BELIEFS
You: A Human Being Who Seeks God
God: The Divine Lover Who Found You
Christ: the Revelation and Sacrament of God
Christ, the Center of Your Life
The Church: Founded by Jesus Christ
The Church as the Body of Christ
The Church as the Sacrament of Christ
The Catholic Church: A Unique Institution
Mary, Mother of Jesus and of the Church
The Bible: Its Books and Its Message
Tradition, Vatican II and Parents
The Original Sin and Its Effects
Formation of a Correct Conscience
Baptism: New Life and Ways of Living
Confirmation: Seal of the Spirit, Gift of the Father
Matrimony: Sacrament of Life-Giving Oneness
Holy Orders: Ministerial Priesthood
Eucharist: Sacrifice and Sacrament
Purgatory and the Communion of the Saints
You the Seeker, God the Seeker
You: A Human Being Who Seeks God
From the time you learned to talk, you asked questions - which reveals something absolutely basic about you: the fact that you have a questioning "intellect".
Throughout your life, you have always wanted things, and you find yourself making constant decisions - saying yes to this, no to that. These experiences reveal something else very basic about you: the fact that you have a free "will", the power to want and to choose.
As time passes you are changing in bodily appearance, and your way of viewing life is shifting and deepening. But the basic you - the "I" behind your eyes - remains the same person. At your core you are constantly reaching out, seeking that for which you were created. This questing, spiritual core of your being has been called by many names. Common names for it are "soul, spirit, or heart".
The Ultimate Reality you seek - which is present in everything you reach out to - has also been called by many names. The most common name for this Ultimate Reality is "God". You are so bound to God that if you did not sense his presence in some way, you would view life as pointless and cease to seek....
God: The Divine Lover Who Found You
Meanwhile, as you seek God, God seeks you. The Vatican II "Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation" expresses it this way: "The invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses [us] as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company".
As a Catholic you are called to seek and find Christ. But you did not begin this quest on your own initiative. The initiative was all God's. All who follow Christ were once lost but were searched for and found. God first found you and made you visibly his in baptism. What he seeks now is that you seek him. In a mysterious way your whole life with God is an ongoing quest for each other by two lovers - God and you - who already possess each other.
Revelation, Faith, Doctrine, and Doubt
God seeks you - which is why he has chosen to "manifest and communicate both himself and the eternal decrees of his will concerning the salvation of [human]kind". In revealing, God has not only communicated information; he has communicated "himself" to you.
Your personal response to God's communication of himself and his will is called "faith". "By faith [humans] freely commit [their]entire selves to God, making 'the full submission of [their]intellects and wills to God who reveals,' and willingly assenting to the Revelation given by him".
The basic doctrines, or dogmas, of the CHurch are the verbal expression of what God has revealed to us about our relationship with him. The key characteristic of the Church's dogmas is that they agree with sacred Scripture. The teachings spell out the unchangeable content of revelation, translating it into the changeable thought-forms and languages of people in every new era and culture. A dogma is a statement of truth, a formulation of some aspect of the Faith. The purpose of each dogma is to bring Jesus Christ to our attention from a particular point of view. As a coherent set of teachings, Church dogma is a faithful interpretation of God's self-communication to humankind.
The Church's dogmatic formulas, however, are not the same thing as God's self-revelation; they are the "medium" through which Catholics place their faith in God. God unveils and communicates the hidden mystery of himself "through" Church teachings. The teachings are like sacraments through which you receive God. Through the medium of doctrinal formulas, you reach God himself in the personal act of faith.
The life of faith is very personal and delicate - and ultimately mysterious. Faith is a gift of God and only God knows who has it. We can, however, presume that God is generous with his gift, and we should not presume that anyone lacks it.
A person can lack faith through his or her own fault; we are free - even to reject God. But when a person "doubts," we should not jump to conclusions. For example, there are people who remember their father as a man who inflicted pain on them. As a result, these people cannot bring themselves to believe in God as their "good Father." This is not a lack of faith. It is a lack of memory images through which these persons can appreciate God as Father. Negative mental images can block a person from receiving God's self-revelation in a particular form. But such images cannot block out all forms in which people perceive and express God's mystery. God, who seeks us constantly, seeks us until we find him.
A person who is seeking deeper insight into reality may sometimes have doubts, even about God. Such doubts do not necessarily indicate a lack of faith. They may be just the opposite - a sign of growing faith. Faith is alive and dynamic. It seeks, through grace, to penetrate into the very mystery of God. If a particular doctrine of faith no longer makes sense to a person, the person should go right on seeking. To know what a doctrine says is one thing; to gain an insight into its meaning through the gift of understanding is something else. When in doubt, "Seek and you will find." The person who seeks by reading, discussing, thinking, or praying eventually sees light. The person who talks to God even when God is "not there" is alive with faith.
The Catholic Church teaches that the fathomless mystery we call God has revealed himself to humankind as a Trinity of Persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The mystery of the Trinity is the central doctrine of Catholic faith. Upon it are based all other teachings of the Church. In the New Testament there is frequent mention of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. A careful reading of these passages leads to one unmistakable conclusion: each Person is presented as having qualities that can belong only to God. But if there is only one God, how can this be?
The Church studied this mystery with great care and, after four centuries of clarification, decided to state the doctrine in this way: in the unity of the Godhead there are three Persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - truly distinct from one another. Thus, in the words of the Athanasian Creed: "The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three gods but one God".
All effects of God's action upon his creatures are produced by the three divine Persons in common. But because certain effects of the divine action in creation remind us more of one divine Person than another, the Church ascribes particular effects to one or the other divine Person. Thus, we speak of the Father as Creator of all that is, of the Son, the Word of God, as our Savior or Redeemer, and of the Holy Spirit - the love of God "poured into our hearts" - as our Sanctifier.
To believe that God is Father means to believe that you are son or daughter; that God your Father accepts and loves you; that God your Father has created you as a love-worthy human being.
To believe that God is saving Word means to believe that you are a listener; that your response to God's Word is to open yourself to his liberating gospel which frees you to choose union with God and brother(sister)hood with your neighbor.
To believe that God is Spirit means to believe that on this earth you are meant to live a sanctifying, supernatural life that is a created sharing in God's own nature - a life which is the beginning of life eternal.
The Book of Exodus records one of the most profound revelations in human history. The revelation is narrated in the story of God calling Moses to be the leader of his people. Speaking from a burning bush, which "though on fire, was not consumed," God called out: "Moses! Moses!" God then told Moses to organize the Israelites and persuade Pharoah to let him lead that enslaved people out of Egypt. Hearing the plan, Moses was apprehensive. The dialogue goes:
"But," said Moses to God, "when I go to the Israelites and say
to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' if they
ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?" God replied,
"I am who am." Then he added, "This is what you shall tell the
Israelites: I AM sent me to you".
