Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Guard the good deposit entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who lives in us
Guarding the deposit of faith is the mission
which the Lord has entrusted to his Church
and which she fulfill in every age.
This treasure, received by the apostles,
has been faithfully guarded by their successors
All Christ's faithful are called to hand it on, from generation to generation
by professing the faith,
by living it in fraternal sharing,
and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer.
From Sacred Scripture to the Fathers of the Church,
from theological masters to the saints across the centuries,
the Catechism provides a permanent record
of the many ways in which the Church has meditated on the Faith
and made progress in doctrine
so as to offer certitude to believers in their lives of Faith.
I want to tell you what's so special about this book, the Catechism of the
Catholic Church
Pope Benedict has said this is a precious and indispensable tool for catechists
Why is that?
Well, never before in the Church's history have we had
a reference text for catechesis quite like this one
this book has been drawn from
the fullest possible expression
of Catholic truth drawing on
the teaching of Scripture, Tradition, the Magisterium, the Church Fathers, spiritual
writers,
ancient and modern, men and women, east and west, liturgy, even Christian art
which the Catechism says is a reflection of our
creation of the image of God in his creativity. It's a work, a thing of
beauty, that's meant not just to
inform us but to inspire us and to form our interior lives after the mind of
Christ. We can really say drawing as it does on the
whole Tradition of a Catholic Faith that
it speaks with Christ's voice in the Church.
It's a magnificent gift.
You know, we could really say
that the Catechism is
the echo of Christ's voice
resounding to us down throughout the ages in the Church.
Did you know that
the word "catechesis" means "echo?"
It comes from the ancient Greek theater. It's a Greek word,
and it's first used in Christian history by St. Paul and St. Luke in the book of
Acts to talk about the process of forming disciples.
The catechist
echoes
what he
learns from the Church
and what he learns from Christ
to form in the people
and that's our job as catechists -
not give out our own opinions
but to allow the voice of the Church
to speak
through us
and the Catechism is our tool. We have the words of the Church,
the Church universal throughout the ages so that we
can echo to our students the voice of Christ in the Catholic tradition.
It's helpful, I think,
to know something about the origins of the Catechism, where it came from.
It helps us to appreciate it and make use of it and the key point here
is to understand its origins in the Second Vatican Council.
Pope Benedict has even said that parts of the Catechism are completely
determined by the teaching of the Council. Blessed John
Paul II, when he presented the Catechism to the world, presents it
precisely
as the Catechism prepared
following the Second Vatican Council.
So, the first point to address is - what was
the catechetical significance
of Vatican II?
Vatican II - people have heard about it. They know about the Council, I think.
Sometimes it's a bit hazy in
people's minds exactly what it significance was
so let me try to explain it this way.
When Pope
John XXIII called the Council,
he said this is going to be a different kind of Council.
Most of the Councils throughout the history of the Church have met to
address
a specific error
that needed to be corrected or to define one particular doctrine.
This Council was intended specifically to be a catechetical
Council. Pope Paul VI said it was a great catechetical event of our age.
Why is that? Well, the intent of the Council was
to guard the deposit of Faith but also to reflect
how to present it
in a way
that would be most accessible to
twentieth-century man and beyond.
So
how did they do that? How did the Council Fathers
accomplish that goal? Well,
we mentioned before the first principle of the Church's Faith is that of unity.
So, the question was -
how to reflect on the various parts of the Catholic Faith and Tradition
to show their
integral unity, their harmony, and how they fit together.
For example,
the Council treated the question of how Scripture fits together with Sacred
Tradition and the Magisterium
to form an organic whole.
The Council reflected on
the way the laity
share in the ministry of the Church and how they interact with the hierarchy.
The Council reflected on how
the ministry of the bishop
interacts with the ministry of the Holy Father how all the bishops
work together as a as a whole.
It reflected on how the particular churches - like our church in Birmingham -
how that relates to the Church universal.
It even looked at the question of how the Church relates to the world outside the
Church. So, this whole question of
the relationship of the parts and how it all fits together -
the individual Christian and the Church, the Church and society,
the sources of Tradition -
this is really the intent of the Council.
Cardinal Ratzinger, before he became Pope Benedict,
reflected once on the history of catechesis after the council,
and he said that
the tools of catechesis
didn't really keep up
with the fruits and the benefits of the Second Vatican Council.
What were those fruits again? We talked about
the council really drawing out the unity of the Faith,
how all the parts fit together,
and that what he said was lacking in the tools of catechesis - a vision of
the whole -
how all parts fit together.
