Week 2: Passages 50-108

Tomorrow begins week 2!!! Our assignment this week is to read passages 50-108, or days 8-14 on the CHN guide.

Here are my notes and thoughts followed by some discussion questions...

Chapter 2: God Comes to Meet Man


Although we can know God through our reason alone, we have also been given a higher order of knowledge: Divine Revelation. This chapter is all about how God has revealed himself to us, by sending his Son, Jesus Christ.


This chapter is further divided into Articles. So let’s review: we have Part, Section, Chapter and now…Article. All these divisions are giving me flashbacks of an outline-happy teacher I had in high school – but I digress! Here we go with the Articles:


Article 1


I God Reveals His "Plan of Loving Goodness"

This section is pretty amazing! Check out this quote:

“God, who ‘dwells in unapproachable light,’ wants to communicate his own divine
life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his
only-begotten Son.” (CCC 52)
That sort of leaves me speechless! Why
does God care to reveal himself to us?
“By revealing himself God wishes to
make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing him, and of loving him
far beyond their own natural capacity.” (CCC 52)

What a gift! And I love how this section is titled "God's Plan of Loving Goodness", before I converted I always feared the Bible contained "God's Plan of Infinitely Painful Sinner Smiting"!


Now we move on to how God reveals himself to us, and CCC 52 gives us the answer. God reveals himself through both actions and words, and he reveals himself to man gradually!
Be sure to check out the quote from St. Irenaeus about God and man needing to become accustomed to each other! I wonder if He needs extra time to become accustomed to some of us :)


II The Stages of Revelation
God reveals himself to man in stages. We read about our first parents Adam and Eve, and how God manifested ourselves to them, and did not forsake us even after the Fall, but gave us a promise of redemption.
Then we read about Noah, and God’s plan to save humanity part by part. Biblical figures Abel, Melchizedek, Noah, Daniel and Job are mentioned as Gentiles who were able to reach the heights of sanctity under the covenant of Noah, while the world awaited Christ.
Next in the line-up of Salvation History is Abraham, the father of God’s chosen people who were “called to prepare for that day when God would gather all his children into the unity of the Church.” (CCC 60)
After the patriarchs we read of Israel and how God freed them from slavery in Egypt, established a covenant on Mount Sinai and gave them his law, so that they might know him as their Father and look forward to the coming of a Savior.
Then we have the prophets and a list of holy women (Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Judith, and Esther) keeping alive the hope of Israel’s salvation. And finally, the purest of all, Mary.
This all leads us to....



III Christ Jesus- “Mediator and Fullness of All Revelation”

“God has said everything in his Word” (CCC 65)

And there you go, no other words are necessary :)
We are to expect no new revelation, we are living the Christian Covenant! This is it people, the party is NOW!!!!

And then we get a note about private revelation and its role in the Church and finally this good bit about “new revelations” which someone ought to send to Oprah:

“Christian faith cannot accept ‘revelations’ that claim to surpass or correct
the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain
non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves
on such ‘revelations’” (CCC 93)

Article 2 The Transmission of Divine Revelation

“God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation
of all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be
transmitted to all generations.” (CCC 74)

And I was worried the Catechism would be boring! Not only did we just read that God chose to reveal himself to us so that he could adopt us as children, but now we hear how he arranged for his Revelation to be kept safe and transmitted to everyone throughout the ages!
He did this through Apostolic preaching (both oral teachings and writings under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) and continues this transmission through apostolic succession. This living transmission is also known as Tradition, and is distinct from Sacred Scripture.


II The Relationship Between Tradition and Sacred Scripture

“’Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together and
communicate one with the other. For both of them flowing out from the same
divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing and move
towards the same goal.’ Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church
the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own ‘always, to the close
of the age’” (CCC 80)

I’ll have to try to remember to say THAT next time someone tells me how the Church teaches things that aren’t in the Bible.
The difference between Tradition and tradition (Big T versus little t) is also discussed and then we are on to the next section.


III. The Interpretation of the Heritage of Faith
Here the role of the Magisterium is discussed. The Magisterium alone exercises authority in the Name of Jesus Christ to give an authentic interpretation of the Word of God revealed in Scripture and Tradition.
The faithful are instructed to be “mindful of Christ’s words to his apostles: ‘He who hears you, hear me,’” and to “receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.” (CCC 87)
Ok, I’m going to need to work on that docility thing :)

And now we get to discuss dogma, or truths we as Christians are obliged to believe as an “irrevocable adherence of faith”. (CCC 88)
I’ve always felt the word “dogma” had quite negative connotations, almost synonymous with “multitude of persnickety rules that are impossible to follow made up to torment us all” so I was excited to read this:

“There is an organic connection between our spiritual life and the dogmas.
Dogmas are lights along the path of faith; they illuminate it and make it
secure. Conversely, if our life is upright, our intellect and heart will
be open to welcome the light shed by the dogmas of faith.” (CCC 89)

Bring on the light! Stumbling around in the dark does get wearisome after awhile.


And CCC 90 reminds us of the coherence and order of Catholic doctrine.
We then read about the supernatural sense of faith through which the body of the faithful is able to “manifest a universal consent in the matters of faith and morals.” (CCC 92)
We can grow in our understanding of faith through the assistance of the Holy Spirit, by means of contemplation and study, reading Scriptures, and listening to preaching.


Let’s pray for all of us brought together on this little blog as we “ponder these things in [our] hearts” in our search to “deepen our knowledge of revealed truth.” (CCC 94)


Article 3 Sacred Scripture


I. Christ – The Unique Word of Sacred Scripture
In order to speak to us God uses human words:

“Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like
human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself
the flesh of human weakness, became like men.” (CCC 101)

All the many words of Sacred Scripture are really just one Word, the Word of God. The Church has always venerated Sacred Scripture as she venerates the Lord’s Body.


II. Inspiration and Truth of Sacred Scripture
The Holy Spirit has inspired the authors of Sacred Scripture to write whatever he wanted written and no more. The books of Scripture teach the truth.
The following quote is a great way to conclude the reading!

“Still, the Christian faith is not a ‘religion of the book.’ Christianity is the
religion of the ‘Word’ of God, a word which is ‘not a written and mute word, but
the Word which is incarnate and living.’ If the Scriptures are not to
remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through
the Holy Spirit, ‘open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures.’” (CCC
108)

Here are some questions for discussion:

• In CCC 65 we read, “Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.” Are you guilty of this? ‘Fess up!
  


• In these readings we learned that Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture both make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God. Do you rely more on one than the other in your day to day life? Actually as I am typing this, I am not entirely sure what “Tradition” encompasses? Would Mass be “Tradition”, even though in contains Scripture readings? I suppose they really are entwined. Thoughts?
  


• Let’s talk dogma, have you found it to be a guiding light? Or perhaps not?

As usual feel free to comment about anything that strikes you from these readings! The more we are able to bring these words off the page and into our lives, the better chance we have of remembering and living these truths we profess to believe!