duty to instruct the faithful about the benefits of this sacrament. The faithful (particularly family members and friends) should encourage sick people to call for the priest so that they can receive the Anointing of the Sick (cf. CCC, 1516).

The faithful should keep in mind the tendency today to “isolate” those who are sick and dying. In hospitals and clinics people often die 'alone' even though they may be surrounded by others in an intensive care unit. Everyone—especially Christians who work in hospitals and hospices—should strive to ensure that seriously ill people receive every possible assistance to relieve their suffering in body and soul. And an important means (besides the sacrament of Penance and Viaticum) is the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

4. Subject of the Anointing of the Sick

The Anointing of the Sick is meant for all those who have been baptized, have reached the age of reason and are in danger of death from serious illness or from old age as they become increasingly frail.12 It cannot be administered to someone after death.

To receive this sacrament fruitfully, those receiving it should be reconciled to God and to the Church, at least in desire, and repent of their sins with the intention of confessing them in the sacrament of Penance, if and when this become possible. Therefore the Church asks that, if possible, the person should receive the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation before being anointed.13

The subject must have at least the habitual and implicit intention to receive the sacrament.14 In other words, the sick person must have the desire (never having expressed otherwise) to die a good Christian death, with the supernatural help that this entails.

Even though the Anointing of the Sick can be administered to those already unconscious, every effort should be made to administer it while they are still conscious, so that they can better prepare to receive the grace of the sacrament. It should not be given to those who remain obstinately impenitent in public mortal sin (Code of Canon Law, canon 1007).

If someone who has been anointed recovers from their illness they can be anointed again in the case of a new serious illness, and the sacrament can also be repeated during the same illness if the person's situation again deteriorates (cf. Code of Canon Law, canon, 1004, 2).

Finally, the Church sets down that “if there is any doubt as to whether the sick person has reached the age of reason, or is dangerously ill, or is dead, this sacrament is to be administered” (Code of Canon Law, canon 1005).

5. Necessity of this sacrament

The reception of this sacrament is not essential in the sense of being necessary for salvation, but neither should it be voluntarily disregarded if it is possible to receive it, for that would amount to refusing a help of great value for salvation. To deny this help to a seriously ill person could amount to a serious sin.

6. Effects of the Anointing the Sick

As a true and proper sacrament of the New Law, the Anointing of the Sick offers sanctifying grace to the faithful and specific sacramental graces. For the person receiving it, the specific sacramental grace has the following effects:

—a more intimate union with Christ in his redemptive Passion, for the good of the recipient and for the good of the whole Church (cf. CCC, 1521, 1522, 1532);

—the peace and strength to overcome the difficulties and sufferings of a serious illness or the frailty of old age (cf. CCC, 1520, 1532);

—the healing of the wounds of sin and the forgiveness of all venial sins, as well as mortal sins when the person is repentant but unable to receive the sacrament of Penance (cf. CCC, 1520);

—the recovery of physical health if such is God's will (cf. Council of Florence: DZ 1325 , CCC, 1520);

—preparation for the passage to eternal life. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “This grace is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews trust and faith in God and strengthens against the temptations of the evil one, the temptation to discouragement and anguish in the face of death (cf. Heb 2:15)” (CCC, 1520).

Ángel García Ibáñez

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1499-1532.

Recommended Reading

John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, Salvifici Doloris, 11 February 1984.

Contents

Footnotes

1Cf, DZ 216; 1324-1325; 1695-1696; 1716-1717 ; CCC, 1511-1513.

2Cf. Ritual for the Anointing of the Sick, Introduction, 1-2.

3Cf. Deut 28:15 ; Deut 28:21-22 ; Deut. 28:27 ; Ps 37 (38): 2-12 ; Ps 38 (39): 9-12 ; Ps 106 (107): 17 ; Wis 2:24 ; Rom 5:12 ; Rom 5:14-15.

4“Christ not only allows himself to be touched by the sick, but he makes their miseries his own: 'He took our infirmities and bore our diseases (Mt 8:17 , cf. Is 53:4) … On the cross Christ took upon himself the whole weight of evil (cf. Is 53:4-5) and took away the 'sin of the world' (Jn 1:29), of which illness is only a consequence” (CCC, 1505).

5Of itself suffering does not save or redeem. Only illness accepted with faith, hope and love for God, in union with Christ, purifies and redeems. It is Christ who saves us, not through suffering but by suffering transformed into prayer as a 'spiritual sacrifice' (Rom 12:1; 1 Pet 2:4-5), which we can offer to God, uniting ourselves to Christ's Redemptive Sacrifice, made present in each celebration of the Eucharist so that we can share in it.

In addition it is good to bear in mind that “it is part of God's providential plan that we fight ardently against any infirmity and diligently seek health, so that we may continue fulfilling our roles in society and the Church, as long as we are always ready to complete what is lacking in Christ's Passion for the salvation of the world, hoping for the glorious freedom of the children of God (cf. Col 1:24 ; Rom 8:19-21)” (Ritual for the Anointing of the Sick, Introduction, 3).

6St Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, 80.

7Ritual for the Anointing the Sick, Introduction, no 20; Vatican.II, Const. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 73; Paul VI, Apost. Const. Unctionem infirmorum, 30 November 1972; AAS, 65, (1973) 8.

8The Introduction to the Ritual for the Anointing of the Sick (no. 21) notes that in accord with canon 999 of the Code of Canon Law, in case of necessity any priest can bless the oils for the Anointing of the Sick, but this has to be within the celebration of the sacrament.

9According to the same document (no. 23), in case of necessity it is sufficient to anoint just the forehead or another convenient part of the body.

10Ritual for the Anointing of the Sick, Introduction. 25; cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 847,1; CCC, 1513. The first part of this formula is said while anointing the forehead and the second part while anointing the hands. In case of need, when only one anointing can be done, the minister pronounces the entire formula during this one anointing.

11Cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 1003, 1. Neither deacons nor the lay faithful can validly administer the Anointing of the Sick. (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Note on the minister of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, “Notitiae” 41 (2005) 479).

12Cf. Vatican II, Const. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 73; Code of Canon Law, canons 1004-1007; CCC, 1514.

Hence Anointing of the Sick is not destined for those of the faithful who have simply reached 'old age' (it is not a sacrament for retired people), nor it is solely a sacrament for the dying. In the case of a surgical operation, the Anointing of the Sick can be given when the illness itself that is the reason for the operation places the patient in danger of death.

13Cf. Vatican II, Const. Sacrosantum Concilium, 74.

14The Code of Canon Law states: “This sacrament is to be administered to the sick who, when they were in possession of their faculties, at least implicitly asked for it” (canon 1006).

TOPIC 25

Holy Orders

The sacrament of Holy Orders confers a participation in Christ’s priesthood. The ministerial priesthood is essentially distinct from the common priesthood of the faithful.

1. Christ's priesthood

From among the people of Israel, designated as a kingdom of priests in Ex 19:6, the tribe of Levi was chosen by God for the service of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (Num 1:50). Then, from among the tribe of Levi, the priests of the Old Covenant were consecrated with a rite of anointing (cf. Ex 29:1-7), giving them their special task: every high priest chosen among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins (Heb 5:1). As part of the Mosaic Law, by this priesthood a better hope [was] introduced (Heb 7:19), a shadow of the good things to come (Heb 10:1); but of itself it [could] never, by the same sacrifices continually offered year after year, make perfect those who [drew] near (Heb 10:1).

The Levitical priesthood in some way prefigured among the chosen people the full realization of the priesthood in Jesus Christ—a priesthood linked not to genealogy, nor to temple sacrifices, nor to the Law, but only to God himself (cf. Heb 6:17-20 and 7:1ff). Hence Christ was designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5:10); for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified (Heb 10:14). And truly the Word of God made flesh, in fulfilment of the messianic prophecies, redeemed all men and women by his death and resurrection, giving his own life in fulfilment of his priestly role. Hence this priesthood, which Christ himself describes in terms of consecration and mission (cf. Jn 10:1 ), has a universal value: there is no “salvific action of God beyond the unique mediation of Christ.”1

2. The priesthood of the apostles and in the apostolic succession

At the Last Supper Jesus made known his desire to have the apostles share in his priesthood, expressed as consecration and mission: As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they may also be consecrated in truth (Jn 17:18-19). This participation became a reality at different moments throughout our Lord's ministry, which can be thought of a successive steps leading to the institution of Holy Orders: when he calls the apostles and forms them into a college (cf. Mk 3:13-19); when they receive instructions and are sent out to preach (cf. Lk 9:1-6); when they are given the power to forgive sins (cf Jn 20:22-23); when they are given a universal mission (cf. Mt 28:18-20); and the very special occasion when they are ordained to celebrate the Eucharist: do this in memory of me (1 Cor 11:24). And their apostolic mission “was fully confirmed on the day of Pentecost.”2

During their life “they not only had helpers in their ministry, but also, in order that the mission assigned to them might continue after their death, they passed on to their immediate cooperators, as it were, in the form of a testament, the duty of confirming and finishing the work begun by themselves … and gave them the order that, when they should have died, other approved men would take up their ministry.” In this way “bishops, therefore, with their helpers, the priests and deacons, have taken up the service of the community, presiding in place of God over the flock, whose shepherds they are, as teachers for doctrine, priests for sacred worship, and ministers for governing.”3

2.1. Ordination liturgy

In the New Testament the apostolic ministry is transmitted through the imposition of hands accompanied by a prayer (cf. Acts 6:6; 1 Tim 4:14; and 5:22; 2 Tim 1:6). This is the practice found in the most ancient ordination rites, as seen in the Traditio Apostolica and the Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua. Down through the ages, this essential nucleus, which forms the sacramental sign, has been enriched by complementary rites differing according to liturgical traditions. “In the Latin Church, the initial rites—presentation and election of the ordinand, instruction by the bishop, examination of the candidate, litany of the saints—attest that the choice of the candidate is made in keeping with the practice of the Church and prepare for the solemn act of consecration, after which several rites symbolically express and complete the mystery accomplished: for bishop and priest, an anointing with holy chrism, a sign of the special anointing of the Holy Spirit who makes their ministry fruitful; giving the book of the Gospels, the ring, the miter, and the crosier to the bishop as the sign of his apostolic mission to proclaim the Word of God, of his fidelity to the Church, the bride of Christ, and his office as shepherd of the Lord's flock; presentation to the priest of the paten and chalice, 'the offering of the holy people' which he is called to present to God; giving the book of the Gospels to the deacon who has just received the mission to proclaim the Gospel of Christ” (CCC, 1574).

2.2. Nature and effects of the orders received

Through the sacrament of Holy Orders a participation in the priesthood of Christ is conferred, stemming from the apostolic succession. The ministerial priesthood is distinct from the common priesthood of the faithful that comes from Baptism and Confirmation; “each is ordered one to another,” but “they differ from one another in essence and not only in degree.”4 By the ministerial priesthood “priests are a sacramental representation of Jesus Christ, Head and Shepherd,”5 enabling them to exercise Christ's authority in the pastoral functions of teaching, governing and acting in persona Christi in the exercise of their sacramental ministry.

The repraesentatio Christi Capitis is always preserved in the minister, whose soul has been sealed with the sacramental character, indelibly impressed on his soul at ordination. This character is the principal effect of the sacrament, and since it is a permanent reality, the orders conferred can neither be repeated nor eliminated nor conferred for a limited time. “It is true that someone validly ordained can, for grave reasons, be discharged from the obligations and functions linked to ordination, or can be forbidden to exercise them; but he cannot become a layman again in the strict sense” (CCC, 1583).

Ordination in each of its degrees confers “the grace of the Holy Spirit proper to this sacrament,” which “is configuration to Christ as Priest, Teacher and Pastor, of whom the ordained is made a minister” (CCC, 1585). This ministry is as much a gift as a task, since the priestly order is received with a view to service to Christ and to the faithful, who in the Church make up his Mystical Body. Specifically for a bishop the gift received is “the Spirit of governing which you gave to your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and which he, in turn, communicated to the holy apostles.”6 In the ordination of a priest, God is asked to bestow the gift of the Spirit so that the new priest “may be worthy to stand without reproach before your altar, to proclaim your kingdom, to carry out the ministry of your word of truth, to offer you spiritual gifts and sacrifices, to renew your people by the bath of rebirth.”7 While in the ordination of deacons, God is beseeched so that “strengthened by sacramental grace, in communion with the bishop and his group of priests, they may serve in the ministry of the liturgy, of the word, and of charity to the people of God.”8

2.3. The degrees of the sacrament of Holy Orders

The diaconate, the priesthood and the episcopate are intimately related as grades of the one sacrament of Holy Orders, received successively and inclusively. At the same time they are distinguished according to the sacramental reality conferred and their corresponding functions in the Church.

The episcopate is “the fullness of the sacrament of Orders,” called “in the Church's liturgical practice and in the language of the Fathers 'the high priesthood' or the supreme power of the sacred ministry.”9 Bishops are entrusted with “the service of the community, presiding in place of God over the flock, whose shepherds they are, as teachers for doctrine, priests for sacred worship, and ministers for governing.”10 They are successors of the apostles and in virtue of their ordination become members of the episcopal college, in hierarchical communion with the Pope, head of the college, and with the other members of the college. The bishops' principle task is that of headship, both in the universal Church and in presiding over the local Churches “as vicars and ambassadors of Christ, which they govern by their counsel, exhortations and example, and over and above all by their authority and sacred power.”11 “Among the principal duties of bishops, the preaching of the Gospel occupies a preeminent place. For bishops are preachers of the faith, who lead new disciples to Christ, and they are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach to the people entrusted to them the faith they must believe and put into practice;” “the bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff, are to be respected by all as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth.”12 Finally, as administrators of the grace of the supreme priesthood, they guide with their authority the health-giving and fruitful administration of the sacraments. “They direct the conferring of baptism, by which a sharing in the royal priesthood of Christ is granted. They are the original ministers of confirmation, dispensers of sacred Orders and the moderators of penitential discipline, and they earnestly exhort and instruct their people to carry out with faith and reverence their part in the liturgy and especially in the holy sacrifice of the Mass.”13

The priesthood has been instituted by God “so that its ministers by the sacred power of orders are able to offer sacrifice and to forgive sins; they perform their priestly office publicly for men in the name of Christ.”14 “Their ministry has been handed down, in a lesser degree, but established in the order of the priesthood they can be co-workers of the episcopal order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic mission.”15 They share “the authority by which Christ builds up, sanctifies and rules his Body,” and through the sacramental order they have received, “they are signed with a special character and are conformed to Christ the Priest in such a way that they can act in the person of Christ the Head.”16 They “constitute one priesthood with their bishop [dedicated to] a diversity of duties,”17 and carry out their mission in immediate contact with the people. More specifically, “priests, as co-workers with their bishops, have the primary duty of proclaiming the Gospel of God to all. In this way they fulfill the command of the Lord: 'Going therefore into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature' (Mk 16:15).”18 “They exercise their sacred function especially in the Eucharistic worship; there, acting in the person of Christ and proclaiming his Mystery, they unite the prayers of the faithful with the sacrifice of their Head and renew and apply in the sacrifice of the Mass, until the coming of the Lord, the unique sacrifice of the New Testament, namely that of Christ offering Himself once for all a spotless Victim to the Father (cf. Heb 9:11-28).”19 This function is united with “the ministry of reconciliation and comfort” for “the sick and the sinners.” As true shepherds, they exercise “within the limits of their authority the function of Christ as Shepherd and Head, they gather together God's family as a brotherhood all of one mind, and lead them in the Spirit, through Christ, to God the Father.”20

Deacons are the lowest grade of the hierarchy of orders. They are ordained “not unto the priesthood, but unto a ministry of service,” which they exercise as repraesentatio Christi Servi Their role is “to administer baptism solemnly, to be custodian and dispenser of the Eucharist, to assist at and bless marriages in the name of the Church, to bring Viaticum to the dying, to read the Sacred Scripture to the faithful, to instruct and exhort the people, to preside over the worship and prayer of the faithful, to administer sacramentals, to officiate at funeral and burial services.”21

3. Minister and Subject

The administration of all three grades of Holy Orders is reserved exclusively to the bishop. In the New Testament only the apostles conferred it and, “since the sacrament of Holy Orders is the sacrament of the apostolic ministry, it is for the bishops as the successors of the apostles to hand on the 'gift of the Spirit,' the 'apostolic line,'”(CCC, 1576), which has been preserved through the centuries in the ordained ministry.

An explicit papal mandate is needed for licit Episcopal ordination in the Latin rite (cf. Code of Canon Law, 1013). In the Eastern Churches this is reserved to the Roman Pontiff, the Patriarch or the Metropolitan, and it is always illicit if there is no legitimate mandate. In the case of the ordination of priests and deacons, the person ordaining must be their own bishop unless they have dimissorial letters from the competent authority (cf. Code of Canon Law, 1015-1016). If the ordination is to take place outside their own circumscription they need the venia of the diocesan bishop (cf. Code of Canon Law, 1017).

For an ordination in all three grades to be valid, the candidate must be a baptized male. Christ ordained only men in spite of the fact that among his followers there were also women who on various occasions showed greater fidelity.

Our Lord's example here has been the norm of the Church throughout her life and cannot be considered merely circumstantial, since the apostles followed this practice and ordained only on men even when the Church spread to areas where women priests would have caused no surprise. The Fathers of the Church followed the practice of the apostles, aware that it was a binding tradition, laid down in synod degrees. Consequently the Church “does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination.”22

For an ordination to be legitimate and fully fruitful it is also necessary that the candidate have a truly supernatural vocation and that this is confirmed by the invitation of the competent authority (the “calling from the hierarchy”). The Latin Church has the law of ecclesiastical celibacy for the three grades. “Indeed, it is not demanded by the very nature of the priesthood,”23 but it “has a many-faceted suitability for the priesthood.” Through it clerics share in the celibacy that Christ adopted in order to carry out his mission “They adhere to him more easily with an undivided heart, they dedicate themselves more freely in him and through him to the service of God and men. “With the total surrender of their lives to the mission they have been given, those ordained “evoke the mysterious marriage established by Christ … in which the Church has Christ as her only Spouse. They give, moreover, a living sign of the world to come, by a faith and charity already made present, in which the children of the resurrection neither marry nor take wives.”24 This does not oblige permanent deacons, nor does it oblige deacons and priests of the Eastern Churches. Finally in order to be ordained specific internal and external dispositions are needed, together with the required age and necessary learning, the preliminary requirements for ordination and the absence of any impediments and irregularities (cf. CCC, 1029-1042). Special conditions exist for episcopal ordination candidates to ensure their suitability for their office (cf. Code of Canon Law, 378).

Philip Goyret

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1533-1600.

Recommended Reading

Second Vatican Council, Const. Lumen Gentium, 18-29; Decree: Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2: 4-6 and 15-17.

St Josemaria, Homily A Priest Forever, in In Love with the Church

Contents

Footnotes

1Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Dominus Iesus, August 6, 2000, 14.

2Second Vatican Council, Const. Lumen Gentium, no. 19.

3Ibid., 20.

4Ibid., 10.

5John Paul II: Apost. Exhort. Pastores Dabo Vobis, March 25, 1992, 15,4.

6Roman Pontifical, Prayer of Consecration for Episcopal Ordination.

7Byzantine Rite, Prayer for Priestly Ordination.

8Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, 29.

9Ibid., 21.

10Ibid., 20.

11Ibid., 27.

12Ibid., 25.

13Ibid., 26.

14Second Vatican Council, Decree Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2.

15Ibid.

16Ibid.

17Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, 28.

18Presbyterorum Ordinis, 4.

19Lumen Gentium, 28.

20Ibid.

21Ibid., 29.

22John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, May 22, 1994, 2.

23Presbyterorum Ordinis, 16.

24Ibid.

TOPIC 26

Marriage

“God himself is the author of marriage.” The intimate conjugal union between a man and a woman is sacred, and is structured according to laws established by the Creator and independent of human choice.

“The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring, has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized” (Code of Canon Law, 1055 §1).

1. The divine plan for marriage

“God himself is the author of marriage.”1 The intimate conjugal union between a man and a woman is sacred, and is structured according to laws established by the Creator and independent of human choice.

The institution of marriage is not an undue interference in the intimate personal relations between a man and a woman, but an internal requirement of the covenant of conjugal love. It is only in marriage that the love between a man and a woman can be conjugal,2 that is, an elective love that embraces the good of the entire person in as much as sexually differentiated.3 “Since God created [mankind] as man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. And this love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the common work of watching over creation: 'And God blessed them, and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it' (Gen 1:28)” (CCC, 1604).

The original communion between man and woman was ruptured by original sin, which weakened the moral conscience's ability to recognize the unity and indissolubility of marriage. Old Testament Law, in accord with Divine pedagogy, did not condemn the polygamy of the patriarchs nor did it forbid divorce. Rather, “seeing God's covenant with Israel in the image of exclusive and faithful married love, the prophets prepared the Chosen People's conscience for a deepened understanding of the unity and indissolubility of marriage. The books of Ruth and Tobit bear moving witness to an elevated sense of marriage and to the fidelity and tenderness of spouses. Tradition has always seen in the Song of Solomon a unique expression of human love, insofar as it is a reflection of God's love—a love 'strong as death' that 'many waters cannot quench'” (CCC, 1611).

“Christ not only restored the original order of matrimony but raised it to the dignity of a sacrament, giving spouses a special grace to live out their marriage as a symbol of Christ's love for his bride the Church: 'Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church'” (Eph 5:25) (Compendium, 341).

“For this reason, a valid matrimonial contract cannot exist between the baptized without it being by that fact a sacrament” (Code of Canon Law, 1055 §2).4

The sacrament of matrimony increases sanctifying grace and confers a specific sacramental grace, which exercises a strong influence on all the realities of married life,5 especially on the love between the spouses.6 The universal vocation to sanctity is specified for married people “by the sacrament they have celebrated and is carried out concretely in the realities proper to their conjugal and family life.”7 “Husband and wife are called to sanctify their married life and to sanctify themselves in it. It would be a serious mistake if they were to exclude family life from their spiritual development. The marriage union, the care and education of children, the effort to provide for the needs of the family as well as for its security and development, the relationships with other persons who make up the community, all these are among the ordinary human situations that Christian couples are called upon to sanctify.”8

2. The celebration of matrimony

Matrimony arises from the personal and irrevocable consent of the spouses (cf. CCC, 1626). “Matrimonial consent is an act of the will by which a man and a woman mutually give and accept each other through an irrevocable covenant in order to establish marriage” (Code of Canon Law, 1057 §2).

“The Church normally requires that the faithful contract marriage according to the ecclesiastical form” (CCC, 1631). Hence “only those marriages are valid which are contracted before the local ordinary, pastor, or a priest or deacon delegated by either of them, who assist, and before two witnesses according to the rules” set forth in the Code of Canon Law (Code of Canon Law, 1108 §1).

There are several reasons for this public celebration: the sacrament of matrimony is a liturgical act, and introduces spouses into an ecclesial order, creating rights and duties in the Church between the spouses and towards their children. Since matrimony is a state of life within the Church, certainty about it is necessary (hence the need for witnesses). And the public character of the consent protects the 'I do' once given and helps the spouses to remain faithful to it (cf. CCC, 1631).

3. Essential properties of marriage

“The essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility, which in Christian marriage obtain a special firmness by reason of the sacrament” (Code of Canon Law, 1056). Husband and wife “'are no longer two, but one' (Mt 19:8) … The intimate union of marriage, as a mutual giving of two persons, and the good of the children demand total fidelity from the spouses and require an unbreakable unity between them.”9

“The unity of marriage, distinctly recognized by our Lord, is made clear in the equal personal dignity which must be accorded to man and wife in mutual and unreserved affection. Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love which is undivided and exclusive” (CCC, 1645).

“In his preaching Jesus unequivocally taught the original meaning of the union of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the beginning (cf. Mt 19:8): permission given by Moses to divorce one's wife was a concession to the hardness of hearts. The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble. God himself has determined it: 'what therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder' (Mt 19:6)” (CCC, 1614).In virtue of the sacrament, by which Christian spouses witness to and participate in the mystery of the union and fruitful love between Christ and the Church (cf. Eph 5:32), the indissolubility acquires a new and deeper meaning, strengthening the solidity of the marriage bond, so that a “marriage which is ratified [that is, celebrated between baptized persons] and consummated cannot be dissolved by any human power or by any cause other than death” (Code of Canon Law, 1141).

“Divorce is a grave offence against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other until death. Divorce does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign” (CCC, 2384). “It can happen that one of the spouses is an innocent victim of a divorce decreed by civil law; this spouse therefore has not contravened the moral law. There is considerable difference between a spouse who has sincerely tried to be faithful to the sacrament of marriage and is unjustly abandoned, and one who through his own grave fault destroys a canonically valid marriage” (CCC, 2386).

“Yet there are some situations in which living together becomes practically impossible for a variety of reasons. In such cases the Church permits the physical separation of the couple and their living apart. The spouses do not cease to be husband and wife before God and so are not free to contract a new union. In this difficult situation, the best solution would be, if possible, reconciliation” (CCC, 1649) If after the separation “civil divorce remains the only possible way of ensuring certain legal rights, the care of the children, or the protection of inheritance, it can be tolerated and does not constitute a moral offense” (CCC, 2383).

If after divorce a new union is contracted, even though it may be recognized in civil law, it “adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery” (CCC, 2384). Divorced persons who remarry, even though they continue belonging to the Church, may not be readmitted to the Eucharist, because their state and condition of life objectively contradicts the union of indissoluble love between Christ and the Church, which is signified and made present in the Eucharist. “Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children's upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they 'take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples.'”10

4. Responsible parenthood

“By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory. Children are the supreme gift of marriage and contribute greatly to the good of the parents themselves. God himself said: 'It is not good that man should be alone,' (Gen 2:18) and 'from the beginning [He] made them male and female' (Mt 19:4); wishing to associate them in a special way in his own creative work, God blessed man and woman with the words: 'Be fruitful and multiply' (Gen 1:28). Hence, true married love and the whole structure of family life which results from it, without diminishment of the other ends of marriage, are directed to disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and Savior, who through them will increase and enrich his family from day to day” (CCC, 1652).11 Therefore “among the married couples who thus fulfill their God-given mission, special mention should be made of those who, after prudent reflection and common decision, courageously undertake the proper upbringing of a large number of children.”12

The stereotype of the family presented by present-day culture is opposed to large families, which is seen as justified by economic, social or other reasons. However, “true mutual love transcends the union of husband and wife and extends to its natural fruit—the children. Selfishness, on the contrary, sooner or later reduces love to a mere satisfaction of instinct and destroys the bond uniting parents and children. A child who suspects that he has come into the world against his parents' will, who feels he was born not of a pure love, but because of miscalculation or oversight, can hardly consider himself a good son—a true son—of his parents … I see clearly that attacks on large families stem from a lack of faith. They are the product of a social atmosphere which is incapable of understanding generosity, trying to conceal selfishness and unmentionable practices under apparently altruistic motives.”13

Even though spouses may be ready to be generous about the number of children they have, “married people are often hindered by certain situations in modern life from working out their married life harmoniously and … can sometimes find themselves in a position where the number of children cannot be increased, at least for the time being.”14 “If therefore there are well-grounded reasons for spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of husband or wife or from external circumstances, the Church teaches that married people may then take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system and engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile, thus controlling births.”15

Any action is intrinsically evil “which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means.”16

Although it is meant to delay a new conception, the moral value of the conjugal act carried out during the woman's infertile period is different from the moral value of a marital act carried out using some form of contraception. “The fundamental nature of the marriage act, while uniting husband and wife in the closest intimacy, also renders them capable of generating new life—and this as a result of laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman. And if each of these essential qualities, the unitive and the procreative, is preserved, the use of marriage fully retains its sense of true mutual love and its ordination to the supreme responsibility of parenthood to which man is called.”17

The use of contraceptives excludes the procreative meaning of the use of marriage, while the conjugal act during the woman's infertile periods respects the inseparable connection between the unitive and procreative elements of human sexuality. In the first case, a positive action is taken to prevent procreation, eliminating from the conjugal act its proper power of procreating. In the second, the use of marriage is avoided only during the woman's fertile periods, which doesn't damage the procreative power of any conjugal act.18

Hence, responsible parenthood, as taught by the Church, is in no sense contraceptive. On the contrary, it is the response to a particular situation arising from circumstances that aren't desired but are in some sense forced on the couple, and that can contribute (when there is prayer and the acceptance of God's will) to uniting more firmly both the spouses and the whole family.

