Fr. Joe Gallagher, a Paulist Father who is very actively retired at the Catholic Information Center, wrote an introduction to Catholic belief entitled: To be a Catholic: A Catechism for Today (Paulist Press, 1970, all rights reserved). In this book he presented a brief, direct response to basic questions on different areas of Catholic faith. With his permission, we are presenting portions of this book for all those people who might be asking those same questions.

If you find yourself interested in or intrigued by what you find here, please contact one of us at the Catholic Information Center and we’ll be glad to discuss your questions with you, recommend other reading, or suggest classes at the Center that might assist you in your journey.

RELIGION AND GOD

Religion means different things to different people. Human beings vary not only in what they believe but also in the importance they attach to it and the way in which religion fits into their lives. This catechism is concerned with the Catholic religion, but, for a beginning, it is worth looking at religion generally because its principal characteristics are also found in Catholicism.

Like religion, God too means different things to people. Sometimes it is only a word and means little to the person using it. Some people can talk seriously about God without believing in him. Others can believe in him and never talk about him. In some religions, God occupies a more important place than in others, and there are religions that hardly need him at all. The Catholic religion thinks God is the most important of all realities, but it also realizes that people do not always see this, and that even when they do, it is never easy to be clear about God.

1. What does religion do to human beings?

Religion takes women and men out of the limitations of their own world and relates them to something bigger and more mysterious.

2. Is religion always beneficial?

No. Sometimes instead of freeing humanity from their limitations, it can impose new restrictions on their well-being and development. Degrading superstitions and taboos have often been imposed in the name of religion.

3. What attracts people to religion?

Humanly speaking, people respond to what promises to liberate them and to enlarge their capacity to live. People need to be reassured about some basic things if they are to live with joy and freedom.

4. What do people need to be reassured about?

Deep down, people have to know who they are. They also need to feel a sense of belonging and a sense of purpose, and to know that their lives

are important no matter what happens. Finally, we all want the reassurance that death does not simply undo everything we have done in life. All religion tries in some way to reassure people about these things.

5. Is this true of the Christian religion and of Catholics?

Yes. Christians and Catholics are human beings, too.

6. Is religion a human thing?

In the sense that it meets a basic human need, yes. But if religion succeeds in tying man into something outside himself, then it goes beyond the human and involves questions about God.

7. What is God?

God is the name men usually give to the origin and meaning of existence.

8. Is God real?

Yes. A great many people have discovered that the final explanation of existence is an all-powerful being existing above and beyond human beings and their world. They frequently differ on what this being is like.

9. When is God unreal?

When God is the product of human invention. Some ideas about God are distorted and confused. They are usually exaggerations of something people have heard about God. Human imagination and feelings put together a picture of something called "God" that is far removed from the reality.

10. What are some unreal gods?

There have been thousands in human history. Some modern examples that confuse Christians are: (a) a "magical God" who makes everything all right when the right words are said and the right buttons pushed; (b) a "law and order God" who runs the world by a very strict code of behavior and whose main concern is to judge; (c) a "cat and mouse God" who has everybody's whole life laid out in front of him and who makes things happen to people for reasons of his own. There are many other false gods, but none of them is the Christian God.

11. When is God real?

The true God is always real. God becomes real for us when we come to know him for the person he is. We can only do this from what he has shown us of himself.

12. Why is God's self-revelation important?

We get to know people as they really are only through what they show of themselves. To know God personally, we have to be carefully attentive: to whatever he shows of himself.

13. How does God show himself?

In all of life, creation, and history. However, the Christian religion and the Catholic Church are especially concerned with a very personal way

in which God showed and continues to show himself to women and men. This revelation is described in the Bible, and from it the Catholic derives both an explanation of life and a way of living.


THE REAL CHRISTIAN GOD

The Christian is convinced that God is real. Christians believe that the final explanation of who human being are and what their life means is to be found in another person-one who is only partly known, mysterious and powerful. How a Christian reaches this conviction is the central plot of his personal life story. Usually it results from a mixture of religious upbringing, life experience, and the inner sense of a presence other than himself. Based upon this faith, a Catholic would answer the most important questions about life in the following way:

1. Who am I?

I am someone who belongs to greatness. God is my Father.

2. Does my life really mean something?

Yes. God my Father has given it to me. I belong to him; he loves me and asks me to love him. Thus, I have something to live for that deserves the best I have.

3. What part do I play in the world where I live?

God my Father made this world and the whole universe. He put me in it and I take much of my life from it. As I grow to love my Father, I find that I put much of myself into his world and help it to grow, too.

4. Can the life of man and the world really come to something?

Yes. God our Father who made all is extremely powerful.

5. How do I know I belong to God?

God's Son, Jesus Christ, came into human life as my brother to teach me this and to show me what it means to belong to God.

6 What did Jesus reveal about the Son of God?

Jesus showed in his life and teaching that the Son is powerful and good like his Father.

7. What did Jesus show about belonging to God?

Jesus' whole life was devoted to doing the work and will of his Father. This teaches me that to belong to God means to be like Jesus.

8. Why is it important to have God as a Father?

Because God my Father gives me life and love and, in so doing, makes me forever part of something bigger than myself.

9. How can I live up to this inheritance?

My Father gives me God the Holy Spirit to live within me and to guide me in communicating: with the Father, to help me understand his words, and to make my life and my love like that of Jesus (John 16:12-15).

10. Who is God?

God is my Father, my Brother Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. These incomparably perfect persons share an unending life of mutual love and creative power. Together they are the one I call God (John 14:8-17).

