22. God tells us to listen to Jesus.

God tells us to listen to Jesus.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 22

Ave Maria Series

22.  How does one go about believing?

Someone who believes is seeking a personal union with God and is ready to believe God in everything that he shows (reveals) about himself.  [150-152]

A Saturday evening mass at the Cathedral of St. Andrew, Little Rock, Arkansas.   Photo by Don C. Bragg …..22

At the beginning of faith, there is often an emotional disturbance or uneasiness.  The person senses that the visible world and the normal course of things cannot be all there is.  He feels touched by a mystery and follows the traces that point to the existence of God and gradually finds the confidence to speak to God and finally to unite himself to him in freedom.  In John’s Gospel it says, “No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known” (John 1:18).  That is why we must believe Jesus, the Son of God, if we want to know what God would like to communicate to us.  Believing, therefore, means accepting Jesus and staking one’s whole life on him.

“Faith by its very nature is the acceptance of a truth that our reason cannot attain; simply and unconditionally on the basis of testimony.”  Bl. John Henry Newman (1801-1890, convert, later Cardinal of the Church, English philosopher and theologian)

“To believe in a God means to realize that the facts of the world are not the whole story.  To believe in a God means to realize that life has a meaning.”  Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951, Austrian philosopher)

[150-152]

II. "I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED"(2 Timothy 1:12.)¹⁶

To believe in God alone

150  Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. As personal adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature.(Compare Jeremiah 17:5-6; Psalm 40:5; Ps 146:3-4.)¹⁷ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

To believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God

151  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.(Mark 1:11; compare Mk 9:7.)¹⁸  The Lord himself said to his disciples: "Believe in God, believe also in me."(John 14:1.)¹⁹  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."(John 1:18.)²⁰  Because he "has seen the Father", Jesus Christ is the only one who knows him and can reveal him.(John 6:46; compare Matthew 11:27.)²¹ –CCC

To believe in the Holy Spirit

…….152   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",(1 Corinthians 12:3.)²²  who "searches everything, even the depths of God.  No one comprehends the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God."(1 Corinthians 2:10-11.)²³   Only God knows God completely: we believe in the Holy Spirit because he is God. --CCC

The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. --CCC