God spoke further to Moses, "Thus shall you say to the Israelites:
The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you."
In this dialogue (and in others like it - read Judges 13:18 and Genesis 32:30), God does not really give himself a "name." He refuses to give himself a "handle" that could leave people the impression they "have a handle" on God. God says, in effect, that he is not like any of the many gods people worship. He conceals himself - thereby revealing the infinite distance between himself and all that we human beings try to know and control.
But by telling Moses to say, "I AM sent me to you," God also reveals something very personal. This God who "is," beyond all realities that come and go, is not unconnected with us and our world. On the contrary, this God who "is" reveals that he is "with you". He does not tell "what" he is "in himself". But he does reveal "who" he is "to you". In this key moment recorded in Exodus (and developed further in the Book of Isaiah, chapters 40-45), God revealed that he is "your" God, the "God of your ancestors" - the fathomless mystery who is with you through all time, with you beyond all powers of death and evil.
The God who reveals himself in the Old Testament has two main characteristics. First, and most important, is the revelation that he is personally close to you, that he is "your" God. Second is the fact that this God who freely chooses a personal relationship with you is beyond all time and space. I AM is bound to nothing, but binds all things to himself. In his own words, "I am the first and I am the last; / there is no God but me".
Centuries after the revelation reflected in Exodus and Isaiah, the mysterious God of the burning bush did reveal his name - in Person. Shattering all human assumptions and expectations, God's Word "became flesh and made his dwelling among us". In a revelation that blinds the mind with its light, Jesus spoke to I AM and said: "Father, [you] are in me and I in you...I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them".
I AM reveals his name in his Son. The burning bush draws you into its light. The God of Moses, revealed in Jesus, is love, is Father, is in you.
Jesus Christ
The second Person of the Blessed Trinity became a man, Jesus Christ. His mother was Mary of Nazareth, daughter of Joachim and Anne. Joseph, Mary's husband, was like a father to Jesus. Jesus' true and only Father is God; he had no human father.
Conceived in Mary's womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, probably between the years 6 and 4 B.C. He died on Calvary (outside of Old Jerusalem) as a relatively young man, most likely in his early thirties.
He is only one Person, but he has both a divine nature and a human nature. He is truly God, and he is also truly a human being. As God, he has all the qualities and attributes of God. As human, he has a human body, human soul, human mind and will, human imagination, and human feelings. His divinity does not overwhelm or interfere with his humanity - and vice versa.
On Calvary, he really died; he experienced the same kind of death that all human beings experience. But during his dying, at his death, and after his death, he remained God.
After his death, Jesus "descended to the dead." The older English translation of the Creed said "descended into hell" - which means the same thing: "Hades", the nether world, the region of the dead, the condition of those who had passed on from this life. (This is clear from New Testament references such as 1 Peter 3:19ff,4:6; Ephesians 4:9; Romans 10:7; Matthew 12:40; Acts 2:27,31.) Basically, therefore, "descended to the dead" means Jesus really died and entered among the dead as their Savior. Liturgically, Holy Saturday expresses this aspect of the mystery of salvation - the "death" or absence of God.
The prayer of the dying Jesus - "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34) - finds its echo in the lives of many Christians. "Descended to the dead" expresses Jesus' outcry of agony - his experience of clinging to his Father in his moment of absolute anguish. It also expresses what many Catholics experience as God deepens their love of him by making them realize the hell life is without a sense of his presence.
Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning. He is living today with his Father and the Spirit - and in our midst. He is still both God and man and always will be.
He lives. And his passage from death to life is the mystery of salvation we are all meant to share.
Christ, the Revelation and Sacrament of God
By his preaching, and by his death and resurrection, Jesus is both the revealer and the "revelation of God". Who the Father is, is shown in his Son, Jesus. As the revelation of God, Jesus is both God's approach to humankind and our path to God.
Jesus is the ultimate sign of God's salvation in the world - the center and means of God's encounter with you. Thus, we call him the "original sacrament". The grace he communicates to you is himself. Through this communication of himself, you receive the total self-communication of God. Jesus is the saving presence of God in the world.
Christ, the Center of Your Life
Jesus comes to you, actively influencing your life in various ways. He comes to you in his Word - when the Word of God is preached to you or when you read the Scriptures with attentive reverence. He is also present to you in the seven sacraments - especially in the Eucharist. Another way you meet Jesus is in other people. As we read in the Final Judgment scene in the Gospel of Matthew, "Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?' ...And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers [or sisters] of mine, you did for me'".
The Catholic Church believes that Jesus of Nazareth is the center of our lives and destiny. In the document "Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World", Vatican II affirms that Jesus is "the key, the center and the purpose of the whole of [our] history". With Saint Paul, the Church believes that "many are the promises of God, their Yes is in him".
The Holy Spirit
There is a common way in which God is present to all of creation. Saint Paul referred to this all-enveloping presence of God when he quoted a Greek poet who said, "In him we live and move and have our being".
But there is another entirely personal presence of God within those who love him. Jesus himself speaks of it in the Gospel of John, where he says: "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him".
This special presence of the Trinity is properly ascribed to the Holy Spirit, for as Saint Paul proclaims, "The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). This presence of the Spirit, God's gift of love within you, is called the "divine indwelling".
The Spirit is not only intimately present within you; he is silently but actively working to transform you. If you attune yourself to his silent promptings, then the gifts of the Holy Spirit become experienced realities in your life.
There are two kinds of gifts of the Spirit. The gifts of the first kind are intended for the sanctification of the person who receives them. They are permanent supernatural qualities that enable the graced person to be especially in tune with the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. They are wisdom (which helps a person value the things of heaven), understanding (which enables the person to grasp the truths of religion), counsel (which helps one see and correctly choose the best practical approach in serving God), fortitude (which steels a person's resolve in overcoming obstacles to living the faith), knowledge (which helps one see the path to follow and the dangers to one's faith), piety (which fills a person with confidence in God and an eagerness to serve him), and fear of the Lord (which makes a person keenly aware of God's sovereignty and the respect due to him and his laws).
A second kind of gifts of the Spirit are called charisms. They are extraordinary favors granted principally for the help of others. In 1 Corinthians 12:6-11, nine charisms are mentioned. They are the gifts of speaking with wisdom, speaking with knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpreting speeches.
Other passages of Saint Paul (such as 1 Corinthians 12:28-31 and Romans 12:6-8) mention other charisms.
Grace and the Theological Virtues
You are probably familiar with the distinction made between habitual grace (the state of sanctifying grace) and actual grace (divine help given for the performing of acts). These are two aspects of the life you live when you possess grace itself: the Spirit of God who is "poured out into our hearts" (Romans 5:5).
Grace is the presence to you of God's living, dynamic Spirit. As a result of this presence, you live with a new, abundant inner life that makes you "share in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), a son or daughter of God, and a brother or sister - a fellow heir - with Jesus, "the firstborn among many brothers". (Read Paul's Letter to the Romans, chapter 8.)