11. Why does God have three different names?

God's life is so filled with vitality and love that three persons must live it. The names of these persons have been given us by Jesus.

12. What do these names mean?

We associate the names of each person with different experiences we have of God. God, giving us all that we have, we call "Father." God, showing himself to humankind, we call "Son." God, living within us, we call "Holy Spirit."

13. To whom do I belong?

My life belongs with the persons closest to me: God, my Father; Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior; the Holy Spirit, my inner teacher and guide. I also share my life with my family, friends, co-workers and all the people who cross my path.

14. How do I know death won't undo all of this?

Jesus Christ has saved me from that fate. Because of him the Father shares his unending life with me, and the Holy Spirit will make me so like Jesus that, even though I die, my Father will again raise me to life as he did his Son, Jesus Christ.

15. What is the purpose of my life?

To respond to my Father's loving invitation by coming to know him and growing in love of him and giving myself to him in the service of others.

16. When will my purpose be achieved?

It is achieved every time I say "yes" to his invitation. Its final achievement comes when I give myself completely over to him at my death.

In such a way a Catholic puts into words what his faith teaches him about the farthest horizons of his life. Like most men he sometimes experiences a mysterious presence deep within him. From this experience he senses that the boundaries of his life are not as clear-cut as they seem on the surface. He I senses, too, that much of importance to him lies just out of reach, deep in that mysterious presence. However, this experience does not provide the words he puts down in answer. In fact, it gives no words or names at all. The names "Father," "Son," and "Holy Spirit" come from his Church who first ~ heard them from Jesus. The Catholic connects them to these questions because somewhere along the line he has come to recognize that the loving God named by Jesus and that mysterious inner presence are one and the same.

JESUS CHRIST: HUMAN BEING AND GOD

People come to believe in God because he shows something of himself to them. Somehow through the tangle of people, events, experience, and challenge that is life they catch a glimpse of someone who is in it, yet beyond it, and begin to reach out in response to him. All real faith is the result of some such

personal meeting between God and human beings. Christians believe because they are sure that God shows himself in a fully personal way in Jesus Christ. In Jesus he shows himself the same way a human person does, i.e., in what he says and does, how he reacts to others, by what he conveys of his thoughts and feelings. In the person of Jesus Christ, God reveals as much of himself as humanity can grasp. For this reason Jesus is the center of Christian faith. In him the Christian finds God and comes to believe in him. Because of this, everything about Jesus is important. What he said and did, the way he lived and died, what his friends discovered about him-all these are important to the Christian faith because they reveal to us the presence and power of God Our Father. Jesus Christ is our way, our truth, and our life.

1. Why is Jesus important?

Because he is the door to God. In discovering him, we meet God in a human being and actually see his love for us in practice. We understand what Jesus teaches and the things he does because they are well-known human words and actions. But there is more. Finding him, we step also into the mysterious presence of our Father (John 10:7-10).

2. Who is Jesus Christ?

He is God, the Son of the Father, who became human (John 8:42-59).

3. Is Jesus human?

Yes. The Son became a real man. This means he was born into this world, and lived a real human life, and died like the rest of us (Luke 2:1-7).

4. When and where did he live?

About two thousand years ago in Israel, then a part of the Roman Empire.

5. Who were his parents?

His mother was a young girl named Mary. He had no human father. Instead, he was directly conceived by the Holy Spirit within Mary Thereafter was born in the normal course of events. Because of this extraordinary action of God, Mary has been called ever since the "Blessed Virgin" (Luke 1 :26-38).

6. Who was Joseph?

Joseph was Mary's husband and acted as foster father to Jesus during his childhood.

7. What do we know about Jesus' life?

We know very little about his early years. However, when he reached manhood we know he spent several years traveling about Israel, teaching the people about his Father's love for them and performing extraordinary cures and other wonders. We know, too, that his activities brought him into conflict with the religious leaders of the Jewish people and that they finally arranged for his execution by the Roman authorities.

8. Where do we find this data?

Principally, in the four gospel books of the New Testament.

9. Was Jesus' death the end of him?

No. His Father raised him up to life within a few days and he showed himself to many of his and followers for some time after that, reassuring them that he really lived and reemphasizing what he had taught them before. Then he ended his appearances and lives now in the glory of God (Mark 16).

10. What is the main point of Jesus' teaching?

Jesus' message was that with him the kingdom of God had come into the world. This means that God's own way of life has been initiated among women and men and they are called to enter it, living and working in partnership with God for the growth and completion of the kingdom (Mark 1:14-15).

11. What did Jesus teach about God's way of life?

He taught that God's life is love. God lives by forever giving himself. To belong to the kingdom means that human beings must live by love, too. Like Jesus, we must be willing to live for others (1 John 4:7-16).

12. How does Jesus teach God's love?

Jesus teaches people by describing his Father. More importantly, his very life is a lesson in which men can see God's love at work. Jesus Christ in his person, life and teaching shows us God-giving-himself to human beings (John 16:25-28).

13. What does Jesus ask of those who listen to him?

He asks that people turn out from themselves and their past and accept him as the keystone of their lives for the future. This turning to Jesus is called "conversion" (John 3:31-36).

14. What does it take for such a "conversion"?

Conversion requires the conviction that God is the full measure and meaning of life and that Jesus Christ is the door to God (Acts 2:36-39).

15. What is the point of departure for Christian faith?

That Jesus Christ is God-become-man who died in serving us and brought us to new life through his resurrection (I Cor. 15:12-19).

16. Why do Christians believe?

Because in Jesus Christ they have come to see the goodness and love of God perfectly at work in the life of man (I John 1:1-7).

