24. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Mt. 18:20

“Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Mt. 18:20

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 24

Ave Maria Series

24.  What does my faith have to do with the Church?

No one can believe alone and by himself, just as no one can live alone and by himself.  We receive the faith from the Church and live it out in fellowship with the people with whom we share our faith.  [166-169, 181]

Mass at Our Lady Queen of the Universe Catholic church, Minocqua, WI.  The presiding deacon is reading the Gospel lesson. …..24

Faith is the most personal thing that a person has, yet it is not a private matter.  Anyone who wants to believe must be able to say both “I” and “we”, because a faith you cannot share and communicate would be irrational.  The individual believer gives his free assent to the “we believe” of the Church.  From her he received the faith.  She was the one who handed it down through the centuries and then to him, preserved it from falsifications, and caused it to shine forth again and again.  Believing is therefore participation in a common conviction.  The faith of others supports me, just as the fervor of my faith enkindles and strengthens others.  The Church emphasizes the “I” and the “we” of faith by using two professions of faith in her liturgies:  the Apostle’ Creed, the creed that begins “I believe” (Credo), and the Great Creed of Nicaea-Constantinople, which in its original form starts with the words “We believe” (Credimus).

CREED  (from the Latin credo=I believe):  The first word of the Apostles’ Creed became the name for various formulas of the Church’s profession of faith, in which the essential contents of the faith are authoritatively summarized.

“Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”  Matthew 18:20

[166-169, 181]

WE BELIEVE

166  Faith is a personal act - the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone. You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others. Our love for Jesus and for our neighbor impels us to speak to others about our faith. Each believer is thus a link in the great chain of believers. I cannot believe without being carried by the faith of others, and by my faith I help support others in the faith. --Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

167   "I believe" (Apostles' Creed) is the faith of the Church professed personally by each believer, principally during Baptism. "We believe" (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) is the faith of the Church confessed by the bishops assembled in council or more generally by the liturgical assembly of believers. "I believe" is also the Church, our mother, responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both "I believe" and "We believe". --CCC

"LORD, LOOK UPON THE FAITH OF YOUR CHURCH"

168  It is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes and sustains my faith. Everywhere, it is the Church that first confesses the Lord: "Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you", as we sing in the hymn "Te Deum"; with her and in her, we are won over and brought to confess: "I believe", "We believe". It is through the Church that we receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism. In the Rituale Romanum, the minister of Baptism asks the catechumen: "What do you ask of God's Church?" And the answer is: "Faith." "What does faith offer you?" "Eternal life."(Roman Ritual, Rite of baptism of adults.)⁵⁴ --CCC

169  Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: "We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation."(Faustus of Riez, De Spiritu Sancto 1,2:Patrologia Latina 62,II.)⁵⁵   Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in the faith. --CCC

IN BRIEF

181  "Believing" is an ecclesial act. The Church's faith precedes, engenders, supports and nourishes our faith. The Church is the mother of all believers. "No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother" (St. Cyprian, De unit. 6: Patrologia Latina 4, 519). --CCC