As a result of the Spirit's presence, you live and respond to God in a totally new way. You live a "graced" life that is good, really pleasing to God. Under the Spirit's influence you live a life of love that builds up Christ's Body, the Church. Being "in the Spirit" with the rest of the Church, you live with others in such a way as to build a spirit of love and community wherever you are.
Grace - God's life within you - transforms the whole meaning and direction of your life. In grace, Saint Paul declared: "For to me life is Christ, and death is gain". Ultimately, grace - God's free gift of himself to you - is life eternal, a life that has already begun. Already, while you are still an earthly pilgrim, grace is "Christ in you, the hope for glory".
As a human being, you are capable of believing, trusting, and loving others. Grace transforms these ways you relate to others into the theological (God-directed) virtues of faith, hope, and charity - capacities to relate to God and others as one of his dearly loved sons and daughters.
In the state of grace, you have "faith": you believe in God, committing your total being to him as the personal source of all truth and reality and your own being. You have "hope": you rest your whole meaning and future on God, whose promise to you of life everlasting with him is being fulfilled in a hidden manner even now through your graced existence. And you have "charity": you love God as the personal "All" of your life and all persons as sharers in the destiny God desires for all - everlasting communion with himself.
(If people alienate themselves from God by serious sin, they lose habitual grace and the virtue of charity. But this loss does not take away their faith or hope unless they sin directly and seriously against these virtues.)
In this life, your love for God is bound together with your love of others - and these loves are bound together with your love of self. "Whoever does not love a brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20). And by God's own commandment, you are to love your neighbor "as yourself" (Matthew 19:19;22:39). When it comes to practical, real-life terms, fulfillment of God's commandment to love begins with a proper self-love. In order to love God as he wills, you need to respect, esteem, and reverence yourself.
You increase your love of self by allowing yourself to realize, gradually and more deeply as the years go on, that "God really loves you" with a love that has no end. You are loved and you are lovable. Whenever you try to acquire or deepen this attitude about yourself, you are cooperating with the grace of God.
You also increase your love for self by trying to deepen your understanding of those around you - by listening and trusting, by loving and (what is more difficult) allowing yourself to "be" loved, by being truly forgiving and (what is most difficult) seeking true personal forgiveness, by widening your circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
There is a basic principle in the New Testament writings of Saint John that goes: "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love". You learn what love is by loving. By loving, you come to know God.
The Catholic Church
The Church: Founded by Jesus Christ
The whole life of Jesus, the Word made flesh, was the foundation of the Church.
Jesus gathered to himself followers who committed themselves completely to him. Praying beforehand, Jesus then chose his inner circle - the Twelve. To the Twelve he disclosed personal knowledge of himself, spoke of his coming passion and death, and gave in-depth instruction regarding what following his way entailed. Only the Twelve were allowed to celebrate his Last Supper with him.
The Twelve were called "apostles" - that is, emissaries whose mission was to be Jesus' personal representatives. He gave these apostles the full power of authority he had from the Father. The fullness of that authority is indicated in the words of the Gospel: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 18:18).
The climax of Jesus' preparation for the Church was the Last Supper. At this meal he took bread and wine and said: "Take and eat, this is my body: take and drink, this is my blood." With these words he actually gave "himself" to them. Receiving him in this way, the Twelve entered into a union of such total intimacy with him and with one another that nothing like it had ever before taken place. At that meal they became "one body in Jesus". That the early Church understood the depth of this communion is shown in the earliest New Testament account of the Eucharist, the words of Saint Paul: "Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf" (1 Corinthians 10:17).
At the Supper, Jesus also spoke of the "new testament." God was establishing a new relationship with humankind, a covenant sealed with the sacrificial blood of Christ himself. This new relationship was to be governed by a new law: the commandment of love.
The earliest account of the Eucharist, First Corinthians, reveals what the Last Supper meant for the future of the Church. Jesus is recorded as saying, "Do this in remembrance of me" (11:24). Jesus foresaw a long time in which his presence would not be visible to his followers. He intended that the Church repeat this Supper again and again during that time. In these memorials he would be intimately present, the risen Lord of history leading his people toward that future day when he will "make all things new" (Revelation 21:5).
The Last Supper was Jesus' final step before his death in preparing the Twelve. This celebration revealed how they, and their successors through the ages, were to carry out his mission of teaching, sanctifying, and governing.
According to the gospels (Matthew 16:13-19; Luke 22:31ff; John 21:15-17), the responsibility given to the apostles was given in a special way to Saint Peter. In Matthew, Jesus' words are: "And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it" (16:18). Peter is to be the visible representative of Jesus, who is the foundation of the Church. Peter is to provide the Church with unshakable leadership against any forces that would destroy what Jesus brings to his people.
Jesus' founding of the Church was completed with the sending of the Holy Spirit. The actual birth of the Church took place on the day of Pentecost. This sending of the Spirit took place publicly, just as the crucifixion of Jesus took place in public view. Since that day, the Church has shown itself to be a divine-human reality - a combination of the Spirit working and the people striving, in their human way, to co-operate with the gift of his presence and Christ's gospel.
The Church as the Body of Christ
The image of the Church as the Body of Christ is found in the New Testament writings of Saint Paul. In chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians, Paul says that our communion with Christ comes from "the cup of blessing," which unites us in his blood, and from "the bread that we break," which unites us to his body. Because the bread is one, all of us, though many, are one body. The eucharistic body of Christ and the CHurch are, together, the (Mystical) Body of Christ.
In chapter 12 of both 1 Corinthians and Romans, Paul emphasizes the mutual dependence and concern we have as "members of one another". In the Letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, the emphasis is on "Christ as our head". God gave Christ to the Church as its head. Through Christ, God is unfolding his plan, "the mystery hidden for ages," to unite all things and to reconcile us to himself. Because this mystery is being unfolded in the Church, Ephesians calls the Church the "mystery of Christ".
The Church as the Sacrament of Christ
In our own time Pope Paul VI has expressed the same truth with these words: "The Church is a mystery. It is a reality imbued with the hidden presence of God".
When Saint Paul and Pope Paul call the Church a "mystery", the word has the same meaning as the word "sacrament". It means a visible sign of God's invisible presence.
Just as Christ is the sacrament of God, the Church is your sacrament, your visible sign, of Christ. But the Church is not a sacrament "for members only." In its "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church", the Second Vatican Council clearly says: "Since the Church, in Christ, is in the nature of sacrament - a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all - she here purposes, for the benefit of the faithful and of the whole world, to set forth, as clearly as possible, and in the tradition laid down by earlier Councils, her own nature and universal mission".
In the plan that God has for the human race, the Church is "the" sacrament, "the" primary visible instrument, through which the Spirit is bringing about the total oneness that lies in store for us all.
