Faith (eBook)

A Question-and-Answer Guide to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Fr. John Hardon S.J. (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
304 Seiten
Servant (Verlag)
978-1-63582-342-4 (ISBN)

In this new reissue of Fr. Hardon's classic, the universal Catechism of the Catholic Church is presented in an easy-to-use question-and-answer format. He zeroes in on what question each section is trying to answer and formulates that question in user-friendly language. He then gives a simple answer in his own words, referencing the section of the Catechism that addresses the question. Still as fresh and relevant as when it was first released, The Faith makes the Catechism of the Catholic Church accessible to a new generation of readers. Fr. Hardon helps to form Catholics in the faith by focusing on the principal points of doctrine, moral teaching, and spirituality conveyed so richly in the Catechism. In the pages of this book, you'll learn: - What the faith we profess is all about - Why Christianity is the most credible religion in the world - How the Catholic Church possesses the fullness of truth. Catholics today have a greater responsibility than ever before to educate themselves first and then the world-a world that is starving for knowledge of Christ and his truth. This question-and-answer guide will be a valuable addition to your library.

In this new reissue of Fr. Hardon's classic, the universal Catechism of the Catholic Church is presented in an easy-to-use question-and-answer format. He zeroes in on what question each section is trying to answer and formulates that question in user-friendly language. He then gives a simple answer in his own words, referencing the section of the Catechism that addresses the question. Still as fresh and relevant as when it was first released, The Faith makes the Catechism of the Catholic Church accessible to a new generation of readers. Fr. Hardon helps to form Catholics in the faith by focusing on the principal points of doctrine, moral teaching, and spirituality conveyed so richly in the Catechism. In the pages of this book, you'll learn: - What the faith we profess is all about- Why Christianity is the most credible religion in the world- How the Catholic Church possesses the fullness of truth. Catholics today have a greater responsibility than ever before to educate themselves first and then the world-a world that is starving for knowledge of Christ and his truth. This question-and-answer guide will be a valuable addition to your library.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

UNDERSTANDING THE CATECHISM OF THE

CATHOLIC CHURCH

The twentieth century is the most critical in the history of Christianity. The decades since 1900 are more than so many years that might just as well apply to any other period of history. They mark the beginning of a new age in human civilization and, correspondingly, of the Christian religion.

What does this have to do with our subject, “Understanding The Catechism of the Catholic Church”? Everything. Unless we realize the providential period through which the Church is now passing, we shall look upon The Catechism of the Catholic Church as just another book, or just another piece of religious literature.

This catechism is of historic importance. Depending on how seriously we take it, the future of the Catholic Church will be shaped accordingly. We may legitimately look forward to the twenty-first century as the most glorious since the coming of Christ. But we must capitalize on the gift He is giving us in The Catechism of the Catholic Church.

UNDERSTANDING THE FAITH TAUGHT BY

THE CATECHISM

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (hereafter The Catechism) is not a mere collection of doctrines. It provides the groundwork for understanding what we Catholics believe. On this level, The Catechism is unique.

The Holy Spirit guiding the Church knows that the modern world is the most academically sophisticated in history. In America alone, over five million students go to college every year. We are trained to the hilt in every humanistic subject under the sun. But most Catholics are undereducated in their faith. The result is predictable. By the time they finish even their secondary education, they find themselves in conflict in their own minds. They are trained in science, history, and world literature. At the same time, their minds have been, to say the least, undertrained in the religion they profess. What happens? They abandon their Catholic faith as a remnant of childhood.

The Catechism provides the beginning of what should be considered the single greatest Catholic need in the world today, namely, to understand what we believe.

Recall the sower parable of Our Lord as narrated by St. Matthew. The sower in the parable sows all good seed, but on four different kinds of ground. Only the last soil produces any yield. It is especially the first fruitless soil that applies to these reflections here.

In the words of Christ, as the sower sowed the seed, “some seeds fell on the edge of the path; and the birds came and ate them up.”

When the disciples asked Jesus to explain the parable, He told them, “When anyone hears the words of the kingdom without understanding, the Evil One comes and carries off what was sown in his heart. This is the man who received the seed on the edge of the path” (Matthew 13:10, 18–19).

That’s it! It is both that simple and that serious. The seed of God’s revealed truth has been sown in our hearts at Baptism. But that was only the beginning. We must do everything in our power to grasp the meaning of what we believe. Otherwise, the devil will come along and steal the faith from our hearts.

There has never been a substitute for understanding our Christian religion. There is no substitute today. But now this understanding is absolutely imperative. The world in which we live is too determined to take from our hearts what we believe.

