Week 3: The Holy Trinity (¶185-267)

God’s triunity: the central mystery of the Christian faith

“The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them” (¶234)

1. God’s oneness and threeness are both equally basic to the being of God.
The oneness of God goes back to the origins of Israel and the Jewish faith. The most famous verse in the Old Testament is called the Shema, and it begins with, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD …” God is one because God is utterly unique; divinity belongs solely and exclusively to him. God’s threeness is revealed by Jesus Christ who both affirms that God is one and identifies himself with this one God by identifying himself as the LORD (¶202). When Jesus ascended to be with the Father, he sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as the Giver of Life, the Comforter, and the Counselor. The Spirit’s descent at Pentecost revealed that God is not simply two persons but rather three persons. God is not binitarian but rather trinitarian: God is triune. God is thus one-in-three and three-in-one. Oneness and threeness are both equally basic to the being of God. We must understand the oneness of God in light of his threeness, and we must understand the threeness of God in light of his oneness. The triunity of God is a deep mystery which human reason cannot penetrate (cf. ¶206, 237), but it is a mystery which God reveals to us by grace and with which God brings us into perfect union and communion (¶259-60).

2. We must distinguish between the immanent and economic Trinity.
In ¶236 the Catechism discusses the distinction between “theology” and “economy.” Theology here means the study of who God is in and for himself, whereas the economy refers to what God does in time and space. In church theology, we use the terms “immanent Trinity” and “economic Trinity” to say the same thing. The former refers to God’s inner triune life, while the latter refers to God’s external triune life. Some theologians think we can only speak about God’s economy, but this means revelation is not really revelation of God. According to the Catechism, the immanent Trinity is revealed by the economic Trinity, while conversely the immanent Trinity “illuminates” the economic Trinity. We know who God truly is in himself through what God does for us in time. As a result, the incarnate Son reveals the Father, and the Holy Spirit reveals both Father and Son (¶240, 244). The nature of God’s being in time reveals the being of God in eternity. Consequently, the Catechism instructs us that Jesus’ relation to the Father reveals the eternal relation between the Father and the Son in the immanent Trinity (¶240). Similarly, “the eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission in time” (¶244). The immanent Trinity is revealed by the economic Trinity. Karl Rahner, an important 20th century Catholic theologian, established a rule for thinking about the Trinity: “The economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity, and the immanent Trinity is the economic Trinity.”

3. The Trinity is unified in both being and act.
The Holy Trinity is not only unified in one divine substance (the “consubstantial Trinity”), but the Trinity is also unified in one divine mission. Each of the divine persons “is God whole and entire” (¶253). The divine being is not shared between but is rather common to each of the three persons. Similarly, each of the divine persons is involved wholly and entirely in the divine mission: “The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same nature, so too does it have only one and the same operation” (¶258). The being and act of the Trinity are indivisible and inseparable: “Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what they do” (¶267).


God’s oneness: implications for Christian life (¶222-27)

1. We must come to know God’s glory. God is majestic and holy, and we are called to serve this one God who reigns over all creation.

2. We must live in thanksgiving. If God is one, then everything else comes directly from him and him alone. We must be ever grateful and thankful to God for all that he provides.

3. We must acknowledge the unity of all humanity. If God is one and no one else is God, then in comparison to him, all humanity is equal. We are all equally unworthy of God’s grace and equally dignified by God who created us in his image.

4. We must make good use of creation. Since all of creation comes from God but is not God, we must recognize the dignity and worth of creation. We must use everything in accordance with the fact that God alone is God, which means caring for the world around us, always discerning when things can help bring us closer to God and when things might turn us away from him.

5. We must trust God at all times. Since the one God rules over all things, we must trust God alone for all things and at all times.


The language of faith: understanding what it means to talk about God (cf. ¶239)

1. God transcends human language.
When we speak about God, we must always be aware that our words are always in themselves inadequate to speak about God. This does not invalidate all talk about God, but it means that we need to let God define our language, rather than try to make our language define God. This is especially important when we use male or female imagery. The Bible uses both male and female language to talk about God, and we traditionally use the male pronoun to talk about God. But we must remember the statement from the Catechism: “God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God” (¶239). Our human language is gendered, but that doesn’t mean God is gendered.