In 1985, Blessed Pope John Paul II
called an extraordinary synod of the bishops to reflect on the Council and how it
could best be lived out and expressed and taught in the Church,
and this is the point that came up, that
there was a need for an authoritative explication of the Council -
a universal Catechism.
You know, once before in the Church's history, we had this process. There
was a very important Council
and the Fathers of the Council called for a Catechism. This was the Council
of Trent
in the sixteenth century,
and the the Council produced what came to be called the Roman Catechism, which
stood the test of time for 400 years and was a magnificent text. It's still
a wonderful reference.
Something like that was needed now, post-Vatican II,
a universal catechism that could speak to the whole Church and express the teaching of
the Council.
Following the synod, Pope John Paul
took up the call of the synod for a universal characters - he made it his own,
he embraced it.
So, he called a commission of twelve cardinals
and bishops -
Cardinal Ratzinger was the chair -
to begin work on the on the text.
They, in turn, saw input from experts in catechesis, from diocesan bishops, and
ultimately from the entire episcopate
that had an opportunity to
offer observations and comments and input.
They collected literally thousands
of comments and observations and suggestions
so that
the resulting text really was a product of
all of the bishops of the Church in their teaching authority.
This is why, when Pope John Paul officially promulgated the tax thirty years after
the Council,
he could say it reflects
the symphony of the Faith.
It's also why
Cardinal Ratzinger, reflecting on the authority of the text,
could say
whoever separates himself from this text
as the authentic norm and reference for catechesis
separates himself from the Catholic Faith itself.
There's a very old tradition
in the Catholic Church,
going back to the time of the apostles,
of summing up Christian experience, the Christian mystery,
in four fundamental
dimensions.
The profession of Faith, what we believe.
Sacraments and the life of Faith,
how we receive the grace of God.
The life of Faith itself,
the moral and spiritual response
to the grace of God.
And then finally, prayer -
our heartfelt
expression of love and gratitude to this life of grace.
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching
and fellowship
to the breaking of bread
and the prayers.
We find that this is how
the Catechism is structured, around these four dimensions. What the Catechism calls
four pillars.
It follows the same pattern of the Roman Catechism.
It used the same four pillars.
So, part one is on the Creed, part two
on the liturgy and the Sacraments,
part three on the moral life,
and part four on the life of prayer.
It's important to realize
that there is a profound reason for this
structure.
The four parts are interrelated. We
come back, again and again, to this aspect of the organic,
integral unity of the Faith.
We find
that what we profess in the Creed
is actually made present in our lives
through the grace of the Sacraments.
The grace of the Sacraments, in turn, is what informs our moral life and makes the
Christian life possible.
And, finally, these things are celebrated
in our life of prayer. Hence the organic unity of the four parts.
This relationship is captured by an ancient saying in the Church -
lex orandi,
lex credendi -
"what we pray is what we believe."
The significance of this for the catechist is to understand that all these parts
hang together. We can't separate the life of grace from the life
of prayer. We can't separate
our profession of faith from how we live.
Some people, in fact, have suggested that the Catechism be seen as,
instead of having four parts,
really having two major parts -
What God has done for us in Christ
and our response
to that grace.
Imagine a diptych.
A diptych is an
ancient form of icon,
two images on separate panels, connected by a hinge.
You can think of
God's love for us, our response, and
Christ the center - the lens reflecting these two dimensions.
Cardinal
Schonborn, who was the editor of the Catechism,
has used this image of a diptych
to instruct us
in our method of catechesis.
We begin with the question of God's grace. This is the fundamental point
of the Catholic Faith for catechists,
the frame of reference for everything else. Everything in catechesis has to
be
structured around this question
God's gift to us in Christ
and our response.
We keep that in mind - it's the central point we need to use in
teaching from the Catechism.
The primacy in catechesis
has to be given
to God and his works
and secondarily
our response
to this expression of grace.
There are some major themes that flow from his four-part structure of the
Catechism,
that if you keep them in mind, will really help your work as a catechist.
We already mentioned
this concept of the diptych
of the primacy of God's grace -
it might be helpful to stop and reflect for a moment on what grace is in
Catholic teaching.
The Catechism in paragraph 1997 tells us
that grace
is a participation in the inner life of God himself,
conforming us to his nature.
This is why St. Thomas
could say that the good of grace in one's soul
is greater than the good of the entire created universe because it's
the good of God himself.
As catechists reflecting on this, we realize that
there's a fundamental core
that directs all of our thinking, all of our teaching.
This is what the Second Vatican Council called the "hierarchy of truths."
The Catechism echoes this concept. It says we need to keep the hierarchy of truths
in mind as we teach,
and it in fact informs the structure of the Catechism itself.
What is this "hierarchy of truths?"