THE BIBLE: HISTORY OF GOD'S LOVE FOR HUMAN BEINGS

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the decisive event of all time through which God shows himself and his love for women and men. However, he also shows himself in lesser ways in other events. Probably, if people were sensitive enough to God they would be able to see something of him in everything. As it is, over the centuries certain special events have been recognized as signs of God by people of faith. They see something of God in these events because they are already close to him and sensitive to his presence. When he is recognized in an event, his people speak out and their word declares to all what God is communicating through the happening. In this fashion, certain special events, past and present, are a part of the Christian faith. These events are found in the Bible and in the life of the Church. They are decisive for the Christian in his relationship with God. He cannot explain or live his faith apart from them. The Bible and the Church are witnesses to these events. They testify to their occurrence and explain their meaning. Hence, Bible and Church are both essential for the Christian.

1. What is the Bible?

The Bible is a collection of books written under the inspiration of God about a particular people’s experience of God.

2. Who wrote the Bible?

The Bible was written by many people, all of faith, most of whose names are lost to us, over a long period of time and, in most cases, well after the experiences recounted.

3. What is the Old Testament?

The forth-six books of the Old Testament contain a history of the Jewish people and their faith from earliest origins down to the first century. They also include books of poems and prayers, laws and stories, books of wisdom and practical advice in the art of living.

4. Where did the material come from?

It all came from the life and experience of the Jewish people. Much of the material was passed along by word of mouth for generations before it was finally collected, worked together, and written the way we now have it.

5. What is the New Testament?

The New Testament is the record of what the early followers of Jesus had to say about him and his teaching.

6. What does the New Testament include?

The New Testament includes four gospels or basic preaching’s of Jesus' followers. Each of these differs in approach and detail according to the personality and purposes of the authors, but they all tell of Jesus and his teaching. The New Testament also contains a history of the early Church (Acts), twenty-one letters of the apostles (epistles), and a book of prophecy (Apocalypse).

7. Where did the material come from?

It all came from the earliest communities of Jesus' followers.

8. Is the Bible historically accurate?

Not always. Records were scarce in those centuries and people were little concerned or equipped for approaching history scientifically. The accounts are accurate enough for the overall history they contain.

9. Is the Bible true?

Yes. Essentially the Bible is the testimony of what God has done in the life of a people and what they have come to believe about him through this experience. That testimony is clear, consistent, and true. This faith really happened.

10. Is any of the Bible outdated?

Yes. Much of the language and ideas it contains belongs to another age and culture and is no longer in use. The Bible's understanding of nature and the universe is very primitive and hopelessly behind modern science. Even many of its religious laws and practices mean little to modern man. These things make it difficult for us to read it easily today and we need expert help to understand it.

11. Why is the Bible important?

It is the written record of God's decisive actions in the world. These disclose the meaning of life and point the way to man's future. Nothing is more important to man than this kind of vision and hope.

12. What does it have to say about life here and now?

While the Bible expresses principally a past experience of God, it has a present vitality, too. When read prayerfully it can communicate a here and now presence and action of God to the attentive listener. Moreover, the experience of these men of faith lights up whole areas of our own lives and helps us discover new directions and meaning around us. In this way, God Continually challenges and invites men to enter the world of faith.

WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT GOD IN THE LIFE OF HUMAN BEINGS

13.What are the key acts of God in the life of human beings?

First, he gave life and the world to man; next, he helped men to discover a true direction and purpose; then, he personally entered the life of man and invited man to life with him; finally, he communicates his own life to those who accept his invitation.

14. How did he give life and the world to man?

The Bible calls it "creation." We don't know how it happened. Science explores that process and may yet explain it fully to us. At present, it seems to have been a gradual evolutionary development that took place a very long time ago. But however he gave it to us, the important thing for faith is that we owe all that we have to God (Gen. 1:1-2).

15. Does the Bible try to explain creation?

Not really. God's people knew that he was Lord of life and the universe. This they could assert, but millions of years after the event they could only imagine how creation took place.

16. How did God help humanity discover a true direction and purpose?

The decisive education of human beings man as to who they really are and what they can become is detailed in the Old Testament. There, we see a long and painful educational process as God introduces himself to man and urges man to open himself to God and to his own future.

17. How did God enter human life and invite human beings to share in God’s life?

God personally became a human being in Jesus Christ who then summoned people to the kingdom of his Father.

18. How does God communicate his life to others?

Through the Holy Spirit whom he sends to live within his friends (John 14:15-17).

GOD'S ACTION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

19. How did God begin to act in the Old Testament?

God began about 4,000 years ago with a Abraham and his wife, Sarah. Abraham responded to God’s summons and followed God all of his life. Because of Abraham's faithfulness, God chose his descendants to be his own special people (Gen. 12:1-7).

20. Who were God's people?

The Jewish people, known in the Old Testament as "Israel."

21. Where did they come from?

They came out of Egypt. Originally their ancestors had come there as refugees from famine and stayed on. However, after several generations the Egyptians turned on them and enslaved them.

22. How did they get out of Egypt?

God inspired Moses to convince these people that if they put their trust in the God of their fathers he would lead them out of slavery and into a land of their own. The long and difficult emigration that followed is called the "Exodus" (Ex. 12:21-42).

23. How did they become God's people?

After their escape they wandered through the Sinai desert. Moses reminded them that their successful liberation was due to their trust in God. God had called them out of Egypt to become his own people and it was time to express their trust in permanent form. After much prayer and exhortation by Moses and much hesitation and resistance from the people, they solemnly declared their acceptance of God and their willingness to be his people (Ex 19:1-8).

