Coming from God, Going toward God
(Graveyard on the southern coast of Galway Bay)44 Man is by nature and vocation a religious being. Coming from God, going toward God, man lives a fully human life only if he freely lives by his bond with God.
45 Man is made to live in communion with God in whom he finds happiness: When I am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrow or trials; entirely full of you, my life will be complete (St. Augustine, Conf. 10, 28, 39: PL 32, 795}.
46 When he listens to the message of creation and to the voice of conscience, man can arrive at certainty about the existence of God, the cause and the end of everything.
47 The Church teaches that the one true God, our Creator and Lord, can be known with certainty from his works, by the natural light of human reason (cf. Vatican Council I, can. 2 ยง 1: DS 3026),
48 We really can name God, starting from the manifold perfections of his creatures, which are likenesses of the infinitely perfect God, even if our limited language cannot exhaust the mystery.
49 Without the Creator, the creature vanishes (GS 36). This is the reason why believers know that the love of Christ urges them to bring the light of the living God to those who do not know him or who reject him.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
posted by Russ Rentler, M.D. | 7:56 AM
1 Comments:
TJ:
It's funny. I often tell critics that rather than attack the Church for what they have been told by others she teaches, they should read the current Catechism of the Catholic Church and find out for themselves. Yet, confident that I am that I've a good grasp of our teachings and theology, I doubt that I've read more than a quarter, myself! I've read all of Scripture a number of times, but never all of today's Catechism.
When I was a young child we learned doctrine directly from the day's Scripture readings and the old Baltimore Catechism. At that time we were transitioning from pre VII methodologies.
Later we learned form religious education books derived from both. Although the latter made the job of presenting and teaching a well-balanced theology much easier on the instructor, I can see how we as catechists missed out on seeing the wonderful correlation of Scripture with Tradition.
In the "old days" teachers would read from Scripture, read from the traditional teachings on the scripture and thereby demonstrate the scriptural nature of Catholic teaching.
Many younger Catholics using religious education texts (that often referenced scriptural content but often did not directly cite chapter and verse), when later discovering more wonders of God's Holy Word have mistakenly thought they had hitherto not been taught from Scripture. I've known former Catholics who have turned to other Christian expressions in part because "the Bible isn't preached" here!
Thanks for reminding us all that the great traditions of our understanding of who we are in relation to God Almighty is an ever growing revelation of God Himself to His people, strengthened by the communion of saints over the past two thousand years and based solidly on the Word of God. I plan to look more deeply into that storehouse of wisdom.
With the knowledge that it is by grace that I am your servant and brother in Christ,
I remain your admiring friend,
--Theo
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