Saturday, May 2, 2015
Friday, May 1, 2015
What is Your Why?
What is Your Why?
The most important question we can ask ourselves is “What is my why?” How many of us have a clear answer of what that is? Why are we doing anything that we do? Do we live with a clear purpose and mission in mind? How does this apply to our Catholic identity? How does it apply to our intellectual formation? How does it apply to our spiritual life? And for those who are married, this is the most important question you need answered.
The most important question we can ask ourselves is “What is my why?” How many of us have a clear answer of what that is? Why are we doing anything that we do? Do we live with a clear purpose and mission in mind? How does this apply to our Catholic identity? How does it apply to our intellectual formation? How does it apply to our spiritual life? And for those who are married, this is the most important question you need answered.
A National Survey of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the United States — NEJM
A National Survey of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the United States — NEJM
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Death with dignity: A friend recalls last minutes of John Paul II's life
.- A once avid outdoors-man whose final years were marked by disability and suffering, Saint John Paul II witnessed to what it truly means to die with dignity, says a close friend who was with him until the end. “He gave us tranquility and peace even up to the last day,” Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was present at the Polish pope's death ten years ago, told CNA in an interview.
“He restored dignity to death.”
Cardinal Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, who at the time was serving as an aide to John Paul II, recalls singing the Te Deum – a hymn of praise to God – moments after the pope died, because those in the room “were convinced that he had died a holy man.”
“A man prepares for a lifetime for this important moment, this passage from one life to another for the encounter with God,” he said.
John Paul II died at 9:37 p.m. on April 2, 2005, the day before Divine Mercy Sunday – a feast he established during his pontificate – after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
Throughout his pontificate, the Polish pope spoke out against what he referred to as the “culture of death” which promotes ideologies such as abortion and euthanasia, and in turn championed for the promotion of human life and dignity.
Cardinal Dziwisz recalled the Pope's last words to him before he died. “I kissed his hands and he told me 'Thank you' and gave me his blessing,” he recounted.
He also remembered how John Paul II, while on his deathbed, asked those who had come to say their farewells to read the Gospel to him.
“Priests read nine chapters of the Gospel of John for the love of God, and so he prepared for his encounter,” the Polish prelate said.
Karol Jozef Wojtyla, who would later choose the name John Paul II upon his election to the papacy, was born the youngest of three children in the Polish town of Wadowice, a small city 50 kilometers from Krakow, on May 18, 1920.
In 1942, at the height of World War II, he began courses in the clandestine seminary of Krakow, and was eventually ordained in 1946.
He took part in Vatican Council II (1962-1965), being appointed archbishop of Krakow in 1964, and contributed to drafting the Constitution Gaudium et spes.
On Oct. 16, 1978, Cardinal Wojtyla was elected pope at the age of 58.
Over the course of his 27 year pontificate – one of the longest in Church history – he traveled to 129 countries, and was instrumental in the fall of Communism in Europe in the 1980s.
“He did not create resentment, but instead knocked down the walls between people,” Cardinal Dziwisz said, observing he had close friends who were Jews, Muslims, and other religions. “Everyone was important for him because everyone was created in the image of God.”
The archbishop of Krakow also spoke of John Paul II's strong sense of discipline throughout his life, which was always centered on prayer.
“He was a very disciplined man from the point of view of moral ethics,” he said. “Even at work, he never wasted time. He always had time for prayer.”
In fact, for John Paul II, prayer was never separated from work, Cardinal Dziwisz said. “He was immersed in God and in everything he did, he always walked with God and in prayer.”
“He always kept this intimate relationship with God, of contemplation, of contact with God, and here was his strength: peace of mind. God exists, God commands, God, we must follow him. If you follow God, you see peace, even in difficult times, which as Pope, he had many.”
John Paul II was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on May 1, Divine Mercy Sunday, at a ceremony which saw an estimated two million pilgrims flock to Rome. He was canonized April 27, 2014 in Saint Peter's Square by Pope Francis on the same feast day.
Cardinal Dziwisz touched on the impact that John Paul II being declared a saint had upon the faithful.
“I think people were convinced of his sanctity, that the supreme authority had approved the road of holiness, because we are sure that we could imitate his holiness.”
Tags: John Paul II
By Ann Schneible (CNA)
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
A heated debate: Is killing an acceptable end to human suffering?
By Maggie Lawson
.- Two worlds collided when scholars with opposite viewpoints met in Boulder, Colorado to debate the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.
“We have a right to look at the proper response to someone who wants to commit suicide. We aren’t talking about general morality – we are talking about society and public policy protecting the general welfare,” stated Wesley Smith, a lawyer, author, and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism.
The Aquinas Institute for Catholic Thought, an intellectual arm of ministry on the campus of The University of Colorado Boulder sponsored the Feb. 4 event – their eighth annual in the ‘Great Debate’ series. The topic in question was “Should the U.S. legalize doctor-assisted suicide?”
The debate of this issue was particularly timely given Colorado’s HB 1135 bill, known as the ‘Colorado Death with Dignity Act,’ that would allow physicians to prescribe lethal pharmaceuticals to terminally ill patients in order to end their lives. The proposed legislation will be heard in committee on Feb. 6.
California is also considering an assisted suicide bill. Similar measures have already been legalized in Oregon, Montana, Washington, New Jersey, and Vermont.
The measures have sparked controversy, drawing opposition from disability rights groups who claim that they would discriminate against those with disabilities and dangerously fail to screen for and treat depression, instead sending patients home with lethal drugs. In addition, critics including the Catholic Church warn that such legislation would send the message to society that suicide is an acceptable way to deal with suffering.
