Saturday, February 29, 2020

8. God is faithful in all his work


 YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 8
AVE MARIA SERIES “ So that all may be one…” Jn 17:21
How does God reveal himself in the Old Testament?
God shows himself in the Old Testament as God who created the world out of love and remains faithful to men even when they have fallen away from him into sin.  



Then the Lord said to Noah: “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone in this age have I found to be truly just.” -- Genesis 7:1   … 8



God makes it possible to experience him in history:  With Noah he establishes a covenant to save all living things.  He calls Abraham so as to make him “the father of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:5b) and to bless “all the families of the earth” in him (Genesis 12:3b). The people Israel, sprung from Abraham, becomes his special possession.  To Moses he introduces himself by name.  His mysterious name YHWH, usually transcribed Yahweh, means “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14).  He frees Israel from slavery in Egypt, establishes a covenant with them on Sinai, and through Moses gives them the Law.  Again and again, God sends prophets to his people to call them to conversion and to the renewal of the covenant.  The prophets proclaim that God will establish a new and everlasting covenant, which will bring about a radical renewal and definitive redemption.  This covenant will be open to all human beings.
REVELATION  means that God opens himself, shows himself, and speaks to the world voluntarily.
“We cannot talk about God, but woe to the one who remains silent about him.”  --St. Augustine (354-430, Doctor of the Church, the most important writer and theologian of the early Church
“This is (the theologian’s) mission:  in the loquacity of our day and of other times, in the plethora of words, to make the essential words heard.  Through words, it means making present the Word, the Word who comes from God, the Word who is God.”  --Pope Benedict XVI, October 6, 2006
 “All that is said about God presupposes something said by God.”  --St. Edith Stein (1891-1942), Jewish Christian, philosopher, and Carmelite nun, concentration camp victim.
[CCC ¶54-64, 70-72]
In the beginning God makes himself known
54 "God, who creates and conserves all things by his Word, provides men with constant evidence of himself in created realities. And furthermore, wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation - he manifested himself to our first parents from the very beginning."6 He invited them to intimate communion with himself and clothed them with resplendent grace and justice. 


55 This revelation was not broken off by our first parents' sin. "After the fall, [God] buoyed them up with the hope of salvation, by promising redemption; and he has never ceased to show his solicitude for the human race. For he wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing."7

Even when he disobeyed you and lost your friendship you did not abandon him to the power of death. . . Again and again you offered a covenant to man.8
8. Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV, 118.

56 After the unity of the human race was shattered by sin God at once sought to save humanity part by part. The covenant with Noah after the flood gives expression to the principle of the divine economy toward the "nations", in other words, towards men grouped "in their lands, each with [its] own language, by their families, in their nations".9
9. Genesis 10:5; compare Gen 9:9-10, 16; Gen 10:20-31.

57 This state of division into many nations is at once cosmic, social and religious. It is intended to limit the pride of fallen humanity united only in its perverse ambition to forge its own unity as at Babel.11 But, because of sin, both polytheism and the idolatry of the nation and of its rulers constantly threaten this provisional economy with the perversion of paganism. 12
11. Compare Wisdom, 10:5; Genesis 11:4-6.
12. Compare Romans 1:18-25.

58 The covenant with Noah remains in force during the times of the Gentiles, until the universal proclamation of the Gospel.13 The Bible venerates several great figures among the Gentiles: Abel the just, the king-priest Melchisedek - a figure of Christ - and the upright "Noah, Daniel, and Job".14 Scripture thus expresses the heights of sanctity that can be reached by those who live according to the covenant of Noah, waiting for Christ to "gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad".15

God chooses Abraham
59 In order to gather together scattered humanity God calls Abram from his country, his kindred and his father's house and makes Abraham "the father of a multitude of nations".16 "In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed."17

60 The people descended from Abraham would be the trustee of the promise made to the patriarchs, the chosen people, called to prepare for that day when God would gather all his children into the unity of the Church.18  They would be the root on to which the Gentiles would be grafted, once they came to believe.19
18. Compare  Romans 11:28; John 11:52Jn 10:16.
19. Compare Romans 11:17-18,24.

61 The patriarchs, prophets and certain other Old Testament figures have been and always will be honored as saints in all the Church's liturgical traditions. 

