The Catholic Letter

Where Doctrine Becomes Practical

Catechism Commentary

Chapter 3

A Commentary on Catholic Catechism Articles

Catechism Paragraph 156

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Catechism Commentary - Chapter 3
Monday, 05 October 2009 13:39
On Reasonable Madness For God What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe "because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived". So "that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit." Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability "are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all"; they are "motives of credibility" (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the mind".
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Catechism Commentary - Chapter 3
Wednesday, 05 August 2009 23:29
On Growing In Faith In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace: "Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace." When you read this paragraph, it all seems a little too much like a well-oiled machine. Gear A turns Gear B, they work in conjunction to push a doohickey, and the doohickey finally pumps out “faith.” Perhaps it is like a well-oiled machine, when everything works right. But generally, it doesn’t work right. Our intellects get muddled and sludged up my confusing and contrary information. We have a tough time discerning truth from lie. Our cooperation gets rusty, and sometimes it stops things up. And as for the divine grace—there are times in all of our lives when it appears we just aren’t getting any.
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Catechism Commentary - Chapter 3
Monday, 13 July 2009 16:00
On Gratitude For Life When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood," but from "my Father who is in heaven". Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and `makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.'" Here we see this almost confusing teaching again—that faith is a gift from God. I say ‘confusing’ because this might lead someone to believe that man’s salvation is somehow predetermined (or predestined) by God’s decision to give faith to this or that person. But predestination, as you know, is an idea rejected by the Catholic Church. The next paragraph of the catechism specifically refutes the idea by describing faith as a human act. That would also seem to contradict paragraph 152, unless that is, you’re able to accept certain paradoxes, and Catholic teaching is absolutely full of paradoxes.
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Catechism Commentary - Chapter 3
Tuesday, 30 June 2009 14:17
On Faith In The Holy Spirit One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to men who Jesus is. For "no one can say "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit", who "searches everything, even the depths of God. . No one comprehends the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God." Only God knows God completely: we believe in the Holy Spirit because he is God. The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Back in Paragraph 150, we discussed the way to proceed in faith, even when our understanding of doctrine doesn’t conform to the truth. In this paragraph, we talk about faith in the Holy Spirit, which often involves trusting in God when our emotions don’t conform to the truth.
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Catechism Commentary - Chapter 3
Tuesday, 09 June 2009 17:18
On Our Belief In Christ For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his "beloved Son," in whom the Father is "well pleased"; God tells us to listen to him. The Lord himself said to his disciples: "Believe in God, believe also in me." We can believe in Jesus Christ because he is himself God, the Word made flesh: "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known." Because he "has seen the Father," Jesus Christ is the only one who knows him and can reveal him. One of the great things about our religion is that it doesn’t offer “God” as some sort of abstract idea. God is something to us, not just anything. Even in the Old Testament, God did things, said things, and even expected men to do things in return. In the New Testament, the idea of one God materializes before us in a way that doesn’t happen in other religions.
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