24. How did they express this?

They held a solemn ceremony and sealed their commitment to God in the blood of animals. These animals had been killed and offered, to

God as gifts(Ex. 24:3-8).

25. What is this commitment called?

The "Covenant." A covenant was an ancient legal form by which a king's sovereignty over a people was recognized and accepted by them.

Israel differed from the other nations because her covenant was with God.

26. What were the conditions of the Covenant?

They were expressed in the ten commandments Moses presented to the people. This was to be their basic law. It spelled out their obligations to God and to each other. As time went on, other laws were added so that the whole life of the people was organized around their promise to God (Ex. 20:1-17)

27. Did Israel keep the Covenant?

No, they constantly broke it by abandoning God

and ignoring his commandments. This

contradiction of their commitment led them into

war, suffering and defeat. They learned

faithfulness only through long and hard

experience.

28. Did God keep the Covenant?

Yes. He never abandoned his people and always

forgave them when they turned back to him.

29. What did Israel expect of God?

They expected to receive special benefits as his

people. They expected in some way to be the

instrument through which God would establish

his kingdom over the whole world. They also

expected they would be first among the nations.

Sometimes their expectations were inflated and

greedy.

30. What did God finally give his people?

He gave himself. God came among them in the person of Jesus and announced that the kingdom of God had arrived to stay.

31. What did people learn during the period of the Old Testament?

They learned that God was real and the guiding force in their lives. They found that he was faithful to his promises and that people could live as God’s friends if they put their trust in God.

32. What changes did Jesus bring?

Jesus brought a whole new life to humankind (John 10:10).

33. What is this new life?

It is God’s own life communicated to women and men by the Holy Spirit who comes to live within them. It is sometimes called :grace” (John 14:18-24)

34. Why is it new?

Because before Jesus came no one loved God enough to be able to live this kind of life.

35. How was Jesus able to do differently?

Because he was the Son of God. Becoming a human being he loved his father and his brothers and sisters with God’s own love.

36. How does his life show this love?

All that he said and did, his whole life and death, was for the sake of others. He spent his life teaching people the truth about his Father and

about themselves; he shared their life and suffering and healed their ailments. He did all this out of love for them and for his Father who

called him to this service. He stayed with it even, when it cost his life.

37. What does Jesus' life teach us about God?

His life shows us in a human way that God's life

is a life of love. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are

forever giving themselves to each other.

38. How did the Father respond to Jesus' life?

Having received from Jesus a perfect human life

of love, the Father now gives his own life to

Jesus' less perfect fellow human’s who turn to him

in faith (Acts 2:22-33).

39. How does a person receive this new life?

By putting their faith, hope and love in Jesus Christ whose life, death and resurrection has opened up the life of God to The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit come and share their love with those who commit themselves to Jesus (Acts 2:37-39).

40. How must a person live the life of God?

As Jesus did. United to him, the Christian must die to self and rise to a new life for others (Matt. 16:24-27).

41. Where do we see this gift of new life?

In Jesus' resurrection he had been brutally beaten, executed, and buried, but the Father raised him up to new life and together they give this new life to Jesus' faithful followers.

42. Will the Father raise us up too?

Yes. Because of Jesus, he loves all of us and will raise up all who turn to him in faith (I Thess.4:13-18).

43. When will he do this?

No one knows. When he does it will mean that God's kingdom among men has been completed and those who share his life can now share his glory. This is usually described as the "end of the world," but it is better thought of as "the fulfillment of God's creation" (Matt. 24:35-44).

44. What is the assumption of Mary?

It is a special grace by which Mary was taken to heaven body and soul where she already enjoys the glory that awaits all of God's faithful

children.

45. What is heaven?

Heaven is the name the Church gives to our life in God after death. In heaven human beings see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as they truly are and shares their way of life forever. This way of life is mysterious, and we know little about it beyond the fact that it is a state of supreme happiness and joy.

THE CHURCH: RELATING TO GOD

The Bible silhouettes for us a world of faith that struggles to surface in the lives of human beings. To belong to that world is to share in the experience people have of God. To enter the stream of that experience requires some contact with those who live the experience. These persons we call the "Church." The Church speaks the good news of God's doings in the world. She does this in many ways-through her teaching and preaching, through her life and worship, through her Bible and the writings of her prophets, and through the sometimes halting words of a single Christian expressing his most fundamental hopes. One way or another, it is the Church, past or present, collectively or individually, that puts a name to the question life poses to women and men and at the same time offers a direction to them in which to pursue their quest.

WHAT THE CHURCH IS

1. How did the Church begin?

The Church began when the Holy Spirit entered into the followers of Jesus and initiated them to the life of God (Acts 2:1-4).

2. When did this happen?

On the day of Pentecost, a Jewish holy day. After his resurrection Jesus showed himself to his closest friends and others of his followers. When they came to believe that he had really conquered death, Jesus withdrew his visible presence and lives on hidden in his Father. On Pentecost he sent his Spirit and life upon his followers as he had promised (Acts 1:1-9).

3. How did Jesus' followers react to the Spirit?

They announced to everybody the good news of what Jesus had done and invited their hearers to believe in him and live by his Spirit (Acts 2:22-24).

4. What is the Church?

The Church is the worldwide community of those whom God has called to give witness to his Son Jesus and to the new life he has brought to man.

This assembly has several names, the most common being "the people of God" and "the body of Christ" (Acts 1 :6-8).