Smith, who serves as a consultant for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide as well as the Center for Bioethics and Culture, also voiced opposition to the legalization of assisted suicide, while Dr. Michael Tooley, an author and philosophy professor at CU Boulder, known for his works on causation and ethics, argued in defense of such measures.
“There are cases when a person is better off dead than alive, a view that should be determined by the actual person – a life that he or she would want to live or not, and it should not be a spur of the moment decision,” argued Tooley.
He said that physician-assisted suicide may be in the best interest of a terminally ill person when this decision to end the patient’s life does not violate the rights of the patient or anyone else, and when it would benefit – rather than harm – the person involved.
On the other hand, Smith held that the legalization of physician-assisted suicide would make a strong statement about the quality and worth of humanity in general, creating a slippery slope.
“When we say that someone is killable – which is what we are saying when we point to certain categories of people in physician-assisted suicide – we are creating a profound inequality of life,” Smith stated, arguing that if a terminally ill patient can be killed, than anyone who is suffering from back pain, depression, or chronic pain could have that same “right.”
In fact, Smith argued, physician-assisted suicide is not really about patients suffering from a terminal disease.
“This is not an issue that is about terminal illness at all. In fact, the concept of terminal illness is a kind of hide-the-ball circumstance, a false flag game to get people’s minds off of what’s really involved in this issue,” he said.
According to Smith, the bottom line behind physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia and related procedures is the premise that killing is an acceptable end to human suffering.
“Why now?” he questioned “When 100 years ago, at the time when people died in agony from a burst appendix, they weren’t talking about suicide and euthanasia. Now, when we don’t have to die in agony, we are talking about euthanasia?”
When society sees the elimination of suffering as the foundational purpose of society, he said, this mindset will spread to other circles – including those who suffer from depression, mental illness, and disabilities – giving them the green light to end their lives as well.
“There are a lot of people who suffer far more extremely than the terminally ill and for far longer periods,” he charged.
Even if physician-assisted suicide is initially legalized for only the terminally ill, it will eventually broaden to include the legal killing of those who are not terminally ill, Smith said, point to the examples of Belgium and the Netherlands.
Countering this belief, Tooley maintained that a person should be allowed to make the decision to die on the condition that they are terminal and have a good reason to end their life.
Although there may be dangers associated with legalizing assisted suicide, the professor argued that similar dangers are also presented when it is not legal.
“The rights of individuals are more likely to be violated when physician-assisted suicide is not legal rather than when it is permitted,” he said, and it is more likely for people to die from passive euthanasia if there are not laws mitigating choice in the matter.
“It should be up to the individual if his or her life is worth living,” Tooley maintained, because choice has a fundamental role in the issue, especially when this choice does not violate anyone’s rights, interfere with the patient’s obligations, or make the world a worse place.
“It does make for a far worse world because it’s not a choice,” rebutted Smith, “it’s the end of choice.”
“We should say no to their killing and yes to their caring,” Smith stressed, because the lives of people with sickness, disease, and disability matter.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
These nuns provide 'death with dignity' – but it's not assisted suicide Art.2 Little Sisters of the Poor
.- As states around the country consider legalizing physician-assisted suicide, “death with dignity” looks markedly different for patients under the care of the Little Sisters of the Poor.
In her 27 years with the order that cares for the “elderly poor,” Sister Constance Veit, L.S.P. says she has never seen or heard a patient asking for a lethal prescription.
“I think that’s because they are surrounded with a caring human and spiritual presence in our homes,” she told an audience at the Heritage Foundation.
Sister Constance was part of a recent panel in Washington, D.C., on caring respectfully for the elderly sick. The event was titled “Living Life to Its Fullest.”
End of life care was placed in the national spotlight late last year, when 29 year-old Brittany Maynard publically announced her decision to take a lethal prescription rather than suffer terminal cancer.
In describing her situation, Maynard used terms that Sister Constance says she has never heard from the patients under her care, like “purposeless prolonged pain” and “prolonged involuntary suffering and shame.”
“I have never heard any of our residents use the word ‘shame’ in the context of their suffering and dying,” she said.Maynard’s story caught the attention of many and brought about a national debate on physician-assisted suicide, which is already legal in some states. The Colorado state senate defeated an assisted suicide bill back in February, but other states are considering similar bills.
The Death With Dignity National Center is pushing for these laws around the country.
Critics say the laws would unfairly pressure the elderly and disabled to end their lives. They charge such laws would normalize suicide as a solution to problems and decrease respect for life in American culture.
Caring for the elderly in their final days, the Little Sisters of the Poor say that a patient and his or her loved ones can experience a tremendous amount of good in their last days together that would be lost if they decided to take their life prematurely.
Patients of the Little Sisters are cared for and pain is relieved – all that can be done for the sick patient is attempted. The patient is accompanied around the clock.
“I would say that the room of a dying person almost becomes the spiritual center of our house at that point for those days,” Sister Constance said. “Our home is their home.”
The sisters make sure to provide a “peaceful, prayerful presence” for the dying patient “for as long as it takes until they make that passage from this life to the next.”
And it can be a rich time of healing for the family. Sister Constance recalled how the sisters kept an eight-day vigil for one dying woman. Although she was not conscious, members of her family reconciled with each other during that time, and some even came back to the faith who had fallen away.“There’s so much to be shared, learned, and gained through these intense moments that you cheat people out of when a life is ended prematurely,” the sister reflected.