That is why The Catechism is such a providential godsend. It not only provides the believing Catholic with information about what to believe; it also gives us an explanation of the meaning of what we believe.

Of course, The Catechism is only a start. But it promises to be a powerful initiative for waking up a sleeping Catholic world to the duty we have to know:

• what we are to believe on the revealed word of God;

• what the faith we profess is all about;

• that Christianity is the most credible religion in the world and, within Christianity, that the Catholic Church has the fullness of the truth;

• that, as a result, we Catholics have a grave responsibility for educating a world that is starving for knowledge of Christ and His truth.

UNDERSTANDING WHY THE CATECHISM

IS SO IMPORTANT

It is one thing to know theoretically what Catholics are to believe. It is something else to know where to find the true faith expressed in straightforward and unambiguous language.

The confusion among Catholics on even the most fundamental doctrines of faith and morals is widespread.

There is no ambiguity in The Catechism. People may not want to accept what The Catechism teaches. That is their problem.

Someone somewhere in the Church founded by Christ must be in a position to tell the faithful, “This is true, and that is false,” or, “This is morally good, and that is morally bad.” Otherwise, the very existence of Christianity is in danger and the survival of the Catholic Church in any given country or locality is in jeopardy.

That is why The Catechism has not been released one month too soon. It is the hope of restoring unity in a widely dismembered Christianity.

UNDERSTANDING HOW TO USE THE CATECHISM

We still have one important aspect to explain. It is also the most important practical question that needs raising. How is The Catechism to be put into apostolic use?

Before going any further, certain things should be made clear.

The Catechism is no mere reference work that we may occasionally consult, like a standard dictionary or encyclopedia.

The Catechism is no mere summary of religious ideas or ideals that provides a readable handbook on how Catholics think.

No, The Catechism of the Catholic Church is an indispensable arm of instruction on every level of the teaching apostolate.

We now have a one-volume reservoir of Catholic truth and practice for everyone who wants to bring others to Christ, if they are not yet Christians; to deepen and solidify the faith of those who have been baptized.

The question, however, still remains: How to use The Catechism in the apostolate of evangelization and catechesis?

Know The Catechism. Our most fundamental duty is to know The Catechism. How do you come to know anything? By reading, by discussing, by hearing it explained by competent persons.

Speed reading of The Catechism would be self-defeating. If anything, The Catechism should be not only read but prayerfully meditated. I mean it. Set aside some time for reflecting, in God’s presence, what The Catechism teaches through more than five hundred pages of print.

How much time people waste in useless reading, or worse. Is it too much for Christ to expect us to spend a few hours a week in reading, alone or with others, what promises to be the food that feeds the soul on revealed truth?

Trust The Catechism. Already, critics have appeared who discredit The Catechism on both sides of the spectrum.

Some criticize it for being outmoded and out of touch with the times.

Others criticize it for giving in to Modernism and therefore discredit what the Vicar of Christ is offering the believing faithful for their spiritual sustenance.

Pay no attention to these critics. To distrust The Catechism is to play into the hand of the spirit of division, who fears nothing more than security of doctrine among the followers of Christ.

Adapt The Catechism. The Catechism is not simple reading. But neither is it sophisticated and out of touch with the vocabulary of the people. In any case, The Catechism contains all the essentials for Catholic faith, morality, and divine worship.

In using The Catechism to teach others, adjust the language to the mentality of those you are teaching. Adapt the ideas, without watering them down. Accommodate what The Catechism says to the mental and spiritual level of those with whom you are sharing God’s truth.

Live The Catechism. This is no pious platitude. Teaching the true faith is unlike any other form of pedagogy.

The purpose of teaching the Catholic faith is to enable those you are teaching to practice the virtues that Christ expects of His followers. Very well. But how do you enable those you teach to practice what they have learned? You don’t! Only Christ can give them the grace they need to practice what they believe. So how do they get the grace they need? From Christ, of course. But through you, their teachers.

What are we saying? We are saying that God uses holy people as channels of His grace to others. In the measure of our own union with Him, He will communicate to those we teach the light and strength they need to live the Christian faith. God uses humble people to give others the gift of humility. He uses chaste people as conduits of His grace of chastity, patient people to inspire patience, prayerful people to make others prayerful.

In a word, if we live The Catechism, we become instruments of divine faith to everyone whose life we touch. This, we may say, is the law of spiritual generation. Sanctity is reproductive; holiness is procreative.

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Erscheint lt. Verlag	17.1.2023
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
ISBN-10	1-63582-342-0 / 1635823420
ISBN-13	978-1-63582-342-4 / 9781635823424

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