5. Whom has God called to be witnesses?

Everyone who believes that God has revealed and given himself to men in Jesus Christ.

6. How does the Church give this witness?

By proclaiming in word and deed what God has done in Jesus. As the community of believers the Church must live the life of Jesus in his Spirit, and show his love by her life of brotherhood and service to others (Acts 3:42-47).

7. What activities make up the Church's witness?

Preaching the Word of God and teaching its meaning; celebrating God's decisive action in her liturgy; ministering to the spiritual and

physical needs of men.

8. How does the Church celebrate God's gift to humanity?

Principally in the Mass and sacraments. In these ritual acts the Church celebrates what God has done and thanks God for it.

9. How does the Church minister to humanity’s spiritual needs?

By providing a community of faith, where people can find support and guidance in their response to God. Within this community the Holy Spirit communicates and strengthens the life of God through the sacraments, prayers, and works of service.

10. What are sacraments?

Special actions in the Church through which the life of God is communicated to his people. In the Catholic Church the sacraments are baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony.

11. How does the Church minister to the physical

needs of people?

By giving material aid to those in distress and by cooperating with other concerned people in eradicating the causes of suffering and building

up a better life for women and men.

THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH

12. How many churches are there?

There is but one Church. Jesus brought the same news to all people and summoned all to the same new life. His Church is the union of those who

follow his call (Eph. 4:1-5).

13. What is the reason for the many churches that exist?

(a) Jesus has many million followers. It is necessary for them to group together indifferent places in communities or "churches" of manageable size. So there are many local groupings of the one Church.

(b) Also, in the long history of Christianity there have been grave differences among Jesus' followers over the meaning of his Gospel and the way of living his life. These have resulted in divisions and the appearance of separate groups using the title "Church" with conflicting claims of fidelity to Jesus and his teaching.

14. Who are these groups?

They are principally the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church, and the various Protestant Churches. In modern times other groups have originated independently of these and relate themselves in different ways to Jesus.

15. What is the Roman Catholic Church?

It is the worldwide community of Jesus' followers that is united around the Pope.

16. What is the Eastern Orthodox Church?

It is a family of self-governing Christian communities originating in Eastern Europe and Asia in the earliest days of Christianity. For a

thousand years East and West were united in their following of Jesus, but political, cultural, and theological differences led to a breach in the year 1054. The resulting separation between the Church of the East and of the West has lasted to our own day.

17. What is the Anglican Church?

It is a family of Christian communities that grew out of the 16th-century Reformation in England. The Church in that country asserted her independence of Rome, and the two groups have been separated from one another since. The Episcopal Church is the American member of the Anglican family.

18. What are the Protestant Churches?

They are the continuation or the descendants of those Christian groups which "protested" against certain teachings and practices of the

Western Church in the Reformation of the 16th century. Rome and the papacy resisted their protest, and the separation of various groups within the Church followed. Since then further separations have occurred with new groups coming into existence out of these Reformation churches.

19. In what way is the Church one?

There is only one Jesus and he communicates the same life of God to all who believe in him. At this basic level all Christians are truly united

and the Church is one.

20. In what way is the Church not one?

Historical differences, enmity, and bitterness have driven the followers of Jesus apart so that much of their Christian life is not shared with

one another. Moreover, people’s understanding of Jesus and the meaning of his life and teaching differs, and sometimes these differences prevent

Christians from coming together. As a result, while the Church is one, this unity cannot be seen in her life and it is not always accepted or

understood.

21. What is ecumenism?

It is the acceptance of the basic unity of the Church and the consequent effort to make this unity present and visible in the whole life of the

Church.

22. How do other religions fit in?

In Jesus, God came to humanity in the fullest possible way. However, he also speaks to people in other ways, and over the centuries people have responded to him under different circumstances. The great religions of the world express some of these different experiences human beings have had of God.

OFFICES IN THE CHURCH

23. What is the sacrament of holy orders?

It is the act by which the Church chooses and empowers certain individuals to carry out special functions for the building up of Jesus' Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. The major orders of the Church are deacon, priest and bishop.

24. What are the functions of those in holy orders?

The functions vary according to the office an ordained person holds. Generally, they have to do with teaching, administering the sacraments,

and governing the Church.

25. What kind of authority does the Church have?

There are two kinds of authority in the Church: the ordinary authority every society has to organize and direct its own affairs, and the

special authority given by Jesus to his disciples to teach and act in his name.

26. How does the Church exercise her ordinary authority?

In the usual way of enacting laws to regulate her internal affairs, to promote the good of all, and to fulfill the purposes of the Church.

27. How does she exercise the special authority given by Jesus?

Her teaching, worship, and healing are done in the name of Jesus, and his person and power are present to her when she acts under this authority.

28. Who in the Church exercises authority?

The Pope and the bishops exercise authority for the Church. Others, clergy and laity, can participate in the exercise of the Church's authority in different degrees.

29. Who is the Pope?

He is a visible sign of Jesus and the symbol of unity for the Church. Together with the bishops, and as their head, he is the universal teacher and governor of the Church.

30. Who are the bishops?

They are visible signs of Jesus in each locality and the symbol of unity for the Church there. Each diocesan bishop is the principal teacher and governor of the Church in that locality. Worldwide, all the bishops, together with the Pope, are the official witnesses to the faith of the whole Church and responsible for her life throughout the world.

31. What is an ecumenical council?

It is an assembly of the whole Church under the leadership of the Pope. In modern times it has been almost entirely made up of the bishops of

the Church.

32. What is infallibility?

It is a gift of the Holy Spirit by which the Church's faith is protected from error.