“The majority of the family members involved with the residents who pass away in our homes experience it as a moment of grace and a thing of beauty,” she added, “it’s rare that they feel it was anything other than a very powerful spiritual and human moment.”
Other members of the panel voiced concerns about physician-assisted suicide laws.
Farr A. Curlin, M.D., the Josiah C. Trent Professor of Medical Humanities at Duke University School of Medicine, said the laws will bring new and grotesque questions to the national conversation.
People might start asking a terminally-ill patient, “Why are you staying alive?” he said. Those patients might start feeling useless to society and will “feel the pressure to exit the scene.”
The Courage to Think For Yourself : PASSION FOR TRUTH
The Courage to Think For Yourself The Search For Truth and The Meaning of Human Life: PASSION FOR TRUTH: Anybody who is indifferent whether something is true or not is in a grave danger of loosing any meaning of his life. Skepticism seems to ...
Knowledge of the Truth. http://catholicsay.com/
“Never before has there been so much education and never before so little coming to the knowledge of the truth. We forget that ignorance is better than error.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Seven Words of Jesus and Mary)
Old catechisms asked, “Why did God make you?” The answer: “God made me to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next.” Here, in just 26 words, is the whole reason for our existence. Jesus answered the question even more briefly: “I came so that [you] might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
God’s plan for you is simple. Your loving Father wants to give you all good things—especially eternal life. Jesus died on the cross to save us all from sin and the eternal separation from God that sin causes (CCC 599–623). When he saves us, he makes us part of his Body, which is the Church (1 Cor. 12:27–30). We thus become united with him and with Christians everywhere (on earth, in heaven, in purgatory).
God’s plan for you is simple. Your loving Father wants to give you all good things—especially eternal life. Jesus died on the cross to save us all from sin and the eternal separation from God that sin causes (CCC 599–623). When he saves us, he makes us part of his Body, which is the Church (1 Cor. 12:27–30). We thus become united with him and with Christians everywhere (on earth, in heaven, in purgatory).
WHETHER or not you are Catholic, you may have questions about the Catholic
faith. You may have heard challenges to the Catholic Church’s claim to be the
interpreter and safeguard of the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Such
challenges come from door-to-door missionaries who ask, “Are you saved?”, from
peer pressure that urges you to ignore the Church’s teachings, from a secular
culture that whispers “There is no God”
You can’t
deal with these challenges unless you understand the basics of the Catholic
faith. This booklet introduces them to you.
In
Catholicism you will find answers to life’s most troubling questions: Why am I
here? Who made me? What must I believe? How must I act? All these can be
answered to your satisfaction, if only you will open yourself to God’s grace,
turn to the Church he established, and follow his plan for you (John 7:17).
AN UNBROKEN HISTORY
Jesus said
his Church would be “the light of the world.” He then noted that “a city set on
a hill cannot be hid” (Matt. 5:14). This means his Church is a visible organization.
It must have characteristics that clearly identify it and that distinguish it
from other churches. Jesus promised, “I will build my Church and the gates of
hell will not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). This means that his Church
will never be destroyed and will never fall away from him. His Church will
survive until his return.
Among the
Christian churches, only the Catholic Church has existed since the time of
Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The
Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The
Protestant churches were established during the Reformation, which began in
1517. (Most of today’s Protestant churches are actually offshoots of the
original Protestant offshoots.)
Only the
Catholic Church existed in the tenth century, in the fifth century, and in the
first century, faithfully teaching the doctrines given by Christ to the
apostles, omitting nothing. The line of popes can be traced back, in unbroken
succession, to Peter himself. This is unequaled by any institution in history.
Even the
oldest government is new compared to the papacy, and the churches that send out
door-to-door missionaries are young compared to the Catholic Church. Many of
these churches began as recently as the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. Some
even began during your own lifetime. None of them can claim to be the Church
Jesus established.
The Catholic
Church has existed for nearly 2,000 years, despite constant opposition from the
world. This is testimony to the Church’s divine origin. It must be more than a
merely human organization, especially considering that its human members— even
some of its leaders—have been unwise, corrupt, or prone to heresy.
Any merely
human organization with such members would have collapsed early on. The
Catholic Church is today the most vigorous church in the world (and the
largest, with a billion members: one sixth of the human race), and that is
testimony not to the cleverness of the Church’s leaders, but to the protection
of the Holy Spirit.
FOUR MARKS OF THE TRUE CHURCH
If we wish
to locate the Church founded by Jesus, we need to locate the one that has the
four chief marks or qualities of his Church. The Church we seek must be one,
holy, catholic, and apostolic.
The Church Is One (Rom. 12:5, 1 Cor. 10:17, 12:13, CCC 813–822)
Jesus
established only one Church, not a collection of differing
churches (Lutheran, Baptist, Anglican, and so on). The Bible says the Church is
the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:23–32). Jesus can have but one spouse,
and his spouse is the Catholic Church.
His Church
also teaches just one set of doctrines, which must be the same as those taught
by the apostles (Jude 3). This is the unity of belief to which Scripture calls
us (Phil. 1:27, 2:2).
Although
some Catholics dissent from officially-taught doctrines, the Church’s official
teachers—the pope and the bishops united with him—have never changed any
doctrine. Over the centuries, as doctrines are examined more fully, the Church
comes to understand them more deeply (John 16:12–13), but it never understands
them to mean the opposite of what they once meant.