God forms his people Israel
62 After the patriarchs, God formed Israel as his people by freeing them from slavery in Egypt. He established with them the covenant of Mount Sinai and, through Moses, gave them his law so that they would recognize him and serve him as the one living and true God, the provident Father and just judge, and so that they would look for the promised Savior.20

63 Israel is the priestly people of God, "called by the name of the LORD", and "the first to hear the word of God", the people of "elder brethren" in the faith of Abraham.21
21. Deuteronomy 28: 10; Roman Missal, Good Friday, General Intercession VI; see also Exodus 19:6.

64 Through the prophets, God forms his people in the hope of salvation, in the expectation of a new and everlasting Covenant intended for all, to be written on their hearts.22  The prophets proclaim a radical redemption of the People of God, purification from all their infidelities, a salvation which will include all the nations.23   Above all, the poor and humble of the Lord will bear this hope. Such holy women as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Judith and Esther kept alive the hope of Israel's salvation. The purest figure among them is Mary.24
24Compare Luke 1:48

IN BRIEF
70   Beyond the witness to himself that God gives in created things, he manifested himself to our first parents, spoke to them and, after the fall, promised them salvation* and offered them his covenant. 
*Compare Genesis 3:15.

71 God made an everlasting covenant with Noah and with all living beings**. It will remain in force as long as the world lasts. 
**Compare Genesis 9:16.

72 God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him and his descendants. By the covenant God formed his people and revealed his law to them through Moses. Through the prophets, he prepared them to accept the salvation destined for all humanity. 

Illustration: OT  Noah Ark Deluge Flood

Friday, February 28, 2020

7. God approaches us men

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 7
AVE MARIA SERIES “ So that all may be one…” Jn 17:21
God Approaches Us Men
Why did God have to show himself in order for us to be able to know what he is like?  
Man can know by reason that God exists, but not what God is really like.  Yet because God would very much like to be known, he has revealed himself. 





Jesus The Good Shepherd    “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.”  -- John 3:16 ….. 7




God did not have to reveal himself to us.  But he did it—out of love.  Just as in human love one can know something about the beloved person only if he opens his heart to us, so too we know something about God’s inmost thoughts only because the eternal and mysterious God has opened himself to us out of love.  From creation on, through the patriarchs and the prophets down to the definitive REVELATION in his Son Jesus Christ, God has spoken again and again to mankind.  In him he has poured out his heart to us and made his inmost being visible for us.
“Something incomprehensible is not for that reason less real.”  --Blaise Pascal (1588-1651)
REVELATION:  Revelation means that God opens himself, shows himself, and speaks to the world voluntarily.
[CCC ¶50-53, 68-69]

GOD COMES TO MEET MAN
50 By natural reason man can know God with certainty, on the basis of his works. But there is another order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own powers: the order of divine Revelation.Through an utterly free decision, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. This he does by revealing the mystery, his plan of loving goodness, formed from all eternity in Christ, for the benefit of all men. God has fully revealed this plan by sending us his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
1. Compare Dei Filius:Denzinger-Schönmetzer 3015.

GOD REVEALS HIS "PLAN OF LOVING GOODNESS"
51 "It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature.2

52 God, who "dwells in unapproachable light", wants to communicate his own divine life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten Son.3 By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing him and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity. 

53 The divine plan of Revelation is realized simultaneously "by deeds and words which are intrinsically bound up with each other"4 and shed light on each another. It involves a specific divine pedagogy: God communicates himself to man gradually. He prepares him to welcome by stages the supernatural Revelation that is to culminate in the person and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.

St. Irenaeus of Lyons repeatedly speaks of this divine pedagogy using the image of God and man becoming accustomed to one another: The Word of God dwelt in man and became the Son of man in order to accustom man to perceive God and to accustom God to dwell in man, according to the Father's pleasure.
5. St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3,20,2:Patrologia Graeca 7/1,944; Compare 3,17,1; 4,12,4; 4,21,3.

IN BRIEF
68 By love, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. He has thus provided the definitive, superabundant answer to the questions that man asks himself about the meaning and purpose of his life.

69 God has revealed himself to man by gradually communicating his own mystery in deeds and in words. 

Illustration: JT  Jesus Christ Lamb of God

Thursday, February 27, 2020

6. How can we speak about God?

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 6
AVE MARIA SERIES “ So that all may be one…” Jn 17:21
Can we grasp God at all in concepts?  Is it possible to speak about him meaningfully? 
Although we men are limited and the infinite greatness of God never fits into finite human concepts, we can nevertheless speak rightly about God.  