5. Matrimony and the family

“According to the plan of God, marriage is the foundation of the wider community of the family, since the very institution of marriage and conjugal love are ordained to the procreation and education of children, in whom they find their crowning.”19

“Since the Creator of all things has established the conjugal partnership as the beginning and basis of human society,” the family is “the first and vital cell of society.”20 This specific public dimension of marriage and the family entails that civil authorities must defend and foster it.21 Laws that fail to recognize the essential properties of marriage (laws that permit divorce, or that equate civil unions, whether heterosexual or between persons of the same sex, to marriage) are unjust; they gravely damage the fabric of society itself, which the state is obliged to protect and foster.22

In the Church the family is called “the domestic church;” the communion of its members is meant to be “a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion.”23 “Parents, by word and example, are the first heralds of the faith to their children. They must foster the vocation which is proper to each child, and this with special care if it be to religion.”24 “It is here that the father of the family, the mother, children, and all members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a privileged way by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity. Thus the home is the first school of Christian life and a school for human enrichment. Here one learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous—even repeated—forgiveness, and above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one's life” (CCC, 1657).

Rafael Diaz

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, (CCC), 1601- 1666, 2331- 2400.

Second Vatican Council, Const. Gaudium et Spes, 47-52.

John Paul II, Apost. Exhort. Familiaris Consortio, November 22, 1981, 11-16.

Recommended Reading

St. Josemaria, Conversations, 87-112; also the homily, Marriage: a Christian Vocation, in Christ is Passing By.

Contents

Footnotes

1Second Vatican Council, Const. Gaudium et Spes, 48.

2Cf. John Paul II, Apost. Exort. Familiaris Consortio, 11.

3Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 49.

4“Indeed, by means of baptism, man and woman are definitively placed within the new and eternal covenant, in the spousal covenant of Christ with the Church. And it is because of this indestructible insertion that the intimate community of conjugal life and love, founded by the Creator, is elevated and assumed into the spousal charity of Christ, sustained and enriched by His redeeming power” (John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 13).

5“Couples have the grace of the married state—the grace they receive in the sacrament of Marriage—which enables them to live all the human and Christian virtues in their married life: understanding, good humor, patience, forgiveness, refinement and consideration in their mutual relations” (St Josemaria, Conversations, 108).

6“Authentic married love is caught up into divine love and is directed and enriched by Christ's redeeming power and the salvific action of the Church, so that this love may lead the spouses to God with powerful effect and may aid and strengthen them in their lofty role as a father or a mother” (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 48).

7John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 56.

8St. Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, 23.

9Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 48.

10John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 84. See also Benedict XVI, Apost. Exort. Sacramentum Caritatis, February 22, 2007, 29; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter on the reception of Holy Communion by divorced among the faithful who have remarried, September 14,1994; and CCC, 1650.

11“Married couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to educate their children … Whenever Christian spouses in a spirit of sacrifice and trust in divine providence carry out their duties of procreation with generous human and Christian responsibility, they glorify the Creator and perfect themselves in Christ” (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 50).

12Ibid.

13St. Josemaria, Conversations, 94. “A married couple should build their life together on the foundation of a sincere and pure affection for each other, and on the joy that comes from having brought into the world the children God has enabled them to have. They should be capable of renouncing their personal comfort; and they should put their trust in the providence of God. To have a large family—if such is the will of God—is a guarantee of happiness and effectiveness, in spite of everything that the mistaken proponents of a life based on selfish pleasures may say to the contrary” (St. Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, 25).

14Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 51.

15Paul VI, Enc. Humanae Vitae, July 26, 1968, 16.

16Ibid., 14.

17Ibid., 12. The marriage act, when carried out excluding one of these essential qualities, is intrinsically disordered. “Men rightly observe that a conjugal act imposed on one's partner without regard to his or her condition or personal and reasonable wishes in the matter, is no true act of love, and therefore offends the moral order in its particular application to the intimate relationship of husband and wife. If they further reflect, they must also recognize that an act of mutual love which impairs the capacity to transmit life which God the Creator, through specific laws, has built into it, frustrates His design which constitutes the norm of marriage, and contradicts the will of the Author of life. Hence to use this divine gift while depriving it, even if only partially, of its meaning and purpose, is equally repugnant to the nature of man and of woman, and is consequently in opposition to the plan of God and His holy will” (Ibid., 13).

18Cf. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 32; and CCC, 2370. The suppression of the procreative meaning brings with it the elimination of the unitive meaning of the marital act: “this leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality” (Familiaris Consortio, 32).

19Ibid., 14.

20Ibid., 42.

21“The family is the natural and fundamental element of society and has the right to the protection of society and of the state” (United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 1948, art. 16).

22Cf. Pontifical Council for the Family, Family, Marriage and Irregular Partnerships, Vatican City 2000. Congregation for the Teaching of the Faith; Considerations on Projects for the Legalization of Unions of Persons of the Same Sex., Vatican City 2003.

23John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 21.

24Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, 11.

TOPIC 27

Freedom, Law and Conscience

God created us with the great gift of freedom. The natural law has the force of law as the voice and interpreter of the 'higher reason' of the divine Lawgiver.

1. The freedom of God's children

Human freedom has various dimensions. Freedom from coercion is the freedom to carry out externally what one has decided upon, without impediments from outside agents. Examples of this are freedom of expression, freedom of organization, etc. Freedom of choice or psychological freedom connotes the absence of the internal need to choose one thing or another. This refers not to the freedom to do something, but rather to decide autonomously, without being bound by an interior determinism. In the moral sense, freedom refers to the capacity to affirm and love the good, which is the object of one's free will, without being enslaved by disordered passions or by sin.

God wanted human freedom so that man “might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him. Man's dignity requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward towards his goal by freely choosing what is good, and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end.”1

Freedom from external coercion, from internal necessity and from disordered passions, in a word, full human freedom possesses a great value because only thus can we love (freely affirm) the good because it is good, and as a result love God as the Greatest Good; by doing so we imitate divine Love and attain the end for which we were created. Thus we can say that “authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the image of God in man.”2

Sacred Scripture considers human freedom in the light of salvation history. On account of the original fall, the freedom man had received from God became subject to the slavery of sin, although it was not completely lost (cf. Catechism, 1739-1740). By his glorious Cross, announced and prepared for in the Old Testament, “Christ has won salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage” (Catechism, 1741). Only by cooperating with the grace that God gives through Christ can man enjoy complete freedom in the moral sense: for freedom Christ has set us free (Gal 5:1; cf. Catechism, 1742).

The possibility that man might sin did not stop God from deciding to create us free. Human authorities should respect freedom and not place limits beyond those required by just laws. But at the same time one shouldn't forget that for decisions to be good it is not enough that they be free, and that only in the light of the immense value of freely affirming the good can one understand the ethical requirement to respect people's fallible freedom.

2. Natural moral law

The concept of law is analogous. The natural law, the New Law or the Law of Christ, and human laws, both political and ecclesiastical, are all moral laws in distinct senses, although all have something in common.

Eternal law refers to the plan of divine Wisdom leading all creation towards its goal.3 In mankind's regard, it corresponds to God's eternal salvific plan, by which he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him … to be his sons through Jesus Christ (Eph 1:4-5).

God guides every creature towards its end according to its nature. “God provides for man differently from the way in which he provides for beings which are not persons. He cares for man not 'from without,' through the laws of physical nature, but 'from within,' through reason, which, by its natural knowledge of God's eternal law, is consequently able to show man the right direction to take in his free actions.”4

Natural moral law is the participation in the eternal law by the rational creature.5 The natural law “is itself the eternal law, implanted in beings endowed with reason, and inclining them towards their right action and end.”6 It is, therefore, a divine law (divine-natural). It consists of the very light of reason that enables man to discern good from evil, and has the force of law as the voice and interpreter of the “higher reason” of the divine Lawgiver, in which our spirit participates and to which our freedom adheres.7 It is called “natural” because it consists of the light of reason that each person has by nature.

Natural moral law is a first step in the communication to all humankind of the divine salvific plan, whose complete unveiling is only made possible by Revelation. The natural law “hinges upon the desire for God and submission to him, who is the source and judge of all that is good, as well as upon the sense that the other is one's equal” (Catechism, 1955).

—Properties. The natural law is universal because it encompasses every human person, of every epoch (cf. Catechism, 1956). “It is immutable and permanent throughout the variations of history; it subsists under the flux of ideas and customs and supports their progress. The rules that express it remain substantially valid” (Catechism, 1958).8 It is obligatory because, in order to reach God, man must freely do good and avoid evil. Thus he needs to be able to distinguish good from evil, which happens above all thanks to the light of natural reason.9 The observance of the natural moral law can sometimes be hard, but it is never impossible.10

—Knowledge of the natural law. The precepts of the natural law can be known by all men and women through their reason. Nonetheless, in fact not all its precepts are perceived by everyone in an immediate and clear way (cf. Catechism, 1960). Its effective knowledge can be conditioned by personal dispositions, by the social and cultural climate, by one's education and upbringing, etc. Since mankind's present situation is still subject to the effects of sin, grace and Revelation are necessary for moral truths to be known “by everyone with facility, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error.”11

3. Divine-positive law

The Old Law, revealed by God to Moses, “is the first stage of revealed Law. Its moral prescriptions are summed up in the Ten Commandments” (Catechism, 1962), which expresses immediate conclusions of the natural moral law. The entire economy of the Old Testament is ordered above all to preparing, announcing, and signifying the coming of the Savior.12

The New Law or the Law of Christ “is the grace of the Holy Spirit given through faith in Christ. The external precepts also mentioned in the Gospel dispose one for this grace or produce its effects in one's life.”13

The principal element of the Law of Christ is the grace of the Holy Spirit, which heals the whole person and is expressed in a faith that works through love.14 It is above all an internal law, which gives the interior strength needed to achieve what it teaches. In second place, it is also a written law that is found in Christ's teachings (in the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, etc.) and in the moral catechesis of the apostles, and which can be summed up in the commandment of love. This second element is not of secondary importance. The grace of the Holy Spirit, infused in the believer's heart, necessarily implies “living according to the Spirit” and is expressed via the “fruits of the Spirit,” which are opposed by the “works of the flesh” (cf. Gal 5:16-26).

The Church, through its Magisterium, is the authentic interpreter of the natural law (cf. Catechism, 2036). This mission is not restricted only to the faithful, but—by Christ's command: euntes, docete omnes gentes (Mt 28:19)—encompasses all men and women. Hence the responsibility of all Catholics to teach the natural moral law, since by faith and with the assistance of the Magisterium they can know it easily and without error.

4. Civil laws

Civil laws are the normative dispositions decreed by state authorities (generally, by the legislative branch of the state) with the purpose of promulgating and making explicit the demands of the natural moral law needed to make possible and regulate adequately the life of its citizens in the sphere of a politically organized society.15 These laws should principally guaranty peace and security, freedom, justice, the safeguarding of fundamental rights of the person and public morality.16

The virtue of justice entails the moral obligation to obey just civil laws. The gravity of this obligation depends on the greater or lesser importance of the content of the law for the common good of society.

Unjust laws are those that oppose the natural moral law and the common good of society. More specifically, unjust laws are those:

1) that prohibit citizens from doing something they are morally obligated to do, or that order them to do something they cannot do without committing a moral offense;

2) that harm or deprive of due safeguards goods pertaining to the common good: life, justice, fundamental rights of the person, marriage and the family, etc.;

3) that are not legitimately promulgated;

4) that fail to distribute burdens and benefits in an equitable and proportioned way among the citizens.

Unjust civil laws do not oblige in conscience; to the contrary, there is a moral obligation not to obey them, above all if they are unjust for the reasons indicated in 1) and 2), to make clear one's disagreement with them, and to try to change them insofar as possible or, at least, to reduce their negative effects. At times, one may need to appeal to conscientious objection (cf. Catechism, 2242-2243).17

5. Ecclesiastical laws and the precepts of the Church

To save mankind God has also wanted a specific society18 : the Church, founded by Jesus Christ and endowed with all the means for fulfilling its supernatural end, which is the salvation of souls. Among these means is legislative authority, held by the Roman Pontiff for the universal Church and by diocesan bishops (and authorities likened to them) for the people they are responsible for. The majority of the laws of universal scope are contained in the Code of Canon Law. There exists a Code for the faithful of the Latin Rite and another for those of the Eastern Rite.

The ecclesiastical laws give rise to an authentic moral obligation19 that will be more or less grave according to the gravity of the matter.

The most general precepts of the Church are the following five: first, to attend the entire Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation (cf. Catechism, 2042); second, to confess one's mortal sins at least once a year, when in danger of death, and when needed in order to receive communion (cf. Catechism, 2042); third, to receive communion at least once a year, during the Easter season (cf. Catechism, 2042); fourth, to fast and abstain from eating meat on days established by the Church (cf. Catechism, 2043); fifth, to assist the Church in its needs (cf. Catechism, 2043).

6. Freedom and law

Some discussions of moral questions seem to imply that the ethical demands contained in the moral law are external to freedom. Freedom and law seem, then, to be realities that are opposed to one another and that limit each other reciprocally: as though freedom begins where the law ends and vice versa.

The truth is that free behavior does not stem from instinct or from a physical or biological necessity. Instead, it is guided by each person according to each one's knowledge of good and evil: one freely carries out the good contained in the moral law and freely avoids the evil known by means of the same law.

The denial of the good known through the moral law is not freedom, but sin. What goes against the moral law is sin, not freedom. The moral law clearly requires us to correct any desire to carry out sinful actions: the desire for vengeance, for violence, for stealing, etc. But this moral guidance is not opposed to freedom, which is always directed to the free affirmation of the good, nor is it a coercion of freedom, which always holds out the sad possibility of sinning. “When we breathe this air of freedom we see clearly that evil is an enslavement, not a liberation … Such a person may show that he has acted according to his preferences, but he does not speak with the voice of true freedom, because he has become the slave of his decision and he has decided for the worst, for the absence of God, where there is no freedom to be found.”20

A different matter altogether are human laws and rules. Owing to the generality and conciseness of the terms in which these laws are expressed, in a specific case they may not be a true indicator of what a specific person should do. A well formed person knows that in these concrete cases one should do what one knows with certainty to be right.21 But there exists no case in which it would be good to carry out the intrinsically evil actions prohibited by the negative precepts of the natural moral law or divine-positive law (adultery, deliberate homicide, etc.).22

7. Moral conscience

“Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed” (Catechism, 1778). Conscience specifies our “moral obligation in the light of the natural law: it is the obligation to do what the individual, through the workings of his conscience, knows to be a good he is called to do here and now.”23

Conscience is “the proximate norm of personal morality.”24 Therefore a person who acts against it commits a moral evil. This function of proximate norm pertains to conscience not because it is the highest norm,25 but because it has for the person an ultimate and inescapable nature: “The judgment of conscience states 'in an ultimate way' whether a certain particular kind of behavior is in conformity with the law”26 : when a person judges with certainty, after having evaluated the problem using all the means at one's disposal, no ulterior appeal exists—a “conscience of conscience,” a “judgment of judgment,”—because otherwise the process would go on to infinitely.

A right or true conscience refers to a conscience that judges truthfully regarding the moral quality of an act. An erroneous conscience fails to reach the truth, viewing as good an action that in reality is bad, or vice versa. The cause of an erroneous conscience is ignorance, which can be invincible (and blameless) if it dominates a person to such an extent that there is no possibility of recognizing it and amending it; this ignorance may also be vincible (or culpable) if a person can recognize and overcome it but fails to do so because he or she does not want to use the means available.27 A culpably erroneous conscience does not excuse from sin, and can actually aggravate it.

Conscience is certain, when it expresses a judgment with the moral certainty of not being mistaken. It is probable when it judges with the conviction that there is some probability of error, but less than the probability of being correct. It is called doubtful when the probability of being mistaken is considered to be equal to or greater than that of being correct. Finally, it is called perplexed when one does not dare to judge because one thinks that both doing an act or omitting it is a sin.

In practice one should only follow a certain and true conscience or a certain invincibly erroneous conscience.28 One should not act with a doubtful conscience, but rather first seek to resolve the doubt through prayer, study, asking for advice, etc.

8. Forming one's conscience

Actions that are morally negative and done with invincible ignorance harm the person who commits them as well as possibly also others. Moreover, they can contribute to a greater darkening of conscience in society as a whole. Hence the urgent need to form one's conscience correctly (cf. Catechism, 1738).

To form a right conscience requires instructing the intellect in the knowledge of the truth (for which a Catholic relies on the help of the Church's Magisterium), and educating the will and the emotions through the practice of the virtues.29 This is an effort that lasts one's entire life (cf. Catechism, 1784).

In order to form one's conscience correctly, humility is especially important, attained by being sincere with God, and in spiritual direction.30

Ángel Rodríguez Luño

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1730-1742, 1776-1794 and 1950-1974.

John Paul II, Encyclical Veritatis splendor, August 6, 1993, 28-64.

Recommended Reading

Saint Josemaría, Homily, “Freedom, a Gift from God,” in Friends of God, 23-38.

J. Ratzinger, Conscience and Truth : Presented at the 10th Workshop for Bishops, February 1991, Dallas Texas.

Contents

Footnotes

1Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes, 17. Cf. Catechism, 1731.

2Ibid.

3Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 93, a.1, c; Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis humanae, 3.

4John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, August, 6, 1993, 43.

5Cf. Ibid.; St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q.91, a. 2.

6John Paul II, Enc Veritatis splendor, 44.

7Cf. Ibid.

8“Application of the natural law varies greatly; it can demand reflection that takes account of various conditions of life according to places, times, and circumstances. Nevertheless, in the diversity of cultures, the natural law remains as a rule that binds men among themselves and imposes on them, beyond the inevitable differences, common principles” (Catechism, 1957).

9Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, 42.

10Cf. Ibid., 102.

11Pius XII, Enc. Humani generis : DZ 3876. Cf. Catechism, 1960.

12Cf. Second Vatican Council, Const. Dei verbum, 15.

13John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, 24. Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q.106, a.1, c. and ad 2.

14Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 108, a.1.

15Cf. St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 95, a. 2; Catechism, 1959.

16Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Evangelium vitae, May 25, 1995, 71.

17Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Evangelium vitae, 72-74.

18Cf. Second Vatican Council, Cost. Lumen gentium, 9.

19Cf. Council of Trent, Canons on the Sacrament of Baptism, 8: DZ 1621.

20Saint Josemaría, Friends of God, 37.

21Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 96, a. 6 and II-II, q. 120.

22Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, 76, 80, 81, 82.

23John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, 59.

24Ibid., 60.

25Cf. Ibid., 60.

26Ibid., 59.

27Cf. Ibid., 62; Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes, 16.

28A certain invincibly erroneous conscience is not a moral rule in an absolute way: it obliges only while it remains in error. And it does so not on account of what it is in itself: the obligatory force of conscience derives from the truth, and therefore an erroneous conscience can oblige only to the extent that subjectively and invincibly it is considered truthful. In very important matters (deliberate homicide, etc.) it is difficult to have an erroneous conscience that is inculpable.

29Cf. John Pau II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, 64.

30“Spiritual guidance should not be used to turn people into beings with no judgment of their own, who limit themselves to carrying out mechanically what others tell them. On the contrary, it should tend to develop men with their own Christian standards. This requires maturity, firm convictions, sufficient doctrinal knowledge, a refined spirit and an educated will” (Saint Josemaría, Conversations, 93).

TOPIC 28

Morality of Human Acts

“Acting is morally good when the choices of freedom are in conformity with man’s true good and thus express the voluntary ordering of the person towards our ultimate end: God himself.”

1. The Morality of Human Acts

“Human acts, that is, acts that are freely chosen in consequence of a judgment of conscience, can be morally evaluated. They are either good or evil” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1749).

“Acting is morally good when the choices of freedom are in conformity with man’s true good and thus express the voluntary ordering of the person towards our ultimate end: God himself.”1

The morality of human acts depends on:

—the object chosen;

—the end sought or the intention;

—the circumstances of the action.

“The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the ‘sources,’ or constitutive elements, of the morality of human acts” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1750).

2. The Moral Object

“The morality of the human act depends primarily and fundamentally on the ‘object’ rationally chosen by the deliberate will, as is borne out by the insightful analysis, still valid today, made by Saint Thomas.”2 The moral value of human acts (whether they are good or evil) depends above all on the conformity of the object or act that is willed with the good of the person according to right reason. “The reason why a good intention is not itself sufficient, but a correct choice of actions is also needed, is that the human act depends on its object, whether that object is capable or not of being ordered to God, to the One who ‘alone is good,’ and thus brings about the perfection of the person.”3

“Reason attests that there are objects of the human act which are by their nature ‘incapable of being ordered’ to God, because they radically contradict the good of the person made in his image. These are the acts which, in the Church’s moral tradition, have been termed ‘intrinsically evil’ (intrinsece malum): they are such always and per se, in other words, on account of their very object, and quite apart from the ulterior intentions of the one acting and the circumstances.”4

Consequentialism and p roportionalism are erroneous theories concerning the moral object of an action. “The former claims to draw the criteria of the rightness of a given way of acting solely from a calculation of foreseeable consequences deriving from a given choice. The latter, by weighing the various values and goods being sought, focuses rather on the proportion acknowledged between the good and bad effects of that choice, with a view to the ‘greater good’ or ‘lesser evil’ actually possible in a particular situation.”5

3. Intention

In human actions “the end is the first goal of the intention and indicates the purpose pursued in the action. The intention is a movement of the will toward the end: it is concerned with the goal of the activity” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1752).6 An act that “can be offered to God according to its object, is also capable of being ordered to its ultimate end. That same act then attains its ultimate and decisive perfection when the will actually does order it to God.”7 The intention of the person acting “is an element essential to the moral evaluation of an action” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1752).

“Intention is not limited to directing individual actions, but can guide several actions toward one and the same purpose; it can orient one’s whole life toward its ultimate end … One and the same action can also be inspired by several intentions” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1752).

“A good intention does not make behavior that is intrinsically disordered, such as lying and calumny, good or just. The end does not justify the means” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1753).8 “On the other hand, an added bad intention (such as vainglory) makes an act evil that, in and of itself, can be good (such as almsgiving; cf Mt 6:2-4)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1753).

4. Circumstances

Circumstances “are secondary elements of a moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral goodness or evil of human acts (for example, the amount of a theft). They can also diminish or increase the agent’s responsibility (such as acting out of a fear of death)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1754). Circumstances “of themselves cannot change the moral quality of acts themselves; they can make neither good nor right an action that is in itself evil” (Ibid.).

“A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of the circumstances together” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1755).9

5. Indirect Voluntary Actions

“An action can be indirectly voluntary when it results from negligence regarding something one should have known or done” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1736).10

“An effect can be tolerated without being willed by its agent; for instance, a mother’s exhaustion from tending her sick child. A bad effect is not imputable if it was not willed either as an end or as a means of an action, e.g., a death a person incurs in aiding someone in danger. For a bad effect to be imputable it must be foreseeable and the agent must have the possibility of avoiding it, as in the case of manslaughter caused by a drunken driver” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1737).

An effect can be said to be “willed indirectly” when it is not willed either as an end or a means for anything else, but it is something that necessarily accompanies the desired action.11 This is important in the moral life, because at times actions can have two effects, one good and another bad, and it may be licit to carry them out in order to obtain the good effect (willed directly), even though the evil one cannot be avoided (which, therefore, is willed only indirectly). These situations at times require great moral discernment, where prudence dictates seeking advice from someone able to give sound guidance.

An act is voluntary (and thus blameworthy) in causa when, though not chosen for itself, it frequently follows a directly willed action. For example, a person who fails to keep proper custody of the eyes before obscene images is responsible (because it has been willed in causa) for the disorder (not directly chosen) in one’s imagination.

6. Responsibility

“Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1734). The exercise of freedom always brings with it responsibility before God: in every free act we either accept or reject God’s will.

“Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1735).

7. Merit

“The term ‘merit’ refers in general to the recompense owed by a community or a society for the action of one of its members, experienced either as beneficial or harmful, deserving reward or punishment. Merit is relative to the virtue of justice, in conformity with the principle of equality which governs it” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2006).

We have no strict right to any merit before God for our good works (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2007).12 Nevertheless, “filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God’s gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us ‘co-heirs’ with Christ and worthy of obtaining the promised inheritance of eternal life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2009).13

“The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2008).14

Francisco Diaz

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1749-1761.

John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, August 6, 1993, nos. 71-83.

Recommended Reading

St. Josemaría, Homily, “Christian Respect for Persons and their Freedom,” Christ Is Passing By, 67-72.

Contents

Footnotes

1John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, August 6, 1993, 72. “The first question in the young man’s conversation with Jesus: ‘What good must I do to have eternal life?’ (Mt 19:6) immediately brings out the essential connection between the moral value of an act and man’s final end … Jesus’ answer and his reference to the commandments also make it clear that the path to that end is marked by respect for the divine laws which safeguard human good. Only the act in conformity with the good can be a path that leads to life” (Ibid.).

2John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, 78; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1751. “In order to be able to grasp the object of an act which specifies that act morally, it is therefore necessary to place oneself in the perspective of the acting person. The object of the act of willing is in fact a freely chosen kind of behavior. To the extent that it is in conformity with the order of reason, it is the cause of the goodness of the will; it perfects us morally, and disposes us to recognize our ultimate end in the perfect good, primordial love. By the object of a given moral act, then, one cannot mean a process or an event of the merely physical order, to be assessed on the basis of its ability to bring about a given state of affairs in the outside world”(Ibid.). The “physical object” should not be confused with the “moral object” of the action (one and the same physical action may be the object of different moral acts, e.g., cutting with a scalpel may be a surgical operation or a homicide).

3John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, 78.

4Ibid. 80; Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1756. Vatican Council II specifies several examples: attempts against human life, such as “any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme dishonor to the Creator” (Vatican Council II, Gaudium et spes, 27).