The Church Is Holy (Eph. 5:25–27, Rev. 19:7–8, CCC 823–829)
By his grace
Jesus makes the Church holy, just as he is holy. This doesn’t mean that each
member is always holy. Jesus said there would be both good and bad members in
the Church (John 6:70), and not all the members would go to heaven (Matt.
7:21–23).
But the
Church itself is holy because it is the source of holiness and is the guardian
of the special means of grace Jesus established, the sacraments (cf. Eph.
5:26).
The Church Is Catholic (Matt. 28:19–20, Rev. 5:9–10, CCC 830–856)
Jesus’
Church is called catholic (“universal” in Greek) because it is his gift to all
people. He told his apostles to go throughout the world and make disciples of
“all nations” (Matt. 28:19–20).
For 2,000
years the Catholic Church has carried out this mission, preaching the good news
that Christ died for all men and that he wants all of us to be members of his
universal family (Gal. 3:28).
Nowadays the
Catholic Church is found in every country of the world and is still sending out
missionaries to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19).
The Church
Jesus established was known by its most common title, “the Catholic Church,” at
least as early as the year 107, when Ignatius of Antioch used that title to
describe the one Church Jesus founded. The title apparently was old in
Ignatius’s time, which means it probably went all the way back to the time of
the apostles.
The Church Is Apostolic (Eph. 2:19–20, CCC 857–865)
The Church
Jesus founded is apostolic because he appointed the apostles to be the first
leaders of the Church, and their successors were to be its future leaders. The
apostles were the first bishops, and, since the first century, there has been
an unbroken line of Catholic bishops faithfully handing on what the apostles
taught the first Christians in Scripture and oral Tradition (2 Tim. 2:2).
These
beliefs include the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, the Real Presence of Jesus in
the Eucharist, the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the forgiveness of sins
through a priest, baptismal regeneration, the existence of purgatory, Mary’s
special role, and much more —even the doctrine of apostolic succession itself.
Early
Christian writings prove the first Christians were thoroughly Catholic in
belief and practice and looked to the successors of the apostles as their
leaders. What these first Christians believed is still believed by the Catholic
Church. No other Church can make that claim.
Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth
Man’s
ingenuity cannot account for this. The Church has remained one, holy, catholic,
and apostolic—not through man’s effort, but because God preserves the Church he
established (Matt. 16:18, 28:20).
He guided
the Israelites on their escape from Egypt by giving them a pillar of fire to
light their way across the dark wilderness (Exod. 13:21). Today he guides us
through his Catholic Church.
The Bible,
sacred Tradition, and the writings of the earliest Christians testify that the
Church teaches with Jesus’ authority. In this age of countless competing
religions, each clamoring for attention, one voice rises above the din: the
Catholic Church, which the Bible calls “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1
Tim. 3:15).
Jesus
assured the apostles and their successors, the popes and the bishops, “He who
listens to you listens to me, and he who rejects you rejects me” (Luke 10:16).
Jesus promised to guide his Church into all truth (John 16:12–13). We can have
confidence that his Church teaches only the truth.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE CHURCH
Jesus chose
the apostles to be the earthly leaders of the Church. He gave them his own
authority to teach and to govern—not as dictators, but as loving pastors and
fathers. That is why Catholics call their spiritual leaders “father.” In doing
so we follow Paul’s example: “I became your father in Jesus Christ through the
gospel” (1 Cor. 4:15).
The
apostles, fulfilling Jesus’ will, ordained bishops, priests, and deacons and thus
handed on their apostolic ministry to them—the fullest degree of ordination to
the bishops, lesser degrees to the priests and deacons.
The Pope and Bishops (CCC 880–883)
Jesus gave
Peter special authority among the apostles (John 21:15–17) and signified this
by changing his name from Simon to Peter, which means “rock” (John 1:42). He
said Peter was to be the rock on which he would build his Church (Matt. 16:18).
In Aramaic,
the language Jesus spoke, Simon’s new name was Kepha (which
means a massive rock). Later this name was translated into Greek as Petros (John
1:42) and into English as Peter. Christ gave Peter alone the “keys of the
kingdom” (Matt. 16:19) and promised that Peter’s decisions would be binding in
heaven. He also gave similar power to the other apostles (Matt. 18:18), but
only Peter was given the keys, symbols of his authority to rule the Church on
earth in Jesus’ absence.
Christ, the
Good Shepherd, called Peter to be the chief shepherd of his Church (John
21:15–17). He gave Peter the task of strengthening the other apostles in their
faith, ensuring that they taught only what was true (Luke 22:31–32). Peter led
the Church in proclaiming the gospel and making decisions (Acts 2:1– 41,
15:7–12).
Early
Christian writings tell us that Peter’s successors, the bishops of Rome (who
from the earliest times have been called by the affectionate title of “pope,”
which means “papa”), continued to exercise Peter’s ministry in the Church.
The pope is
the successor to Peter as bishop of Rome. The world’s other bishops are
successors to the apostles in general.
HOW GOD SPEAKS TO US
As from the
first, God speaks to his Church through the Bible and through sacred Tradition.
To make sure we understand him, he guides the Church’s teaching authority—the magisterium—so
it always interprets the Bible and Tradition accurately. This is the gift of
infallibility.
Like the
three legs on a stool, the Bible, Tradition, and the magisterium are all
necessary for the stability of the Church and to guarantee sound doctrine.
