Scott1
Well-Known Member
Human Life - To Know and Love God Fr. John Corapi, SOLT
2/9/2004
God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. So teaches the very first paragraph of the Catechism (CCC #1). At a time in the history of the western world when humanity so often seems to be suffering from the so-called "identity crisis," a cry needs to echo from the rooftops: Awake, arise o sleeper, ascend men and women of the universe to your full potential: Become who you are; become the living presence of Jesus Christ to this suffering world!
How often I have been asked by the people, often enough young people, Why are we alive? What is the meaning of human existence? Those of us who learned our Faith from the old Baltimore Catechism remember that the reason God created us is to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him so that we might be happy with Him forever in heaven. This may seem an oversimplification to some, yet it is absolutely true.
God created us to share his own divine life. He sent his only Son as our Lord and Savior, our Brother and our Friend, that we "might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3-4). Jesus Christ, who is incarnate Truth, taught nothing less than himself, and "so that this call should respond throughout the world, Christ sent forth the apostles he had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the gospel..." (CCC #2). Christ taught the Apostles, and they handed on his teaching faithfully to their successors the bishops in union with Peter's successor, the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.
Every one of us, incorporated into Christ through Baptism, has a solemn obligation to hand on faithfully what we have received through the Church. "All Christ's faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer" (CCC #3; cf. Acts 2:42). Since we have been given the gift of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in our time, catechesis is rightly taking on a reward prominence in the formation of the People of God.
As the Catechism itself tells us (CCC #4), that name catechesis was given from early in the Church's history "to the totality of the Church's efforts to make disciples, to help men believe that Jesus is the Son of God so that believing they might have life in his name, and to educate and instruct them in this life, thus building up the body of Christ" (Cf. JPII, Catechisi Tradendae 1;2). We are much in need of an infusion of that life in his name in an era which has an obvious latent death wish. From the first moment of conception to the last moments of old age, life is under attack; from abortion to euthanasia, with suicide and all manner of violence in between, human life is truly under attack. The counterattack to this assault on life is the One who is Life itself--The Way, The Truth, and The Life--Jesus, the Christ.
Catechesis, quite simply, educates us in Christ and through Christ so that we might become everything we have been created to be: the presence of Christ through grace in the world. It is sorely needed today. The Church's own definition of catechesis is helpful: "Catechesis is an education in the faith of young children, young people and adults which includes especially in teaching of Christian doctrine imparted, generally speaking, in an organic and systematic way, with a view to initiating the hearers into the fullness of Christian life" (CCC, #5; cf.Catechesi Tradendae, 18).
Most of the misery and unhappiness in the world today is due to the undeniable fact that many do not realize that only by loving, knowing and serving God can man be happy, for only in Jesus Christ, true God and true man, can a man or woman find their true identity and purpose in life. "The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God" (CCC, #27); Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in You," said St.Augustine, echoing the inmost reality of our yearning for happiness. Only in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can we find such true happiness.
It is through the Church's Magisterium, authentic and authoritative interpreter of God's revelation, that men and women can be certain that their concept of God is accurate and in accord with the objective reality of God's revelation of Himself to us in the Person of Jesus Christ. It was at Caesaria Phillipi that Jesus asked his followers who people say that He is (Mt. 16:13f). What He received was conflicting and contradictory responses: Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He then asked them who they themselves thought He was. Only one voice rang out with the resonate note of truth, the voice of Peter: "You are the Christ, Son of the living God!" Jesus, for his part, named Peter; "You are the Rock and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell (the very power of eternal death) will not prevail against it." My dear friends, if you want to know Jesus Christ and his teaching, if you want to know the true face of Truth, the true identity of Christ, then look to the successor of St. Peter, the Holy Father Pope John Paul II. Do not listen to the discordant and dissident voices of the deceived who go about deceiving others. Look rather to the successor of St. Peter and the bishops united to him, the true teachers and shepherds of the flock. Then, through the gift of obedience, having ears with which to listen, you will be enabled not only to hear, but to become a part of the magnificent symphony of eternal Truth.