This process of salvation, however, is a divine-human venture. We all have a part in it. Our cooperation with the Spirit consists of becoming a Church that sees Christ in others so that others see Christ in us.
In speaking of the Church, the Second Vatican Council emphasizes the image of the people of God more than any other one.
Strictly speaking, all people are the people of God. In chapters 8 and 9 of Genesis, the Bible testifies that God has a covenant relationship with all of humankind. But the people-of-God image applies in a special way to Christ's New Testament followers and sheds light on important features of the Catholic community.
One important fact about Catholics is this: we have a sense of "being a people". Even though we are made up of the most varied ethnic and national groups, we have a sense of "belonging" to the same worldwide family.
Another thing about the Catholic people is our sense of "history". Our family line reaches back to earliest Christianity. Few of us know the whole panorama of our history as a Church. But most of us know stories of martyrs and saints. We know of groups, ancient and modern, who have endured persecution for the faith. And deep down we identify with these people and their history. All those generations who went before us are your people and mine.
Our sense of being a people goes very deep. There may be lapsed Catholics and non-practicing Catholics. But good or bad, they are Catholics. When they want to come back, they know where home is. And when they do come home, they are welcomed. The Church has its imperfections. But at its heart is the endless stream of God's mercy and forgiveness.
The Catholic community is not the whole of God's people. But it is that strong, identifiable core group who realize where we are all going. Like the Old Testament people trudging toward the Promised Land, we are keenly aware that "here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come" (Hebrews 13:14). Our faith instinct tells us that God is in our future and that we need one another to reach him. This is part of our strength, a facet of our mystery.
The Catholic Church: A Unique Institution
In the sixteenth century Cardinal Robert Bellarmine wrote: "The one and true Church is the community of [people] brought together by the profession of the same Christian faith and conjoined in the communion of the same sacraments, under the government of the legitimate pastors and especially the one vicar of Christ on earth, the Roman pontiff."
As a definition of the Church, the Bellarmine statement is incomplete; it speaks of the Church only as a visible institution. A more complete definition would note, as Pope Paul VI has done, that "the Church is a mystery...imbued with the hidden presence of God." But the Bellarmine definition lays stress on an important point: the Church "is" a visible social reality; it has an institutional side to its make-up. From the earliest years of its history, Christianity has had a visible structure: appointed leaders, prescribed forms of worship, and approved formulas of faith. Seen in terms of these elements, the Catholic Church is a visible society. Because it is also a mystery, however, the Church is unlike any other organized group.
As a visible society, the Catholic Church is unique. Other Christian churches possess some of the same basic characteristics in common with it, such as the gifts of "one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all" (Ephesians 4:5-6). But as Vatican II points out, "Since these are gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, they are forces impelling towards Catholic unity".
Furthermore - and this is a decisive point regarding the uniqueness of the Catholic Church - Vatican II states that "this Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, "subsists in the Catholic Church...". This key statement teaches that the basic fullness of the Church, the vital source of complete Christian unity in the future, is found uniquely in the visible Catholic Church.
Christ gave to the Church the task of proclaiming his Good News. (See Matthew 28:19-20.) He also promised us his Spirit, who guides us "to all truth" (John 16:13). That mandate and that promise guarantee that we the Church will never fall away from Christ's teaching. This inability of the Church as a whole to stray into error regarding basic matters of Christ's teaching is called "infallibility".
The Pope's responsibility is to preserve and nourish the Church. This means striving to realize Christ's Last Supper prayer to his Father, "That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me" (John 17:21).
Church teaching has a sacramental side to it; it is meant to be a sign and instrument of unity. Because the pope's responsibility is also to be a sacramental source of unity, he has a special role in regard to the Church's infallibility.
The Church's sacramental infallibility is preserved by its key instrument of infallibility, the pope. The infallibility which the whole Church has belongs to the pope in a special way. The Spirit of truth guarantees that when the pope declares that he is teaching infallibly as Christ's representative and visible head of the Church on basic matters of faith or morals, he cannot lead the Church into error. This gift from the Spirit is called papal infallibility.
Speaking of the infallibility of the Church, the pope, and the bishops, Vatican II says: "This infallibility, however, with which the divine redeemer wished to endow his Church in defining doctrine pertaining to faith and morals, is co-extensive with the deposit of revelation, which must be religiously guarded and loyally and courageously expounded. The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office....The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter's successor, they exercise the supreme teaching office".
Mary, Mother of Jesus and of the Church
In his book Mary and Your Everyday Life, theologian Bernard Häring remarks: "The Second Vatican Council has crowned the "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church" with a beautiful chapter on Mary, the prototype and model of the Church. The Church cannot come to a full understanding of union with Christ and service to his Gospel without a profound love and knowledge of Mary, the Mother of our Lord and ourselves." With keen insight into the deeply personal nature of salvation, Vatican II focused on Mary's influence in our lives.
Because she is the mother of Jesus, Mary is the mother of God. As Vatican II puts it: "The Virgin Mary, who at the message of the angel received the Word of God in her heart and in her body and gave Life to the world, is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer".
As Mother of the Lord, Mary is an entirely unique person. Like her Son, she was conceived as a human being (and lived her whole life) exempt from any trace of original sin. This is called her "Immaculate Conception".
Before, during, and after the birth of her son, Mary remained physically a virgin. At the end of her life, Mary was assumed - that is, taken up - body and soul into heaven. This is called her "Assumption".
As Mother of the Christ whose life we live, Mary is also the Mother of the whole Church. She is a member of the Church, but an altogether unique member. Vatican II expresses her relationship to us as "pre-eminent and as a wholly unique member of the Church, and as its type and outstanding model in faith and charity ....The Catholic Church taught by the Holy Spirit, honors her with filial affection and devotion as a most beloved mother".
Like a mother waiting up for her grown children to come home, Mary never stops influencing the course of our lives. Vatican II says: "She conceived, brought forth, and nourished Christ, she presented him to the Father in the temple, shared her Son's sufferings as he died on the cross....For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace". "By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into their blessed home".
This mother, who saw her own flesh-and-blood son die for the rest of her children, is waiting and preparing your home for you. She is, in the words of Vatican II, your "sign of certain hope and comfort".
The Church also honors the other saints who are already with the Lord in heaven. These are people who have served God and their neighbors in so outstanding a way that they have been canonized. That is, the Church has officially declared that they are in heaven, holds them up as heroic models, and encourages us to pray to them, asking their intercession with God for us all.
The Second Vatican Council describes sacred Tradition and sacred Scripture as being "like a mirror, in which the Church, during its pilgrim journey here on earth, contemplates God".
God's Word of revelation comes to you through words spoken and written by human beings. "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit" (Revelation, 9). Sacred Tradition is the handing on of God's Word by the successors of the apostles. Together, Tradition and Scripture "make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God, which is entrusted to the CHurch" (Revelation, 10).