Sacred Tradition (CCC 75–83)
Sacred
Tradition should not be confused with mere traditions of men, which are more
commonly called customs or disciplines. Jesus sometimes condemned customs or
disciplines, but only if they were contrary to God’s commands (Mark 7:8). He
never condemned sacred Tradition, and he didn’t even condemn all human
tradition.
Sacred
Tradition and the Bible are not different or competing revelations. They are
two ways that the Church hands on the gospel. Apostolic teachings such as the
Trinity, infant baptism, the inerrancy of the Bible, purgatory, and Mary’s
perpetual virginity have been most clearly taught through Tradition, although
they are also implicitly present in (and not contrary to) the Bible. The Bible
itself tells us to hold fast to Tradition, whether it comes to us in written or
oral form (2 Thess. 2:15, 1 Cor. 11:2).
Sacred
Tradition should not be confused with customs and disciplines, such as the
rosary, priestly celibacy, and not eating meat on Fridays in Lent. These are
good and helpful things, but they are not doctrines. Sacred Tradition preserves
doctrines first taught by Jesus to the apostles and later passed down to us
through the apostles’ successors, the bishops.
Scripture (CCC 101–141)
Scripture,
by which we mean the Old and New Testaments, was inspired by God (2 Tim. 3:16).
The Holy Spirit guided the biblical authors to write what he wanted them to
write. Since God is the principal author of the Bible, and since God is truth
itself (John 14:6) and cannot teach anything untrue, the Bible is free from all
error in everything it asserts to be true.
Some
Christians claim, “The Bible is all I need,” but this notion is not taught in
the Bible itself. In fact, the Bible teaches the contrary idea (2 Pet. 1:20–21,
3:15–16). The “Bible alone” theory was not believed by anyone in the early
Church.
It is new,
having arisen only in the 1500s during the Protestant Reformation. The theory
is a “tradition of men” that nullifies the Word of God, distorts the true role
of the Bible, and undermines the authority of the Church Jesus established
(Mark 7:1–8).
Although
popular with many “Bible Christian” churches, the “Bible alone” theory simply
does not work in practice. Historical experience disproves it. Each year we see
additional splintering among “Bible-believing” religions.
Today there
are tens of thousands of competing denominations, each insisting its
interpretation of the Bible is the correct one. The resulting divisions have
caused untold confusion among millions of sincere but misled Christians.
Just open up
the Yellow Pages of your telephone book and see how many different
denominations are listed, each claiming to go by the “Bible alone,” but no two
of them agreeing on exactly what the Bible means.
We know this
for sure: The Holy Spirit cannot be the author of this confusion (1 Cor.
14:33). God cannot lead people to contradictory beliefs because his truth is
one. The conclusion? The “Bible alone” theory must be false.
The Magisterium (CCC 85–87, 888–892)
Together the
pope and the bishops form the teaching authority of the Church, which is called
the magisterium (from the Latin for “teacher”). The magisterium, guided and
protected from error by the Holy Spirit, gives us certainty in matters of
doctrine. The Church is the custodian of the Bible and faithfully and
accurately proclaims its message, a task which God has empowered it to do.
Keep in mind
that the Church came before the New Testament, not the New Testament before the
Church. Divinely-inspired members of the Church wrote the books of the New
Testament, just as divinely-inspired writers had written the Old Testament, and
the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit to guard and interpret the entire
Bible, both Old and New Testaments.
Such an
official interpreter is absolutely necessary if we are to understand the Bible
properly. (We all know what the Constitution says, but we still
need a Supreme Court to interpret what it means.)
The
magisterium is infallible when it teaches officially because Jesus promised to
send the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles and their successors “into all
truth” (John 16:12–13).
HOW GOD DISTRIBUTES HIS GIFTS
Jesus
promised he would not leave us orphans (John 14:18) but would send the Holy
Spirit to guide and protect us (John 15:26). He gave the sacraments to heal,
feed, and strengthen us. The seven sacraments —baptism, the Eucharist, penance
(also called reconciliation or confession), confirmation, holy orders,
matrimony, and the anointing of the sick—are not just symbols. They are signs
that actually convey God’s grace and love.
The
sacraments were foreshadowed in the Old Testament by things that did not
actually convey grace but merely symbolized it (circumcision, for example,
prefigured baptism, and the Passover meal prefigured the Eucharist. When Christ
came, he did not do away with symbols of God’s grace. He supernaturalized them,
energizing them with grace. He made them more than symbols.
God
constantly uses material things to show his love and power. After all, matter
is not evil. When he created the physical universe, everything God created was
“very good” (Gen. 1:31). He takes such delight in matter that he even dignified
it through his own Incarnation (John 1:14).
During his
earthly ministry Jesus healed, fed, and strengthened people through humble
elements such as mud, water, bread, oil, and wine. He could have performed his
miracles directly, but he preferred to use material things to bestow his grace.
In his first
public miracle Jesus turned water into wine, at the request of his mother, Mary
(John 2:1–11). He healed a blind man by rubbing mud on his eyes (John 9:1–7).
He multiplied a few loaves and fish into a meal for thousands (John 6:5–13). He
changed bread and wine into his own body and blood (Matt. 26:26– 28). Through
the sacraments he continues to heal, feed, and strengthen us.
Baptism (CCC 1213–1284)
Because of
original sin, we are born without grace in our souls, so there is no way for us
to have fellowship with God. Jesus became man to bring us into union with his
Father. He said no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is first born of
“water and the Spirit” (John 3:5)—this refers to baptism.
