34. God alone is enough

God alone is enough

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 34

Ave Maria series

34.  What should you do once you have come to know God?

Once you have come to know God, you must put him in the first place in your life.  And with that a new life begins.  You should be able to recognize Christians by the fact that they love even their enemies.  [222-227, 229]

My sister Jane Loreley (95) who keeps God first in her life.  2015 photo.…..34

After all, to know God means to know that he who created and willed me, who looks at me every moment with love, who blesses and upholds my life, who has the world and the people I love in his hand, who waits longingly for me, who wishes to fulfill and perfect me and to make me dwell forever with him—is there.  To nod with your head at this is not enough.  Christians must adopt Jesus’ way of life.

“My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you.  My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you.  My Lord and my God, detach me from myself and give my all to you.”  St. Nicholas of Flue (1417-1487, Swiss mystic and hermit)

222-227, 229

THE IMPLICATIONS OF FAITH IN ONE GOD

222  Believing in God, the only One, and loving him with all our being has enormous consequences for our whole life. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

223  It means coming to know God's greatness and majesty: "Behold, God is great, and we know him not."( Job 36:26.)⁴⁶ Therefore, we must "serve God first".(St. Joan of Arc.)⁴⁷ –CCC

224  It means living in thanksgiving: if God is the only One, everything we are and have comes from him: "What have you that you did not receive?"( 1 Corinthians 4:7.)⁴⁸ "What shall I render to the LORD for all his bounty to me?"( Psalm 116:12.)⁴⁹ –CCC

225  It means knowing the unity and true dignity of all men: everyone is made in the image and likeness of God.( Genesis 1:26.)⁵⁰ –CCC

226  It means making good use of created things: faith in God, the only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him: 

My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you.

My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you.

          My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.( St. Nicholas of Flüe; compare Matthew 5:29-30; Mt 16:24-26.)⁵¹ --CCC

227  It means trusting God in every circumstance, even in adversity. A prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus wonderfully expresses this trust:

Let nothing trouble you / Let nothing frighten you
Everything passes / God never changes 
Patience / Obtains all 
Whoever has God / Wants for nothing
God alone is enough.

( St. Teresa of Jesus, Poesías 30, in The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, vol. III, tr. K. Kavanaugh, OCD, and O. Rodriguez, OCD (Washington DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1985), 386 no. 9, tr. by John Wall.)⁵² --CCC

IN BRIEF

229   Faith in God leads us to turn to him alone as our first origin and our ultimate goal, and neither to prefer anything to him nor to substitute anything for him. --CCC