BAPTISM INTO THE CHURCH

The Church is Jesus Christ become a way of life. What Christians believe about him, how they relate to him, how they think their lives should reflect his teaching-all this has been worked out in considerable detail over the centuries so that there is at hand a practical expression of the Christian faith in terms of human living. Like that faith, this way of life is never perfectly expressed but is caught up in some measure with particular historical and cultural

peculiarities. Despite these limitations, for the believing Christian

the Church is the only place where they can live out their faith to the fullest. A Christian needs to hear the Gospel again and again. Christians need to be a part of the continuing work of Jesus in the world. And they need the company of their fellow Christians as they grows in faith, takes his place in Jesus' mission, and celebrates what God has done for humankind. To come to belief in Jesus is to come to the Church. To enter the life of Jesus, one enters into the life of the Church. Faith may come quietly from within, but the Christian response to it is quite public. The person who recognizes his Father in Jesus comes to the Church and asks for baptism.

1. How does a person enter the Church?

By a new birth. This time a person is born into the life of God. Simultaneously, he joins the community of Jesus' followers who share that

life with him (John 3:1-4).

2. How does the new birth take place?

Through baptism and the Spirit (John 3:5-8).

3. What is baptism?

Baptism is a sacrament consisting of poured water and spoken words that together signify coming to life in God.

4. What is the significance of water?

It's a sign of life-giving and of cleansing. Life on this earth probably originated in its waters, and water is universally used for washing.

5. What is the significance of the words?

They signify that the life the person enters is that of God-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

6. What is the role of the Spirit?

The Holy Spirit unites us to Jesus so that we share with him the life of God he brought into the world.

7. What is the result of baptism?

A person is reconciled with God: his sins are forgiven, he receives the life of God, and becomes part of God's people (John 3:16-17).

8. How is reconciliation possible?

In Jesus Christ God and human beings have been reconciled. Baptism unites the new Christian so closely to Jesus that he shares in his death and resurrection. Through this sacrament he dies to his old self and rises to new life (Rom. 6:1-11).

9. What is necessary for baptism?

Faith in Jesus Christ and the desire to follow him with his Church (Acts 8:35-39).

10. What is confirmation?

It is another sacrament that confirms or strengthens the life of the Spirit received at baptism.

11. How is it given?

The principal sign here is made by the bishop as he extends his hands over the confirmed and prays that the Holy Spirit come upon them.

12. Why are people confirmed?

To strengthen them in the mature and responsible discharge of their mission to bear witness to Jesus Christ and serve their fellow human beings.

The Sacrament of the Eucharist

Baptism begins the Christian life. It initiates someone into the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Their vital presence and love floodlights human living and rolls back its limitations. A sense of belonging to the Father of all creation, a realization of deeper purpose and importance in all that one does, a desire to stretch out for the fullest possession of the Father's gifts-these are some of the qualities that make the life of faith so liberating and attractive.

But baptism is only a start. There is a whole life to be lived after it. The Christian must continually come awake to that life and grow ever more alive with it. All human faith-activities offer possibilities for this kind of revitalization-prayer, the sacraments, hearing the Word of God, Christ-like service of others, etc. Some of these are more important than others. Of

them all, the most important and indeed the central act of the Christian Church is the sacrament of the Eucharist, or the Mass. In this great celebration of

Their common faith, Jesus' followers relive the experience of him and thank their Father for it. At Mass each Christian remembers who he is and what

his Father has given him. At the same time, he receives again the same gift of Jesus Christ and more deeply into union with him in the Holy Mass is the place where the Christian unity both acts out its faith and is renewed strengthened in all its members.

THE EUCHARIST AS MEMORY

1. What is the Mass?

It is the Church's way of doing what Jesus did the Last Supper (I Cor. 11:23-26).

2. Why does the Church do this?

In order to remember Jesus and to have a union with him.

3. What did Jesus do at the Last Supper?

He gave bread and wine to his apostles to eat and drink, telling them that it was his own body and blood. He then asked them to remember him always by doing this same thing among themselves (Luke 22:14-20).

4. How does the Church do this at Mass?

Church recreates the Last Supper by 19ing followers of Jesus together and

recalling through readings and prayers what God has done for his people. Then the priest announces what Jesus said and did at the Last Supper and himself offers bread (and, on some occasions, wine) to the people to eat.

THE EUCHARIST AS JESUS’ ACTION

5. What was the effect of what Jesus did at the Last Supper?

His words and power made him really present in the bread and wine that he gave his apostles to eat so that they actually received Jesus in that

meal and were united with him (John 6:48-59).

6. What did this do to the apostles?

It made them one with Jesus and all that he did. They shared his gift of himself to his Father on the cross and in the Father's gift of life to

Jesus in the resurrection (I Cor. 10:14-21).

7. Does the Mass do more than remember Jesus?

Yes. Jesus himself is more than a memory. Through his resurrection he is present and active among us in his Spirit. The Mass is the place

where the Church not only remembers Jesus but actually brings him and his saving death and resurrection into the present so that his followers

may become part of it.

8. How can the Church do this?

Because Jesus is united to his Church in the Holy Spirit. When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, Jesus is really there, and it is he who does once more what he did at the Last Supper.

THE EUCHARIST AS JESUS' PRESENCE

9. How is Jesus present at Mass?

In several ways. Jesus is present in his Word as the people listen to the Scripture readings. Jesus is present in the priest and in the people through whom he acts to do again what he did at the Last Supper. And Jesus is also present in a real way in the bread and wine that symbolize his body and blood.