Through
baptism we are born again, but this time on a spiritual level instead of a
physical level. We are washed in the bath of rebirth (Titus 3:5). We are
baptized into Christ’s death and therefore share in his Resurrection (Rom.
6:3–7).
Baptism
cleanses us of sins and brings the Holy Spirit and his grace into our souls
(Acts 2:38, 22:16). And the apostle Peter is perhaps the most blunt of all:
“Baptism now saves you” (1 Pet. 3:21). Baptism is the gateway into the Church.
Penance (CCC 1422–1498)
Sometimes on
our journey toward the heavenly promised land we stumble and fall into sin. God
is always ready to lift us up and to restore us to grace-filled fellowship with
him. He does this through the sacrament of penance (which is also known as
confession or reconciliation).
Jesus gave
his apostles power and authority to reconcile us to the Father. They received
Jesus’ own power to forgive sins when he breathed on them and said, “Receive
the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you
retain are retained” (John 20:22–23).
Paul notes
that “all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and
given us the ministry of reconciliation. . . . So, we are ambassadors for
Christ, as if God were appealing through us” (2 Cor. 5:18–20). Through
confession to a priest, God’s minister, we have our sins forgiven, and we
receive grace to help us resist future temptations.
The Eucharist (CCC 1322–1419)
Once we
become members of Christ’s family, he does not let us go hungry, but feeds us
with his own body and blood through the Eucharist. In the Old Testament, as
they prepared for their journey in the wilderness, God commanded his people to
sacrifice a lamb and sprinkle its blood on their doorposts, so the Angel of
Death would pass by their homes. Then they ate the lamb to seal their covenant
with God.
This lamb
prefigured Jesus. He is the real “Lamb of God,” who takes away the sins of the
world (John 1:29). Through Jesus we enter into a New Covenant with God (Luke
22:20), who protects us from eternal death. God’s Old Testament people ate the
Passover lamb. Now we must eat the Lamb that is the Eucharist. Jesus said,
“Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life within you” (John
6:53).
At the Last
Supper he took bread and wine and said, “Take and eat. This is my body . . .
This is my blood which will be shed for you” (Mark 14:22–24). In this way Jesus
instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist, the sacrificial meal Catholics
consume at each Mass.
The Catholic
Church teaches that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross occurred “once for
all”; it cannot be repeated (Heb. 9:28). Christ does not “die again” during
Mass, but the very same sacrifice that occurred on Calvary is made present on
the altar. That’s why the Mass is not “another” sacrifice, but a participation
in the same, once-for-all sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Paul reminds
us that the bread and the wine really become, by a miracle of God’s grace, the
actual body and blood of Jesus: “Anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing
the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Cor. 11:27–29).
After the
consecration of the bread and wine, no bread or wine remains on the altar. Only
Jesus himself, under the appearance of bread and wine, remains.
Confirmation (CCC 1285–1321)
God
strengthens our souls in another way, through the sacrament of confirmation.
Even though Jesus’ disciples received grace before his Resurrection, on
Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to strengthen them with new graces for the
difficult work ahead.
They went
out and preached the gospel fearlessly and carried out the mission Christ had
given them. Later, they laid hands on others to strengthen them as well (Acts
8:14–17). Through confirmation you too are strengthened to meet the spiritual
challenges in your life.
Matrimony (CCC 1601–1666)
Most people
are called to the married life. Through the sacrament of matrimony God gives
special graces to help married couples with life’s difficulties, especially to
help them raise their children as loving followers of Christ.
Marriage
involves three parties: the bride, the groom, and God. When two Christians
receive the sacrament of matrimony, God is with them, witnessing and blessing
their marriage covenant. A sacramental marriage is permanent; only death can
break it (Mark 10:1–12, Rom. 7:2–3, 1 Cor. 7:10–11). This holy union is a
living symbol of the unbreakable relationship between Christ and his Church
(Eph. 5:21–33).
Holy Orders (CCC 1536–1600)
Others are
called to share specially in Christ’s priesthood. In the Old Covenant, even
though Israel was a kingdom of priests (Exod. 19:6), the Lord called certain
men to a special priestly ministry (Exod. 19: 22). In the New Covenant, even
though Christians are a kingdom of priests (1 Pet. 2:9), Jesus calls certain
men to a special priestly ministry (Rom. 15:15–16).
This
sacrament is called holy orders. Through it priests are ordained and thus
empowered to serve the Church (2 Tim. 1:6–7) as pastors, teachers, and
spiritual fathers who heal, feed, and strengthen God’s people—most importantly
through preaching and the administration of the sacraments.
Anointing of the Sick (CCC 1499–1532)
Priests care
for us when we are physically ill. They do this through the sacrament known as
the anointing of the sick. The Bible instructs us, “Is anyone among you
suffering? He should pray. . . . Is any one among you sick? He should summon
the presbyters [priests] of the Church, and they should pray over him and
anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save
the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins,
he will be forgiven” (Jas. 5:14–15). Anointing of the sick not only helps us
endure illness, but it cleanses our souls and helps us prepare to meet God.
TALKING WITH GOD AND HIS SAINTS
One of the
most important activities for a Catholic is prayer. Without it there can be no
true spiritual life. Through personal prayer and the communal prayer of the
Church, especially the Mass, we worship and praise God, we express sorrow for
our sins, and we intercede on behalf of others (1 Tim. 2:1–4). Through prayer
we grow in our relationship with Christ and with members of God’s family (CCC
2663–2696).