Paul VI, referring to contraceptive practices, taught that it is never licit “to intend directly something which of its very nature contradicts the moral order, and which must therefore be judged unworthy of man, even though the intention is to protect or promote the welfare of an individual, of a family or of society in general” (Paul VI, Enc. Humanae vitae, July 25, 1968, 14).

5John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, 75. This is not the same as saying that one may do evil in order to obtain a good end. For example, a proportionalist would not hold that one could carry out a swindle for a good aim, but rather would examine whether what is done is or is not a swindle (whether what is “objectively chosen” is a swindle or not) by taking into account all the circumstances and the intention. One could thus end up saying that what really is a swindle is not such given the circumstances and intention and could justify that action (or any other).

6The moral object refers to what the will wants to carry out with a specific action (for example, to kill a person, or to give alms), while intention refers to why he wills it (for example, to collect an inheritance, to look good before others, or to help someone who is poor).

7John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, 78.

8“It frequently happens that a man acts with a good intention, but without any spiritual benefit because he lacks good will. For example, one commits a robbery to help the poor: in this case, even if on the inside his intention is good, he lacks rectitude of will because the acts are evil. In conclusion, a good intention does not authorize performing any evil work. ‘Some claim we say—that we should do evil that good may come of it? Their penalty is what they deserve’ (Rom 3:8)” (St. Thomas Aquinas, In duo praecepta caritatis, Opuscula theologica II, no. 1168).

9That is to say, for a free act to be ordered to our true ultimate end, it requires:

a) that in itself it be capable of being ordered to that end: that it be objectively good, given the object of the moral act.

b) that it be capable of being ordered to that end given the circumstances of place, time, etc. in which it is carried out.

c) that the will of the person acting effectively orders it to our true ultimate end: that it be subjectively good, by the intention.

10“For example, an accident arising from ignorance of traffic laws” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1736). When someone is ignorant of elementary traffic laws (voluntarily and culpably), the consequences of that ignorance can be said to be willed indirectly.

11For example, a person who takes a pill to cure a cold, knowing that it will bring on sleep; what is directly willed is to cure the cold, and indirectly sleep. Properly speaking, the indirect effects of an action are not “willed,” but rather tolerated or permitted insofar as inevitably united to what one has to do.

12Guilt is the responsibility we take one before God when we sin, making us worthy of punishment.

13Cf. Council of Trent, DS 1546.

14When a Christian does good “the fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man’s free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful” (Ibid.).

TOPIC 29

Grace and the Virtues

Grace “is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1999).

1. Grace

From all eternity, God has called man to participate in the life of the Blessed Trinity.“This vocation to eternal life is supernatural” (Catechism, 1998).1 To lead us to this supernatural final end, God grants us even here on earth a beginning of this participation which will reach its fullness in heaven and which St. Thomas Aquinas calls “a foretaste of glory.”2 This gift is sanctifying grace :

• it “is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it” (Catechism, 1999);

• “it is a participation in the life of God” (Catechism, 1997; see 2 Pet 1:4), who divinizes us (see Catechism, 1999);

• it is, therefore, a new, supernatural life; a new birth through which we are made children of God by adoption, sharers in the natural filiation of the Son: “sons in the Son”;3

• it thus introduces us into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life. As adopted children we can call God “Father,” united to his only Son (see Catechism, 1997);

• it is the “grace of Christ,” because in our present situation—that is, after sin and the Redemption worked by Christ—grace reaches us as a participation in the grace Christ won for us (Catechism, 1997): And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace (Jn 1:16). Grace configures us to Christ (see Rom 8:29);

• it is the “grace of the Holy Spirit,” because it is infused in the soul by the Holy Spirit.4

Sanctifying grace is also called habitual grace because it is a stable disposition which perfects the soul through the infusion of virtues, to enable it to live with God, to act by his love (see Catechism, 2000).5

2. Justification

The first action of grace within us is justification (see Catechism, 1989). Justification is the passing from the state of sin to the state of grace (or “of justice,” because grace makes us “just”).6 This takes place in Baptism, and every time that God pardons our mortal sins and infuses sanctifying grace (ordinarily in the sacrament of Penance).7 Justification “is the most excellent work of God's love” (Catechism, 1994; see Eph 2:4–5).

3. Sanctification

God does not deny his grace to anyone, because he wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim 2:4): all are called to holiness (see Mt 5:48).8 Grace “is in us the source of the work of sanctification” (Catechism, 1999); it heals and elevates our nature, wounded by original sin, and makes us capable of acting as God's children,9 and of reproducing the image of Christ (see Rom 8:29): that is to say, of being, each one, alter Christus, another Christ. This resemblance to Christ is manifested in the virtues.

Sanctification means growing in holiness, attaining an ever more intimate union with God (see Catechism, 2014), to the point of becoming not just another Christ but ipse Christus, Christ himself10 —one and the same with Christ, as a member in his Body (see 1 Cor 12:27). To grow in sanctity requires freely cooperating with grace, and this entails effort, struggle, because of the disorder introduced by sin (the fomes peccati, the inclination to sin). “There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle” (Catechism, 2015).11

Therefore, in order to conquer in the ascetical struggle, we need to ask God for grace through prayer and mortification (“the prayer of the senses”),12 and receive grace through the sacraments.13

Our union with Christ will be definitive only in heaven. We have to ask God for the grace of final perseverance, that is, the gift of dying in God's grace (see Catechism, 2016 and 2849).

4. The theological virtues

In general terms, virtue “is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good” (Catechism, 1803).14 “The theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity” (Catechism, 1812). “They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children” (Catechism, 1813).15 There are three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity (see 1 Cor 13:13).

Faith “is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief” (Catechism, 1814). By faith “man freely commits his entire self to God,”16 and strives to know and do the will of God: The righteous shall live by faith (Rom 1:17).17

“The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it” (Catechism, 1816; see Mt 10:32-33).

Hope “is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit” (Catechism, 1817).18 Charity “is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God” (Catechism, 1822). This is Christ's “new commandment”: that you love one another as I have loved you (Jn 15:12).19

5. Human virtues

“Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life” (Catechism, 1804). These virtues “are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts” (Catechism, 1804).20

Among the human virtues there are four that are called cardinal virtues because all of the others are grouped around them. These are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance (see Catechism, 1805).

• Prudence “is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it” (Catechism, 1806). It is “right reason in action,”21 says St. Thomas Aquinas.

• Justice “is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor” (Catechism, 1807).22

• Fortitude “is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause” (Catechism, 1808).23

• Temperance “is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will's mastery over instincts” (Catechism, 1809). A temperate person directs his sensible appetites towards what is truly good and does not let himself be controlled by his passions (see Sir 18:30). In the New Testament it is called “moderation” or “sobriety” (see Catechism, 1809).

The saying in medio virtus, “virtue lies in the middle,” with respect to the moral virtues means that virtue consists in a mean between a defect and an excess.24 However, in medio virtus is not a call to mediocrity. Virtue is not a middle term between two or more vices, but a rightness of will—a summit, as it were—which is opposed to all the abysms of the vices.25

6. Virtues and grace. The Christian virtues

The wounds left by original sin on human nature make the acquisition and exercise of human virtues difficult (see Catechism, 1811).26 To acquire and live them, Christians count on God's grace, which heals human nature.

Grace elevates human nature to participate in the divine nature. At the same time grace elevates the human virtues to the supernatural order (see Catechism, 1810), leading the human person to act according to right reason illumined by faith: in a word, to imitate Christ. In this way, human virtues become Christian virtues.27

7. The gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit

“The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit” (Catechism, 1830).28 The gifts of the Holy Spirit are (see Catechism, 1831):

1st the gift of wisdom: in order to understand and judge rightly about God's plans;

2nd the gift of understanding: in order to penetrate into the truth about God;

3rd the gift of counsel: to recognize and further God's plans in particular acts;

4th the gift of fortitude: to overcome difficulties in Christian life;

5th the gift of knowledge: to grasp the order of created reality;

6th the gift of piety: to behave as children of God and in a fraternal manner towards all our brothers and sisters, being other Christs;

7th the gift of fear of the Lord: to reject all that could offend God, as a child would reject, through love, all that might offend his father.

The fruits of the Holy Spirit “are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory” (Catechism, 1832). These are acts which the action of the Holy Spirit produces in our soul in a habitual way. The tradition of the Church enumerates twelve fruits: “love, joy, peace, patience, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, modesty, self-control, chastity” (see Gal 5:22–23).

8. The influence of the passions in moral life

By the substantial union of our body and soul, our spiritual life—intellectual knowledge and free choice of the will—is subject to the influence of our feelings. This influence is manifested in the passions, which are “movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil” (Catechism, 1763). The passions are movements of the sensible appetite (irascible and concupiscible). They can also be called, in the broad sense, “sentiments” or “emotions.”29

Love, anger, fear, etc. are examples of passions. “The most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed. The apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and fear of the impending evil; this movement ends in sadness at some present evil, or in the anger that resists it” (Catechism, 1765).

The passions have a great influence on our moral life. “In themselves passions are neither good nor evil” (Catechism, 1767). “Passions are morally good when they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case” (Catechism, 1768).30 Human perfection requires having one's passions regulated by reason and controlled by the will.31 Since original sin, our passions are no longer subject to the control of reason and they frequently push us towards something that is not good.32 To channel them towards the good in a constant or habitual manner requires ascetical struggle and the help of grace, which heals the wounds of sin.

The will, if it is good, makes use of the passions, ordering them towards the good.33 In contrast a bad will, which stems from selfishness, succumbs to disordered passions or uses them for evil (see Catechism, 1768).

Paul O'Callaghan

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1762–1770, 1803–1832 and 1987–2005.

Recommended Reading

St. Josemaria, homily “Human Virtues,” in Friends of God, nos. 73–92.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, qq. 22ff; 109-114; II-II, qq. 1-27; 47-62; 139-143.

Contents

Footnotes

1This vocation “depends entirely on God's gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect and will, as that of every other creature (see 1 Cor 2:7–9)” (Catechism, 1998).

2St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II–II, q. 24, a.3, ad 2.

3Second Vatican Council, Const. Gaudium et Spes, 22. See Rom 8:14–17; Gal 4:5–6; 1 Jn 3:1.

4Every created gift proceeds from the uncreated Gift, the Holy Spirit. God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5. See Gal 4:6).

5One must distinguish between habitual grace and actual graces, “which refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification” (Catechism, 2000).

6“Justification is not only the remission of sins, but sanctification and renovation of the interior man” (Council of Trent: DZ 1528).

7In adults, this step is the fruit of God's impulse (actual grace) and human freedom. “Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high [sanctifying grace]” (Catechism, 1989).

8This is a truth our Lord has wanted to remind us of, with special force, through the teachings of Saint Josemaria, since October 2, 1928. As the Church proclaimed in the Second Vatican Council (1962–65): “all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love” (Lumen Gentium, 40).

9See St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, q.2, a.12, c.

10See St. Josemaria, Christ Is Passing By, 104.

11But grace “is not in the slightest way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the true and the good that God has put in the human heart” (Catechism, 1742). On the contrary, “grace responds to the deepest yearnings of human freedom, calls freedom to cooperate with it, and perfects freedom” (Catechism, 2022).In the present state of human nature, wounded by sin, grace is necessary to live constantly in accord with the natural moral law.

12Christ Is Passing By, 9.

13To gain God's grace we can also have recourse to the intercession of our most holy Mother Mary, the Mediatrix of all grace, and also of St. Joseph, our guardian angels, and the saints.

14Vices, on the contrary, are moral habits which result from bad acts and incline one to repeat them and to grow worse.

15In a way analogous to how the human soul operates through its potencies (understanding and will), the Christian in the state of grace acts through the theological virtues, which are, as it were, potencies of the “new nature” elevated by grace.

16Second Vatican Council, Const. Dei Verbum, 5.

17Faith is manifested in deeds: a living faith works through charity (Gal 5:6), while faith apart from works is dead (Jas 2:26), although the gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned directly against it (see Council of Trent: DZ 1545).

18See Heb 10:23; Tit 3:6–7. “The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man” (Catechism, 1818): it purifies and elevates this aspiration and protects us from discouragement; it opens our heart to the prospect of eternal beatitude, protects us from selfishness and leads us to happiness (see ibid.).

We should hope for the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him (see Rom 8:28–30) and who do his will (see Mt 7:21), certain that with God's grace we will be able to persevere to the end (see Mt 10:22) (see Catechism, 1821).

19Charity is superior to all the other virtues (see 1 Cor 13:13). If I … have not love, I am nothing … I gain nothing (1 Cor 13:1–3).

“The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity” (Catechism, 1827). It is the form of all the virtues: it “informs” or “vivifies” them because it directs them to the love of God; without charity, the other virtues are “dead.”

Charity purifies our human faculty of loving and elevates it to the supernatural perfection of divine love (see Catechism, 1827). There is an order of charity. Charity is also shown in fraternal correction (see Catechism, 1829).

20As is explained in the next section, the Christian develops these virtues with the help of God's grace which, as it purifies nature, gives strength to practice them, and orders them to a higher end.

21St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II–II, q.47, a.2, c.Prudence leads one to judge rightly about how to act: it does not dissuade one from acting. “It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid” (Catechism, 1806).

22Man cannot give God what is owed to him or what is just in the strict sense. Therefore, justice towards God is called more properly “the virtue of religion,” “since for God it is sufficient that we fulfill these duties insofar as we are able to” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q.57, a.1, ad 3).

23In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (Jn 16:33).

24For example, laboriousness consists in working as much as one should, which is a mean between an excess and a lack. Opposed to laboriousness is to work less than one should, wasting time, etc. And also opposed to laboriousness is working without measure, without respect for all the other things which one also has to do (duties of piety, attention to family, necessary and just rest, charity, etc.).

25The principle in medio virtus is valid only for the moral virtues, which have as their object the means for attaining a goal, and in the means there is always a measure. This is not true of the theological virtues (faith, hope and charity), which have God directly as their object. Therefore no excess is possible with them: it is impossible to “hope in God too much,” or “to love him too much.”

26Human nature has been wounded by sin. As a result it has inclinations which are not natural, but are the consequence of sin. Just as limping is not natural, but the result of an infirmity, and it would not be natural even if everyone limped, the wounds in the soul left by original sin and by personal sins are not “natural” either: the tendency to pride, to laziness, to sensuality, etc. With the help of grace and with personal effort these wounds can be healed, so that the person becomes and acts as befits his or her nature as a child of God. This “health” is gained through virtues. Similarly, the “sickness”is aggravated by vices.

27In this sense, there is a prudence which is a human virtue, and a supernatural prudence, which is a virtue infused by God into the soul, together with grace. For the supernatural virtue to be able to produce fruit—good acts—it needs the corresponding human virtue (the same thing happens with the other cardinal virtues: the supernatural virtue of justice requires the human virtue of justice; and the same with fortitude and temperance). In other words, Christian perfection—sanctity—requires and involves human perfection.

28Here, to help in understanding the function of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the moral life, we can add the following classic explanation. Just as human nature has certain powers (intelligence and will) which permit it to carry out the operations of understanding and willing, so also does nature elevated by grace have powers which permit it to accomplish supernatural acts. These powers are the theological virtues (faith, hope and charity). They are like the oars of a boat, which permit it to move in the direction of its supernatural end. Nevertheless, this end surpasses us to such an extent that the theological virtues are not sufficient to attain it. God grants us, together with grace, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are new perfections of the soul that enable it to be moved by the Holy Spirit himself. They are like the sail in a boat that enables it to move by the wind's force. The gifts perfect us by making us more docile to the action of the Holy Spirit.

29One can also speak of supra-sensible or spiritual “sentiments” or “emotions,” which are not properly “passions” because they do not bring with them movements of the sensitive appetite.

30For example, there is such a thing as good anger, which is to become indignant in the face of evil, and there is also bad anger, which is uncontrolled or which impels one towards evil (as is the case with vengeance); there is a good fear and a bad fear, which prevents one from doing the good; etc.

31See St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I–II, q.24, aa. 1 and 3.

32At times the passions can come to dominate a person to such an extent that one's moral responsibility is reduced to a minimum.

33“Moral perfection consists in man's being moved to the good not by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of the psalm: 'My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God' (Ps 84:3)” (Catechism, 1770). “The passions are bad if our love is bad, good if it is good” (St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, 14:7).

TOPIC 30

The Person and Society

A new doctrinal outline in the “Summaries of Catholic Teaching” series. Many people have found these helpful for getting to know the Catholic faith better and explaining it to others.

1. Social nature of human beings

God did not create man as a “solitary being,” but wanted him to be a “social being” (cf. Gen 1:27; 2:18-20, 23). Life in society is not something “added-on” for the human person; it stems from an important dimension intrinsic to human nature. Human beings can grow and attain their calling in life only in union with others.1

The social nature of the human person is even more evident in the light of faith, since there is a certain likeness between the intimate life of the Holy Trinity and the communion that should be established among mankind; all men and women have been redeemed by Christ and are called to share in the same end.2 Revelation teaches us that human relationships should be marked by a deep gratuitousness, since in our neighbor we see, more than an equal, the living image of God, and we have to be ready to give ourselves fully, even to the ultimate extreme, for each one.3

Therefore each person “is called to exist 'for' others, to become a gift.”4 Existing “for” others entails much more than just “co-existing” with them: it means serving them and loving them. Human freedom “can wither in an ivory-tower isolation brought on by an over indulgence in the good things of life.”5

A personal and collective effort is needed to develop social relationships correctly: “The social nature of human beings does not automatically lead to communion among persons, to the gift of self. Because of pride and selfishness, man discovers in himself the seeds of asocial behavior, impulses leading him to close himself within his own individuality and to dominate his neighbor.”6

The person's social nature is not limited to political and commercial aspects; the relationships based on the most deeply human aspects of the person, especially the spiritual ones, are much more important for the correct building up of society.7 Therefore the real possibility of constructing a society worthy of the human person depends on the interior growth of men and women. It is free human acts that build up a society, and not the impersonal forces of history.8 Hence the special importance that should be accorded to spiritual values and human relationships based on sincere self-giving.

The social nature of the human person entails another important characteristic: the radical equality of all human beings. All men and women possess the same human nature and origin; all have been redeemed by Christ and called to share in the same divine happiness.

“All therefore enjoy an equal dignity” (Catechism, 1934). Along with this radical equality there are also differences, which have a positive value if they are not the result of injustice: “These differences belong to God's plan, who wills that each receive what he needs from others, and that those endowed with particular 'talents' share the benefits with those who need them” (Catechism, 1937).

2. Society

The social nature of the human being finds expression in the setting up of a variety of associations aimed at attaining distinct goals: “A society is a group of persons bound together organically by a principle of unity that goes beyond each one of them” (Catechism, 1880).

Many different human goals exist, as well as bonds that unite people: love, ethnicity, language, country, culture, etc. Therefore human relationships entail a wide mosaic of institutions and associations: the family, city, state, international community, etc.

Certain societies, such and the family and state, correspond more directly to human nature and therefore are necessary. Others correspond to people's free initiative, and are intrinsic to what could be termed human “socialization.” This “socialization” expresses the natural tendency for human beings to associate with one another for the sake of attaining objectives that exceed individual capacities, and help develop the human qualities of each person (cf. Catechism, 1882).

The close tie between the person and life in society explains the enormous influence of society on the development of each person, and the harm that is done to the human person by living in a defectively organized society. The way people behave depends, to some extent, on the way society is organized, which exerts a cultural influence on people.

While never reducing the human being to an anonymous element in society,9 it is good to remember that the integral development of the human person and social progress mutually influence one another.10 No opposition exists between the personal dimension and the social dimension of the human being. Rather these two dimensions are intimately united and are strengthened in union with one another.

In this context, due to people's sins, unjust structures or “structure of sin” can be set up.11 These structures are opposed to the right ordering of society, and make the practice of virtue more difficult and facilitate personal sins against justice, charity, chastity, etc. These structures may involve widespread immoral customs (for example, political and economic corruption), or unjust laws (such as those allowing abortion), etc.12 A serious effort should be made to undo these “structures of sin” and replace them with just structures.13

To undo unjust structures and christianize professional relationships and the entire society, the diligent effort to live the moral norms intrinsic to one's professional work is very important. This is also a necessary condition for sanctifying that work.

3. Authority

“Every human community needs an authority to govern it. The foundation of such authority lies in human nature. It is necessary for the unity of the state. Its role is to ensure as far as possible the common good of the society” (Catechism, 1898).

Since our social nature is a property of human nature, all legitimate authority stems from God, the Author of nature (cf. Rom 13:1; Catechism, 1899). However, “the choice of the political regime and the appointment of rulers are left to the free decision of the citizens.”14

The moral legitimacy of authority does not stem from itself, but rather from being God's servant (cf. Rom 13:4), and is ordered to the common good.15 Those who have been given authority should exercise it as a service, practice distributive justice, avoid favoritism and self-seeking, and never act despotically (cf. Catechism, 1902, 2235 and 2236).

“While public authority can sometimes choose not to put a stop to something which—were it prohibited—would cause more serious harm (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 96, a. 2), it can never presume to legitimize as a right of individuals—even if they are the majority of the members of society—an offence against other persons caused by the disregard of so fundamental a right as the right to life.”16

With regard to political systems, “the Church values the democratic system inasmuch as it ensures the participation of citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the governed the possibility both of electing and holding accountable those who govern them.”17 That a state be a democracy is part of the common good. But “the value of democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes. Of course, values such as the dignity of every human person, respect for inviolable and inalienable human rights … are certainly fundamental and not to be ignored.”18 “A democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.”19

4. The common good

The common good can be defined as “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.”20 Therefore the common good is not only a matter of material well-being but also spiritual (the two are inter-connected), and entails “three essential elements” (Catechism, 1906):

—respecting the human person and his or her freedom21 ;

—furthering social progress and integral human development22 ;

—fostering “peace, that is, the stability and security of a just order” (Catechism, 1909).23

Given the human being's social nature, the good of each person is necessarily related to the common good, which in turn should be directed to each one's progress (cf. Catechism, 1905 and 1912).24

The scope of the common good is not limited to a city or country. A “universal common good” also exists, which “calls for an organization of the community of nations” (Catechism, 1911).

5. Society and the human person's transcendent dimension

The social nature of the person encompasses all human dimensions, including the transcendent one. The deepest truth about the person, and the ground of all human dignity, is being created in the image and likeness of God and called to communion with Him.25 “Christian anthropology therefore is really a chapter of theology … The theological dimension is needed both for interpreting and solving present-day problems in human society.”26

Hence the emptiness of social projects that overlook this transcendent dimension. Atheism, in its various manifestations, has many harmful effects on society.27 This reality is especially evident today. In the measure that the religious roots of a community are lost sight of, inter-personal relationships become more tense and violent, since the moral force needed to act rightly is weakened or even lost.28

A stable social order requires an unwavering foundation that is not at the mercy of changing opinions or the hunger for power; only belief in God can provide an unshakable foundation for society.29 Hence the importance of not separating, or even worse placing in opposition, the religious and social dimensions of the human person.30 Both aspects about the truth of the human person need to be harmoniously fostered: the sincere search for God (cf. Catechism, 358 and 1721; Compendium, 109) and the concern for one's neighbor and the progress of society, a concern that is strengthened by the theocentric dimension.31

Hence the indispensable need for spiritual growth in order to further society's development: social renewal is nourished by contemplation. The encounter with God in prayer introduces a mysterious force into history that changes hearts and moves people to convert, thus providing the energy needed to transform social structures.

To strive to bring about social change without a serious effort to change one's own life only leads to disillusionment in the end, and often even lowers the level of people's lives.

A “new social order” that is realistic, and therefore always open to improvement, requires the growth in the needed technical and scientific skills,32 but also at the same time the strengthening of people's moral formation and spiritual life. This is the true path for renewing society's institutions and structures.33

Nor should one forget that the effort to construct a just social order ennobles the person who endeavors to bring this about.

6. Participation by Catholics in public life

The effort to foster the common good, each in one's own place and role in society, is a duty “inherent in the dignity of the human person” (Catechism, 1913). No one can accept “the luxury of a merely individualistic morality.”34 Therefore “as far as possible citizens should take an active part in public life” (Catechism, 1915).35

The right and duty to take part in the life of society stems from the principle of subsidiarity: “a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to coordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.”36

This participation in public life requires, first of all, the responsible fulfillment of one's family and professional duties (cf. Catechism, 1914) and the obligations of legal justice (for example, paying taxes).37 It also means practicing the human virtues, especially solidarity with others.

Given the interdependence of persons and human groups, participation in public life should be carried out with a spirit of solidarity, striving for the good of others.38 “Socio-economic problems can be resolved only with the help of all the forms of solidarity: solidarity of the poor among themselves, between rich and poor, of workers among themselves, between employers and employees in a business, solidarity among nations and peoples. International solidarity is a requirement of the moral order; world peace depends in part upon this” (Catechism, 1941).39 Although solidarity should encompass all men and women, “the duty of making oneself a neighbor to others and actively serving them becomes even more urgent when it involves the disadvantaged, in whatever area this may be” (Catechism, 1932; cf. 2443-2449).

As citizens, the faithful have the same rights and duties are their fellow citizens; but as Catholics, they bear a special responsibility (cf. Tit 3:1-2; 1 Pet 2:13-15).40 Therefore the lay faithful can never abdicate their responsibility to take part in political life.41 This participation is particularly needed in order to permeate “social, political, and economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life” (Catechism, 899).

Given the reality that civil laws often fail to accord with the Church's teaching, Catholics should do all they can, with the help of other citizens of good will, to rectify these law, always acting within legitimate channels and with charity.42 In any case, their conduct should always be guided by Catholic teaching, even when society may present obstacles, since we must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).

In summary, Catholics should diligently exercise their civil rights and fulfill their duties. This falls especially to the lay faithful, who are called to sanctify the world from within, with personal initiative and responsibility, without waiting for the hierarchy to resolve problems with civil authorities or to indicate the solutions they should adopt.43

Enrique Colom

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1877-1917; 1939-1942; 2234-2249.

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 34-43; 149-151; 164-170; 541-574.

Recommended Reading

St. Josemaria, Homily “Christ the King,” in Christ is Passing By, 179-187.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life, 24 November 2002.

Contents

Footnotes

1Cf. Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 24-25; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instr. Libertatis conscientia, 32; Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 110.

2“Being in communion with Jesus Christ draws us into his 'being for all'; it makes it our own way of being. He commits us to live for others, but only through communion with him does it become possible truly to be there for others” (Benedict XVI, Enc. Spe salvi, 30 November 2007, 28).

3Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Sollicitudo rei socialis, 30 December1987, 40.

4John Paul II, Apost. Letter Mulieris dignitatem, 15 August 1988, 7.

5Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 31.

6Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 150.

7Cf. Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, 24.

8“The origins of a society existing in history are found in the interconnectedness of the freedoms of all the persons who interact within it, contributing by means of their choices either to build it up or to impoverish it” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 163).

9The human person is “the beginning, the subject and the object of every social organization” (Gaudium et spes, 25). Cf. Pius XII, Radio Message for Christmas, 24 December1942: AAS 35 (1943) 12; John XXIII, Enc. Mater et magistra : AAS 53 (1961) 453; Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 106.

10Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Sollicitudo rei socialis, 38; Catechism, 1888; Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 62, 82 and 134.

11Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Sollicitudo rei socialis, 36.

12“Whenever the Church speaks of situations of sin or when she condemns as social sins certain situations or the collective behavior of certain social groups … she knows and she proclaims that such cases of social sin are the result of the accumulation and concentration of many personal sins. It is a case of the very personal sins of those who cause or support evil or who exploit it; of those who are in a position to avoid, eliminate or at least limit certain social evils but who fail to do so out of laziness, fear or the conspiracy of silence, through secret complicity or indifference; of those who take refuge in the supposed impossibility of changing the world and also of those who sidestep the effort and sacrifice required” (John Paul II, Apost. Exhort. Reconciliatio et paenitentia, 2 December 1984, 16.

13Cf. Vatican II, Const. Lumen gentium, 36; John Paul II, Enc. Centesimus annus, 38; Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 570. This effort will usually involve a process and not an immediate change, which means that the faithful will often have to “co-exist” with these structures and endure their consequences, without being corrupted by them or ceding in the effort to change them. Our Lord's words are very relevant here: I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shoudst keep them from the evil one (Jn 17:15).

14Gaudium et spes, 74. Cf. Catechism, 1901.

15“Authority is exercised legitimately only when it seeks the common good of the group concerned and if it employs morally licit means to attain it. If rulers were to enact unjust laws or take measures contrary to the moral order, such arrangements would not be binding in conscience” (Catechism, 1903).

16John Paul II, Enc. Evangelium vitae, 25 March 1995, 71.

17John Paul II, Enc. Centesimus annus, 46.

18John Paul II, Enc. Evangelium vitae, 70. The Pope refers in particular to the right of each innocent human being to life, which laws permitting abortion violate.

19John Paul II, Centesimus annus, 46.

20Gaudium et spes, 26. Cf. Catechism, 1906.

21“In the name of the common good, public authorities are bound to respect the fundamental and inalienable rights of the human person. Society should permit each of its members to fulfill his vocation” (Catechism, 1907).

22The public authority, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity and fostering private initiative, should strive to ensure that each person possesses what is needed to lead a humanly dignified life: food, clothing, health, work, education and culture, etc. Cf. Catechism, 1908 and 2211.

23Peace is not only the absence of war. Peace cannot be attained without safeguarding the dignity of the human person (cf. Catechism, 2304). Peace is the “tranquility of order” (St. Augustine, De civitate Dei, 19, 13). It is a work of justice (cf. Is 32:17). “The common good requires peace, that is, the stability and security of a just order. It presupposes that authority should ensure by morally acceptable means the security of society and its members. It is the basis of the right to legitimate personal and collective defense” (Catechism, 1909).

24The common good is always oriented towards the progress of persons: “The order of things must be subordinate to the order of persons, and not the other way around” (Gaudium et spes, 26).

25Cf. Gaudium et spes, 19.

26John Paul, II, Enc. Centisimus annus, 55. Cf. Gaudium et spes, 11 and 41.

27Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Evangelium vitae, 21-24. “If we then inquire as to the source of this mistaken concept of the nature of the person and the 'subjectivity' of society, we must reply that its first cause is atheism. It is by responding to the call of God contained in the being of things that man becomes aware of his transcendent dignity … The denial of God deprives the person of his foundation, and consequently leads to a reorganization of the social order without reference to the person's dignity and responsibility” (John Paul II, Centesimus annus, 13).

28“Man can set about organizing terrestrial realities without God. But closed off from God, they will end up being directed against man” (Paul VI, Enc. Populorum progressio, 26 March 1967, 42). Cf. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et magistra : AAS 53 (1961) 452-453; Vatican II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 21; Benedict XVI, Enc. Deus caritas est, 25 December 2005, 42.

29Cf. Leo XIII, Enc. Diuturnum illud : Acta Leonis XIII, 2 (1882) 277 and 278; Pius XI, Enc. Caritate Christi : AAS 24 (1932) 183-184.

30“Some people tend to see Christianity as a collection of devout practices, failing to realize the relation between them and the circumstances of ordinary life, including the urgency to meet the needs of other people and remedy injustice … Others tend to imagine that in order to remain human we need to play down some central aspects of Christian dogma. They act as if the life of prayer, continual relationship with God, implied fleeing from responsibilities and forsaking the world. But they forget that it was none other than Jesus who showed us the extreme to which we should go in love and service. Only if we try to understand the mystery of God's love—a love which went as far as death—will we be able to give ourselves totally to others and not let ourselves be overcome by difficulties or indifference” (St. Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, 98).

31There is a deep inter-connection “between love of God and love of neighbor … If I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in him the image of God. But if in my life I fail completely to heed others, seeking only to be 'devout' and to perform my 'religious duties,' then my relationship with God will also grow arid” (Benedict XVI, Enc. Deus caritas est, 18). Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Evangelium vitae, 35-36; Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 40.

32“All professional work demands previous training and a constant effort to improve one's formation and to adapt it to the new circumstances that may arise. And this is very specially true for those who aspire to occupy leading positions in society, because they are called to a very important service on which the entire community's well-being depends” (St. Josemaria, Conversations, 90).

33“We contribute to a better world only by personally doing good now, with full commitment and wherever we have the opportunity” (Benedict XVI, Enc. Deus caritas est, 31b).

34Gaudium et spes, 30.

35“A person or a society that does not react to suffering and injustice and makes no effort to alleviate them is still distant from the love of Christ's heart. While Christians enjoy the fullest freedom in finding and applying various solutions to these problems, they should be united in having one and the same desire to serve mankind. Otherwise their Christianity will not be the word and life of Jesus; it will be a fraud, a deception of God and man” (St. Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, 167).

36John Paul II, Enc. Centesimus annus, 48. Cf. Catechism, 1883; Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 186 and 187.

“The principle of subsidiarity is opposed to all forms of collectivism. It sets limits for state intervention. It aims at harmonizing the relationships between individuals and societies. It tends toward the establishment of true international order” (Catechism, 1885).

God “entrusts to every creature the functions it is capable of performing, according to the capacities of its own nature. This mode of governance ought to be followed in social life. The way God acts in governing the world, which bears witness to such great regard for human freedom, should inspire the wisdom of those who govern human communities. They should behave as ministers of divine providence” (Catechism, 1884).

37Legal justice “concerns what the citizen owes in fairness to the community” (Catechism, 2411). “Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes” (Catechism, 2240). “Fraud and other subterfuges, by which some people evade the constraints of the law and the prescriptions of societal obligation, must be firmly condemned because they are incompatible with the requirements of justice” (Catechism, 1916).

38“It is above all a question of interdependence, sensed as a system determining relationships in the contemporary world, in its economic, cultural, political and religious elements, and accepted as a moral category. When interdependence becomes recognized in this way, the correlative response as a moral and social attitude, as a 'virtue,' is solidarity” (John Paul II, Enc. Sollicitudo rei socialis, 38).

39Cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 193-195.

40Cf. Gaudium et spes, 75.

41Cf. John Paul II, Christifideles laici, 42.

42For example, “when it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality” (John Paul II, Enc. Evangelium vitae, 73).

43“The laity have the duty of using their own initiative and taking action in this area—without waiting passively for directives and precepts from others. They must try to infuse a Christian spirit into people's mental outlook and daily behavior, into the laws and structures of the civil government” (Paul VI, Enc. Populorum progressio, 81). Cf. Lumen gentium, 31; Gaudium et spes, 43; John Paul II, Christifideles laici, 15; Catechism, 2442.

TOPIC 31

Personal Sin

Personal sin is an “action, word or desire contrary to the eternal law.”

1. Personal sin: offense against God, disobedience to the Divine Law

Personal sin is an “action, word or desire contrary to the eternal law.”1 Sin is a human act, since it requires the exercise of freedom,2 and is expressed in external actions, words, or internal acts. Moreover, it is a human act that is evil. That is, it is opposed to God's eternal law, which is the first and supreme moral law, and the foundation of all other law. In a more general sense, sin can be defined as any human act opposed to the moral norm, that is, to right reason illumined by faith.

Sin therefore involves a negative stance with respect to God and, in contrast, a disordered love for oneself. It entails aversio a Deo et conversio ad creaturas, a turning away from God and a disordered turning towards earthly goods. The aversio of sin does not necessarily represent an explicit hatred of God, but rather the distancing of oneself from God, as the result of placing an apparent or finite good above mankind's supreme good (conversio ad creaturas). St. Augustine describes it as “love of self that reaches the point of contempt for God.”3 “In this proud self-exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation (cf. Phil. 2:6-9)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1850).

Sin is the only real evil. Other evils (sickness, for example) in themselves do not separate us from God, although they are certainly the deprivation of a good.

2. Mortal and venial sin

Sin can be divided into mortal or grave sin and venial sin (cf. Jn 5:16-17), depending on whether one loses God's grace totally or not.4 Mortal sin and venial sin can be viewed respectively as either the death or the sickness of the soul.

“Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”5 “With the whole tradition of the Church, we call mortal sin the act by which man freely and consciously rejects God, his law, the covenant of love that God offers [ aversio a Deo ], preferring to turn in on himself or to some created and finite reality, something contrary to the divine will [ conversio ad creaturam]. This can occur in a direct and formal way in the sins of idolatry, apostasy and atheism; or in an equivalent way as in every act of disobedience to God's commandments in a grave matter.”6 Grave matter : this means that the act is intrinsically incompatible with charity and therefore also with the unavoidable demands of the moral or theological virtues.

Full knowledge (or advertence): that is, with the realization that the action carried out is sinful, namely, contrary to God's law.

Deliberate (or full) consent of the will: that is, one openly wills this action, which one knows is contrary to God's law. This does not mean that, for there to be mortal sin, it is necessary to wish to offend God directly: it is sufficient that one wishes to carry out something gravely contrary to the divine will.7

These three conditions must be fulfilled simultaneously.8 If one of the three is missing the sin is venial : for example, when the matter is not grave, although there may be full knowledge and full consent; or when there is not full knowledge or full consent, even if the matter is grave. Logically, if there is neither advertence nor consent, the conditions are lacking for calling the act sinful, since it would not be a properly human act.

2.1. Effects of mortal sin

Mortal sin “results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1861).9

When a person has committed a mortal sin, and remains outside the “state of grace” (without recovering it in sacramental confession), one must not receive Communion, since one cannot wish at the same time both to be united to and alienated from Christ: one would commit a sacrilege.10

By losing vital union with Christ through mortal sin, one also loses union with his Mystical Body, the Church. This person does not stop belonging to the Church, but is as it were a sick member, which harms the whole body. It also brings harm to human society, since one ceases being light and leaven for others, even though this may go unnoticed.

Through mortal sin any acquired merits are lost (although these can recovered on receiving the sacrament of Penance), and one loses the capacity to acquire new ones. This person becomes subject to the slavery of the devil; the natural desire to do good is diminished, and disorder is unleashed in the faculties and affections.

2.2. Effects of venial sin

“Venial sin weakens charity; it manifests a disordered affection for created goods; it impedes the soul's progress in the exercise of the virtues and the practice of the moral good; it merits temporal punishment. Deliberate and unrepented venial sin disposes us little by little to commit mortal sin. However venial sin does not break the covenant with God. With God's grace it is humanly reparable. 'Venial sin does not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace, friendship with God, charity, and consequently eternal happiness' (John Paul II, Reconciliatio et paenitentia (December 2, 1984)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1863).

God forgives our venial sins in Confession and also, outside of the Sacrament, when we make an act of contrition and do penance, being sorry for not having lived up to his infinite love for us.

Deliberate venial sin, even though it does not separate us totally from God, is very unfortunate and damages our friendship with him. We should have a “horror” for deliberate venial sin. For a person who truly wishes to love God, it makes no sense to consent to small betrayals simply because they are not mortal sins;11 such an attitude leads to “lukewarmness.”12

2.3. The “fundamental option”

The moral theory of the “fundamental option,”13 which rejects the traditional distinction between mortal and venial sins, holds that the loss of sanctifying grace through mortal sin (with all that this entails) compromises a person so fully that it can only be the result of an act of radical and total opposition to God, that is, of a fundamental option against him.14 The defenders of this erroneous opinion claim it would be almost impossible to fall into mortal sin in the course of our daily choices; or if this were to happen, to recover the state of grace through sincere penance. A person's freedom, they claim, in its ordinary exercise of choice would not be able to determine in such a unique and decisive way the state of one's moral life. And since these acts would be “momentary exceptions” in an overall upright life, it would be possible to justify grave faults in failing to live up to one's Christian life. An unfortunate consequence of this erroneous theory is that it undermines the person's capacity of decision and commitment in the use of one's free will.

Closely related to the previous theory is the proposal of a three-way division of sin into venial, grave, and mortal. The latter would represent a conscious and irrevocable decision to offend God, and would be the only sin that could separate us from God and close the doors to eternal life. Thus the majority of sins which, given their matter, have traditionally been considered as mortal would now only be “grave” sins, since they would not be committed with the positive intention to reject God.

The Church has frequently pointed out the errors that underlie these currents of thought. This is a theory that greatly weakens human freedom, since it overlooks the fact that in reality it is the person who decides, and who can choose to modify his deepest aspirations and goals through specific individual acts.15 “It still remains true that the essential and decisive distinction is between sin which destroys charity and sin which does not kill the supernatural life: there is no middle way between life and death.”16

2.4. Other divisions

a) We can distinguish between actual sin, which is the very act of sinning, and habitual sin, which is the stain left in the soul by actual sin, the debt of penalty and guilt and, if a mortal sin, the privation of grace.

b) Personal sin is distinguished in turn from original sin, with which all of us are born, and which we have contracted through Adam's disobedience. Original sin inheres in each of us, even though we have not personally committed it. It can be compared to an inherited illness, which is cured by Baptism (at least, by its implicit desire), although a certain weakness remains that inclines us to commit new personal sins. Personal sin, therefore, is committed, while original sin is contracted (cf. Topic no 7: “Elevation to the Supernatural Order and Original Sin”) .

c) External personal sins are those that are committed with an action that can be observed from outside (murder, robbery, defamation, etc.). Internal sins, on the other hand, remain in one's interior world, that is, in our will, without being manifested in external actions (interior anger, envy, avarice, etc.). All sin, whether external or internal, has its origin in an internal act of the will: this is the moral act, properly speaking. Purely internal acts can be sins and even grave ones.

d) We can speak of carnal or spiritual sins, according to whether they tend in a disordered way to a sensible good (or a reality that is presented under the appearance of good, for example, lust) or spiritual (pride). In themselves, the second group is graver; nevertheless, carnal sins as a general rule are more vehement, precisely because the object that attracts (a sensible reality) is more immediate.

e) Sins of commission and omission : all sin involves a disordered voluntary act. If this leads to an action, it is called a sin of commission ; if, on the contrary, the voluntary act involves omitting some due action, it is called one of omission.

3. Proliferation of sin

“Sin creates a proclivity to sin; it engenders vice by repetition of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations which cloud conscience and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus sin tends to reproduce itself and reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense at its root” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1865).

Capital sins are personal sins that especially incline one to further sins, since they are the “head” of the other sins. These capital sins are pride (source of all sin ex parte aversionis ; cf. Sir 10: 12-13), avarice, (source of sin ex parte conversionis), lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1866).

The loss of the sense of sin is the result of the voluntary clouding of the conscience that leads a person, out of pride, to deny that personal sins are what they are and even to deny that sin exists.17

At times we ourselves do not directly do evil, but collaborate in some way, with greater or lesser responsibility and moral guilt, in the sinful action of other persons. “Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them : by participating directly and voluntarily in them; by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them; by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so; by protecting evil-doers” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1868).

Personal sins also give rise to social situations opposed to God's goodness, which are called “structures of sin.”18 These are the expression and effect of the sins of each person (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1869).19

4. Temptations

In the context of the causes of sin, we need to speak of temptation, which is the incitement to evil. “The root of all sins lies in man's heart” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1873), and our heart can be attracted by the presence of apparent goods. The attraction of a temptation can never be so strong that it oblige s us to sin. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it (1 Cor 10:13). If not deliberately sought after, and if made use of as an opportunity for moral effort, temptations can have a positive value for Christian life.

The causes of temptation can be reduced to three (cf. 1 Jn 2:16):

The “world”: not as God's creation, because as such it is good, but in so far as it spurs us, through the disorder of sin, to “turn to creatures,” with a materialist and pagan environment.20

The devil : who urges us to sin, but does not have the power to make us sin. The devil's temptations are rejected with prayer.21

The “flesh” or concupiscence : the disorder in the powers of our soul that stems from original sin (also called fomes peccati, tinder for sin). These temptations are overcome with mortification and penance, and with the decision not to dialogue with them and to be sincere in spiritual direction, without covering them up with “unreasonable reasons.”22

When facing temptation, we need to struggle to avoid consenting with our will to the involuntary representation of the evil contained in the suggestion.

To combat temptations we need to be very sincere with God, with ourselves, and in spiritual direction. Otherwise we run the risk of deforming our conscience. Sincerity is a great means for not falling into sin and for attaining true humility. God the Father comes out to meet us when we acknowledge we have sinned, revealing the pride that tries to cover over our sin.

We also need to flee from the occasions of sin, that is, from circumstances that arise with greater or less voluntariness and that represent a temptation for us. We must always avoid occasions of sin when we are free to do so. When it is a matter of proximate occasions (with a serious danger of falling into temptation) that are also necessary (that we cannot avoid), we should do everything possible to turn them from proximate occasions into remote ones. Insofar as possible, we also need to avoid continuous remote occasions, which undermine the spiritual life and predispose one to grave sin.

Pau Agulles Simó

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1846-1876.

John Paul II, Apost. Exhort Reconciliatio et paenitentia, December 2, 1984, 14-18.

John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, August 6, 1993, 65-70.

Recommended Reading

St. Josemaría, Homily Interior Struggle, in Christ is Passing By, 73-82.

Contents

Footnotes

1St. Augustine, Contra Faustum manichoeum, 22, 27. Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1849.

2Classically, sin has been defined as a voluntary disobedience to the law of God; if it were not voluntary, it would not be a sin, since there would be no true human act.

3St. Augustine, De civitate Dei, 14, 28.

4Cf.John Paul II, Apost.Exhort. Reconciliatio et paenitentia, December 2, 1984, 17.

5Ibid. Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1857-1860.

6John Paul II, Reconciliatio et paenitentia, December 2, 1984, 17.

7One commits a mortal sin “when a person knowingly and willingly, for whatever reason, chooses something gravely disordered. In fact, such a choice already includes contempt for the divine law, a rejection of God's love for humanity and the whole of creation; the person turns away from God and loses charity” (Ibid.).

8Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, August 6, 1993, 70.

9Besides considering the act in itself, it is important to keep in mind that the judgment of persons should be entrusted only to the justice and mercy of God (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1861).

10Only a person who has a truly grave reason to do so and finds it impossible to go to confession, can celebrate the sacraments and receive Holy Communion, after making an act of perfect contrition, which includes the resolution of going to confession as soon as possible (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1452 and 1457).

11Cf. St. Josemaría, Friends of God, 243; Furrow, 139.

12Cf. St. Josemaría, The Way, 325-331.

13Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, August 6, 1993, 65-70.

14Cf. Ibid., 69.

15Cf. John Paul II, Reconciliatio et paenitentia, December 2, 1984, 17; Veritatis splendor, 70.

16Ibid., 17.

17Cf. Ibid., 18.

18Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Sollicitudo rei socialis, December 30, 1987, 36 ff.

19Cf. John Paul II, Reconciliatio et paenitentia, 16.

20Combatting these temptations requires going against the current with fortitude, as often as necessary, instead of being drawn along by worldly customs (cf. St. Josemaría, The Way, 376).

21For example, the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, conqueror of Satan (cf. Rev 12:7 and 20:2). The Church has also always recommended some sacramentals, such as holy water, to combat the devil's temptations. “From nothing do evil spirits flee more, never to return, than from holy water,” says St. Teresa of Avila (quoted in St. Josemaría, The Way, 572).

22Cf. St. Josemaría, The Way, 134 and 727.

TOPIC 32

The First Commandment

Christ taught that to be saved we must carry out the commandments, which express the core of the natural moral law. The first commandment is twofold: love for God and love for neighbor out of love for God.

1. The ten commandments of the Decalogue

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught that to be saved we must carry out the commandments. When a young man asked him: Good Master, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life? (Mt 19:16), Jesus answered: If you would enter into life, keep the commandments (Mt 19:17). He went on to mention several precepts referring to love for our neighbor: You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother (Mt 19:18-19). These precepts, along with those referring to love for God that our Lord mentions on other occasions, make up the ten commandments of the divine Law (cf. Ex 20: 1-17; Catechism, 2052). “The first three concern love of God, and the other seven the love of neighbor” (Catechism, 2067).

The ten commandments express the substance of the natural moral law (cf. Catechism, 1955). This is a law written on the human heart, but our knowledge of it has become blurred as a consequence of original sin and repeated personal sins. God wanted to reveal “religious and moral truths that of themselves are not beyond the grasp of human reason” (Catechism, 38), so that everyone can have full and certain knowledge of them (cf. Catechism, 37-38). He first revealed these truths in the Old Testament and later on, in a full way, through Jesus Christ (cf. Catechism, 2053-2054). The Church safeguards Revelation and teaches it to all men (cf. Catechism, 2071).

Some commandments determine what must be done (e.g. keep feast days); others point out what it is never permitted to do (e.g. kill an innocent person). The latter indicate certain acts that are intrinsically evil because of their moral object, regardless of the motives or ulterior intentions of those who carry them out and the circumstances surrounding them.1

“Jesus shows that the commandments should not be understood merely as an ultimate limit not to be transgressed but rather as a path leading to a way of moral and spiritual perfection, whose inner impulse is love (cf. Col 3:14).”2 For example, the commandment “You shall not kill” contains the call not only to respect the life of our neighbors but also to further their development and foster their enrichment as persons. The commandments should be seen not as prohibitions that restrict our freedom, but as lights that indicate the path to human fullness and happiness, freeing us from moral error.

2. The first commandment

The first commandment is twofold: love for God and love for neighbor out of love for God. 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?' And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets' (Mt 22: 36-40).

This love is called charity. The same term is also used for the theological virtue of charity, which entails love for God and love for our neighbor because of God. Charity is a gift that the Holy Spirit infuses in those who have become adopted children of God (cf. Rom 5:5). Charity has to grow throughout our life on earth through the action of the Holy Spirit and our own cooperation: growing in holiness is growing in charity. Holiness is nothing other than the fullness of divine filiation and charity. It can also diminish through venial sin and even be lost through grave sin. There is an order in charity: God, others (out of love for God) and oneself (out of love for God).

Loving God as his children requires:

a) choosing him as the ultimate end of all we undertake. We are asked to do everything out of love for him and for his glory: whether you eat or drink, or do anything else, do all for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). “Deo omnis gloria. All glory to God.”3 No love can be put higher than love for God. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me (Mt 10:37). “The only real love is God's love!”4 Any love that tries to exclude God or put him in second place is not a true love.

b) carrying out God's will in deeds: Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven (Mt 7:21). God's will is that we be saints (cf. 1 Thess 4:3), that we follow Christ (cf. Mt 17:5), carrying out his commandments (cf. Jn 14:21). “Do you really want to be a saint? Carry out the little duty of each moment; do what you ought, and put yourself in what you are doing.”5 We need to do so also when it calls for sacrifice: not my will but thine be done (Lk 22:42).

c) corresponding to his love for us. He loved us first; he created us as free beings and has made us his children (cf. 1 Jn 4:19). Sin is refusing God's love (cf. Catechism, 2094). But God is always ready to pardon us, and he gives himself up for us. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins (1 Jn 4:10; cf. Jn 3:16). He loved me and gave himself up for me (Gal 2:20). “To correspond to so much love requires of us a total gift, body and soul.”6 This is not a matter of feeling but rather a decision of the will which may or may not be accompanied by our emotions.

Loving God leads us to seek a personal relationship with him, a relationship consisting of prayer, which in turn fosters love. Prayer can take several forms7 :

a) “Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator” (Catechism, 2628). It is the most fundamental attitude of religion (cf. Catechism, 2096). You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve (Mt 4:10). Adoring God frees us from the various forms of idolatry that lead to slavery. “May your prayer always be a real and sincere act of adoration of God.”8

b) Thanksgiving (cf. Catechism 2638), because everything we are and have we have received from him: What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? (1 Cor 4:7).

c) Petition : asking for pardon for what separates us from God (sin) and asking for help for ourselves and for others, as well as for the Church and all mankind. These two forms of petition are found in the Our Father: “… give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses.” A Christian's petition is full of confidence, for in hope were we saved (Rom 8:24), and because it is a filial petition through Christ: if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you (Jn 16:23; cf. 1 Jn 5:14-15).

Love is also shown by sacrifice, closely tied to prayer: “prayer is worth more with sacrifice.”9 Sacrifice is offering God something that costs us, in homage to him and as an expression of the interior surrender of our own will, that is, of obedience to God. Christ redeemed us through the sacrifice of the Cross, showing his perfect obedience to the point of dying for us (cf. Phil 2:8). As Christians, as members of Christ, we can coredeem with him, uniting our sacrifices to his, in Holy Mass (cf. Catechism, 2100).

The worship of God consists of prayer and sacrifice. It is called the worship of latria or adoration, to distinguish it from the cult due to the angels and saints, which is the worship of dulia or veneration, and the cult honoring the Blessed Virgin, called hyperdulia (cf. Catechism, 971). The pre-eminent act of worship is Holy Mass, image of the heavenly liturgy. The love of God should be reflected by the dignity of our worship: observing what the Church prescribes, with “the good manners of piety,”10 cleanliness and care for liturgical objects. “That woman in the house of Simon the leper in Bethany, who anoints the Master's head with precious ointment, reminds us of the duty to be generous in the worship of God. All the richness, majesty and beauty seem too little to me.”11

3. Faith and hope in God

Faith, hope and charity are the three “theological” virtues (virtues directed to God). The greatest is charity (cf. 1 Cor 13:13), which gives “form” and supernatural “life” to faith and hope (in a way analogous to how the soul gives life to the body). But charity in this life presupposes faith because only those who know God can love him; and it also presupposes hope, because only those who make their desire for happiness depend on God can love him.

Faith is a gift from God, a light in our intellect that enables us to know the truth that God has revealed and to assent to it. This implies two things: believing what God has revealed (the mystery of the Holy Trinity and all the articles of the Creed) and believing that it is God himself who has revealed it (trusting in him). There is no opposition—nor can there ever be—between faith and reason.

Doctrinal formation is important for attaining a solid faith, and therefore for fostering love for God and others out of love for God: for sanctity and apostolate. The life of faith is a life based on faith and consistent with it.

Hope is a gift from God that leads us to desire union with him, where we will find happiness. It gives us confidence that he will give us the capacity and the means to attain it (cf. Catechism, 2090).