10. How else does the Church express this presence of Jesus in the Eucharist?

By preserving the consecrated bread and in the

ceremony of benediction.

11. What is reservation of the Blessed Sacrament?

At the end of communion the remaining consecrated bread is placed in the tabernacle and reverently preserved. Thus, the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist is always available both as a continuing sign of Jesus' real

presence among his people and as spiritual food for the sick and dying.

12. What is benediction?

It is a brief ceremony wherein the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist is exposed to the people for reverence and adoration. It concludes

with the priest blessing the people with the consecrated bread.

THE EUCHARIST AS RITUAL

13. What are the main parts of the Mass?

The liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the meal.

14. What is liturgy?

It is the Church's communal act of giving praise to God and making people holy.

15. What is the liturgy of the Word?

It is the part of the Mass in which the people speak to their Father and listen to his Word. It consists of prayers, hymns, Scripture readings and a sermon. It lasts from the beginning of Mass until the end of the Creed.

16. What is the liturgy of the meal?

It is the part of the Mass that reenacts in words and deeds what took place at the Last Supper. In this service the Christian people enter into

Jesus' gift of himself to the Father and receive in turn the Father's gift to them of Jesus. This liturgy begins with the offertory and ends with

communion.

17. What happens at the offertory?

Bread and wine are prepared for the eucharistic meal.

18. What is the consecration of the Mass?

This is the part of Mass that announces what Jesus did at the Last Supper. It reminds us that he gave thanks to his Father and offered bread and wine to his apostles to eat and drink as his body and blood. This announcement is surrounded by prayers that express its meaning in various ways.

19. What is the communion of the Mass?

It is the meal of consecrated bread that nourishes us with the life of God and unites us to Jesus and to one another.

THE MANY FACETS OF THE EUCHARIST

20. Why is the Mass so important?

Because it brings together all of the gifts the Father has given us in Jesus Christ. It brings into our lives the very presence of Jesus, his

sacrifice of himself on the cross, and the new life of the Spirit opened to us in his resurrection.

21. How is the Mass a sacrifice?

It brings into the present Jesus' own offering of himself to his Father on the cross. By doing this in memory of him, we enter into that offering and

become a part of it.

22. How does the Mass bring us Jesus' resurrection?

Jesus' sacrifice established a common life of friendship and love between the Father and his children. Just as we share in Jesus' death at Mass, so do we also share in the new life of the Holy Spirit poured out on Jesus in his resurrection.

23. What important human things are present at Mass?

All the basic human religious expressions: prayer, thanksgiving, worship, community, love.

24. How is the Mass a prayer?

It is a prayer to the Father in which his people give him thanks and praise for the wonderful future he has given us in his Son Jesus Christ.

There are also times in the Mass in which we ask forgiveness for our sins and beg the Father's blessing upon ourselves and our fellows.

25. How is the Mass thanksgiving?

By remembering what Jesus did at the Last Supper and doing it with him, the Church thanks the Father for opening his life to us.

26. How is the Mass worship?

By entering into the self-giving life and death of Jesus, the Church joins him in giving to the Father the only perfect worship the world

has seen.

27. How are community and love alive at Mass?

In drawing us to union with Jesus, our Father draws us closer to each other. The Holy Spirit guides our responses with God's own love. As an assembly of Jesus' followers, the Eucharist is both an expression of that unity and love that binds us to each other and to Jesus and an action through which the bonds are intensified.

HUMANITY’S RESPONSE TO GOD

The human being as believer

Faith brings a new quality to human life. To believe is to become aware, if not clearly and continuously, at least dimly and haltingly, that God is an active

participant in one's activities and concerns. These take on new value and enduring importance. The believer also senses that this is the way he is meant to live and that all the wonderful potential for life he feels within will develop best in response to the creative summons of God. Such a life with God is also an adventure in self-discovery and growth. It includes a new form of

communication called prayer and a new depth of concern for others called charity. It is a life that has its share of setbacks and disappointments, but they are temporary, for the life of faith is nourished by the very life of God. It gives a person a handhold on the very source of life. That is why the Christian places his give and take with God highest among his goals and aspirations and measures all else by it. It is also why in spite of difficulties and even apparent failure the Christian always has room for joy. His life is plugged into God.

1. What is faith?

Faith is what happens to man when he truly hears the Word of God. It is a free gift by which the Holy Spirit enables a human being to accept the Word completely and give themselves and their life over to the Father (Rom. 10:8-17).

2. How is faith possible?

Only because God freely speaks his Word to a human being and at the same time opens that person’s mind and heart to his presence and love (John 6:44-47).

3. What is the effect of faith?

Something called justification. This means that faith brings a person from a stage of alienation from God into communion with God and with his fellow beings (Rom. 3:21-28).

4. What is grace?

Grace is what happens to man when the Holy Spirit comes to live in him. The Spirit brings God's quality of life to man and all that he does. So profound is the effect of this that thereafter a person is said to live in the "state of grace" (Eph.2:4-10).

5. How does the Spirit come to a person?

In many ways. He first comes from within in faith. Living as he does in the Church, he also comes through prayer and the Church's sacramental life. Finally, he also comes regularly through the people and situations and things that make up our lives (Rom. 8:28-30).

6. How does the Spirit bring people together?

By breathing God's own love into the human love and friendship and the yearning for them that brings men together and ties them to one another.

7. What is hope?

Hope is the realization that God cares and that we can count on him. It is the side of faith that enables us to see good in spite of evil and to expect life forever even in the face of death (Rom. 8:31-39).