The Bible: Its Books and Its Message
Sacred Scripture, the Bible, is a collection of books. According to the canon of Scripture (the Catholic Church's list of books accepted as authentic), the Bible contains 73 books. The 46 books of the Old Testament were written approximately between 900 B.C. and 160 B.C. - that is, before the coming of Christ. The 27 books of the New Testament were written approximately between A.D. 50 and A.D. 140.
The Old Testament collection is made up of historical books, didactic (teaching) books, and prophetic books (containing the inspired words of prophets, people who experienced God in special ways and were his authentic spokespersons). These books, with a few exceptions, were written originally in Hebrew.
In brief, the Old Testament books are a record of the experience the Israelite people had of Yahweh, the God of their ancestors. (Recall Exodus 3:13-15.) As a whole, these books reveal Israel's insight into the personal reality of the one God, Yahweh, who acts in human history guiding it with plan and purpose. Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, is the same God whom Jesus, a Jew, called Father.
The New Testament books, written originally in Greek, are made up of gospels (proclamations of the Good News) and epistles (letters). First, in the order in which they appear in the Bible, are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The first three gospels are called "Synoptic" (from the Greek "synoptikos", "seeing the whole together") because they tell much the same story in much the same way. The Book called Acts of the Apostles, which follows the Gospel of John, is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke; written by Luke, Acts continues the narrative of his Gospel. The Gospel of John (also called the fourth gospel) fills out the view of Jesus found in the three Synoptic Gospels.
Next in sequence come the epistles of Saint Paul - the earliest New Testament documents - which were written in each case to meet particular needs of various local Christian communities.
After Paul's epistles come the Catholic epistles. These letters are called catholic, or universal, because they were not written to deal with particular needs of local churches but with matters important to all Christian communities.
The final book of the New Testament is the Book of Revelation, a message of hope for persecuted Christians, promising Christ's ultimate triumph in history.
The basic theme of the New Testament is Jesus Christ. Each book reveals a different side of his mystery. The four gospels record the words and deeds of Jesus as they were remembered and handed down in the early generations of the Church. They tell the story of his passion and death, and what that death means in the light of his Resurrection. In a sense the gospels "began" with the Resurrection; Jesus' teachings and the events in his life made sense to the early Christians only "after" his Resurrection. The gospels reflect the shared faith of the first Christians in the Lord who is risen and now dwells among us.
The New Testament writings tell not who Jesus "was" but who he "is". More than mere historical documents, these writings have the power to change your life. In the New Testament "mirror" you can find Jesus Christ. If you accept what you see in that mirror, the meaning Christ has for you in your life situation, you can also find yourself.
Tradition, Vatican II, and Parents
Sacred Tradition is the handing on of God's Word. This handing on is done officially by the successors of the apostles and unofficially by all who worship, teach, and live the faith as the Church understands it.
Certain ideas and customs grow out of the Tradition process and become instrumental to it, some even for a period of centuries. But a product of Tradition is a basic element in it only if that product has served to hand on the Faith in an unvarying form since the early centuries of the Church. Examples of basic elements are the Bible (as a tangible tool used in handing on the Faith), the Apostles' Creed, and the basic forms of the Church's liturgy.
In a particular era a product of the Tradition process can play a special role in handing on the faith. The documents of ecumenical councils are prime examples. An ecumenical council is an official meeting, for the purpose of decision making, by the bishops of the world who are in union with the pope. The teachings of an ecumenical council - products of Tradition in the strict sense - play a decisive role in the Tradition process. The documents of the sixteenth-century Council of Trent have played such a role. So have the documents of Vatican I, which took place in the nineteenth century.
In our time, the documents of Vatican II are playing the same role in the handing-on process. As Pope Paul VI declared in a 1966 address: "We must give thanks to God and have confidence in the future of the Church when we think of the Council: it will be 'the great catechism of our times'".
Vatican II has done what the teaching Church has always done: it has spelled out the unchangeable content of revelation, translating it into thought-forms of people in today's culture. But this "translation of unchangeable content" is not just old news dressed up in new language. As Vatican II has stated: "The Tradition that 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....As the centuries go by, the Church is always advancing towards the plenitude of divine truth, until eventually the words of God are fulfilled in her" (Revelation 8).
Through Vatican II, the Church has heeded the Spirit and engaged in its "responsibility of reading the signs of the time and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel". Where the Spirit is leading us is not always clear. But the ground on which we the Church move forward in our pilgrimage is firm: the Gospel of Christ. At this stage in our history, one of our basic instruments of Tradition - the handing on of the faith - is the documents of Vatican II.
Tradition is an entirely personal process. The faith is handed on "by people to people". Popes and bishops, priests and religious, theologians and teachers, pass on the faith. But the main people involved in the process are parents and their children. Children of Chinese parents seldom develop an Irish brogue. And children of nonreligious parents seldom develop a deep, living faith. So in regard to Tradition, keep in mind the words of the noted English priest-educator, Canon Drinkwater: "You educate to some extent...by what you say, more by what you do, and still more by what you are; but most of all by the things you love".
Sin: Original and Personal
The Original Sin and Its Effects
In its "Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World", Vatican II states: "Although set by God in a state of rectitude, [humans], enticed by the evil one, abused [their] freedom at the very start of history. [They] lifted [themselves] up against God, and sought to attain [their] goal apart from him".
In narrative form, chapters 1 through 11 of the Book of Genesis depict this somber fact about humankind. Chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis tell the story of creation by God. God created all things, including man and woman, and saw that they were good.
But into this good world entered sin. In chapter 3 of Genesis, the man, Adam, rejects God and tries to become his equal. As a result of this original sin, the man feels alienated from God. He hides. When God confronts him, Adam blames the woman, Eve, for his sin, and she in turn blames the serpent. The point is simple and tragic: the man's guilt has distorted all his relationships. Sin has turned life into a harsh burden.
Chapters 4 through 11 of Genesis depict the escalation of sin in the world, rippling out from Adam's original sin. Cain murders his brother Abel. Sin reaches such proportions that God sends a great flood that covers the earth - a symbol of the chaos and destruction sin brought to creation. In chapter 11, human folly reaches its peak: man tries again to become God's equal by building a tower reaching to the heavens. This rejection of God spills over into man's rejection of his fellow humans. There is now division and complete lack of communication among nations.
According to Genesis, a world of beauty was deformed by sin. The ongoing result has been division, pain, bloodshed, loneliness, and death. This tragic narrative has a familiar feel to it. The reality it points to is a basic part of human experience. It is no surprise that this reality - the fact of original sin and its effects - is a teaching of the Church.
With the exception of Jesus Christ and his Mother Mary, every human being born into this world is affected by original sin. As Saint Paul declared in Romans 5:12, "Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned".