This family
includes all members of the Church, whether on earth, in heaven, or in
purgatory. Since Jesus has only one body, and since death has no power to
separate us from Christ (Rom. 8:3–8), Christians who are in heaven or who,
before entering heaven, are being purified in purgatory by God’s love (1 Cor.
3:12–15) are still part of the Body of Christ (CCC 962).
Jesus said
the second greatest commandment is to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt.
22:39). Those in heaven love us more intensely than they ever could have loved
us while on earth. They pray for us constantly (Rev. 5:8), and their prayers
are powerful (Jas. 5:16, CCC 956, 2683, 2692).
Our prayers
to the saints in heaven, asking for their prayers for us, and their
intercession with the Father do not undermine Christ’s role as sole Mediator (1
Tim. 2:5). In asking saints in heaven to pray for us we follow Paul’s
instructions: “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and
thanksgivings be made for everyone,” for “this is good and pleasing to God our
Savior” (1 Tim. 2:1–4).
All members
of the Body of Christ are called to help one another through prayer (CCC 2647).
Mary’s prayers are especially effective on our behalf because of her relationship
with her Son (John 2:1–11).
God gave
Mary a special role (CCC 490–511, 963– 975). He saved her from all sin (Luke
1:28, 47), made her uniquely blessed among all women (Luke 1:42), and made her
a model for all Christians (Luke 1:48). At the end of her life he took her,
body and soul, into heaven—an image of our own resurrection at the end of the
world (Rev. 12:1–2).
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE?
Old catechisms asked, “Why did
God make you?” The answer: “God made me to know him, to love him, and to serve
him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next.” Here, in just
26 words, is the whole reason for our existence. Jesus answered the question
even more briefly: “I came so that [you] might have life and have it more
abundantly” (John 10:10).
God’s plan for you is simple.
Your loving Father wants to give you all good things—especially eternal life.
Jesus died on the cross to save us all from sin and the eternal separation from
God that sin causes (CCC 599–623). When he saves us, he makes us part of his
Body, which is the Church (1 Cor. 12:27–30). We thus become united with him and
with Christians everywhere (on earth, in heaven, in purgatory).
What You Must Do to Be Saved
Best of all,
the promise of eternal life is a gift, freely offered to us by God (CCC 1727).
Our initial forgiveness and justification are not things we “earn” (CCC 2010).
Jesus is the mediator who bridged the gap of sin that separates us from God (1
Tim. 2:5); he bridged it by dying for us. He has chosen to make us partners in
the plan of salvation (1 Cor. 3:9).
The Catholic
Church teaches what the apostles taught and what the Bible teaches: We are
saved by grace alone, but not by faith alone (which is what “Bible Christians”
teach; see Jas. 2:24).
When we come
to God and are justified (that is, enter a right relationship with God),
nothing preceding justification, whether faith or good works, earns grace.
But then God plants his love in our hearts, and we should live out our faith by
doing acts of love (Gal. 6:2).
Even though only
God’s grace enables us to love others, these acts of love please him, and he
promises to reward them with eternal life (Rom. 2:6–7, Gal. 6:6–10). Thus good
works are meritorious. When we first come to God in faith, we have nothing in
our hands to offer him. Then he gives us grace to obey his commandments in
love, and he rewards us with salvation when we offer these acts of love back to
him (Rom. 2:6–11, Gal. 6:6–10, Matt. 25:34–40).
Jesus said
it is not enough to have faith in him; we also must obey his commandments. “Why
do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do the things I command?” (Luke 6:46,
Matt. 7:21–23, 19:16–21).
We do not
“earn” our salvation through good works (Eph. 2:8–9, Rom. 9:16), but our faith
in Christ puts us in a special grace-filled relationship with God so that our
obedience and love, combined with our faith, will be rewarded with eternal life
(Rom. 2:7, Gal. 6:8–9).
Paul said,
“God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to
work” (Phil. 2:13). John explained that “the way we may be sure that we know
him is to keep his commandments. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not keep
his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3–4,
3:19–24, 5:3–4).
Since no
gift can be forced on the recipient—gifts always can be rejected—even after we
become justified, we can throw away the gift of salvation. We throw it away
through grave (mortal) sin (1 John 5:16, Rom. 11:22–23, 1 Cor. 15:1–2; CCC
1854–1863). Paul tells us, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).
Read his
letters and see how often Paul warned Christians against sin! He would not have
felt compelled to do so if their sins could not exclude them from heaven (see,
for example, 1 Cor. 6:9–10, Gal. 5:19–21).
Paul
reminded the Christians in Rome that God “will repay everyone according to his
works: eternal life for those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through
perseverance in good works, but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey
the truth and obey wickedness” (Rom. 2:6–8).
Sins are
nothing but evil works (CCC 1849–1850). We can avoid sins by habitually
performing good works. Every saint has known that the best way to keep free
from sins is to embrace regular prayer, the sacraments (the Eucharist first of
all), and charitable acts.
Are You Guaranteed Heaven?
Some people
promote an especially attractive idea: All true Christians, regardless of how
they live, have an absolute assurance of salvation, once they accept Jesus into
their hearts as “their personal Lord and Savior.” The problem is that this
belief is contrary to the Bible and constant Christian teaching.
Keep in mind
what Paul told the Christians of his day: “If we have died with him [in
baptism; see Rom. 6:3–4] we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall
also reign with him” (2 Tim. 2:11–12).
If we
do not persevere, we shall not reign with
him. In other words, Christians can forfeit heaven (CCC 1861).