8. What is the basis of hope?

People can hope because in Jesus Christ God has committed himself to us forever and will never leave us if only we hang onto him.

9. What is charity?

Charity is the love of God and of our fellow human beings because they too belong to God (I John 4:12-21).

10. How is this kind of love possible?

Because God has given us his own love. The presence in us of the Holy Spirit means we are able to love with the love of God, even our I

enemies, if we will to do so (Rom. 5:5).

11. How important is charity?

It is everything. All of Christianity is love. God is; love. His life is love. His kingdom is love. A human being was created to love, grows through love, and finally finds himself by loving (I Cor. 13:1-7).

12. How can one tell the true Christian?

By the love he shows for other human beings. Jesus said that this is how his followers can be identified (John 13:33-35).

13. What more does God ask of the believer?

Holiness or being like God. God wants us to be as much like him as possible. This means sharing more and more of our life with him so that he can complete the good work he began in us when he first spoke to us (Matt. 5:48).

14. From whom is holiness expected?

From the whole Church. Giving himself to all God makes it possible for everyone to give himself completely to him and to his fellow beings. This doesn't mean that everyone gives himself in the same way, for people are different, but it does mean that all are called to holiness according to the gifts and talents each possesses.

15. What is a saint?

Saints are those whom the Church has declared to be true models of holiness and worth imitating. (Of course, there are many other people about whom the Church has said nothing and whose holiness is known only to God and a very few others. These are saints too, even though they

have not been declared so.)

16. What is necessary for holiness?

An openness to God and a willing response to the guidance of his Holy Spirit (I Thess. 5:12-22).

17. What is prayer?

Prayer is communication with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In prayer, women and men turns to God and listens for his Word. As God's Word takes hold within, each person learns to answer with their own words.

18. What is the principal Christian prayer?

The Eucharist. Here God's people gather both to hear his Word and to receive the Word made flesh and to express their thanks and praise.

19. How does a person pray?

One can pray with a group or alone; in words or in silence; kneeling, standing, sitting, or prone; in church or out; these are all incidental

circumstances. The essence of prayer is conversation with God (Matt. 6:5-8).

20. What can we pray about?

We can pray about everything. God loves us enough so that whatever is important to us is important to him. We always have something for which to give him thanks and praise. Often there are things for which we are sorry. And he invites us to ask him for everything.

21. For whom should we pray?

For everyone. For ourselves, our families and friends; our enemies; the poor, sick and suffering; the dead and the dying; the whole Church; suffering nations; the list is endless. It is good to vary these subjects of prayer from day to day so as not to become mechanical about them.

22. How often should we pray?

Regularly. Daily, if possible, for when communication is weak or infrequent, people tend to forget the other person and drift away from him.

23. What form of prayer can be used?

Any form that is used by the Church or that the person praying finds helpful can be used. The best form we have is Jesus' own prayer, the

"Our Father" (Matt. 6:9-15).

24. To whom should we pray?

All prayer is finally to God, and most of our prayers will be directed that way. However, sometimes we like to address the Blessed Mother or a saint and ask them to join especially in our prayer.

25. What does sickness and suffering play in the life of the Christian?

Sickness and suffering offer the Christian the possibility of being a special witness to the sufferings of Jesus. By joining his own suffering to that of Jesus, what is a burden becomes a source of spiritual growth and liberation from self (II Cor. 12:7-10).

26. What is the sacrament of the anointing of the sick?

It is an act of the Church by which, through prayer and the anointing of the senses with blessed oil, a person who is seriously ill is strengthened in a special way by the Holy Spirit. This sacrament is also called "extreme unction" (Jas. 5:14-18).

27. What is the effect of the anointing of the sick?

The sick person's suffering is joined to the sufferings of Jesus, his sins are forgiven, and sometimes he is physically healed as well. If his sickness is final, then the sacrament strengthens him for death and prepares him for heaven.

Christian Marriage

Faith not only introduces new activities and strengths into human life but it also gives new depth to some familiar human institutions. Marriage is one of these and this shouldn't surprise us. Anything expressive of love is already a reaching out to God, and we should expect God to use human efforts at selflessness to draw them ever more deeply into God’s own life. And so God does.

Marriage is a lifelong partnership of love. It schools people in self-giving and sacrifice. It creates a climate of care for the raising of children. It educates

the young to cooperation and concern for others. Of such materials is the kingdom of heaven constructed, and Jesus, knowing the best that is in humanity, has so vitalized human marriage that it is for the Christian a basic expression and realization of faith.

1. What is Christian marriage?

A man and woman totally sharing life, love and Christian faith with one another and with God.

2. What is special about Christian marriage?

It is a sacrament. In this case, the human relationship of marriage is the sign through which God shows his love and communicates God’s life.

3. How is marriage a sacrament?

The Holy Spirit breathes God's own love into the love between husband and wife so that each becomes a grace for the other. As a result their

many acts of self-giving not only strengthen their life together but also cause them to grow in the life of God.

4. How does the sacrament of marriage show God's love for humankind?

By showing how close Jesus is to his people. St. Paul tells us that marriage is a sign of the relationship between Jesus and his Church. In

this best human example of love we see how deeply Jesus is committed to his followers(Eph.5:21-33).

5. How is the sacrament of marriage given?

It is given first through the mutual promises between husband and wife in the marriage ceremony. Thereafter it continues to be given as these promises are carried out in the years of married life.

6. Who administers the sacrament?

The couple themselves. As they selflessly share their life in God, the husband is the minister of God's grace to the wife and the wife to the

husband.

7. What is the function of the priest at a marriage?<