While continuing to point out that there is evil in this world, the Church does not suggest that human nature is corrupt. Rather, humankind is capable of much good. While experiencing a "downward pull," we still maintain essential control over our decisions. Free will remains. And - most importantly - Christ our Redeemer has conquered sin and death by his death and resurrection. This victory has swallowed up not only our personal sins but the original sin and its widespread effects. The doctrine of original sin, then, is best viewed as a dark backdrop against which can be contrasted the brilliant redemption won for us by Christ our Lord.
In addition to the effects of original sin, there is personal sin - sin committed by an individual. We sin personally whenever we knowingly and deliberately violate the moral law. By sinning, we fail to love God. We turn aside from - or even back away from - our lifetime goal of doing God's will.
A mortal sin is a fundamental rejection of God's love. By it, God's grace-presence is driven from the sinner. "Mortal" means "death-dealing". This sin kills God's life and love in the person sinning. For a sin to be mortal, there must be (1) serious matter, (2) sufficient reflection, and (3) full consent of the will.
A venial sin is a less serious rejection of God's love. "Venial" means "easily forgiven". A sin is venial if the offense is not serious or - if the matter is serious - the person is not sufficiently aware of the evil involved or does not fully consent to the sin.
Venial sin is like a spiritual sickness that hurts but does not kill God's grace-presence within the person. There can be degrees of seriousness in sinning just as different sicknesses can be more or less serious. Even less serious sins, however, should not be taken lightly. People in love do not want to offend one another in any way, even the slightest.
Sins, of whatever seriousness, do not have to be actions. A person can sin by thought or desire or by failing to do something that should be done.
God will forgive any sin - even the most serious - over and over if the person is truly sorry.
A person who judges himself or herself to be in mortal sin must be reconciled to Christ and the Church before he or she receives holy Communion. (See 1 Corinthians 11:27-28.) A person in mortal sin can return to God's grace before confession by having perfect sorrow or contrition, but this perfect contrition must be accompanied by the intention to confess the sin and receive sacramental absolution.
Patterns of evil can be institutionalized. Injustice, for example, can become part of a group's way of life, embedded in laws and social customs. Such patterns, in a ripple effect, contaminate the attitudes and actions of people in that environment. The influence of these patterns can be so subtle that people enmeshed in them may literally be unaware of the evil they promote.
The mystery of original sin has a social dimension, and cooperation in evil patterns deepens the presence of evil in the world. It contributes to human suffering. Thus, Vatican II makes a point of focusing - especially during the penitential season of Lent - on "the social consequences of sin".
To go along with institutional evil makes a person "part of the problem" - an active descendant of the Old Man, Adam. To resist or confront social evil makes you "part of the answer" - a person alive with the life won for us by the New Man, Jesus Christ.
Formation of a Correct Conscience
Speaking out for the dignity of human beings, Vatican II says: "Deep within his/her conscience man/woman discovers a law which he/she has not laid upon him/her self but which he/she must obey. Its voice, ever calling him/her to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, tells him/her inwardly at the right moment: do this, shun that. For man/woman has in his/her heart a law inscribed by God. His/her dignity lies in observing this law, and by it he/she will be judged. His/her conscience is man/woman's most secret core, and his/her sanctuary. There he/she is alone with God whose voice echoes in his/her depths".
We are all morally bound to follow our conscience. But this does not mean that what our conscience tells us is infallibly correct. As Vatican II says, "Conscience goes astray through ignorance" - that is, from ignorance for which a person is not morally responsible. Seeking a correct conscience is part of our dignity and responsibility.
Speaking of a correct conscience, Vatican II states: "Hence, the more a correct conscience prevails, the more do persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by the objective standards of moral conduct".
Regarding the crucial matter of how to develop a right conscience, the Council says: "In forming their consciences the faithful must pay careful attention to the sacred and certain teaching of the Church. For the Catholic Church is by the will of Christ the teacher of truth. It is her duty to proclaim and teach with authority the truth which is Christ and, at the same time, to declare and confirm by her authority the principles of the moral order which spring from human nature itself". In personal matters of conscience, "carefully attend to the sacred and certain teaching of the Church." Then, in the "most secret core and sanctuary" of your heart where you are "alone with God," seek his will. Seek and you will find.
The Sacraments of the Church
Baptism: New Life and Ways of Living
Through symbolic immersion in the waters of baptism, you are "grafted into the paschal mystery of Christ." In a mysterious way, you "die with him, are buried with him, and rise with him".
As a baptized Christian, you are an adopted brother or sister of Christ, "hid with Christ in God," but a visible member of his Body.
Having died to sin (both original sin and personal sins are cleansed away in the waters of baptism), you have entered the community of the Church "as through a door." Your indelible baptism into Christ was the beginning of a unique lifelong vocation.
Many people exercise their baptismal calling through parish activities. Assisting their parish priests, they serve as distributors of holy Communion, lectors, commentators, choir leaders, ushers, servers, members of the parish council, the Legion of Mary, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Holy Name Society, and many other parish groups.
Some serve the spiritual and community life of their parishes by teaching religion and taking part in adult-education programs, Scripture study, prayer groups, and family enrichment groups, such as Marriage Encounter. Many find their baptismal faith revitalized by praising God together as charismatic Catholics. These are only some of the ways in which baptized members of Christ's Body live out the mystery of their baptismal vocation.
A major way of living the life of baptism is called the religious life. Heeding a special grace from God, some people enter religious orders and congregations and become religious Brothers and Sisters. (Some religious also become priests, blending their religious life with their special priestly ministry.)
As consecrated religious, these people dedicate themselves to God by vowing to live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. As Vatican II explains, their lives are devoted to God's service; "This constitutes a special consecration, which is deeply rooted in their baptismal consecration and is a fuller expression of it".
Through your baptism, you share with others "the sacramental bond of unity existing among all who through it are reborn". Your baptism can never be repeated because it binds you to God forever. The bond is unbreakable. It is possible for you to lose grace and even faith, but you cannot lose your baptism. You are marked as one of God's own. That same bond links you to all other baptized persons in a sacramental way. You are one of us and we are all "sacrament persons." Together we are called to live until death the baptismal mystery into which we have been plunged.
Confirmation: Seal of the Spirit, Gift of the Father
Confirmation is the sacrament by which those born anew in baptism receive the seal of the Holy Spirit, the Gift of the Father. Along with baptism and the Eucharist, confirmation is sacrament of initiation - in this case, initiation into the life of adult Christian witness. The deepened presence of the Spirit, who comes to us in this sacrament, is meant to sustain us in a lifetime of witness to Christ and service to others.
If you were being confirmed today, the celebrant would moisten his thumb with chrism, the specially blessed mixture of olive oil and balsam, and trace the sign of the cross on your forehead. This act is the laying on of hands, which is an actual part of the sacrament going back to the time of the apostles.