Transfiguration of Jesus --by Carl Heinrich Bloch 1834-1890. …..6







In order to express something about God, we use imperfect images and limited notions.  And so everything we say about God is subject to the reservation that our language is not equal to God’s greatness.  Therefore we must constantly purify and improve our speech about God.
“Man’s unique grandeur is ultimately based on his capacity to know the truth.  And human beings desire to know the truth.  Yet truth can only be obtained in freedom.  This is the case with all truth, as is clear from the history of science; but it is eminently the case with those truths in which man himself, man as such, is at stake, the truths of the spirit, the truths about good and evil, about the great goals and horizons of life, about our relationship with God.  These truths cannot be attained without profound consequences for the way we live our lives.”  --Pope Benedict XVI, January 9, 2006
[CCC ¶39-43, 48]
HOW CAN WE SPEAK ABOUT GOD?
39 In defending the ability of human reason to know God, the Church is expressing her confidence in the possibility of speaking about him to all men and with all men, and therefore of dialogue with other religions, with philosophy and science, as well as with unbelievers and atheists. 

40 Since our knowledge of God is limited, our language about him is equally so. We can name God only by taking creatures as our starting point, and in accordance with our limited human ways of knowing and thinking. 

41 All creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially man, created in the image and likeness of God. The manifold perfections of creatures - their truth, their goodness, their beauty all reflect the infinite perfection of God. Consequently we can name God by taking his creatures" perfections as our starting point, "for from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator".15  

42 God transcends all creatures. We must therefore continually purify our language of everything in it that is limited, image-bound or imperfect, if we are not to confuse our image of God--"the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable"--with our human representations.16   Our human words always fall short of the mystery of God. 
16. Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Anaphora.

43 Admittedly, in speaking about God like this, our language is using human modes of expression; nevertheless it really does attain to God himself, though unable to express him in his infinite simplicity. Likewise, we must recall that "between Creator and creature no similitude can be expressed without implying an even greater dissimilitude";17 and that "concerning God, we cannot grasp what he is, but only what he is not, and how other beings stand in relation to him." 
17. Lateran Council IV:Denzinger-Schönmetzer 806.

IN BRIEF
48 We really can name God, starting from the manifold perfections of his creatures, which are likenesses of the infinitely perfect God, even if our limited language cannot exhaust the mystery. –CCC

Illustration: JT  Transfiguration by Carl Heinrich Bloch 

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

5. The difficulty in knowing God by reason



YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 5
AVE MARIA SERIES “ So that all may be one…” Jn 17:21
Why do people deny that God exists, if they can know him by reason?

To know the invisible God is a great challenge for the human mind.  Many are scared off by it.  Another reason why some do not want to know God is because they would then have to change their life.  Anyone who says that the question about God is meaningless because it cannot be answered is making things too easy for himself.  357





Pope  Pope Pius XII issued the EncyclicalHumani generis“Concerning some false opinions threatening to undermine the foundations of Catholic doctrine.”.....5.....143

“So it happens that men in such matters easily persuade themselves that what they would not like to be true is false, or at least doubtful.”  --Pope Pius XII Encyclical, Humani generis.





[CCC 37-38]  

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD ACCORDING TO THE CHURCH
37 In the historical conditions in which he finds himself, however, man experiences many difficulties in coming to know God by the light of reason alone:
Though human reason is, strictly speaking, truly capable by its own natural power and light of attaining to a true and certain knowledge of the one personal God, who watches over and controls the world by his providence, and of the natural law written in our hearts by the Creator; yet there are many obstacles which prevent reason from the effective and fruitful use of this inborn faculty. For the truths that concern the relations between God and man wholly transcend the visible order of things, and, if they are translated into human action and influence it, they call for self-surrender and abnegation. The human mind, in its turn, is hampered in the attaining of such truths, not only by the impact of the senses and the imagination, but also by disordered appetites which are the consequences of original sin. So it happens that men in such matters easily persuade themselves that what they would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful.13 
13. Pius XII, Humani Generis, 561:Denzinger-Schönmetzer 3875.

38 This is why man stands in need of being enlightened by God's revelation, not only about those things that exceed his understanding, but also "about those religious and moral truths which of themselves are not beyond the grasp of human reason, so that even in the present condition of the human race, they can be known by all men with ease, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error14
14. Pius XII, Humani generis, 561:Denzinger-Schönmetzer 3876; compare Dei Filius 2:DS 3005; Dei Verbum 6; St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I,1,1.


Illustration: 
Pope  Pope Pius XII