Christians should always be rejoicing in hope (Rom 12:12), because if we are faithful the happiness of heaven awaits us, the vision of God face to face (1 Cor 13:12), the beatific vision. If we are sons, we are heirs also: heirs indeed of God and joint heirs with Christ, provided, however, we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him (Rom 8:17) Christian life in this world is a path of happiness because even now through grace we have a pledge of this union with the Holy Trinity; but it is a happiness mixed with suffering, with the Cross. Hope makes us aware that it is all worthwhile: “It is worthwhile putting our whole life at stake, working and suffering for Love, in order to accomplish God's plans and coredeem with him.”12

Sins against the first commandment are sins against the theological virtues:

a) Against faith: atheism, agnosticism, religious indifference, heresy, apostasy, schism, etc. (cf. Catechism 2089) It is also contrary to the first commandment to put in danger voluntarily one's own faith, either through reading books against the faith or morals without a sufficient reason and preparation, or through failing to employ the means required to safeguard one's faith.

b) Against hope: despairing of one's own salvation (cf. Catechism 2091) and, at the opposite extreme, presuming that divine mercy will pardon sins without conversion or contrition, or without the necessary sacrament of penance (cf. Catechism 2092). It is also against this virtue to put one's hope for final happiness in anything outside of God.

c) Against charity: any sin whatsoever goes against charity. Directly contrary to it is the rejection of God, and also lukewarmness—not wanting to love him with all one's heart. Opposed to the worship of God is sacrilege, simony, certain superstitious practices, magic, etc., and Satanism (cf. Catechism 2111-2128).

4. Love for others out of love for God

Love for God requires loving those God loves. If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also (1 Jn 4: 20-21). We cannot love God without loving all men and women, created by him in his image and likeness, and called to be his children by divine grace (cf. Catechism 2069).

We have to behave as God's children with all God's sons and daughters:13

a) behaving like a child of God, like another Christ. The standard for loving others is Christ's love: A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this will all men will know that you are my disciples (Jn 13:34-35). The Holy Spirit has been sent into our hearts so that we can love as God's children, with Christ's love (cf. Rom 5:5). “We must give our life for others. That is the only way to live the life of Jesus Christ and to become one and the same with Him.”14

b) seeing a child of God, Christ, in others: As you did it to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me (Mt 25:40). We need to want for others what God wants, their real good: for them to be saints, and so to be happy. The first manifestation of charity is apostolate. This also includes caring for others' material needs. It means being understanding (“making one's own”) the spiritual and material needs of others; and being merciful (cf. Mt 18:15). Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous … does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful (1 Cor 13:4-5). It also requires fraternal correction (cf Mt 18:15).

5. Love of self out of love for God

The precept of charity also includes love for oneself: You shall love your neighbour as yourself (Mt 22:39) This rightly ordered love of self means loving ourselves out of love for God. It leads to seeking for ourselves what God wants: sanctity and, thereby, happiness (with sacrifice on this earth, with the Cross). There is also a disordered love of self, egoism, which is loving ourselves for our own excellence, and not for love of God. This means putting our own will before God's, and our own interests before serving others.

It is impossible to have a rightly ordered love of self without struggling against selfishness. This involves denying oneself, giving oneself to God and others. If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Mt 16:24-25). Man “cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.”15

Javier Lopez

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2064-2132.

Recommended Reading

Benedict XVI, Enc. Deus caritas est, 25 December 2005, 1-18.

Benedict XVI, Enc. Spe salvi, 30 November 2007.

St Josemaria, “Living by Faith”, “The Christian's Hope”, “The Strength of Love” in Friends of God, 190-237.

Contents

Footnotes

1Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, 6 August 1993, 80.

2Ibid., 15.

3St Josemaría, The Way, 780.

4Ibid., 417.

5Ibid., 815. Cf. Ibid., 933.

6St Josemaría, Christ is Passing By, 87.

7Cf. St Josemaría, The Way, 91.

8St Josemaría, The Forge, 263.

9St Josemaría, The Way, 81.

10Cf. ibid., 541.

11Ibid. 527. Cf. Mt 26: 6-13.

12St Josemaría, The Forge, 26.

13Cf. St Josemaría, Christ is Passing By, 36.

14St Josemaría, The Way of the Cross, XIVth Station. Cf. Benedict XVI, Enc. Deus Caritas est, 25 August 2005, 12-15.

15Vatican Council II, Gaudium et spes, 24.

TOPIC 33

Second and Third Commandments

The second commandment prescribes honoring God's name, while the third requires keeping feast days holy.

1. The second commandment

The second commandment of God's Law is You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. This commandment “prescribes respect for the Lord's name” (Catechism 2142), and commands us to honor the name of God. The Lord's name is not to be pronounced “except to bless, praise, and glorify it” (Catechism 2143).

1.1. The name of God

“A name expresses a person's essence and identity and the meaning of this person's life. God has a name; he is not an anonymous force” (Catechism 203). However, God cannot be grasped through human concepts; no idea can represent him and no name can exhaustively express the divine essence. God is “Holy,” which means that he is absolutely superior, that he is above any creature, that he is transcendent.

Nevertheless, so that we can invoke him and speak to him, in the Old Testament he “revealed himself progressively and under different names to his people” (Catechism 204). The name he revealed to Moses indicates that God is Being in essence, the fullness of being and of every perfection. “God said to Moses, 'I Am who I Am.' And he said, 'Say this to the people of Israel: I Am [Yahweh: He is ] has sent me to you'…' This is my name for ever” (Ex 3:13-15; (cf. Catechism 213). Out of respect for God's holiness, the people of Israel never pronounced this name, replacing it rather by the title “Lord” (Adonai in Hebrew, Kyrios in Greek) (cf. Catechism 209). There are other names for God in the Old Testament: Elohim, the majestic plural of plenitude or grandeur, and El-Saddai, which means mighty, omnipotent.

In the New Testament, God makes known the mystery of his intimate Trinitarian life: a single God in three Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Christ teaches us to call God “Father” (Mt 6:9), “Abba,” which is the familiar way of saying “father” in Hebrew (cf. Rom 8:15). God is the Father of Christ and our Father, but not in the same way: Jesus is the Only-begotten Son and we are adopted children. But we truly are children (cf. 1 Jn 3:1), brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ (cf. Rom 8:29), because the Holy Spirit has been sent into our hearts and we participate in the divine nature (cf. Gal 4:6; 2 Pet 1:4). We are children of God in Christ. As a consequence we can address God as “Father.” St. Josemaria wrote: “God is a Father who is full of tenderness, of infinite love. Call him 'Father ' many times a day and tell him—alone, in your heart—that you love him, that you adore him, that you feel proud and strong because you are his son.”1

1.2. Honoring God's name

In the Our Father we pray: “Hallowed be thy name.” The term “hallowed” means in this context “to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way” (Catechism 2807). This is what we do when we adore, praise or give thanks to God. But “hallowed be thy name” is also one of the petitions of the Our Father: in saying it we ask that his name be hallowed through us, that is, that we give him glory by our life and that others may glorify him (cf. Mt 5:16). “The sanctification of his name among the nations depends inseparably on our life and our prayer” (Catechism 2814).

Respecting the name of God also calls for respecting the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the saints, and respecting holy things where God is present in one way or another, especially the Holy Eucharist, the real Presence among us of Jesus Christ, Second Person of the Holy Trinity.

The second commandment forbids the improper use of God's name (cf. Catechism 2146), and especially blasphemy, which “consists in uttering against God—inwardly or outwardly—words of hatred, reproach, or defiance… It is also blasphemous to make use of God's name to cover up criminal practices, to reduce peoples to servitude, to torture persons or put them to death … Blasphemy … is in itself a grave sin” (Catechism 2148).

It also forbids false oaths (cf. Catechism 2850). Taking an oath is to take God as a witness for what is affirmed (for example, to guarantee a promise or a testimony, to prove the innocence of a person unjustly accused or suspected, or to put an end to litigation and controversy, etc.). There are circumstances when an oath is lawful if it is taken in truth and justice, and if it is necessary, as may be the case in a trial or on assuming office (cf. Catechism 2154). Otherwise, the Lord teaches us not to swear: Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No' (Mt 5:37; cf. Jas 5:12; Catechism 2153).

1.3. The name of a Christian

Man “is the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake.”2 He is not “something” but “someone,” a person. “He alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity” (Catechism 356). In baptism, on being made a child of God, each person receives a name that represents his or her unrepeatable singularity before God and before others (cf. Catechism 2156, 2158). Baptism is also called “christening.” A “Christian,” a follower of Jesus Christ, is the proper name of every baptized person, who has received the call to identify himself with the Lord: it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called 'Christians' (Acts 11:26).

God calls each person by name (cf. 1 Sam 3:4-10; Is 43:1; Jn 10:3; Acts 9:4). He loves each one personally. Christ, says St Paul, loved me and gave himself up for me (Gal 2:20). He expects from everyone a loving response: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mk 12:30) Nobody else can give God this response of love in our place. St Josemaria encourages us to meditate “calmly that divine admonition which fills the soul with disquiet and which at the same time tastes as sweet as honey from the comb: redemi te, et vocavi te, nomine tuo: meus es tu (Is 43:1); I have redeemed you and called you by your name: you are mine! Let us not steal from God what belongs to him. A God who has loved us to the point of dying for us, who has chosen us from all eternity, before the creation of the world, so that we may be holy in his presence (cf. Eph 1:4).”3

2. The third commandment of the Decalogue

The third commandment of the Decalogue is: Keep feast days holy.

2.1. Sunday or the Lord's Day

The Bible recounts the work of creation in six “days.” At the end God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good … So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation (Gen 1:31; 2:3). In the Old Testament, God decreed that the seventh day of the week should be holy, a day set off and distinct from the others. Man, who was called to participate in the creative power of God, perfecting the world through his work, was also to cease working on the seventh day in order to dedicate it to divine worship and to rest.

Before the coming of Jesus Christ, the seventh day was the Sabbath. In the New Testament it is Sunday, Dies Domini, the day of the Lord, because it is the day of the Lord's Resurrection. The Sabbath represented the end of creation; Sunday represents the beginning of the “new creation,” which took place with Christ's resurrection (cf. Catechism 2174).

2.2. Participating in Mass on Sunday

Since the sacrifice of the Eucharist is the “fountain and the summit of the life of the Church,”4 Sunday is kept holy mainly by participating in holy Mass. The Church expressed the third commandment of the Decalogue concretely in the following decree: “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass” (CIC, can. 1247; Catechism 2180). Outside of Sundays, the main days of obligation are: “Christmas, the Epiphany, the Ascension, the Body and Blood of Christ, Mary the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her Assumption, Saint Joseph, the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, and lastly All Saints” (CIC, can. 1246; Catechism 2177). “The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day” (CIC, can. 1248; Catechism 2180).

“… the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor (cf. CIC, can. 1245). Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin” (Catechism 2181).

2.3. Sunday, day of rest

“Just as God 'rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done' (Gen 2:2), human life has a rhythm of work and rest. The institution of the Lord's Day helps everyone enjoy adequate rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social, and religious lives” (Catechism 2184). On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain “from work and activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord's Day, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body” (CIC, can. 1247). This constitutes a serious obligation, as is that of sanctifying holy days. However, a more important duty of justice or charity can excuse one from the obligation of Sunday rest.

“In respecting religious liberty and the common good of all, Christians should seek recognition of Sundays and the Church's holy days as legal holidays. They have to give everyone a public example of prayer, respect, and joy and defend their traditions as a precious contribution to the spiritual life of society” (Catechism 2188). “Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands on others that would hinder them from observing the Lord's Day” (Catechism 2187).

2.4. Public worship and the civil right to religious freedom

At present in certain countries, a fairly widespread “laicist” attitude tends to view religion as a private matter which should have no public and social manifestations. Christian doctrine, on the contrary, teaches that people must “be able freely to profess their religion in private and in public.”5 In fact, natural moral law, inscribed in man's heart, prescribes “giving God exterior, visible, public worship”6 (cf. Catechism 2176). Of course worshiping God is first of all a private act, but people need to be able to manifest it exteriorly because the human spirit “needs to use material things as signs by means of which it is prompted to carry out the spiritual acts that unite it to God.”7

People need to be free to profess religion not only exteriorly, but also socially, that is, with others, because “the social nature of man itself requires that … he should profess his religion in community.”8 “Injury therefore is done to the human person … if the free exercise of religion is denied in society when the just requirements of public order do not so require … Government, therefore, ought indeed to take into account the religious life of the people and show it favor, since the function of government is to make provision for the common welfare.”9

There is a social and civil right to freedom in religious matters. Society and the government cannot hinder anyone from acting in this area in accord with the dictates of their conscience, whether in private or in public, while respecting just limits derived from the requirements of the common good, such as public order and public morality10 (cf. Catechism 2109). Every person is obliged in conscience to seek the true religion and to adhere to it. In this search they can receive the help of others (and Christian faithful, moreover, have the duty to provide this help in their apostolate), but nobody should be forced either to act against their convictions or prevented from acting in accord with their conscience in religious matters. Embracing the faith and practicing it always have to be free acts (cf. Catechism 2104-2106).

“Your task as a Christian citizen is to help see Christ's love and freedom preside over all aspects of modern life: culture and the economy, work and rest, family life and social relations.”11

Javier Lopez

Basic Bibliography

Second commandment: Catechism of the Catholic Church 203-213; 2142-2195.

Third commandment: Catechism of the Catholic Church 2168-2188; John Paul II, Apostolic letter Dies Domini, 31 May 1998.

Benedict XVI-Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth Part I, Ignatius Press, (ch. 5, para. 2).

Recommended Reading

St Josemaria, “Getting to know God,” in Friends of God, 142-153.

Contents

Footnotes

1Friends of God, 150.

2Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et Spes, 24.

3St Josemaria, Friends of God, 312.

4Vatican Council II, Const. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10.

5Vatican Council II, Decl. Dignitatis humanae, 15; Catechism, 2137.

6St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 122, a. 4, c.

7St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 81, a. 7, c.

8Vatican Council II, Decl. Dignitatis humanae, 3.

9Ibid.

10Cf. Ibid., 7.

11St Josemaria, Furrow, 302.

TOPIC 34

Fourth Commandment

The fourth commandment, “Honor your father and your mother,” has a broader scope than its primary focus: the relationship between children and their parents.

1. Difference between first three commandments and the next seven

The first three commandments teach us to love God, the Supreme Good and Final End of the human person and of all created beings, who is infinitely worthy of our love. The remaining seven are directed to the good of our neighbor (and our personal good); we are asked to love our neighbor out of love for God, our Creator.

In the New Testament, the supreme precept of loving God and the second, similar to the first, of loving our neighbor for God, summarize all the commandments of the Decalogue (cf. Mt 22:36-40; Catechism 2196).

2. Meaning and scope of the fourth commandment

The fourth commandment is addressed expressly to children in their relationship with their parents. It also applies to ties of kinship with other members of one's extended family. Finally, it encompasses the duties of pupils to teachers, of subordinates to leaders, of citizens to their country, etc. This commandment also implies and presupposes the duties of parents and of anyone exercising authority over others (cf. Catechism 2199).

a) The family : The fourth commandment refers primarily to the relationship within the family between parents and children. “In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution” (Catechism 2203) “A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family” (Catechism 2202). “The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit” (Catechism 2205).

b) Family and society : “The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society … Family life is an initiation into life in society” (Catechism 2207). “The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, and the poor” (Catechism 2208). “The fourth commandment illuminates other relationships in society”(Catechism 2212).1

Society has the grave duty to support and strengthen marriage and the family, to recognize their true nature, to foster and protect them, and to safeguard public morality (cf. Catechism 2210).2 The Holy Family is the model of every family—a model of love and service, of obedience and authority.

3. Duties of children to their parents

Children have to respect and honor their parents, trying to give them joy, praying for them and appreciating their sacrifice. Every good Christian should find these duties a “most sweet” precept.

Divine paternity is the source of human paternity (cf. Eph 3:14); this is the foundation of the honor owed to parents (cf. Catechism 2214). “Respect for parents (filial piety) derives from gratitude toward those who, by the gift of life, their love and their word, have brought their children into the world and enabled them to grow in stature, wisdom, and grace. 'With all your heart honor your father, and do not forget the birth pangs of your mother. Remember that through your parents you were born; what can you give back to them that equals their gift to you?' (Sir 7:27-28)” (Catechism 2215).

Respect for parents is shown by docility and obedience. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord (Col 3:20). As long as they are subject to their parents, children should obey them in what concerns their own good and that of the family. This obligation ends when children leave home, but the respect owed parents never ends (cf. Catechism 2216-2217).

“The fourth commandment reminds grown children of their responsibilities toward their parents. As much as they can, they must give them material and moral support in old age and in times of illness, loneliness, or distress” (Catechism 2218).

If parents order them to do something contrary to the law of God, children are obliged to give God's will priority over the desires of their parents, always keeping in mind the words of Scripture: We must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). God is more a Father than our parents; all paternity comes from him (cf. Eph 3:15).

4. Duties of parents

Parents have the duty to receive the children God sends them gratefully, as a real blessing and sign of confidence. Besides caring for their material needs, they have the serious responsibility of giving them a solid human and Christian education. The role of parents in forming children is so important that, were it to be lacking, it would be hard to make up for it.3 The parents' right and duty to educate their children is irreplaceable and inalienable.4

Parents have the responsibility of creating a home built on love, pardon, respect, faithfulness and disinterested service. The home is the appropriate place for forming virtues. Parents, through their example and word, should teach their children to live a simple, sincere and joyful life of piety, and transmit to them the fullness of Catholic teaching; they need to encourage them to carry out a generous struggle to live up to the requirements of God's law and of each one's personal vocation to holiness. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4) Parents must not neglect this responsibility, leaving the education of their children to other people or institutions, although they can, and sometimes should, count on the help of those they have confidence in (cf. Catechism 2222-2226).

Parents need to know how to correct because what son is there whom his father does not discipline? (Heb 12:7); they need to always keep in mind the Apostle's advice: Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged (Col 3:21).

a) Parents need to truly respect and love their children's freedom, teaching them to use it well, responsibly.5 Their own example is fundamental here.

b) In dealing with their children, parents need to combine affection and firmness, vigilance and patience. It is import for them to “make friends” with their children, earning their trust and keeping it.

c) To succeed in the task of bringing up children, the supernatural means should be given priority over the human means, although these too are important and indispensable.

“As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. As far as possible, parents have the duty of choosing the schools that will best help them in their task as Christian educators (cf. Gravissimum educationis, 6). Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions of its exercise” (Catechism 2229).

“Family ties are important but not absolute. Just as the child grows to maturity and human and spiritual autonomy, so his unique vocation which comes from God asserts itself more clearly and forcefully. Parents should respect this call and encourage their children to follow it. They must be convinced that the first vocation of the Christian is to follow Jesus : 'He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me' (Mt 10:37)” (Catechism 2232).6 The divine vocation of a child to undertake a specific apostolic mission is truly a gift from God to the family. Parents need to respect the mystery of their child's call, even if they do not understand it. Prayer strengthens this respect for freedom and the readiness to accept God's intervention. Thus parents will avoid being overly protective and controlling of their children, a “possessive” way of acting that does not foster their human and spiritual development.

5. Duties regarding those who govern the Church

Catholics need to have “a true filial spirit toward the Church” (Catechism 2040). This spirit is to be shown toward those who govern the Church.

The faithful “with ready Christian obedience … should accept whatever their sacred pastors, as representatives of Christ, decree in their role as teachers and rulers in the Church … Nor should they omit to pray to God for those placed over them, who keep watch as having to render an account of their souls, so that they may render this account with joy and not with grief (cf. Heb 13:17).”7

This filial spirit is shown above all by faithful adherence to and union with the Pope, visible head of the Church and Vicar of Christ on earth, and with the bishops in communion with the Pope.

Catholics know that, after God and our Mother the Most Holy Virgin, the Holy Father comes next in the hierarchy of love and authority.8

6. Duties toward the civil authority

“God's fourth commandment also enjoins us to honor all who for our good have received authority in society from God. It clarifies the duties of those who exercise authority as well as those who benefit from it” (Catechism 2234).9 The duties of the latter include:

a) respecting just laws and legitimate mandates of authority;

b) exercising their rights as citizens and carrying out their duties;

c) intervening in a responsible way in social and political life.

“The choice of government and the method of selecting leaders is left to the free will of citizens.”10 Responsibility for the common good makes exercising the right to vote a moral duty (cf. Catechism 2240). It is not lawful to support anyone whose program for society is opposed to Christian teaching and as such contrary to the common good and to the real dignity of man.

“The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community. 'Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's' (Mt 22:21). 'We must obey God rather than men' (Acts 5:29)” (Catechism 2242).

7. Duties of civil authorities

The exercise of authority should facilitate the exercise of freedom and responsibility by all men and women. Those governing must be careful not to give the personal interest of certain individuals priority over the common good.11

“Political authorities are obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person. They will dispense justice humanely by respecting the rights of everyone, especially of families and the disadvantaged. The political rights attached to citizenship … cannot be suspended by public authorities without legitimate and proportionate reasons” (Catechism 2237).

Antonio Porras

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2196-2257.

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 209-214; 221-254; 377-383; 393-411.

Contents

Footnotes

1Cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 209-214;221-251.

2Cf. Ibid, 252-254.

3Cf. Vatican Council II, Declaration Gravissimum educationis, 3.

4Cf. John Paul II, Apost. exhort. Familiaris consortio, 22 November 1981, 36; Catechism 2221 and Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 239.

5“When they become adults, children have the right and duty to choose their profession and state of life” (Catechism 2230).

6“And, as we are consoled by the joy of finding Jesus—three days He was gone!—debating with the doctors of Israel (Lk 2:46), your soul and mine will be left deeply impressed by the duty to leave our home and family to serve our heavenly Father” (St Josemaria, Holy Rosary, 5th joyful mystery).

7Vatican Council II, Const. Lumen gentium, 37.

8St Josemaria, The Forge, 135.

9Cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 377-383, 393-398, 410-411.

10Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 74. Cf. Catechism, 1901.

11Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Centesimus annus, 1 May 1991, 25. Cf. Catechism, 2236.

TOPIC 35

Fifth Commandment

Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator.

1. “You shall not kill”

“Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being” (Catechism 2258).

Man is unique, the only creature on earth that God has loved for its own sake.1 Destined to know and love God eternally, man's life is sacred. All men and women are created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26-27). This is the ultimate basis of human dignity and of the commandment not to kill.

The book of Genesis presents the assault on human life as the consequence of original sin. Yahweh always shows himself to be the protector of life, even of Cain's life after he kills his brother Abel, blood of his own blood (the image of every homicide). No one should take justice into his own hands, and no one can give himself the right to dispose of his neighbor's life (cf. Gen 4:13-15).

This commandment applies to human beings. It is permissible to make use of animals for food, clothing, etc. God put them on earth to be useful for man. The requirement not to kill or mistreat them comes from the disorder human passions may involve, or from a duty of justice (if they are someone else's property) (cf. Catechism 2418). Besides, it must not be forgotten that man is not the “master” of creation, but rather its administrator, and as such is obliged to respect and care for nature, which he needs for his own existence and development (cf. Catechism 2415).

2. Deepest element of this commandment

“The deepest element of God's commandment to protect human life is the requirement to show reverence and love for every person and the life of every person.”2

Mercy and pardon are proper to God. Mercy must also be present in the life of a child of God, stirring up in our heart compassion for those who are suffering: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Mt 5:7).3

It is also necessary to learn to forgive those who offend us (cf. Mt 5:22). When others offend us, we must try not to lose our peace, and never let anger gain control of our heart. Moreover, in the Our Father, the prayer that Jesus left us as the Lord's prayer, Christ links his forgiveness—pardon for the transgressions we have committed—to our pardon for those who have offended us (cf. Mt 6:9-13; Lk 11:2-4). We will be helped in this struggle by the contemplation of the passion of our Lord, who pardoned and redeemed us by bearing with love and patience his unjust treatment. We should also keep in mind that a Christian should never see anyone as an alien or an enemy (cf. Mt 5:44-45), and that we will be judged after death according to our love for our neighbor. Christians are asked to overcome evil with good (cf. Rom 12, 21), and to see insults as an opportunity for our own purification.

3. Respect for human life

The fifth precept orders us “not to kill.” It also prohibits striking, hurting or causing unjust bodily pain to oneself or to another, as well as insulting our neighbor with offensive words or wishing evil on him. This commandment also includes the prohibition of killing oneself (suicide).

3.1. Intentional homicide

“The fifth commandment forbids direct and intentional killing as gravely sinful. The murderer and those who cooperate voluntarily in murder commit a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance” (Catechism 2268).4

The encyclical Evangelium vitae has set forth in a definitive and infallible way the following norm: “by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, and in communion with the Bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral. This doctrine, based upon that unwritten law which man, in the light of reason, finds in his own heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15), is reaffirmed by Sacred Scripture, transmitted by the Tradition of the Church and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.”5 Thus homicide is without exception gravely immoral if it is an act resulting from a deliberate decision and directed to an innocent person. As such, legitimate defense and the death penalty are not included in this definitive formulation, and are dealt with in a separate section.6

The fact that God has entrusted human life into our hands calls for an attitude of love and service, and not of arbitrary dominion. God alone is the Master of human life.7

3.2. Abortion

“Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person” (Catechism 2270).

“Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being.”8 “No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church.”9 The respect for life must be recognized as the boundary that no activity on the part of an individual or a government can cross. The inalienable right of every innocent human person to life is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation and as such must be respected by both society as a whole and the political authority (cf. Catechism 2273).10

“The right to command is required by the moral order and has its source in God; it follows that if civil authority legislate for or allow anything that is contrary to that order and therefore contrary to the will of God, neither the laws made nor the authorizations granted can be binding on the consciences of the citizens … Otherwise, authority breaks down completely and results in shameful abuse.”11 So much so that “there is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection.”12

“Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible like any other human being” (Catechism 2274).

3.3. Euthanasia

“Euthanasia in the strict sense is understood to be an action or omission which of itself and by intention causes death, with the purpose of eliminating all suffering … euthanasia is a grave violation of the law of God since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person … Depending on the circumstances, this practice involves the malice proper to suicide or murder.”13 Gravely opposed to the dignity of the human person, euthanasia is one of the consequences that hedonism and the loss of the Christian sense of suffering can lead to.

“Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of 'over-zealous' treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted” (Catechism 2278).14

Nevertheless, “even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted” (Catechism 2279).15 Artificial nutrition and hydration are, in principle, ordinary care owed to all the sick.16

3.4. Suicide

“We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of” (Catechism 2280). “Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the rites of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God” (Catechism 2281).17

To choose to die to save the life of someone else is not suicide; on the contrary, it can be an act of the utmost charity.

3.5. Legitimate defense

The prohibition against causing anyone's death does not suppress the right to prevent an unjust aggressor from causing injury.18 Legitimate defense can also be a grave duty for someone responsible for the life of another person or for the common good (cf. Catechism 2265).

3.6. The death penalty

Defending the common good requires rendering an aggressor unable to do harm. Therefore, the legitimate authority can impose punishment commensurate with the gravity of the crime committed. The aim of punishments is to compensate for the disorder caused by the offense, to ensure public order and the security of persons, as well as the correction of the guilty person (cf. Catechism 2266). “For these purposes to be achieved, the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society … such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.”19

4. Respect for the dignity of the human person

4.1. Respect for the soul of one's neighbor: scandal

Christians have the duty to safeguard the life and supernatural health of their neighbor's soul and body.

In contrast, “scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor's tempter … Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense” (Catechism 2284). Scandal can be caused by unjust comments, by promoting immoral shows, books and magazines, by immodest dress, etc.

“Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized” (Catechism 2285). Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea (Mt 18:6).20

4.2. Respect for the body's health

Respect for one's own body is a requirement of charity since the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 6:19; 3, 16ff; 2 Cor 6:16), and we are responsible, insofar as it depends on us, to maintain our health as a means of serving God and others. However, bodily life is not an absolute value. Christian morality is opposed to a neo-pagan conception that fosters the cult of the body and can lead to perverting human relationships (cf. Catechism 2289).

“The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others' safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.” (Catechism 2290).

The use of drugs is a grave offense because of the harm it can do to one's health and the loss of responsibility in acts accomplished under their influence. Clandestine production and traffic of drugs are immoral activities (cf. Catechism 2291).

Scientific research cannot justify acts that, in themselves, are contrary to the dignity of the human person and the moral law. No human being can be treated as a means for the progress of science (cf. Catechism 2295). This principle is transgressed by practices of substitute artificial procreation or the use of embryos for experimental purposes.

4.3. Organ transplants

Giving organs as transplants is licit and can be an act of charity if the donation is without constraint and free,21 and if it is arranged in a just and charitable way.

“A person can donate an organ only if it involves no serious danger of harm for his own life or personal identity, and for a just and proportionate reason. As an obvious consequence, vital organs can be donated only after death.”22

It is necessary for the donor or his representatives to give their informed consent (cf. Catechism 2296). This donation, “although licit in itself, can become illicit if it violates the rights and feelings of third parties responsible for guardianship of the body: close relatives in the first place; but this may also include other persons by virtue of public or private rights.”23

4.4. Respect for physical freedom and for bodily integrity

Kidnapping and hostage taking are morally illicit. They involve treating persons merely as means to obtaining some end, depriving them unjustly of their freedom. Likewise, terrorism and torture gravely violate justice and charity.

“Except when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reasons, directly intended amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent persons are against the moral law” (Catechism 2297).

4.5. Respect for the dead

“The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the Resurrection. The burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy (cf. Tob 1:6-18); it honors the children of God, who are temples of the Holy Spirit” (Catechism 2300). “The Church strongly advises maintaining the pious custom of burying the body of the deceased; however it does not forbid cremation, provided it has not been chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine” (CIC, can. 1176).

5. Safeguarding peace

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God (Mt 5:9). A characteristic of the spirit of divine filiation is to be sowers of peace and joy.24 “Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity … Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity” (Catechism 2304).

“Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war (cf. Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 81,4)” (Catechism 2307).

There can be a need for “legitimate defense by military force.” However “the gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy” (Catechism 2309).25

“Injustice, excessive economic or social inequalities, envy, distrust, and pride raging among men and nations constantly threaten peace and cause wars. Everything done to overcome these disorders contributes to building up peace and avoiding war” (Catechism 2317).

“Love your own country: it is a Christian virtue to be patriotic. But if patriotism becomes nationalism, which leads you to look at other people, at other countries, with indifference, with scorn, without Christian charity and justice, then it is a sin.”26

Pau Agulles Simo

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2258-2330.

John Paul II, Enc. Evangelium vitae, 25 March 1995, ch. 3.

Contents

Footnotes

1Cf. Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 24.

2John Paul II, Enc. Evangelium vitae, 25 March 1995, 41.

3“The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities” (Catechism 2447).

4Furthermore, it “forbids doing anything with the intention of indirectly bringing about a person's death. The moral law prohibits exposing someone to mortal danger without grave reason, as well as refusing assistance to a person in danger” (Catechism 2469).

5John Paul II, Evangelium vitae, 57.

6Cf. Ibid, 55-56.

7Cf. Ibid, 52.

8Ibid, 62.

9Ibid, 62. The crime of abortion is of such gravity that the Church sanctions this transgression with the canonical punishment of excommunication latae sententiae (cf. Catechism 2272).

10“These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the State: they pertain to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his of her origin … the moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation must accord them, the State is denying the equality of all before the law. When the State does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a State based on law are undermined” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instr. Donum vitae, 22 February 1987, III).

“How many crimes are committed in the name of justice! If you were a dealer in guns and someone paid you the price of one of them, so that he might use the weapon to kill your mother, would you sell it to him? And yet, wasn't he ready to pay you a just price for it? Professor, journalist, politician, diplomat: reflect” (St Josemaria, The Way, 400).

11John XXIII, Enc. Pacem in terris, 11 April 1963, 51.

12John Paul II, Enc. Evangelium vitae, 73.

13John Paul II, Enc . Evangelium vitae, 65.

14“The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected” (Catechism 2278).

15“The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable. Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged” (Catechism 2279).

16Cf. John Paul II, Discorso ai partecipanti al Congresso Internazionale su “I trattamenti di sostegno vitale e lo stato vegetativo. Progressi scientifici e dilemmi etici,” 20 March 2004, no. 4; cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Responses to Certain Questions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Regarding Artificial Nutrition and Hydration,” 1 August 2007.

17“We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives” (Catechism 2283).

18“Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow” (Catechism 2264; cf. John Paul II, Enc. Evangelium vitae, 55). In this case, killing the aggressor does not constitute the direct purpose of the will of the person defending himself; rather, the moral aim consists in removing an imminent threat to one's own life.

19John Paul II, Enc. Evangelium vitae, 56. Cf. Catechism, 2267.

20“They are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to 'social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible' (Pius XII, Discourse, June 1, 1941)” (Catechism 2286).

21Cf. John Paul II, Discourse, 22 June 1991, 3; Catechism, 2301.

22Ibid. 4.

23Pius XII, Discorso all'Associazione Italiana Donatori di Cornea, 14 May 1956.

24Cf. St Josemaria Christ is Passing By, 124.

25“At one and the same time:

—the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;

—all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;

—there must be serious prospects of success;

—the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.”

“These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the 'just war' doctrine. The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good” (Catechism 2309). Moreover, “one is morally bound to resist orders that command genocide” (Catechism 2313).

Regarding the so-called arms race : “Far from eliminating the causes of war, it risks aggravating them. Spending enormous sums to produce ever new types of weapons impedes efforts to aid needy populations; it thwarts the development of peoples” (Catechism 2315). The arms race “is an utterly treacherous trap for humanity, and one which injures the poor to an intolerable degree” (Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 81). Public authorities have the right and the duty to regulate the production and sale of arms (cf. Catechism 2316).

26St Josemaria, Furrow, 315. Cf. St Josemaria The Forge, 879; The Way, 525.

TOPIC 36

Sixth Commandment

“God is love” (1 Jn 4:8), and his love is fruitful. He wants human beings to share in this fecundity, by linking the procreation of each new person with a specific act of love between a man and a woman.

1. Male and female he created them…

God's call to men and women to “be fruitful and multiply” should be understood from the perspective of our creation “in the image and likeness” of God (cf. Catechism 2331, 2334). This entails that human procreation, in the wider context of our sexuality, cannot be “something simply biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person as such” (Catechism 2361), and so is essentially distinct from animal life.

God is love (1 Jn 4:8), and his love is fruitful. He wants human beings to share in this fecundity, by linking the procreation of each new person with a specific act of love between a man and a woman.1 Therefore “sex is not a shameful thing; it is a divine gift, ordained to life, to love, to fruitfulness.”2

Since a human being is an individual consisting of a body and a soul, the loving procreative act calls for the participation of all dimensions of the human person—body, feelings, spirit.3

Original sin broke the harmony within each person and with other men and women. This rupture had a special repercussion on the capacity to live our sexuality in accord with human reason. It obscured the inseparable bond between the affective and procreative dimensions of the conjugal act, and made it more difficult for the will to exercise control over the affective and bodily forces of sexuality.

In these circumstances, the struggle for purification and growth in maturity that our sexuality requires does not imply any rejection or negative consideration of this gift that men and women have received from God. Rather it entails the need to “heal it and restore its true grandeur.”4 The virtue of chastity plays a key role here.

2. Vocation to chastity

The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of a “vocation to chastity” because this virtue is a condition and essential part of our vocation to love—the gift of self to which God calls every man and woman. Chastity makes it possible to love in and through our bodies.5 In a certain way, it could be said that chastity is the virtue that enables a human person to live well, with benevolence and interior peace in relation to other men and women and to oneself, because human sexuality influences all our capacities from the most physical and material to the most spiritual, giving a masculine or feminine tint to all our faculties.

Thus the virtue of chastity is not simply a remedy against the disorder sin gives rise to in human sexuality, but a joyful affirmation, since it enables us to love God and, through him, other men and women, with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind and our whole strength (cf. Mt 12:30).6

“The virtue of chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions and appetites of the senses with reason” (Catechism 2341). “Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being” (Catechism 2337).

When speaking about chastity, especially with young people, it is important to stress the capacity to love that this virtue imparts to sexuality and procreation. Otherwise, chastity could come to be seen as a negative virtue, since a good part of the struggle to live chastity involves the struggle to control one's passions, which at times can be directed towards a particular good that cannot be rationally ordered to the good of the person as a whole.7

In his present state, man cannot live in accord with the natural moral law, and hence be chaste, without the help of grace. This does not imply the impossibility of acquiring the human virtue that brings a certain control over one's passions, but rather that the wound caused by sin is so deep that only divine help can bring about a perfect reintegration of the human person.8

3. Educating for chastity

Chastity is aimed at attaining control of one's concupiscence, an important part of self-mastery. Attaining this control is a task that lasts for one's whole life and that calls for repeated efforts, which can be particularly demanding at certain periods. Chastity should always keep growing with the grace of God and each one's personal ascetical struggle (cf. Catechism 2342).9

“Charity is the form of all the virtues. Under its influence, chastity appears as a school of the gift of the person. Self-mastery is ordered to the gift of self” (Catechism 2346).

Educating for chastity is much more than what some reductively call “sex education,” usually limited to giving information on the physiological aspects of human reproduction and methods of contraception. A true education in chastity involves much more than the biological aspects. It needs to provide help in reflecting on the personal and moral values involved in the issues of human life and personal maturity. Moreover, it needs to foster high ideals of love for God and other men and women, through virtues such as generosity, self-giving, the modesty that protects intimacy, etc. —virtues that help a person to overcome selfishness and the temptation to become self-centered.

Parents have a great responsibility in this task, since they are the first and principal teachers in instilling the virtue of chastity in their children.10

In the struggle to live this virtue, the following means are important:

a) prayer: asking God for the virtue of holy purity;11 frequenting the sacraments, which are the “medicine” for our weakness;

b) working intensely, avoiding idleness;

c) moderation in food and drink;

d) caring for details of decency and modesty in dress, etc.;

e) avoiding unsuitable books, magazines and newspapers, and immoral shows;

f) being very sincere in spiritual direction;

g) not thinking about oneself;

h) having a deep devotion to Mary Most Holy, Mater pulchrae dilectionis.

Chastity, while an eminently personal virtue, “involves a cultural effort” (Catechism 2344), since there is “an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of society.”12 Respect for the rights of the person requires respect for chastity, and particularly the right “to receive information and an education that respect the moral and spiritual dimensions of human life” (Catechism 2344).13

The specific manifestations of this virtue will differ depending on one's vocation. “Married people are called to live conjugal chastity; others practice chastity in continence” (Catechism 2349).

4. Chastity in marriage

Sexual union “is ordered to the conjugal love of man and woman” (Catechism 2360); “it is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and a woman commit themselves totally to one another until death.”14

The grandeur of the act whereby man and woman cooperate freely with God's creative action requires certain strict moral conditions, precisely because of its deep human meaning: the capacity to engender a new human life called to eternal happiness. This is why one should never voluntarily separate the unitive and procreative dimensions of this act, as happens with contraception.15

Chaste couples will find the most adequate moments to live this bodily union so that in each act it always reflects the gift of self it signifies.16

Unlike the procreative dimension, which can be realized in a truly human way only through the conjugal act, the unitive and affective dimension proper to this act can and should be manifested in many other ways. Hence, if for reasons of health or other reasons, the spouses cannot carry out the conjugal union, or if they decide that it is preferable to abstain temporarily (or permanently in particularly serious situations) from the conjugal act, they can and should continue making this gift of self a reality, which fosters the growth of a truly personal love.

5. Chastity in celibacy

God calls some people to live their vocation to love in a special way, in apostolic celibacy.17 Living the Christian vocation in apostolic celibacy requires continence.18 Excluding the use of one's reproductive capacity in no way entails excluding love or affection.19 On the contrary, freely giving to God the possibility of a married life enables one to love and to give oneself to many other men and women, helping them in turn to find God, which is the reason for their celibacy.20

This way of life must always be viewed and lived as a gift, since no one can attribute to himself or herself the capacity to be faithful to God in this path of life without the help of grace.

6. Sins against chastity

Opposed to chastity is lust, a “disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes” (Catechism 2351).

Since sexuality is a central dimension in human life, sins against chastity are always materially grave and as such entail losing the inheritance of the Kingdom of God (cf. Eph 5:5). However they can be venial when full awareness or perfect consent is lacking.

The vice of lust has numerous serious consequences: mental blindness, which obscures our final end and our good; weakening of the will, which is made almost incapable of any effort, becoming passive, indifferent to work, to serving others, etc.; attachment to earthly goods and forgetting eternal goods; and finally it can even lead to hatred for God, seen by a lustful person as the major obstacle to satisfying his sensuality.

Masturbation is the “deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure” (Catechism 2352). “Both the Magisterium of the Church in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.”21 By its very nature, masturbation contradicts the Christian sense of sexuality as being at the service of love. Being a solitary and selfish exercise of sexuality, deprived of the truth of love, it leaves a person unsatisfied and leads to emptiness and regret.

“Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young” (Catechism 2353).22

Adultery “refers to marital infidelity. When two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have sexual relations—even transient ones—they commit adultery” (Catechism 2380).23

Also opposed to chastity are conversations, looks, manifestations of affection for another person, including fiancés, prompted by a lewd desire or constituting a near occasion of sin which is sought or not rejected.24 Pornography —displaying the human body as a mere object of concupiscence—and prostitution —making one's own body an object for financial gain and for carnal pleasure—are grave faults of sexual disorder which, besides offending the dignity of any person involved, are a true social scourge (cf. Catechism 2355).

“Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act. Graver still is the rape of children committed by parents (incest) or those responsible for the education of the children entrusted to them” (Catechism 2356).

“Homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered,” as the tradition of the Church has always declared.25 This clear moral evaluation of acts must in no way prejudge those persons who have homosexual tendencies,26 since not infrequently their condition involves a difficult trial.27 Furthermore, these persons “are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection” (Catechism 2359).

Pablo Requena

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2331-2400.

Benedict XVI, Enc. Deus caritas est, 25 December 2005, 1-18.

John Paul II, Apost. Ex. Familiaris consortio, 22 November 1981.

Recommended Reading

St Josemaria, “For They Shall See God,” in Friends of God: Homilies, 175-189; “Marriage, a Christian Vocation,” in Christ is Passing By, 22-30.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Decl. Persona humana, 29 December 1975.

Congregation for Catholic Education, Educational orientations on human love, 1 November 1983.

Contents

Footnotes

1“Each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way. The union of man and woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator's generosity and fecundity: 'Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh' (Gen 2:24) All human generations proceed from this union. (cf. Gen 4:1-2, 25-26; 5:1)” (Catechism, 2335).

2St Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, 24.

3“Should he aspire to be pure spirit and to reject the flesh as pertaining to his animal nature alone, then spirit and body would both lose their dignity. On the other hand, should he deny the spirit and consider matter, the body, as the only reality, he would likewise lose his greatness” (Benedict XVI, Enc. Deus caritas est, 25 December 2005, 5).

4Ibid.

5“God is love and in himself He lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image … God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion” (John Paul II, Apost. Ex. Familiaris consortio, 22 November 1981, 11).

6“Chastity is the joyous affirmation of someone who knows how to live self-giving, free from any form of self-centred slavery” (Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, 8 December 1995, 17). “Purity is a consequence of the love that prompts us to commit to Christ our soul and body, our faculties and senses. It is not something negative; it is a joyful affirmation” (St Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, 5).

7“Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy (cf. Sir 1:22). 'Man's dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what is good and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end' (Gaudium et spes, 17)” (Catechism 2339).

8“Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort. (cf. Gal 5:22). The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ (cf. 1 Jn 3:3)” (Catechism 2345).

9Personal maturity includes self-mastery, which requires modesty and temperance, as well as respect for, and being open to, others (cf. Congregation for Catholic Education, Educational orientations on human love, 1 November 1983, 35).

10This aspect of education is of greater importance now than in the past because today's society provides many negative models in this areas (cf. Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, 8 December 1995, 47). “Faced with a culture that largely reduces human sexuality to the level of something commonplace, since it interprets and lives it in a reductive and impoverished way by linking it solely with the body and with selfish pleasure, the educational service of parents must aim firmly at a training in the area of sex that is truly and fully personal” (John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, 37).

11“Holy purity is granted by God when it is asked for with humility” (St Josemaria, The Way, 118).

12Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 25.

13John Paul II spoke about the need to foster a genuine “human ecology” in the sense of achieving a healthy moral environment that will facilitate the human development of the person (cf., for example, Enc. Centesimus annus, 1 May 1991, 38). Part of the “cultural effort” mentioned above consists in making clear the need to respect certain moral norms in the media, especially in television, to safeguard the dignity of the human person. “In these times of violence and of brutal, savage sexuality, we have to be rebels: we refuse point blank to go with the tide, and become beasts. We want to behave like children of God, like men and women who are on intimate terms with their Father, who is in Heaven and who wants to be very close to—inside!—each one of us” (St Josemaria, The Forge, 15).

14John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, 11.

15Also in artificial fertilization there is a rupture between these two dimensions proper to human sexuality, as the Instruction Donum vitae (1987) makes clear.

16As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, the pleasure accompanying conjugal union is something good and desired by God (cf. Catechism 2362).

17Although the measure of sanctity is the love one has for God and not one's state in life, whether celibate or married, the Church teaches that celibacy for the Kingdom of Heaven is a gift superior to matrimony (cf. Council of Trent : DZ 1810; 1 Cor 7:38).

18We will not say anything specific here about priestly celibacy or virginity or consecrated celibacy. But from the moral point of view, total continence is required in each of these situations.

19It would not make any sense to maintain that celibacy goes “against nature.” The fact that man and woman can complement one another does not mean that they complete one another, because both are complete as human persons.

20When speaking of priestly celibacy (though applicable to all celibacy for the Kingdom of Heaven), Benedict XVI explains that it cannot be understood merely in functional terms because in reality “it represents a special configuration to the style of life of Christ himself” (Benedict XVI, Apost. Ex. Sacramentum caritatis, 24).

21Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Decl. Persona humana, 29 December 1975, 9.

22Free unions or cohabitation without the intention to marry, trial unions when there is an intention to marry and premarital relations all offend the dignity of human sexuality and marriage. “They are contrary to the moral law. The sexual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion” (Catechism 2390). A sincere gift of self, freely made, must be permanent and lasting.

23Christ also condemns the desire to commit adultery (cf. Mt 5:27-28). In the New Testament, adultery is absolutely forbidden (cf. Mt 5:32; 19, 6; Mk 10:11; 1 Cor 6:9-10). The Catechism, when speaking of offenses against marriage, also mentions divorce, polygamy and contraception.

24“Those who are engaged to marry are called to live chastity in continence. They should see in this time of testing a discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another from God. They should reserve for marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married love. They will help each other grow in chastity” (Catechism 2350).

25Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Decl. Persona humana, 8. Such acts “are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved” (Catechism 2357).

26Homosexuality designates the condition of those men and women who feel a sexual attraction, whether exclusive or predominant, for persons of the same sex. The possible situations where this can arise are very diverse and as a consequence extreme prudence is required when treating such cases.

27“The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition” (Catechism 2358).

TOPIC 37

Seventh Commandment

The seventh commandment forbids unjustly taking or keeping the goods of one’s neighbor and wronging him in any way with respect to his goods.

“The seventh commandment forbids unjustly taking or keeping the goods of one's neighbor and wronging him in any way with respect to his goods. It commands justice and charity in the care of earthly goods and the fruits of men's labor. For the sake of the common good, it requires respect for the universal destination of goods and respect for the right to private property. Christian life strives to order this world's goods to God and to fraternal charity” (Catechism 2401).

1. The universal destiny and private ownership of goods

“In the beginning God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and enjoy their fruits (cf. Gen 1:26-29). The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race” (Catechism 2402).

However, “the appropriation of property is legitimate for guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of persons and for helping each of them to meet his basic needs and the needs of those in his charge” (Ibid.).

“The right to private property, acquired or received in a just way, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of mankind. The universal destination of goods remains primordial,1 even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property and its exercise” (Catechism 2403). Respecting the right to private property is important for the orderly development of social life.

“'In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as himself' (Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 69, 1). The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it fruitful and communicating its benefits to others, first of all his family” (Catechism 2404).

Marxist socialism, and particularly communism, in seeking among other things the complete subordination of the individual to society, denies the right of the person to private ownership of the goods of production (those used to produce other goods, such as land, certain industries, etc.), affirming that only the state can possess these goods, as the condition for instituting a “classless”society.2

“The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modem times with 'communism' or 'socialism.' She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of 'capitalism,' individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor” (Catechism 2425).3

2. Use of goods: temperance, justice and solidarity

“In economic matters, respect for human dignity requires the practice of the virtue of temperance, so as to moderate attachment to this world's goods; the practice of the virtue of justice, to preserve our neighbor's rights and render him what is his due; and the practice of solidarity” (Catechism 2407).

The virtue of poverty, which is part of temperance, is not a matter of “not possessing” things but of not being attached to material goods, of being happy with what suffices for a sober and moderate life,4 as well as administrating goods as a service to others. Our Lord gave us an example of poverty and detachment right from his coming into this world to his death on the Cross (cf. 2 Cor 8, 9). Likewise he warned of the harm attachment to riches can cause: It will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 19:23).

As a moral virtue, justice consists of the habit whereby with a firm and constant will one gives to everyone their due. Justice between individual persons is called commutative justice (for example paying a debt); distributive justice “regulates what the community owes its citizens in proportion to their contributions and needs” (Catechism 2411);5 and legal justice is that of the citizen with regard to the community (for example, paying just taxes).

The virtue of solidarity is “the firm and constant decision to insist on fostering the common good, that is, the good of each and every person, because we are all truly responsible for everyone.”6 Solidarity is the “sharing of spiritual goods even more than material ones” (Catechism 1948).

3. Respecting the goods of others

The seventh commandment forbids taking or keeping unjustly what is our neighbor's, or causing him unjust harm in his material goods. Theft or stealing is committed when another's goods are taken secretly. Robbery is the violent seizing of another's goods. Fraud is theft by means of deceiving one's neighbor with traps, false documents, etc., or withholding a just salary. Usury consists in claiming greater interest than is lawful for the amount loaned (generally, taking advantage of a neighbor in financial straits).

“The following are also morally illicit: speculation in which one contrives to manipulate the price of goods artificially in order to gain an advantage to the detriment of others; corruption in which one influences the judgment of those who must make decisions according to law; appropriation and use for private purposes of the common goods of an enterprise; work poorly done; tax evasion; forgery of checks and invoices; excessive expenses and waste. Willfully damaging private or public property is contrary to the moral law and requires reparation” (Catechism 2409).

“Contracts are subject to commutative justice which regulates exchanges between persons in accordance with a strict respect for their rights. Commutative justice obliges strictly; it requires safeguarding property rights, paying debts, and fulfilling obligations freely contracted” (Catechism 2411). “Contracts [must be] strictly observed to the extent that the commitments made in them are morally just” (Catechism 2410).

There is an obligation to make reparation : anyone committing an injustice must make reparation for the harm caused insofar as is possible. The restitution of stolen goods —or at least the desire and intention to do so—is necessary to receive sacramental absolution. The duty of restitution is an urgent obligation: guilty delay increases the creditor's harm and the debtor's guilt. The physical or moral impossibility, as long as it lasts, excuses from the duty to reimburse. The duty can be eliminated if, for example, the debt is pardoned by the creditor.7

4. The social doctrine of the Church

“When [the Church] fulfills her mission of proclaiming the Gospel, she bears witness to man, in the name of Christ, to his dignity and his vocation to the communion of persons. She teaches him the demands of justice and peace in conformity with divine wisdom” (Catechism 2419). The collection of these teachings on the principles that should guide social life is called social doctrine and is part of Catholic moral doctrine.8

Among the fundamental teachings of the social doctrine of the Church are: 1) the transcendent dignity of the human person and the inviolability of his or her rights; 2) recognizing as the basic cell of society the family founded on true indissoluble matrimony, and the need to protect it and foster it through sound laws on matrimony, education and public morality; 3) teachings concerning the common good and the role of the state.

The mission of the hierarchy of the Church differs from the mission of the political authority. The aim of the Church is supernatural and its mission is to lead men to salvation. This is why, when the Magisterium refers to temporal aspects of the common good, it does so insofar as they should be ordered to the supreme Good, our ultimate destiny. The Church gives a moral judgment on economic and social questions “when required for the fundamental rights of the person or the saving of souls.”9

It is important to emphasize the following point: “It is not the role of the Pastors of the Church to intervene directly in the political structuring and organization of social life. This task is part of the vocation of the lay faithful, acting on their own initiative with their fellow citizens” (Catechism 2442).10

5. Economic activity and social justice

“Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another (cf. Gen 1: 28; Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 34; John Paul II, Enc. Centessimus annus, 31). Hence work is a duty: 'If any one will not work, let him not eat' (2 Thess 3:10; cf. 1 Thess 4:11). Work honors the Creator's gifts and the talents received from him. It can also be redemptive” (Catechism 2427). By working in union with Jesus, we collaborates with the Son of God in his redemptive work. Work is a means of sanctifying persons and earthly realities, animating them with the Spirit of Christ (cf. Ibid.).11

In working, “Everyone has the right of economic initiative; everyone should make legitimate use of his talents to contribute to the abundance that will benefit all and to harvest the just fruits of his labor. He should seek to observe regulations issued by legitimate authority for the sake of the common good (cf. John Paul II, Enc. Centesimus annus, 1 May 1991, 32; 34)” (Catechism 2429).12 Responsibility of the state : “Economic activity, especially the activity of a market economy, cannot be conducted in an institutional, juridical, or political vacuum. On the contrary, it presupposes sure guarantees of individual freedom and private property, as well as a stable currency and efficient public services. Hence the principal task of the state is to guarantee this security, so that those who work and produce can enjoy the fruits of their labors and thus feel encouraged to work efficiently and honestly.”13

Those responsible for business enterprises “have an obligation to consider the good of persons and not only the increase of profits. Profits are necessary, however. They make possible the investments that ensure the future of a business and they guarantee employment” (Catechism 2432). Those directing businesses “are responsible to society for the economic and ecological effects of their operations.”14

“Access to employment and to professions must be open to all without unjust discrimination: men and women, healthy and disabled, natives and immigrants (cf. John Paul II, Enc. Laborem exercens, 14 September 1981, 19; 22-23). For its part society should, according to circumstances, help citizens find work and employment (cf. John Paul II, Enc. Centessimus annus, 48)” (Catechism 2433). “A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice” (Catechism 2434).15 Social justice : this expression came into use in the 20th century to refer to the universal dimension problems of justice had acquired. “Society ensures social justice when it provides the conditions that allow associations or individuals to obtain what is their due, according to their nature and their vocation” (Catechism 1928).