While anointing you, the celebrant would address you, using your new confirmation name, and say: "Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit." These words have rich connections with early Christianity. As Saint Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus, "In him you also...were sealed with the promised holy Spirit, which is the first installment of our inheritance..." (Ephesians 1:13-14).
The word "Gift", used in confirmation, is spelled with a capital, because the Gift we receive in this sacrament is the Spirit himself.
Penance is the sacrament by which we receive God's healing forgiveness for sins committed after baptism. The rite is called reconciliation because it reconciles us not only with God but with the Church community. Both these aspects of reconciliation are important.
As members of Christ's Body, everything we do affects the whole Body. Sin wounds and weakens the Body of Christ; the healing we receive in penance restores health and strength to the Church, as well as to ourselves.
When a person turns aside or away from God's love, the harm is to the sinner. Venial sin strains one's relationship with God. Mortal sin ruptures the relationship.
Sin is a tragic reality. But the sacrament of penance is a joyful reunion. Chapter 15 of Luke's Gospel expresses this joy poignantly: the Pharisees accuse Jesus of being too merciful. In response, Jesus tells three parables. In the first, God is like a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to seek one who is lost. When he finds it, he is filled with joy.
In the second parable, a woman finds a valuable coin she had lost and throws a big party. Jesus comments: "In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents".
The third parable is the story of the wayward son. When the son returns home, his father receives him with a tender embrace.
When you confess your sins sincerely, with true sorrow and resolution not to sin again, God rejoices. The Pharisees depicted in Luke's Gospel were stern, rigid men - stricter judges than God. In contrast, the Father revealed by Jesus is almost too good to be true. And so is Jesus himself, whom you meet in this sacrament. Like Father, like Son. In penance, Jesus embraces and heals you.
In serious illness you experience mortality. You realize that at some time "you" are going to die. If you are not seriously ill, but infirm or aged, you know this same experience.
Because these circumstances lead you to face God in the light of your own death, there is something especially sacramental about the condition you are in. And so there is a formal sacrament for this sacramental situation: anointing of the sick.
Anointing does not hasten the act of death. In this sacrament, however, God does invite you to commune with him in the light of your final meeting with him. Through this sacrament, the entire Church asks God to lighten your sufferings, forgive your sins, and bring you to eternal salvation.
You need not be on the verge of dying to receive this sacrament. This is clear from the fact that the anointing and the prayers that accompany it have as a purpose the restoration of health. Therefore, if you are not in immediate danger of death, but are infirm or aged, you can and should ask for the sacrament. If you ever are in danger of death, either from sickness or old age, you should not delay receiving the sacrament.
Anointing of the sick helps you to share more fully in the cross of Christ. By so sharing, you contribute to the spiritual good of the whole Church. By the fact that you share more fully in the cross of Christ through anointing, you are being prepared for a fuller share in Christ's Resurrection.
Matrimony: Sacrament of Life-Giving Oneness
In all civilizations people have sensed a mysterious sacredness about the union of man and woman. There has always been a vague realization that the deep longing for oneness with "the other" is life-giving - and that it is a longing for oneness with the source of all life. This is why religious rituals and codes of behavior have always been connected with marriage.
Jesus made marriage the sacrament of matrimony, giving matrimony a new dimension to the Christian vocation that begins in baptism.
In matrimony, a husband and wife are called to love each other in a very practical way: by serving each other's most personal needs; by working seriously at communicating their personal thoughts and feelings to each other so their oneness is always alive and growing. This love is explicitly, beautifully sexual. As Vatican II points out, "Married love is uniquely expressed and perfected by the exercise of the acts proper to marriage".
In matrimony, a couple is also called to live their sacrament for others. By their obvious closeness, a couple affects the lives of others with "something special" - the love of Christ in our midst. They reveal Christ's love and make it contagious to their children and to all who come into contact with them. A major purpose and natural outcome of matrimony is the begetting of new life - children. But a couple's love also gives life - the life of Christ's Spirit - to other people.
A couple does not live a life of love because they happen to be compatible. They do it consciously and deliberately because it is their vocation and because matrimony is called "a great mystery...in reference to Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5:32).
Matrimony is much more than a private arrangement between two people. It is a sacramental vocation in and for the Church. It is a medium through which Christ reveals and deepens the mystery of his oneness with us, his Body. Thus, husbands and wives live a truly sacramental life when they follow the advice given in Ephesians 5:21: "Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ".
In the Catholic Church, a couple's sacramental union is "exclusive" (one man with one woman) and "indissoluble" (till death do us part). These are concrete ways in which the mysterious oneness between husband and wife, Christ and Church, becomes reality.
The best thing parents can do for their children is to love each other. Similarly, one of the best things a couple can do for the Church and for the world is to strive for greater closeness.
Holy Orders: Ministerial Priesthood
The Church is the Body of Christ. As such, the whole Church shares in the nature and tasks of Christ, our head. This includes sharing in his priesthood.
But beyond this "common priesthood of the faithful," there is the special or "ministerial priesthood" of Christ that certain members of the Church receive through the sacrament of holy orders.
Each type of priesthood - common or ministerial - is a sharing in the priesthood of Christ. And both types are related to each other. But there is a basic difference between them. In the eucharistic sacrifice, for example, the ordained priest acts "in the person of Christ" and offers the sacrifice to God in the name of all, and the people join with the priest in that offering. The two roles - of priest and people - go together.
Priests receive their priesthood from bishops, who possess the fullness of the sacrament of holy orders. When a bishop ordains priests, he gives them a sharing of his priesthood and mission.
Priests share in Christ's ministry by preaching his gospel, doing all in their power to bring their people to Christian maturity. They baptize, heal, forgive sin in the sacrament of penance, and act as the Church's witness in the sacraments of matrimony and anointing of the sick. Most importantly, priests celebrate the Eucharist, which is "the center of the assembly of the faithful over which the priest presides". All priests are united in the single goal of building up Christ's Body.
When priests are ordained, they "are signed with a special character," an interior capability that empowers them to "act in the person of Christ the head". This special inner "character" unites priests in a sacramental bond with one another - a fact that, in a sense, sets them apart from other people. This "being set apart" is meant to help priests do God's work with total dedication.
As Vatican II points out, priests "exercise other services for the benefit of men [and women]" just as Jesus did. One thing this means is that priests need their people just as their people need them. Laypeople who work closely with priests help them to be leaders in the community of God's people.
In addition to bishops and priests, deacons also have a special sharing in the sacrament of holy orders. The diaconate, conferred by a bishop, is received as the first stage in ordination by those who go on to the priesthood. Since the Second Vatican Council, however, the ancient order of deacon has been restored in the Roman Catholic Church as an office in its own right. Many dioceses now have deacons who do not go on to become priests. They are known, therefore, as "permanent" deacons. Working under the authority of the local bishop, permanent deacons serve the people of God at the direction of priests in parishes.