It's important to note at the beginning
that there is a hierarchy of truths doesn't mean that some truths are less
true or unimportant. It simply means that some truths flow from others as
their source and origin. It's a principle of organization. Once again, it's another
way of stating this concept of organic or integral unity.
What is the first truth, the truth of truths, in the Catholic Faith?
It's the truth of the blessed Trinity.
If you understand
that God is a Trinity, then you've grasped that he is undying love
and unending bliss.
This is the truth from which everything else in the Faith
flows.
God, in his
undying love,
pours out of himself
his love and his grace upon
the world that he creates.
The second truth in the hierarchy of truths is a mystery of Christ himself.
Why did Christ become man?
Why was the word made flesh?
The Catechism
quotes
St. Irenaeus and St. Athanasius
in this marvelous text -
God became man so that men might
become God.
Not to become literally God, but to share in his inner nature.
This is the central mystery of Christ,
and through his death and resurrection, the Paschal mystery,
he merits for us this eternal life. He undoes
the damage and the death caused by sin.
The next truth in the hierarchy of truths is the
truth of the Church, the mystery of the Church.
Why is this? Well, the Church is the Body of Christ. It is the sacramental
presence of Christ on earth. It's where we
meet Christ.
St. Cyprian says that he
cannot have God for his father who does not have the Church as his mother.
The next truth in the hierarchy of truths is the dignity of the human person.
When we consider this mystery of grace
that God would share with us his own inner life, his own
nature,
we see what incredible dignity God has bestowed on on humankind,
and thus all of the the moral and the social teachings of the Church
flow from that respect for the human person that is
intrinsic to the nature of the Faith itself.
And then, finally, the last truth in the hierarchy is
what Cardinal Schonborn, the editor, says is the the first principle of the
Church's faith - namely, unity - that all of these things
hang together
and we can't pick and choose our
aspects of Catholic Faith. We see them as an integral unity and a whole.
These are the principles of organization,
thematic,
that run throughout the Catechism and have to inform our teaching.
The Catechism is
really designed to draw out this integral unity of the Faith.
When John Paul
presented it to the world,
he said that it was intended to show the wonderous harmony of the Faith.
The Catechism itself in paragraph 18 says the Catechism is to be
seen
as an organic presentation of the whole of the Catholic Faith.
Now, I want to show you how. First, if you will, turn to the table of contents.
You see the beginning is the Pope's Apostolic Constitution, introducing the
Catechism to the world,
and then the prologue,
which gives practical instruction for use in the Catechism.
We'll come back to the prologue in a minute,
but do you see how the very next thing is
"Part One -
The Profession of Faith?"
I want to point something out to you.
Do you see under "Part One" it says
"Section One - I Believe, We Believe?"
And then "Section Two - The Profession of the Christian Faith?"
Each of these four pillars, the four sections,
has a two-section division.
The first section is more general, laying out the fundamental and
unifying principles, if you will.
The second section
gives a more detailed doctrinal exposition.
Thus, Part One,
Section One, treats
how we come to know anything about God from
our natural knowledge of God,
God's self-revelation in Christ,
Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium,
and Part Two
then goes on to describe the specific contents of that revelation,
such as the doctrine of the Trinity or Christ and his Church.
"Part Two - Celebration of the Christian Mystery"
does the same thing.
First, there's a general discussion of the Paschal mystery in the church,
the work of the blessed Trinity, and the liturgy, and the Sacraments.
And then secondly, a discussion of the seven Sacraments themselves as the initiation,
healing,
and communion into the life of the blessed Trinity.
"Part Three - Our Life in Christ."
First, there is a discussion of the incredible dignity of the human person
made in the image of God,
our freedom, grace, the virtues, conscience, and sin,
and the social dimensions of our Christian life.
And then second, a specific discussion of each of the Ten Commandments according
to Christ's summary of the Law -
the love of God and the love of neighbor. Do you see the pattern?
"Part Four -
Christian Prayer"
works the same way.
First, there's a discussion of prayer in general - what is prayer,
the tradition of prayer in Scripture and the Church
and then a specific discussion of the Lord's Prayer,
which the Catechism calls the summary of the whole Gospel.
Let's go back to the prologue.
Paragraph 18 in the catechism,
which gives practical instruction
in how to use the Catechism.
This is on page 11 in most editions.
This is also a good place to point out that the basic unit of organization
in the Catechism is the
paragraph so
if you look at the index for example it references
paragraph numbers and not page numbers.
You see, this Catechism is conceived as an organic presentation of the Catholic
Faith
in its entirety.
It should be seen therefore
as a unified whole.