2/9/2004
God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. So teaches the very first paragraph of the Catechism (CCC #1). At a time in the history of the western world when humanity so often seems to be suffering from the so-called "identity crisis," a cry needs to echo from the rooftops: Awake, arise o sleeper, ascend men and women of the universe to your full potential: Become who you are; become the living presence of Jesus Christ to this suffering world!
How often I have been asked by the people, often enough young people, Why are we alive? What is the meaning of human existence? Those of us who learned our Faith from the old Baltimore Catechism remember that the reason God created us is to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him so that we might be happy with Him forever in heaven. This may seem an oversimplification to some, yet it is absolutely true.
God created us to share his own divine life. He sent his only Son as our Lord and Savior, our Brother and our Friend, that we "might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3-4). Jesus Christ, who is incarnate Truth, taught nothing less than himself, and "so that this call should respond throughout the world, Christ sent forth the apostles he had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the gospel..." (CCC #2). Christ taught the Apostles, and they handed on his teaching faithfully to their successors the bishops in union with Peter's successor, the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.
Every one of us, incorporated into Christ through Baptism, has a solemn obligation to hand on faithfully what we have received through the Church. "All Christ's faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer" (CCC #3; cf. Acts 2:42). Since we have been given the gift of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in our time, catechesis is rightly taking on a reward prominence in the formation of the People of God.
As the Catechism itself tells us (CCC #4), that name catechesis was given from early in the Church's history "to the totality of the Church's efforts to make disciples, to help men believe that Jesus is the Son of God so that believing they might have life in his name, and to educate and instruct them in this life, thus building up the body of Christ" (Cf. JPII, Catechisi Tradendae 1;2). We are much in need of an infusion of that life in his name in an era which has an obvious latent death wish. From the first moment of conception to the last moments of old age, life is under attack; from abortion to euthanasia, with suicide and all manner of violence in between, human life is truly under attack. The counterattack to this assault on life is the One who is Life itself--The Way, The Truth, and The Life--Jesus, the Christ.
Catechesis, quite simply, educates us in Christ and through Christ so that we might become everything we have been created to be: the presence of Christ through grace in the world. It is sorely needed today. The Church's own definition of catechesis is helpful: "Catechesis is an education in the faith of young children, young people and adults which includes especially in teaching of Christian doctrine imparted, generally speaking, in an organic and systematic way, with a view to initiating the hearers into the fullness of Christian life" (CCC, #5; cf.Catechesi Tradendae, 18).
Most of the misery and unhappiness in the world today is due to the undeniable fact that many do not realize that only by loving, knowing and serving God can man be happy, for only in Jesus Christ, true God and true man, can a man or woman find their true identity and purpose in life. "The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God" (CCC, #27); Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in You," said St.Augustine, echoing the inmost reality of our yearning for happiness. Only in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can we find such true happiness.
It is through the Church's Magisterium, authentic and authoritative interpreter of God's revelation, that men and women can be certain that their concept of God is accurate and in accord with the objective reality of God's revelation of Himself to us in the Person of Jesus Christ. It was at Caesaria Phillipi that Jesus asked his followers who people say that He is (Mt. 16:13f). What He received was conflicting and contradictory responses: Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He then asked them who they themselves thought He was. Only one voice rang out with the resonate note of truth, the voice of Peter: "You are the Christ, Son of the living God!" Jesus, for his part, named Peter; "You are the Rock and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell (the very power of eternal death) will not prevail against it." My dear friends, if you want to know Jesus Christ and his teaching, if you want to know the true face of Truth, the true identity of Christ, then look to the successor of St. Peter, the Holy Father Pope John Paul II. Do not listen to the discordant and dissident voices of the deceived who go about deceiving others. Look rather to the successor of St. Peter and the bishops united to him, the true teachers and shepherds of the flock. Then, through the gift of obedience, having ears with which to listen, you will be enabled not only to hear, but to become a part of the magnificent symphony of eternal Truth.