Eucharist: Sacrifice and Sacrament
In its "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy", Vatican II begins chapter 2, "The Most Sacred Mystery of the Eucharist," with these beautiful words: "At the Last Supper, on the night when he was betrayed, our Savior 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 mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us".
This mystery is the very center and culmination of Christian life. It is the "source and the summit of all preaching of the Gospel...the center of the assembly of the faithful".
In every Mass, Christ is present, both in the person of his priest and especially under the form of bread and wine. In every Mass, his death becomes a present reality, offered as our sacrifice to God in an unbloody and sacramental manner. As often as the sacrifice of the cross is celebrated on an altar, the work of our redemption is carried on.
At Mass, we offer Christ, our passover sacrifice, to God, and we offer ourselves along with him. We then receive the risen Lord, our bread of life, in holy Communion. In so doing, we enter into the very core of the paschal mystery of our salvation - the death and resurrection of Christ.
Eating the supper of the Lord, we span all time and "proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26). Sharing this banquet of love, we become totally one body in him. At that moment, our future with God becomes a present reality. The oneness for which we are destined is both symbolized and made real in the meal we share. In the Mass, both past and future become really present in mystery.
If you prepare for it with care and enter into it with living faith, the Eucharist can draw you into the compelling love of Christ and set you afire. When you go out from the sacred mystery, you know you were caught up in it if you "grasp by deed what you hold by creed." And if you return to the place where the Blessed Sacrament is kept, Christ present in the tabernacle, you can regain your sense of the fathomless love his presence there silently speaks.
Human Destiny
The Church believes in two final destinies - one for individuals and one for humankind as a whole.
What you can expect at death is expressed in the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews. It says, "It is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment..." (Heb 9:27).
Your life as an earthly pilgrim reaches its point of arrival at the moment of death. Having passed beyond the world of time and change, you can no longer choose a different reality as the ultimate love of your life. If your basic love-choice at the moment of death was the absolute Good whom we call God, God remains your eternal possession. This eternal possession of God is called heaven.
If your ultimate love-choice at the moment of death was anything less than God, you experience the radical emptiness of not possessing the absolute Good. This eternal loss is called hell.
The judgment at the instant of death consists in a crystal-clear revelation of your unchangeable, freely chosen condition - eternal union with God, or eternal alienation.
Purgatory and the Communion of Saints
If you die in the love of God but possess any "stains of sin," such stains are cleansed away in a purifying process called purgatory. These stains of sin are primarily the temporal punishment due to venial or mortal sins already forgiven but for which sufficient penance was not done during your lifetime. This doctrine of purgatory, reflected in Scripture and developed in Tradition, was clearly expressed in the Second Council of Lyons (A.D. 1274).
Having passed through purgatory, you will be utterly unselfish, capable of perfect love. Your selfish ego - that part of you that restlessly sought self-satisfaction - will have died forever. The "new you" will be your same inner self, transformed and purified by the intensity of God's love for you.
Besides declaring the fact of purgatory, the Second Council of Lyons also affirmed that "the faithful on earth can be of great help" to persons undergoing purgatory by offering for them "the sacrifice of the Mass, prayers, almsgiving, and other religious deeds".
Implied in this doctrine is the bond of oneness - called the communion of saints - that exists between the people of God on earth and those who have gone before us. Vatican II focuses on this bond of union by saying that it "accepts loyally the venerable faith of our ancestors in the living communion which exists between us and our brothers [and sisters] who are in the glory of heaven or who are yet being purified after their death".
The communion of saints is a two-way street. In the section quoted above, Vatican II points out that just as you on earth can help those who undergo purgatory, those in heaven can help you on your pilgrimage by interceding with God.
God, who is infinite love and mercy, is also infinite justice. Because of God's justice, as well as his total respect for human freedom, hell is a real possibility as a person's eternal destiny. This side of God's mystery is difficult for us to grasp. But Christ himself taught it, and so does the Church.
The teaching on hell is clearly in Scripture. In the Gospel of Matthew, Christ says to the just: "Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." But to the unjust he says: "Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Mt 25: 34, 41). Elsewhere, Jesus is recorded as saying: "It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go to Gehenna" (Mk 9:43).
One point that emerges quite clearly from this doctrine is the reality of human freedom. You are free to seek God and serve him. And you are free to do the opposite. In either case, you are responsible for the consequences. Life is a serious matter. The way you live it makes a serious difference. You are free, radically free, to seek God. And you are free, radically free, to choose the inexpressible pain of his absence.
Grace, God's presence within you, is like a seed - a vital, growing seed that is destined one day to break forth full grown.
God has given himself to you, but in a hidden way. For the time being, you seek him even as you possess him. But the time will come when your seeking will be over. You will then see and possess God completely. This has been revealed.
In his First Letter, Saint John says: "Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 Jn 3:2).
And, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul says: "At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face-to-face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known" (1 Cor 13:12).
This is heaven: direct face-to-face vision of God as he is - Father, Son, and Spirit; total and perfect union with God, an ecstasy of fulfillment beyond human imagining; the "now" of eternity in which everything is ever new, fresh, and present to you; the warm flood of joy in the company of Jesus, his Mother, and all those you have ever known and loved; a total absence of pain, regret, bad memories; the perfect enjoyment of all your powers of mind and (after the resurrection on Judgment Day) of body.
This is heaven. That is to say, this is a pale, human indication of what God has promised to those who love him, of what Christ has gained for us by his death and resurrection.
Belief in the Final Judgment on the last day is clearly expressed in the Creeds of the Church. On that day all the dead will be raised. Through divine power, we will all be present before God as bodily human beings. Then, God - the absolute Lord of history - will conduct a panoramic judgment of all that humankind did and endured through the long centuries in which the Spirit struggled to bring us forth as one people.
When will that day come? In a remarkable passage filled with hope for all things human, Vatican II addresses this question and expresses the Church's vision: "We know neither the moment of the consummation of the earth and of man nor the way the universe will be transformed. The form of this world, distorted by sin, is passing away and we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, whose happiness will fill and surpass all the desires of peace arising in the hearts of men [and women]".
Meanwhile, during the time that is left to us, "the body of a new human family grows, foreshadowing in some way the age which is to come".
After we have "spread on earth the fruits of our nature and our enterprise - human dignity, brotherly [and sisterly] communion, and freedom - according to the command of the Lord and in his Spirit, we will find them once again, cleansed this time from the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured....Here on earth the kingdom is mysteriously present; when the Lord comes it will enter into its perfection".
That kingdom is already present in mystery. The day has already begun when God "will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning." The day has already begun when he says to all living things: "Behold, I make all things new....They are accomplished. I [am] the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end" (Revelation 21:4, 5, 6).
Meanwhile, we work and pray for the full flowering of that kingdom to come. With the early Christians, we cry out: "Marana tha! Come, Lord Jesus! We seek you.