Justice and solidarity between nations : “Rich nations have a grave moral responsibility toward those which are unable to ensure the means of their development by themselves or have been prevented from doing so by tragic historical events. It is a duty in solidarity and charity; it is also an obligation in justice if the prosperity of the rich nations has come from resources that have not been paid for fairly” (Catechism 2439).

“Direct aid is an appropriate response to immediate, extraordinary needs caused by natural catastrophes, epidemics, and the like. But it does not suffice to repair the grave damage resulting from destitution or to provide a lasting solution to a country's needs” (Catechism 2440).

It is also necessary to “reform” international economic and financial institutions so that they will make possible and promote equitable relations with less developed countries (cf. ibid ; John Paul II, Enc. Sollicitudo rei socialis, 30 December 1987, 16).

6. Justice and charity

Charity— forma virtutum, the form of all the virtues —is at a higher level than justice. It is shown not only, or even principally, by giving more than is owed in strict justice. Charity consists above all in giving oneself (since that is what love is), and must always accompany justice, enlivening it from the inside. This union of justice and charity is shown, for example, in giving what is owed with joy, in a concern not only for the rights of others but also for their needs, and generally in practicing justice with refinement and understanding.16

Justice must always be informed by charity. It is fruitless to try to resolve the problems of people living together simply with justice understood as an anonymous “adequate functioning” of social structures: “When you are dealing with problems, try not to exaggerate justice to the point of forgetting charity” (St Josemaria, Furrow 973).

Justice and charity are both required when caring for those in need (the poor, the sick, etc.). The situation of society will never reach the point where personal attention to the material and spiritual needs of one's neighbor is superfluous. Carrying out works of mercy, both material and spiritual, will always be necessary (cf. Catechism 2447).

“Love—charity—will always be necessary, even in the most just of all societies. No political order, however just it may be, can make service prompted by love superfluous. Anyone who wants to leave out love, is going to neglect man as a human person. There will always be suffering calling for advice and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need necessitating help that shows concrete love for one's neighbor. The state that wants to provide everything, that takes over everything, ends us as a bureaucracy that cannot ensure the most essential need of suffering man—of any human being: an affectionate personal attention.”17

Human misery draws down the compassion of Christ the Savior, who wished to take it upon himself, identifying himself with the least of his brothers (Mt 25:40). This is why those who suffer in misery are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church, which, since the very beginning, has never ceased working to alleviate their suffering and to protect them (cf. Catechism 2448).

Pau Agulles

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church 2401-2463.

Recommended Reading

St Josemaria, “Open to God and Man,” in Friends of God, 154-174.

Contents

Footnotes

1This fact takes on special moral relevance in cases of real danger where one must make use of the goods of others as a prime necessity.

2The twentieth century saw the sad consequences, both economic and social, of this ideology.

3Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Centessimus annus, 1 May 1991, 10; 13; 44.

“Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails social justice, for 'there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market' (John Paul II, Enc. Centessimus annus, 34). Reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended” (Catechism 2425).

4Cf. St Josemaria, The Way, 631.

5Distributive justice spurs those governing society to distribute the common good, to assign honors or jobs to those who deserve it, without giving in to favoritism.

6John Paul II, Enc. Sollicitudo rei socialis, 30 December 1987, 38.

7“Those who, directly or indirectly, have taken possession of the goods of another, are obliged to make restitution of them, or to return the equivalent in kind or in money, if the goods have disappeared, as well as the profit or advantages their owner would have legitimately obtained from them. Likewise, all who in some manner have taken part in a theft or who have knowingly benefited from it—for example, those who ordered it, assisted in it, or received the stolen goods—are obliged to make restitution in proportion to their responsibility and to their share of what was stolen” (Catechism 2412).

In cases where one cannot locate the owner of some good, the person possessing it in good faith can keep it in his possession; whereas something possessed in bad faith —something stolen, for example—must be given to the poor or to welfare work.

8Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Sollicitudo rei socialis, 41.

9Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 76; cf. Catechism, 2420.

10“Social action can assume various concrete forms. It should always have the common good in view and be in conformity with the message of the Gospel and the teaching of the Church. It is the role of the laity 'to animate temporal realities with Christian commitment, by which they show that they are witnesses and agents of peace and justice' (John Paul II, Enc. Sollicitudo rei socialis, 47)” (Catechism, 2442). Cf. also John Paul II, Enc. Sollicitudo rei socialis, 42.

“A priest, by virtue of his teaching mission should preach the Christian virtues, and their practical demands and manifestations in the concrete circumstances of the lives of the men to whom he ministers. He should, also, teach men to respect and esteem the dignity and freedom with which God has endowed the human person, and the special supernatural dignity which a Christian receives at Baptism.”

“No priest who fulfils this duty of his ministry can ever be accused, except through ignorance or bad faith, of meddling in politics. Nor could it be said that his teaching interferes in the apostolic task which belongs specifically to the laity, of ordering temporal structures and occupations in a Christian fashion” (St Josemaria, Conversations, 5).

11“Professional work—and working in the home is also a first-class profession—is a witness to the worth of the human creature; a chance to develop one's own personality; a bond of union with others; a fund of resources; a way of helping in the improvement of the society we live in, and of promoting the progress of the whole human race….”

“For a Christian, these grand views become even deeper and wider. Because work, which Christ took up as something both redeemed and redeeming, becomes a means, a way of holiness, a specific task which sanctifies and can be sanctified” (St Josemaria, The Forge, 702). Cf. St Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, 53.

12“Carry out all your duties as a citizen. Do not try to get out of any of your obligations. Exercise all your rights, too, for the good of society, without making any rash exceptions.”

“You must give Christian witness in that also” (St. Josemaria, The Forge, 697).

13John Paul II, Enc. Centesimus annus, 48. Cf. Catechism, 2431. “Another task of the state is that of overseeing and directing the exercise of human rights in the economic sector. However, primary responsibility in this area belongs not to the state but to individuals and to the various groups and associations which make up society.” (Ibid.).

14John Paul II, loc. cit., 37.

15“'Remuneration for work should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level, taking into account the role and the productivity of each, the state of the business, and the common good' (Vatican Council II, Const. Gaudium et spes, 67, 2)” (Catechism 2434).

16“There is a long road to travel from the demands of strict justice to the abundance of charity. And there are not many who persevere to the end. Some are content to go as far as the threshold: they leave aside justice and limit their actions to a bit of welfare work, which they define as charitable, without realising that they are doing only a small part of what in fact they have a strict duty to do. And they are as satisfied with themselves as the Pharisee who thought he had fulfilled the law perfectly because he fasted twice a week and gave tithes of all he possessed” (St. Josemaria, Friends of God, 172). Cf. Ibid., 83; St Josemaria, The Forge, 502.

17Benedict XVI, Enc. Deus caritas est, 25 December 2005, 28.

TOPIC 38

Eighth Commandment

With the grace of Christ, who is the Truth, Christians can live a life governed by truth.

“The eighth commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others…Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness” (Catechism 2464).

1. Living in the truth

“It is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons…are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct their whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth.”1

But our readiness to know the truth and to express it by word and deed has been distorted by sin, which has wounded human nature, inflicting the intellect with ignorance and the will with malice. As a consequence of sin, our love for truth has diminished, and we are prone to deceiving one another out of selfishness and self-interest. However, with Christ's grace, Christians can live a life governed by truth.

The virtue that disposes us to always speak the truth is called truthfulness, sincerity or candor (cf. Catechism 2468). Three basic aspects of this virtue are:

—sincerity with oneself : this involves recognizing the truth about one's own behaviour, both external and internal (intentions, thoughts, feelings, etc), without fear of facing the whole truth, without shutting one's eyes to reality;2

—sincerity with others : living together with other men and women would be impossible if people could not trust one another, that is, if they did not speak or act truthfully, for example, by respecting contracts or pacts in general, and keeping their word (cf. Catechism 2469);

—sincerity with God : God sees everything that happens but wants us, as his sons and daughters, to be sincere with him. “A son of God behaves as a son with the Lord. His behaviour is not obsequious and servile or formally reverential or merely courteous, but full of sincerity and trust. God is not scandalized by men. God does not get tired of our lack of fidelity. Our Father in heaven pardons any offence when his son returns once again to him, when he repents and asks for pardon. Our Lord is a Father to the point of foreseeing our need to be pardoned and comes toward us, opening his arms with his grace.”3

Sincerity in the sacrament of Confession and in spiritual direction are extraordinarily effective means for growing in interior life—in simplicity, humility and in the other virtues.4 Sincerity is essential to persevere in following Christ, since Christ is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6).5

2. Truth and charity

Holy Scripture teaches us to speak the truth with charity (cf. Eph 4:15). Sincerity, like all the virtues, must be lived out of love for God and other men and women, with refinement and understanding.

Fraternal correction : this is the gospel practice of telling someone of a mistake he has made or of a defect so that he can correct it. It is a real manifestation of love for the truth and of charity, and can sometimes be a serious duty.

Simplicity in dealing with others : Simplicity results when one's intention is manifested quite naturally in one's behaviour. Simplicity arises from love for the truth and from the desire that it be faithfully reflected in one's actions with naturalness, without affectation. This is also what is known as sincerity of life. Like the other moral virtues, simplicity and sincerity must be guided by prudence to be real virtues.

Sincerity and humility : Sincerity is the path for growing in humility (“travelling in the truth” as Saint Teresa of Jesus used to say). Pride leads to seeing the faults of others very easily—exaggerating them or even inventing them—and not to take into account one's own failings. The disordered love of one's own excellence always tries to keep us from seeing ourselves as we are, with all our wretchedness.

3. Bearing witness to the truth

“Witness is an act of justice that establishes the truth or makes it known” (Catechism 2472). Christians have the duty of bearing witness to the Truth, to Christ. As such, they must be witnesses to the Gospel with clarity and coherence, without hiding their faith. The opposite would mean being ashamed of Christ, who said: whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven (Mt 10:33).

“Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity” (Catechism 2473). Confronted with the choice between denying the faith (by word or by deed) or losing one's earthly life, Christians must be ready to give up their life: what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? (Mk 8:36) Christ was condemned to die for giving witness to the truth (cf. Mt 26:63-66). A great multitude of Christians have been martyred for remaining faithful to Christ, but “the blood of the martyrs has been transformed into the seed of new Christians.”6

“If martyrdom, to which few are called, is the supreme witness of moral truth, there does exist a witness to coherence which all Christians must be disposed to give every day, at the cost of suffering and great sacrifices. In fact, confronting many difficulties which even in the most ordinary circumstances can require fidelity to the moral order, the Christian, imploring God for his grace, is called to a commitment which is at times heroic. He is supported by the virtue of fortitude, which, as St Gregory the Great taught, enables him 'to love difficulties in this world in view of the eternal award' (Moralia in Job, 7,21,24).”7

4. Offences against truth

“'A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving' (St Augustine, De mendacio 4, 5). The Lord denounces lying as the work of the devil: 'You are of your father the devil … there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies' (Jn 8:44)” (Catechism 2482).

“The gravity of a lie is measured against the nature of the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims” (Catechism 2484). It can be a mortal sin “when it does grave injury to the virtues of justice and charity” (ibid.). Frivolous speaking or talkativeness (cf. Mt 12:36) can easily lead to lying (inexact or unjust criticisms, exaggerations, at times calumnies).

False witness and perjury : “When it is made publicly, a statement contrary to the truth takes on a particular gravity. In court it becomes false witness. When it is under oath, it is perjury” (Catechism 2476). There is an obligation to make amends for the harm caused.

“Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury” (Catechism 2477). The right to honor and good reputation—one's own and others'—is something more precious than riches, and of great importance for the life of each person and family, and for society in general. Sins against the good reputation of others include:

—rash judgment : this sin arises when, without sufficient grounds, one assumes the truth of another's moral fault (for example, judging, without being certain, that someone acted with an evil intention). Judge not and you will not be judged; condemn not and you will not be condemned (Lk 6:37; cf. Catechism 2477);

—defamation : This is any unjust act offending another's reputation in one of two ways: 1) detraction or slander, which involves disclosing someone's real faults or defects without valid reason (called gossiping when done behind that person's back); 2) calumny, which consists in attributing to someone false misdeeds or faults. The twofold malice of calumny violates both truth and justice; its gravity depends on the gravity of the calumny and how wide it is spread.

Nowadays, these offenses against the truth and others' good reputation are quite frequent in the media. Therefore, one needs to view information from newspapers, magazines, TV, etc. with a healthy critical spirit. A naïve or credulous attitude leads to forming false judgments.8

Whenever defamation takes place, whether by detraction or calumny, there is an obligation to take all possible means to restore the good reputation of the person unjustly offended.

Cooperating in these sins must be avoided. This includes anyone who likes to listen to someone defaming another person, and enjoys what is said; anyone in charge who does not prevent gossiping about colleagues; anyone, though offended by the sin of detraction, who fails to correct or contradict the defamer out of fear, negligence or shame; and anyone who thoughtlessly spreads what someone has insinuated about another person.9

In addition, “every word or attitude is forbidden which by flattery, adulation, or complaisance encourages and confirms another in malicious acts and perverse conduct. Adulation is a grave fault if it makes one an accomplice in another's vices or grave sins. Neither the desire to be of service nor friendship justifies duplicitous speech. Adulation is a venial sin when it only seeks to be agreeable, to avoid evil, to meet a need, or to obtain legitimate advantages” (Catechism 2480).

5. Respect for privacy

“The good and safety of others, respect for privacy, and the common good are sufficient reasons for being silent about what ought not be known or for making use of a discreet language. The duty to avoid scandal often commands strict discretion. No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have the right to know it” (Catechism 2489) “The right to the communication of the truth is not unconditional” (Catechism 2488).

“The secret of the sacrament of reconciliation is sacred, and cannot be violated under any pretext. 'The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore, it is a crime for a confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or in any other manner or for any reason' (CIC 983, §1)” (Catechism 2490).

Professional secrets and in general all natural secrets must be kept. Revealing such secrets involves a lack of respect for people's privacy and can be a sin against justice.

A just reserve respecting people's private life needs to be maintained. Interference by the media in the private lives of persons engaged in political or public activity is to be condemned to the extent that it infringes on their privacy and freedom (cf. Catechism 2492).

The social media have a decisive influence on public opinion. They are an important field for apostolate in defense of the truth and in striving to Christianize society.

Juan Ramón Areitio

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2464-2499.

Recommended Reading

St Josemaria, “Christian Respect for Persons and their Freedom,” in Christ is Passing By, 69-72.

Contents

Footnotes

1Vatican Council II, Declar. Dignitatis humanae, 2. Cf. Catechism 2467.

2Cf. St Josemaria, The Way, 33 and 34; Furrow, 148: with “savage sincerity” in the examination of conscience.

3St Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, 64.

4Cf. St Josemaria, The Forge, 126-128.

“Sincerity is indispensable if we are to achieve greater union with God. If you have an ugly 'toad' inside you, my son, let it out! As I have always advised you, the first thing you must mention is what you wouldn't like anybody to know. Once the 'toad' has been let out in Confession—how well one feels!” (The Forge, 193).

5“Sincerity: with God, with the director, with your fellow men. If you act like that, I shall be certain of your perseverance” (St Josemaria, Furrow, 325).

6“Martyrum sanguis est semen christianorum” (Tertulien, Apologeticu s, 50. Cf. St Justin, Dialogus cum Tryphone, 110: PG 6,729).

7John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis splendor, 6 August 1993, 93. Cf. St Josemaria, The Way, 204.

8“The means of social communication (especially the mass media) can give rise to a certain passivity among users, making them less than vigilant consumers of what is said or shown. Users should practice moderation and discipline in their approach to the mass media. They will want to form enlightened and correct consciences the more easily to resist unwholesome influences” (Catechism 2496).

When broadcasting news, public opinion professionals have an obligation “to serve the truth and not offend against charity in disseminating information. They should strive to respect, with equal care, the nature of the facts and the limits of critical judgment concerning individuals. They should not stoop to defamation” (Catechism, 2497).

9Cf. St Josemaria, The Way, 49. Gossiping is a mortal enemy of the unity of the apostolate: “Gossip is trash that soils and hinders the apostolate. It goes against charity, takes away strength, takes away peace, and makes one lose his union with God” (St Josemaria, The Way, 445. Cf. ibid., 453).

TOPIC 39

Ninth and Tenth Commandments

These two commandments help us to live holy purity (the ninth) and detachment from material goods (the tenth) in our thoughts and desires.

Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's (Deut 5:21).

Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt 5:28).

1. Internal sins

These two commandments refer to internal acts that are sins against the sixth and seventh commandments, which moral tradition classifies as internal sins. From a positive point of view, they prescribe living purity (the ninth) and detachment from material goods (the tenth) in our thoughts and desires, living in accord with Christ's words: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Mt 5:3 and 8).

The first point to clarify here is whether it makes sense to speak of “internal” sins. In other words, why should an act of the intellect and will that is not expressed in an external action be viewed as morally reprehensible?

The answer is not obvious since the lists of sins found in the New Testament appear to be mainly external acts: adultery, fornication, homicide, idolatry, sorcery, angry arguments, etc. And yet, in the same catalogue of sins we also find certain internal acts cited as sins: envy, evil desires, avarice.1

Jesus himself says that evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander (Mt 15:19) come from man's heart. And referring specifically to chastity he teaches that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt 5:28). These texts are important for our understanding of morality since they stress that the source of human actions, and therefore of the good or evil in a person, is found in the desires of the heart, in what the person “wants” and chooses. The evil of murder, adultery, theft is not primarily in the physical reality of the action, or in its consequences (although these are an important part of it), but in the will, in the heart of the murderer, the adulterer, the thief, who in choosing that particular action is deciding on an orientation opposed to love for his neighbor, and therefore also to love for God.

The will always seeks a good, but at times what appears good is something that is not rationally ordered to one's overall good. The thief seeks something that he considers good, but the fact that the object belongs to another person makes the choice to obtain it something that cannot contribute to his own good as a person, that is, to the purpose of his life. In this sense, an exterior action is not required to decide if the will is heading in a good or bad direction. Anyone who decides to steal an object, even if something unforeseen keeps him from doing so, has “acted” badly. He has carried out an internal act of the will against the virtue of justice.

The goodness or wickedness of a person is rooted in the will, and so, strictly speaking, we should use these categories to refer to desires (what we want, approve), and not to thoughts. To speak of the intellect we use other categories such as true or false. When the ninth commandment forbids “impure thoughts” it is not referring to images or to the thoughts in themselves, but to the movement of the will which accepts the disordered pleasure provoked by a certain image (internal or external).2

Internal sins can be divided into:

—evil thoughts (complacencia morosa): these consist in imagining a sinful act without the intention to carry it out. It is a mortal sin if it involves a serious matter and if taking pleasure in it is sought or consented to;

—evil desire (desiderium): an internal desire for a sinful action that the person willingly accepts. This is not the same as the intention to carry it out (which always implies the actual desire to do so), although in many cases the person would carry it out if not for restraining reasons (such as the consequences of the action, difficulty in carrying it out, etc.);

—sinful complacence: that is, deliberately taking pleasure in an evil action carried out by oneself or by others. This renews the sin in the soul.

In themselves, internal sins are usually less serious that the corresponding external sins since the external action generally manifests a more deliberate willfulness. Nevertheless they are in fact very dangerous, above all for persons seeking to grow in friendship with God, since:

—they are committed more easily, since only the consent of the will is needed, and temptations can be more frequent;

—one pays less attention to them, since at times out of ignorance and at times out of a certain complicity with the passions, one does not want to recognize them as sins, at least venial ones, if there is imperfect consent.

Internal sins can deform the conscience, as when one accepts an internal venial sin as a matter of habit or with a certain frequency, although one seeks to avoid mortal sin. This deformation can give rise to manifestations of irritability, lack of charity, critical spirit, resigning oneself to having frequent temptations without struggling tenaciously against them, etc.3 In some cases, this can lead to not wanting to recognize internal sins, hiding them with unreasonable excuses, and thus confusing one's conscience even more. As a result, self love easily increases, worries arise, humility and sincere contrition become more difficult and lukewarmness can easily result. In the struggle against internal sins, it is very important not to become scrupulous.4

Helpful in struggling against internal sins are:

—frequenting the sacraments, which give us grace or increase it, and heal us of our daily mistakes;

—prayer, mortification and work, seeking God sincerely;

—humility, which enables us to recognize our wretchedness without getting discouraged by our mistakes, and trust in God, knowing that he is always ready to forgive us;

—being sincere with God, with ourselves and in spiritual direction, taking special care of the examination of conscience.

2. Purifying the heart

The ninth and tenth commandments deal with the internal roots of sins against chastity and justice, and in a wider sense, of any sin.5 In a positive sense, these commandments prompt us to act with a right intention, with a pure heart. Therefore they are very important, since they are concerned with the source giving rise to our external actions.

These internal operations are fundamental in the moral life of Christians, where the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the infused virtues are received in accord with a person's dispositions. Of special importance here are the moral virtues, which are dispositions of the will and of the sense appetites to do good. By giving importance to these factors, we can overcome a certain caricature of the moral life as merely a struggle to avoid sin, and discover the immensely positive panorama of the effort to grow in virtue and purify our heart.

These commandments refer more specifically to the internal sins against chastity and justice, which are clearly reflected in the text from Scripture that speaks of “three kinds of covetousness or concupiscence: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life (cf. 1 Jn 2:16)” (Catechism 2514). The ninth commandment focuses on controlling the concupiscence of the flesh, and the tenth on the concupiscence of other's possessions. That is, they prohibit us from being carried away consciously and voluntarily by these desires.

These disordered tendencies of concupiscence consist in “the rebellion of the 'flesh' against the 'spirit.' Concupiscence stems from the disobedience of the first sin” (Catechism 2515). After original sin, no one has been free of concupiscence except our Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

Although concupiscence in itself is not sinful, it inclines us to sin and gives rise to sin when it is not subject to reason enlightened by faith, with the help of grace. If one overlooks the reality of concupiscence, it is easy to think that all the tendencies we feel are “natural” and that there is nothing wrong in being guided by them. Many people realize that this is false when they consider the impulse to violence, seeing clearly that we must not be led by this impulse but must control it because it is not natural. And yet they do not want to recognize the same thing when it is a question of purity, claiming that there is nothing wrong in letting oneself be led by the “natural” stimuli. The ninth commandment helps us understand that this is not true, since concupiscence has wounded our nature, and what we feel as natural is frequently the consequence of sin, and needs to be controlled. The same could be said about the excessive desire for riches, or covetousness, prohibited by the tenth commandment.

It is important that we be aware of this disorder caused in us by original sin and by our personal sins, since this knowledge:

—incites us to pray : only God can undo original sin, the source of concupiscence; likewise only with his help will we succeed in overcoming this disordered tendency. God's grace heals the wounds of sin in our nature and raises us to the supernatural order;

—teaches us to love all creatures, since everything coming from God's hands was created good; it is our disordered desires that twist God's creation.

3. Struggling for purity

Purity of heart means having a healthy way of feeling. With God's help and our own struggle we can acquire an ever greater “purity of heart”: purity in our thoughts and desires.

Christians obtain this purity through God's grace and through the virtue and the gift of chastity, through purity of intention and vision, and through prayer.6 Purity of vision is not just refusing to look at something clearly unsuitable. It also requires purifying the use of our external senses, leading us to look at the world and at other men and women with supernatural vision, with Christ's eyes. This entails a positive struggle that enables us to discover the real beauty of all created reality and, in a special way, the beauty of those who have been formed in the image and likeness of God.7

“Purity requires modesty, an integral part of temperance. Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden. It is ordered to chastity to whose sensitivity it bears witness. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their solidarity” (Catechism 2521).

4. Poor in heart

“Desire for true happiness frees man from his immoderate attachment to the goods of this world so that he can find his fulfillment in the vision and beatitude of God” (Catechism 2548). “The promise [of seeing God] surpasses all beatitude … In Scripture, to see is to possess … Whoever sees God has obtained all the goods of which he can conceive.”8

Material goods are good as a means but not as an end. They cannot satisfy man's heart, which is made for God and is not satisfied with material well-being.

“The tenth commandment forbids greed and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit. It forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. It also forbids the desire to commit injustice by harming our neighbor in his temporal goods” (Catechism 2536).

Sin is turning away from God and turning towards creatures. Attachment to material goods nourishes the root of this turning towards creatures and leads to blindness of spirit and hardness of heart: if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? (1 Jn 3:17). We cannot serve both God and riches (cf. Mt 6:24; Lk 16:13).

The exaggerated importance given to material well-being today, putting it above many other values, is not a sign of human progress. It implies a lessening and degradation of man, whose dignity resides in being a spiritual creature called to eternal life as a son of God (cf. Lk 12:19-20).

“The tenth commandment requires that envy be banished from the human heart” (Catechism 2538). Envy is a capital sin. “It refers to the sadness at the sight of another's goods” (Catechism 2539). Envy can give rise to many other sins: hatred, calumny, detraction, disobedience, etc.

Envy is opposed to charity, which leads us to desire what is good for others as a manifestation of the love we have for them. The virtue of humility also helps us in this struggle since envy often arises from pride (cf. Catechism 2540).

Pablo Requena

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2514-2557.

Recommended Reading

St Josemaria, “For They Shall See God” in Friends of God, 175-189; “Detachment” in Friends of God, 110-126.

Contents

Footnotes

1Cf. Gal 5:19-21; Rom 1:29-31; Col 3:5. After making an appeal to shun fornication, St Paul writes: that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God … For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness (1 Thess 4:4-7). In doing so, he emphasizes the importance of the feelings, which lie at the root of our actions, and the need to purify them for the sake of attaining sanctity.

2Thus one needs to keep clear the difference between “feeling” and “consenting” in reference to a particular passion or movement of the senses. Only when there is consent of the will is it a question of sin (if the matter is sinful).

3“You play around with temptations, you put yourself in danger, you fool around with your sight and with your imagination, you chat about… stupidities. And then you are anxious that doubts, scruples, confusion, sadness and discouragement might assail you.—You must admit that you are not very consistent” (St Josemaria, Furrow, 132).

4“Whatever happens, there is no need to worry as long as you don't consent. For only the will can open the door of the heart and let that corruption in” (St Josemaria, The Way, 140; cf. ibid., 258).

5“The tenth commandment concerns the intentions of the heart; with the ninth, it summarizes all the precepts of the Law” (Catechism 2534).

6“With God's grace he will prevail:

— by the virtue and gift of chastity, for chastity lets us love with upright and undivided heart;

— by purity of intention, which consists in seeking the true end of man: with simplicity of vision, the baptized person seeks to find and to fulfill God's will in everything (cf. Rom 12, 2; Col 1, 10);

— by purity of vision, external and internal; by discipline of feelings and imagination; by refusing all complicity in impure thoughts that incline us to turn aside from the path of God's commandments: 'Appearance arouses yearning in fools' (Wis 15,5);

— by prayer” (Catechism 2520).