The Bible
makes it clear that Christians have a moral assurance of salvation (God will be
true to his word and will grant salvation to those who have faith in Christ and
are obedient to him [1 John 3:19–24]), but the Bible does not teach that
Christians have a guarantee of heaven. There can be no absolute assurance of
salvation. Writing to Christians, Paul said, “See, then, the kindness and
severity of God: severity toward those who fell, but God’s kindness to you,
provided you remain in his kindness, otherwise you too will be cut off” (Rom.
11:22–23; Matt. 18:21–35, 1 Cor. 15:1–2, 2 Pet. 2:20–21).
Note that
Paul includes an important condition: “provided you remain in his kindness.” He
is saying that Christians can lose their salvation by throwing it away. He
warns, “Whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall” (1
Cor. 10:11–12).
If you are
Catholic and someone asks you if you have been “saved,” you should say, “I am
redeemed by the blood of Christ, I trust in him alone for my salvation, and, as
the Bible teaches, I am ‘working out my salvation in fear and trembling’ (Phil.
2:12), knowing that it is God’s gift of grace that is working in me.”
THE WAVE OF
THE FUTURE
All the
alternatives to Catholicism are showing themselves to be inadequate: the
worn-out secularism that is everywhere around us and that no one any longer
finds satisfying, the odd cults and movements that offer temporary community
but no permanent home, even the other, incomplete brands of Christianity. As
our tired world becomes ever more desperate, people are turning to the one
alternative they never really had considered: the Catholic Church. They are
coming upon truth in the last place they expected to find it.
Always Attractive
How can this
be? Why are so many people seriously looking at the Catholic Church for the
first time? Something is pulling them toward it. That something is truth.
This much we
know: They are not considering the claims of the Church out of a desire to win
public favor. Catholicism, at least nowadays, is never popular. You cannot win
a popularity contest by being a faithful Catholic. Our fallen world rewards the
clever, not the good. If a Catholic is praised, it is for the worldly skills he
demonstrates, not for his Christian virtues.
Although
people try to avoid the hard doctrinal and moral truths the Catholic Church
offers them (because hard truths demand that lives be changed), they
nevertheless are attracted to the Church. When they listen to the pope and the
bishops in union with him, they hear words with the ring of truth—even if they
find that truth hard to live by.
When they
contemplate the history of the Catholic Church and the lives of its saints,
they realize there must be something special, maybe something supernatural,
about an institution that can produce holy people such as St. Augustine, St.
Thomas Aquinas, and Mother Teresa.
When they
step off a busy street and into the aisles of an apparently empty Catholic
church, they sense not a complete emptiness, but a presence. They sense
that Someone resides inside, waiting to comfort them.
They realize
that the persistent opposition that confronts the Catholic Church—whether from
non-believers or “Bible Christians” or even from people who insist on calling
themselves Catholics—is a sign of the Church’s divine origin (John 15:18–21).
And they come to suspect that the Catholic Church, of all things, is the wave
of the future.
Incomplete Christianity Is Not Enough
Over the
last few decades many Catholics have left the Church, many dropping out of
religion entirely, many joining other churches. But the traffic has not been in
only one direction.
The traffic
toward Rome has increased rapidly. Today we are seeing more than a hundred and
fifty thousand converts enter the Catholic Church each year in the United
States, and in some other places, like the continent of Africa, there are more
than a million converts to the Catholic faith each year. People of no religion,
lapsed or inactive Catholics, and members of other Christian churches are
“coming home to Rome.”
They are
attracted to the Church for a variety of reasons, but the chief reason they
convert is the chief reason you should be Catholic: The solid
truth of the Catholic faith.
Our
separated brethren hold much Christian truth, but not all of it. We might
compare their religion to a stained glass window in which some of the original
panes were lost and have been replaced by opaque glass: Something that was
present at the beginning is now gone, and something that does not fit has been
inserted to fill up the empty space. The unity of the original window has been marred.
When,
centuries ago, they split away from the Catholic Church, the theological
ancestors of these Christians eliminated some authentic beliefs and added new
ones of their own making. The forms of Christianity they established are really
incomplete Christianity.
Only the
Catholic Church was founded by Jesus, and only it has been able to preserve all
Christian truth without any error—and great numbers of people are coming to see
this.
YOUR TASKS AS A CATHOLIC
Your tasks
as a Catholic, no matter what your age, are three:
Know your Catholic faith.
You cannot
live your faith if you do not know it, and you cannot share with others what
you do not first make your own (CCC 429). Learning your Catholic faith takes
some effort, but it is effort well spent because the study is, quite literally,
infinitely rewarding.
Live your Catholic faith.
Your
Catholic faith is a public thing. It is not meant to be left behind when you
leave home (CCC 2472). But be forewarned: Being a public Catholic involves risk
and loss. You will find some doors closed to you. You will lose some friends.
You will be considered an outsider. But, as a consolation, remember our Lord’s
words to the persecuted: “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in
heaven” (Matt. 5:12).
Spread your Catholic faith.
Jesus Christ
wants us to bring the whole world into captivity to the truth, and the truth is
Jesus himself, who is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
Spreading the faith is a task not only for bishops, priests, and religious—it
is a task for all Catholics (CCC 905).
Just before
his Ascension, our Lord told his apostles, “Go, therefore, and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”
(Matt. 28:19–20).
If we want
to observe all that Jesus commanded, if we want to believe all he taught, we
must follow him through his Church. This is our great challenge—and our great
privilege.
Source: http://catholicsay.com/
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