Numerous cross-references in the margin of the text,
italicized numbers referring to other paragraphs that deal with the same thing,
as well as the analytical index at the end of the volume,
allow the reader to view each theme in its relationship to the entirety of the
Faith.
Do you see? At every point,
the Catechism calls us to compare and analyze
in light of the totality.
Let's consider the cross-references for a moment.
Turn to paragraph 27, if you will. This is the first place we find
cross-references used.
The doctrine being treated here is the desire for God, written in the heart.
Now, if you look to the side
of paragraph 27, you'll see three little numbers -
355, 170
and 1718.
These are references to other paragraphs in the Catechism.
Now, let's see how this works.
If we turn to paragraph 355,
the doctrine of man,
created in the image of God.
So, the Catechism wants us to know
that our innate desire for God
is born of creation in his image.
The two doctrines are related.
Now let's look at paragraph 1718,
another cross-reference,
which takes us into the third pillar, Our Life in Christ
and the fulfillment of that desire for God.
Look at the very first line paragraph 1718.
The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness.
This desire is of divine origin.
So, you see,
the cross-references help you to search out that unity of the Faith.
The next point that I want you to notice is that the Catechism puts some things in
large print and some things in small print.
Let's look at an example.
Turn to paragraph 2558.
First, the text introduces the topic of prayer
in large print
and then it follows up with this magnificent quote from St. Therese -
For me,
prayer is a surge of the heart;
it is a simple look
turned toward heaven,
it is a cry of recognition and of love,
embracing both trial and joy.
The small print
in the Catechism very often is drawn
from the writings of saints,
liturgies,
spiritual doctors,
and it's meant to give
a full expression, a deeper reflection on the truth of the Faith.
I find that these are excellent tools for teaching.
After you've laid out the doctrine, you can go to the small print sections and
reflect on the teachings of the saints. Turn to the paragraph 44.
You'll find a section called
"In Brief."
You'll see that at the end of every chapter there is this summary of bullet
points
of the major aspects of the doctrine under consideration. This is a very helpful
tool to reference as you prepare talking points for your teaching. Have I made
sure to hit every major aspect of the doctrine?
Finally,
I want you to turn to paragraph 2865, the very last paragraph in
the Catechism.
What comes next?
We've mentioned over and over again that the Catechism
draws on this incredibly rich
Catholic expression of the Faith,
all these different sources of revelation
and authority.
Here's where we actually find the list
and it's magnificent.
You'll see, right following 2865,
there is
an index of citations.
The first is the Scripture citations and you can see
there over thirty pages of Scripture citations in the Catechism.
Following that, our professions of Faith.
Then we find
ecumenical Councils -
there are over five pages of citations just from the Second Vatican Council alone.
After that, we have particular councils and synods,
pontifical documents,
ecclesiastical documents,
canon law citations,
citations from the liturgy,
the Roman liturgy and the Eastern liturgies as well,
ecclesiastical writers -
this is one of my favorite sections, in fact.
Sometimes for reflection and prayer
I'll just go and
read the
citations of the saints over and over again, there so many of them from
the second century, Irenaeus or
Ignatius of Antioch, the great doctors at the church like Athanasius.
They're all in there -
search them out - it's incredibly rich.
And then finally,
after the ecclesiastical writers,
then we turn to
the subject index.
Now I don't want you to overlook this because it's a tremendous resource, really.
If you open to
page 759, for example,
and look down the page at "baptism," you can see how rich the reflection of the
index is on all the different aspects of baptismal
life and promise -
the grace
communicated in the baptism. How catechumens receive baptism, how Christian
life is rooted in baptism.
You can really trace the doctrine out through all the four parts to see this
integral unity that we're talking about.
So don't overlook
the subject index
as you're preparing your lessons
and seeking for that
unity of the Faith.
After the subject index,
the very next section is a list of abbreviations.
Throughout the text, you'll find footnotes to pontifical documents and
conciliar documents
usually just given in an abbreviation.
The list of abbreviations will help you know where those come from.
Finally, in some editions of the Catechism, you'll find a glossary.
This is a very helpful tool that gives
accurate and faithful definitions of theological terms and doctrinal terms.
It's also very useful tool in your teaching if you don't know what a
particular word means.
This book is not going away.
Pope John Paul told us
this is the authentic reference for catechesis. This is the sure norm.
Pope Benedict,
in his letter on the Year of Faith has urged Catholics all across the world to study
this book, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and make it their own.
He's reminded us that
what lives within the Catechism is not a mere theory, but on page after page it's
an encounter with a person
who lives within the Church,
namely Jesus Christ.
I think we can conclude with no better phrase
than that given to us by Blessed Pope John Paul II. When he gave the
Catechism to the world, he said
use it!