7“The eyes! Through them many iniquities enter the soul. — What experiences like David's! If you guard your sight you have assured the guard of your heart” (St Josemaria, The Way, 183). “Dear Lord, I find beauty and charm in everything I see! I will guard my sight at every moment, for the sake of Love” (St Josemaria, The Forge, 415).

8St. Gregory of Nyssa, Orationes de beatitudinibus, 6: PG 44, 1265A. Cf. Catechism 2548.

TOPIC 40

Prayer

Prayer is absolutely necessary for our spiritual life. It is, as it were, the “breathing” that permits the life of the spirit to develop.

1. What is prayer?1

St. John Damascene defines prayer as “the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of a suitable good,”2 while St John Climacus views it as an “intimate conversation and union with God.”3

Prayer is absolutely necessary for our spiritual life. It is, as it were, the “breathing” that permits the life of the spirit to develop. In prayer, our faith in God's presence and love is affirmed. Prayer fosters hope, which leads to directing our life towards God and trusting in his providence. It expands our heart to respond with love to divine Love.

Prayer issues from the very depths of our soul, from the “heart” (cf. Catechism 2562). We are led by the Holy Spirit to unite ourselves to Christ, teacher, model and path for all Christian prayer (cf. Catechism 2599 ff.), and with Christ, through Christ and in Christ, we are drawn to God the Father, coming to share in the riches of the life of the Trinity (cf. Catechism 2559-2564). Hence the importance of the liturgy and, at its center, the Eucharist, in the life of prayer.

2. Content of prayer

As in any conversation of love, the topics of prayer are many and varied, but a few particularly important ones should be highlighted.

Petition

Sacred Scripture contains many references to supplicatory prayer. Jesus himself had recourse to it, and taught us the importance of simple and trusting petition. Christian tradition has echoed Christ's invitation to beseech God for help in many different ways: asking for pardon, asking for one's own and others' salvation, praying for the Church, the apostolate, needs of all sorts, etc.

Prayer of petition is part of mankind's universal religious experience. Recognizing even vaguely the reality of God (or more generally, a superior being) leads to turning to him and asking for his protection and help. Prayer is certainly not limited to supplication, but petitioning God for help is a clear recognition of our condition as creatures and our absolute dependence on God, whose love for us is revealed in its fulness through faith (cf. Catechism 2629-2635).

Thanksgiving

Recognizing all the gifts we have received and, through them, God's mercy and generosity, spurs us to turn our hearts to God in thanksgiving. From beginning to end, Sacred Scripture and the history of spirituality is imbued with an attitude of thanksgiving.

In the light of faith, we come to realize that whatever happens to us forms part of God's loving plan, and that everything works for the good of those who love God (cf. Rom 8:28). “Make it a habit to raise your heart to God, in acts of thanksgiving, many times a day. Because He bestows on you various gifts. Because you've been despised. Because you don't have what you need, or because you do have it. Because He made his Mother, who is also your Mother, so beautiful. Because He created the sun and the moon and an animal or plant of this or that kind. Because He made that man eloquent and you He left slow of speech… Thank Him for everything, because everything is good.”4

Adoration and praise

An essential part of prayer is recognizing and proclaiming God's grandeur, the plenitude of his being, his infinite goodness and love. Consideration of the beauty and immensity of the universe prompts us to praise him, as we see in many biblical texts (cf., for example, Ps 19; Sir 42:15-25; Dan 3:32-90), and in traditional Christian prayers.5 Praise may be prompted also by the great and wonderful works that God performs in the history of salvation, as shown by the Magnificat (Lk 1:46-55) and the great Pauline hymns (see, for example, Eph 1:3-14), or by the small and even tiniest details that manifest God's love.

In any case, what characterizes praise is that it focuses our attention directly on God himself, as he is in himself, in his unlimited and infinite perfection. “Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God. It lauds God for his own sake and gives him glory, quite beyond what he does, but simply because HE IS” (Catechism 2639). Therefore it is closely united to adoration, to the deeply-felt realization of the smallness of all created reality in comparison with the Creator, and, as a consequence, to humility, to accepting our personal littleness before the One who infinitely transcends us. And we are led to marvel at the fact that this God of ours, to whom the angels and the whole universe render homage, deigned not only to turn his regard to man but also to dwell in man, and even more, to become incarnate.

Adoration, praise, petition and thanksgiving are the basic dispositions underlying all dialogue between man and God. Whatever the particular content of our prayer, everyone who prays always does so, explicitly or implicitly, by adoring, praising, beseeching or giving thanks to God, whom we revere, love and trust. At the same time it is worth repeating that the specific content of prayer can vary considerably. Our prayer may sometimes involve considering passages from Scripture, or going more deeply into some Christian truth, or reliving Christ's life, or drawing close to our Lady…. Or it may involve starting from events in our own life to share with God our joys and worries, our hopes and problems; or to seek his support and consolation; or to examine in God's presence our own behavior and make resolutions and decisions; or simply to talk about the events of the day with someone whom we know loves us.

“You write: 'To pray is to talk with God. But about what?' About what? About Him, about yourself: joys, sorrows, successes and failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petitions: and Love and reparation. In a word: to get to know him and to get to know yourself: 'to get acquainted!'”6 In one way or another, prayer will always be an intimate and filial meeting with God, which will foster our sense of God's closeness, and lead to living each day in God's presence.

3. Ways or forms of praying

Regarding the ways or forms of praying, spiritual writers usually make various distinctions: vocal prayer and mental prayer; public and private prayer; predominantly intellectual or reflective prayer and affective prayer; guided and spontaneous prayer, etc. Sometimes these writers try to outline a gradation of intensity in prayer, distinguishing between mental prayer, affective prayer, the prayer of quietude, contemplation, unitive prayer….

The Catechism distinguishes between vocal prayer, meditation and the prayer of contemplation. These three “have one basic trait in common: composure of heart. This vigilance in keeping the Word and dwelling in the presence of God makes these three expressions intense times in the life of prayer” (Catechism 2699). The Catechism makes clear that the use of this terminology is not meant to refer to three levels in the life of prayer but rather to two ways of praying, vocal prayer and meditation, presenting both as apt to lead to contemplation, the summit of the life of prayer. In our discussion below we will follow this approach.

Vocal prayer

“Vocal prayer is an essential element of the Christian life. To his disciples, drawn by their Master's silent prayer, Jesus teaches a vocal prayer, the Our Father. He not only prayed aloud the liturgical prayers of the synagogue but, as the Gospels show, he raised his voice to express his personal prayer, from exultant blessing of the Father to the agony of Gesthemani” (Catechism 2701). We could define vocal prayer as prayer that makes use of set words, whether short formulas (aspirations), words taken from Scripture, or prayers from traditional spirituality (the Veni Sancte Spiritus, the Salve, the Memorare ….).

It is important to stress that vocal prayer is not just a matter of words but above all of the intellect and the heart. If this devotion is lacking, if there is no awareness of Who is being addressed in the prayer and what is being prayed for, then, as St Teresa of Jesus graphically puts it, one cannot properly speak of prayer “however much the lips wag.”7

Vocal prayer plays a decisive role in teaching people how to pray, especially when first starting to talk to God. Through learning the sign of the Cross and vocal prayers, children—and often adults as well—take their first steps in living the faith in practice, and thus in their life of prayer. However, the role and importance of vocal prayer is not restricted to the beginning of one's dialogue with God, but is meant to accompany every stage in our spiritual development.

Meditation

Meditation means applying our mind to the consideration of a reality with the desire to know and understand it in greater depth. For a Christian, meditation (often called “mental prayer”) involves directing our thoughts to God as he revealed himself during the history of Israel and definitively and fully in Christ. And then, with the light we receive from God, turning to our own life to appraise and adapt it to the mystery of life, communion and love that God has opened our eyes to.

Meditation may develop spontaneously, during moments of silence accompanying or following liturgical celebrations or occasioned by reading some biblical text or a passage from some spiritual writer. At other moments it can be limited to times specifically dedicated to it. In any case, it is obvious that, especially at the beginning but not only then, it requires effort, the desire to deepen our knowledge of God and the requirements of his will, and to persist in our determination to truly improve in our Christian life. In this sense, it can be said that “meditation is above all a quest” (Catechism 2705), although we should stress that it is not a matter of seeking something but Someone. The aim of Christian meditation is not only, or primarily, to understand something (in the final analysis, to grasp God's ways of acting and manifesting himself), but to draw close to him, to identify ourselves with his will and to be in union with him.

Contemplative prayer

As one's experience of Christian life grows, and with it, one's prayer life, a more constant, personal and intimate communion between the believer and God comes about. Prayer at this level is what the Catechism calls “contemplative” prayer. Based on a lively sense of God's loving nearness, this form of prayer transcends formal words and concepts and leads to truly living in intimate communion with him.

“What is contemplative prayer?” the Catechism asks at the beginning of the section dealing with contemplative prayer. And it answers with words taken from St Teresa of Jesus: it is simply “a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.”8 “Contemplative prayer seeks him 'whom my soul loves' (Song 1:7). It is Jesus, and in him, the Father. We seek him, because to desire him is always the beginning of love, and we seek him in that pure faith which causes us to be born of him and to live in him” (Catechism 2709).

“Contemplative prayer is the prayer of the child of God, of the forgiven sinner who agrees to welcome the love by which he is loved and who wants to respond to it by loving even more. But he knows that the love he is returning is poured out by the Spirit in his heart, for everything is grace from God. Contemplative prayer is the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the Father in ever deeper union with his beloved Son” (Catechism 2712).

This form of prayer can come about during specific moments dedicated to prayer or at any other moment. In short, prayer is destined to encompass the entire human person—intellect, will and feelings—and to reach the center of the heart and change its dispositions, shaping the Christian's whole being, making each one another Christ (cf. Gal 2:20).

4. Conditions and characteristics of prayer

An important condition for true prayer is recollection. The term “recollection” means the action whereby the will, by virtue of its capacity to control all the tendencies involved in human nature, tries to moderate its inclination to dispersion, fostering interior calm and serenity. During moments dedicated especially to prayer, this attitude of leaving aside other tasks and trying to avoid distractions is essential, but it is by no means limited to those moments. Rather, it should spread to other moments of one's day until recollection becomes habitual, filling the heart with a spirit of faith and love that leads us to strive to carry out all our activities, implicitly or explicitly, with reference to God, even when engaged in work that demands our whole attention.

Another condition for prayer is trust. Without full trust in God and his love for us prayer is impossible, at least sincere prayer capable of overcoming trials and difficulties. It is not just a matter of trusting that a certain petition will be granted, but rather of the assurance that the One we are speaking to loves us and understands us, and that we can open our heart to him without reserve (cf. Catechism 2734-2741).

Sometimes prayer is a spontaneous dialogue arising from the depth of the soul that brings joy and consolation. At other time however—perhaps more frequently—it calls for determination and perseverance. Then a feeling of discouragement may creep in leading one to think that it does not make sense spending time talking with God (cf. Catechism 2728). Moments like these make clear the importance of another condition for prayer: perseverance. The goal of prayer is not to obtain favors or consolations, but rather communion with God, whence the importance of persevering in prayer, which is always—whether filled with sensible feelings or not—a living encounter with God (cf. Catechism 2742-2745, 2746-2751).

A fundamental trait of all Christian prayer is its Trinitarian character. The Holy Spirit infuses faith, hope and charity into our hearts and leads us to Christ, the incarnate Son of God, in whose humanity we perceive the divinity of his Person. Following this path, we come to God the Father, and to an ever more trusting relationship with him. Christian tradition also recommends going to the intercession of the angels and saints, and especially to Mary the Mother of God.

Thus Christian prayer is an eminently filial prayer. It is the prayer of sons or daughters who—whether joyful or suffering, working or resting—turn to their Father with simplicity and sincerity and place in his hands all their concerns, finding there welcome and a love that gives meaning to everything.

José Luis Illanes

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2558-2758.

Recommended Reading

St Josemaria, “Christ Triumphs through Humility,” “The Eucharist, Mystery of Faith and Love,” “The Ascension of Our Lord,” “The Great Unknown,” “To Jesus through Mary,” in Christ is Passing By, 12-21, 83-94, 117-126, 127-138 and 139-149.

“Getting to Know God,” “A Life of Prayer,” “Towards Holiness,” in Friends of God, 142-153, 238-257, 294-316.

Javier Echevarria, Paths to God, ch. 8, “Along the Paths of Prayer,” Scepter.

Contents

Footnotes

1“Great is the mystery of the faith! The Church professes this mystery in the Apostles' Creed (Part One) and celebrates it in the sacramental liturgy (Part Two), so that the life of the faithful may be conformed to Christ in the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father (Part Three). This mystery, then, requires that the faithful believe in it, that they celebrate it, and that they live from it in a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God. This relationship is prayer” (Catechism, 2558).

2St John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, III, 24; PG 94,1090.

3St John Climacus, Scala paradisi, 28; PG 88, 1129.

4St Josemaria, The Way, 268.

5Two of the best known are “Glory to God in the highest” and the “Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon” by St Francis of Assisi.

6St Josemaria, The Way, 91.

7St Teresa of Jesus, Foundations, ch. 1, 7.

8St Teresa of Jesus, Life, ch. 8, no. 5; cf. Catechism, 2709.

TOPIC 41

“Our Father who art in heaven”

“If we pray the Our Father sincerely, we leave individualism behind, because the love that we receive frees us from it. The ‘our’ at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer, like the ‘us’ of the last four petitions, excludes no one.”

1. Jesus teaches us to turn to God as our Father

With the Our Father, Jesus Christ teaches us to turn to God as our Father: “To pray to the Father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as the Son has revealed him to us. 'The expression God the Father had never been revealed to anyone. When Moses himself asked God who he was, he heard another name. The Father's name has been revealed to us in the Son, for the name Son implies the new name Father ' (Tertullian, De oratione, 3)” (Catechism 2779).

In teaching the Our Father, Jesus reveals to his disciples that they too have been made sharers in his condition as Son. “Through the revelation of this prayer, the disciples discover a special participation for them in divine filiation, which St John was to speak of in the Prologue of his Gospel: 'To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God' (Jn 1:2). So quite rightly, they pray according to his teaching, Our Father.”1

Jesus Christ always distinguishes between “my Father” and “your Father” (cf. Jn 20:17). In fact, when he prays he never says “our Father.” This shows that his relationship with God is quite special; it is his own relationship and no one else's. With the Our Father prayer, Jesus wants to make his disciples aware of their condition as sons of God, indicating at the same time the difference between his natural filiation and our divine filiation by adoption, received as a gratuitous gift from God.

The Christian's prayer is that of a son of God who turns to his Father God with filial trust, which “is expressed in the liturgies of East and of West by the beautiful, characteristically Christian expression: parrhesia, straightforward simplicity, filial trust, joyous assurance, humble boldness, the certainty of being loved (cf. Eph 3:12; Heb 3:6; 4:16; 10:19; 1 Jn 2:28; 3:21; 5:14)” (Catechism 2778). The word parrhesia, which originally designated a Greek citizen's privilege of freedom of speech in popular assemblies, was adopted by the Fathers of the Church to express the filial behavior of Christians before their Father God.

2. Divine filiation and Christian fraternity

By calling God our Father, we recognize that divine filiation unites us to Christ, the firstborn among many brethren (Rom 3:29), through a real supernatural fraternity. The Church is this new communion of God and men (cf. Catechism 2790).

This is why Christian holiness, although personal and individual, is never individualist or self-centered. “if we pray the Our Father sincerely, we leave individualism behind, because the love that we receive frees us from it. The 'our' at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, like the 'us' of the last four petitions, excludes no one. If we are to say it truthfully (cf. Mt 5:23-24; 6:14-16), our divisions and oppositions have to be overcome” (Catechism 2792).

The fraternity that divine filiation institutes extends to all men and women, because in a certain sense all are God's children—they are his creatures—and are called to be holy: “There is only one race in the world: the race of the children of God.”2 Therefore Christians need to be aware of their responsibility to bring all mankind to God.

Divine filiation spurs us to do apostolate, which is a necessary manifestation of filiation and of fraternity: “Be mindful of what others are—and first of all those who are at your side: children of God, with all the dignity that marvellous title entails. We have to behave as God's children toward all God's sons and daughters. Our love has to be a dedicated love, practiced every day and made up of a thousand little details of understanding, hidden sacrifice and unnoticed self-giving.”3

3. Awareness of our divine filiation: foundation of the spiritual life

When one's divine filiation is lived intensely it becomes “a profound attitude of the soul which eventually permeates one's entire existence. It is there in every thought, every desire, every affection.”4 It is a reality to be lived constantly, not just in certain situations: “We are children of God all day long, even though we do set aside special moments for considering it, so that we can fill ourselves with the awareness of our divine filiation, the heart of true piety.”5

St Josemaria teaches that the “sense” or vivid awareness of one's divine filiation “is the basis of the spirit of Opus Dei. All men are children of God. But a child can look upon his father in many ways. We must try to be children who realize that the Lord, by loving us as his children, has taken us into his house, in the middle of the world, to be members of his family, so that what is his is ours, and what is ours is his, and to develop that familiarity and confidence which prompts us to ask him, like children, for the moon!”6

Christian cheerfulness is anchored in the sense of our divine filiation: “Cheerfulness is a necessary consequence of our divine filiation, of knowing that our Father God loves us with a love of predilection, that he welcomes us, helps us and forgives us.”7 St Josemaria's homilies often reflect this reality in his life: “For reasons that I need not go into now (but which Jesus, who is presiding over us here from the Tabernacle, knows full well) my life has led me to realise in a special way that I am a son of God and I have experienced the joy of getting inside the heart of my Father, to rectify, to purify myself, to serve him, to understand others and find excuses for them, on the strength of his love and my own lowliness … Over the years, I have sought to rely unfalteringly for my support on this joyous reality.”8

One of the most challenging questions one encounters when meditating on divine filiation is the problem of evil. Many people are unable to reconcile the experience of evil in the world with the certitude of faith in God's infinite goodness. However, the saints teach us that everything that happens in our life works for our good, because they have attained a deep understanding of the connection between divine filiation and the Holy Cross. For example, when St Thomas More was incarcerated in the Tower of London, he told his eldest daughter: “My dear daughter, never let your soul be upset by whatever happens to me in this life. Nothing can happen unless God wants it. And I am quite sure that, come what may, however bad it may seem, it will be for the good.”9 St Josemaria teaches the same thing in relation to situations that are less dramatic, but where a Christian soul may lose its peace: “Woes? Setbacks deriving from one thing or another? Can't you see that this is the will of your Father—God… He is good… and He loves you—loves you personally—more than all the mothers in the world can possibly love their children?”10

For St Josemaria, divine filiation is not a sugary reality, far removed from any suffering and pain. On the contrary, he sees it as a reality intrinsically linked to the Cross, which is necessarily present in all those who want to follow Christ closely: “Jesus prays in the garden. Pater mi (Mt 26:39), Abba Pater! (Mk 14:36). God is my Father, even though he may send me suffering. He loves me tenderly, even while wounding me. Jesus suffers, to fulfil the Will of the Father… And I, who also wish to fulfil the most holy Will of God, following in the footsteps of the Master, can I complain if I too meet suffering as my travelling companion? It will be a sure sign of my sonship, because God is treating me as he treated his own Divine Son. Then I, just as He did, will be able to groan and weep alone in my Gethsemani; but, as I lie prostrate on the ground, acknowledging my nothingness, there will rise up to the Lord a cry from the depths of my soul: Pater mi, Abba, Pater… fiat!”11

Another important consequence of the awareness of our divine filiation is filial abandonment into God's hands. This is not so much the result of personal ascetical struggle, though that is a necessary condition, but of letting oneself be led by God, whence the need for “abandonment.” It involves an active abandonment, a free and conscious abandonment on the part of a son or daughter. This attitude has given rise to a specific way of living divine filiation (which is not the only way, or obligatory for everyone) called “spiritual childhood.” This path consists in seeing oneself not only as a child, but as a small, needy child before God. St Francis of Sales described it as follows: “If you do not become as simple as children you will not enter into the kingdom of my Father (cf. Mt 18:3). As long as a child is small it remains very simple; it knows only its mother; it has only one love, its mother; it has only one desire, the lap of its mother; it wants only to recline in such lovable peace. The perfectly simple soul has only one love, God; and in this single love, a single desire, to rest in the bosom of the heavenly Father and there to find its repose, like a loving son leaving everything completely to his Father's care, seeking nothing but to remain is this holy confidence.”12 St Josemaria also recommended taking the path of spiritual childhood: “Being children you will have no cares: children quickly forget what troubles them and return to their games. With abandonment, therefore, you will not have to worry, since you will rest in the Father.”13

4. The seven petitions of the Our Father

In the Lord's prayer, the first invocation, Our Father who art in heaven, is followed by seven petitions. “the object of the first three petitions is the glory of the Father: the sanctification of his name, the coming of the kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will. The four others present our wants to him: they ask that our lives be nourished, healed of sin, and made victorious in the struggle of good over evil” (Catechism 2857).

The Our Father is the model for all prayer, as St Thomas Aquinas teaches: “The Lord's prayer is the most perfect of prayers … In it we not only ask for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that we ought to desire them. Thus this prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we ought to desire them.”14

First petition: “Hallowed be thy name”

No creature can increase God's holiness. Therefore “the term 'to hallow' is to be understood here not primarily in its causative sense (only God hallows, makes holy), but above all in an evaluative sense: to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way … Beginning with this first petition to our Father, we are immersed in the innermost mystery of his Godhead and the drama of the salvation of our humanity. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws us into his plan of loving kindness for the fullness of time, 'according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ,' that we might 'be holy and blameless before him in love' (cf. Eph 1, 9 and 4)” (Catechism 2807). Thus the first petition asks that God's holiness may shine forth and increase in our lives: “Who could sanctify God since it is he who sanctifies? Inspired by the words 'You shall be holy to me for I the Lord am holy' (Lev 20,26), we ask, sanctified by baptism, that we may persevere in what we have begun to be. And we ask for it every day because every day we fall and need to purify our sins through continual sanctification… And so we turn to prayer that this sanctity may remain in us.”15

Second petition: “Thy kingdom come”

The second petition expresses the hope that the time will come when God will be recognized by everyone as their King, who will shower his gifts on us: “This petition is Marana tha, the cry of the Spirit and the Bride: 'Come, Lord Jesus' (Rev 22:20) … In the Lord's Prayer, 'thy kingdom come' refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ's return (cf. Tit 2:13)” (Catechism 2817-2818). Furthermore, God's kingdom was inaugurated in this world with the coming of Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit: “'The kingdom of God [is] righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit'(Rom 14:17). The end-time in which we live is the age of the outpouring of the Spirit. Ever since Pentecost, a decisive battle has been joined between 'the flesh' and the Spirit (cf. Gal 5, 16-25). 'Only a pure soul can boldly say: Thy kingdom come. One who has heard Paul say, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies (cf. Rom 6:5), and has purified himself in action, thought and word will say to God: Thy kingdom come! ' (St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses mystagogicæ, 5, 13)” (Catechism 2819). Thus in the second petition we express our desire that God may reign in us now through grace, that his Kingdom on earth may each day be more extensive, and that at the end of time he may reign fully over all in Heaven.

Third petition: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

God's will is that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (cf. 1 Tim 2:3-4). Jesus teaches us that the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven enters the kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt 7:21). Therefore, here “we ask our Father to unite our will to his Son's, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of salvation for the life of the world. We are radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and with the power of his Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his Son has always chosen: to do what is pleasing to the Father (cf. Jn 8:29)” (Catechism 2825). As a Father of the Church says, when we pray in the Our Father thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we ask this “not in the sense that God should do what he wants but rather that we may be able to do what God wants.”16 Moreover, the expression on earth as it is in heaven contains the petition that here on earth we may long to accomplish God's will as it has been accomplished by the angels and the blessed in heaven.

Fourth petition: “Give us this day our daily bread”

This petition expresses the filial abandonment of God's children, since “the Father who gives us life cannot but give us the nourishment life requires—all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual” (Catechism 2830). Christians understand that this fourth petition “concerns the Bread of Life: the Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist (cf. Jn 6:26-28)” (Catechism 2835). Regarding the term daily : “Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition of 'this day,' (cf. Ex 16:19-21) to confirm us in trust 'without reservation.' Taken in the qualitative sense, it signifies what is necessary for life, and more broadly every good thing sufficient for subsistence (cf. 1 Tim 6:8).” (Catechism 2837).

Fifth petition: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”

In this petition we begin by acknowledging our condition as sinners: “we return to him like the prodigal son (cf. Lk 15:11-32) and, like the tax collector (cf. Lk 18:13), recognize that we are sinners before him. Our petition begins with a 'confession' of our wretchedness and his mercy” (Catechism 2839). But this petition will not be heard if we have not satisfied the requirement of forgiving those who have offended us: “this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us. Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible; we cannot love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see (cf. 1 Jn 4:20). In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father's merciful love” (Catechism 2840).

Sixth petition: “Lead us not into temptation”

This petition is related to the preceding one because sin is the consequence of consenting freely to temptation. That is why we now “ask our Father not to 'lead' us into temptation … We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. We are engaged in the battle 'between flesh and spirit'; this petition implores the Spirit of discernment and strength” (Catechism 2846). God always gives us grace to overcome temptation: God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it (1 Cor 10:13). But to overcome all temptation we need to pray: “Such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer. It is by his prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter, both at the outset of his public mission (cf. Mt 4:11) and in the ultimate struggle of his agony (cf. Mt 26:36-44). In this petition to our heavenly Father, Christ unites us to his battle and his agony … this petition takes on all its dramatic meaning in relation to the last temptation of our earthly battle; it asks for final perseverance. 'Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake' (Rev 16:15)” (Catechism 2849).

Seventh petition: “But deliver us from evil”

The last petition is found in Jesus' priestly prayer to his Father: I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one (Jn 17:15) In this petition “evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil (dia-bolos) is the one who 'throws himself across' God's plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ” (Catechism 2851). Moreover, “When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the author or instigator” (Catechism 2854), and especially from sin, the one true evil,17 and its punishment: eternal condemnation. Other evils and tribulations can be turned into benefits if we accept them and unite them to Christ's suffering on the Cross.

Manuel Belda

Basic Bibliography

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2759-2865.

Benedict XVI/Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, ch. 5.

Recommended Reading

St Josemaria, “Getting to Know God” and “Towards Holiness” in Friends of God, 142-153 and 294-316.

Bonaventure PERQUIN, Abba Father, Scepter 2002.

Contents

Footnotes

1John Paul II, Address, 1 July 1987, 3.

2St Josemaria, Christ is Passing by, 13.

3Ibid., 36.

4St Josemaria, Friends of God, 146.

5St Josemaria, Conversations, 102.

6St Josemaria, Christ is Passing by, 64.

7St Josemaria, The Forge, 332.

8St Josemaria, Friends of God, 143.

9St Thomas More, Letters from the Tower, no. 7.

10St Josemaria, The Forge, 929.

11St Josemaria, The Way of the Cross, 1st Station, Points for Meditation, 1.

12St Francis of Sales, Spiritual Conversations, no. 16, 7.

13St Josemaria, The Way, 864.

14St Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiæ, II-II, q. 83, a. 9.

15St Cyprian, De dominica oratione, 12.

16Ibid., 14.

17Cf. The Way, 386.

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