2. All language about God depends upon analogy.
Our language about God is not literally or univocally descriptive of God, nor is it doubtfully or equivocally descriptive of God. Our language describes God analogically. An analogy has both similarity and difference. There is both likeness and unlikeness when it comes to our language about God. The primary rule is that God defines what language is proper to God. The difference does not consist in the fact that God is unlike us, but that we are unlike God. In the same way, the similarity does not consist in that we are similar to God, but that God is similar to us.


The divine attributes in the Catechism

1. God is one (¶200).
2. God is triune ¶202).
3. God is living (¶205).
4. God is “I AM” (¶206).
5. God is hidden (¶206).
6. God is faithful (¶207, 211-12).
7. God is holy (¶208).
8. God is merciful and gracious (¶210).
9. God is unique (¶212).
10. God is the fullness of being (¶213).
11. God is truth (¶215).
12. God is love (¶218-21).


Appendix: A Survey of the First Seven Ecumenical Councils

1. Council of Nicaea (325) lasted two months and twelve days. Three hundred and eighteen bishops were present. Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, assisted as legate of Pope Sylvester. The Emperor Constantine was also present. To this council we owe The Creed (Symbolum) Of Nicaea, defining against Arius the true Divinity of the Son of God (homoousios), and the fixing of the date for keeping Easter (against the Quartodecimans).

2. First Council of Constantinople (381), under Pope Damasus and the Emperor Theodosius I, was attended by 150 bishops. It was directed against the followers of Macedonius, who impugned the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. To the above-mentioned Nicene creed it added the clauses referring to the Holy Ghost (qui simul adoratur) and all that follows to the end.

3. Council of Ephesus (431), of more than 200 bishops, presided over by St. Cyril of Alexandria representing Pope Celestine l, defined the true personal unity of Christ, declared Mary the Mother of God (theotokos) against Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, and renewed the condemnation of Pelagius.

4. Council of Chalcedon (451): 150 bishops under Pope Leo the Great and the Emperor Marcian defined the two natures (Divine and human) in Christ against Eutyches, who was excommunicated.

5. Second Council of Constantinople (553), of 165 bishops under Pope Vigilius and Emperor Justinian I, condemned the errors of Origen and certain writings (The Three Chapters) of Theodoret, of Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia and of Ibas, Bishop of Edessa; it further confirmed the first four general councils, especially that of Chalcedon whose authority was contested by some heretics.

6. Third Council of Constantinople (680-681), under Pope Agatho and the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, was attended by the Patriarchs of Constantinople and of Antioch, 174 bishops, and the emperor. It put an end to Monothelism by defining two wills in Christ, the Divine and the human, as two distinct principles of operation. It anathematized Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul, Macarius, and all their followers.

7. Second Council of Nicaea (787) was convoked by Emperor Constantine VI and his mother Irene, under Pope Adrian I, and was presided over by the legates of Pope Adrian; it regulated the veneration of holy images. Between 300 and 367 bishops assisted.

For more on the Councils of the Church, click here.

Week 2: Scripture, Tradition, and Faith (¶74-184)

Review

We began last week by discussing the content of revelation. I used the metaphor of a drama as a way of describing the relationship between the different elements in this complex picture. To summarize, we have God who acts throughout world history to reveal himself to humanity. God is the central actor, the world is the stage, and God’s primary role in the drama takes the form of Jesus Christ who is the Word of God made flesh. Christ is the definitive revelation of God.

Today we are looking at Scripture and Tradition as the means instituted by God to communicate God’s revelation to future generations. We will then discuss the nature of faith as the climax of this section before we discuss the creeds.

1. The Transmission of Revelation

1.1. What is apostolic tradition?
Christ passed on his teachings to his apostles in order that they might pass them on to others. The word “apostle” comes from a Greek word meaning “messenger” or “one who is sent forth.” Christ, in that sense, is the one, true Apostle who was sent forth from God. Before Christ, the prophets of the Old Testament were apostles in their own way. We, too, are apostles in that God sends us forth into the world as his messengers, the bearers of God’s good news. But we do not bear our own news, but rather the gospel that was authoritatively handed on by Christ’s apostles and is preserved in the Church. The apostolic Tradition thus includes not only the content of the faith—the “sacred deposit” of the faith (¶84)—but also the authority to interpret the faith, which we call the “teaching office” of the Church or the Magisterium.

1.2. What is the relation between tradition and Scripture?
Scripture is the written testimony to God’s revelation. Tradition is the living or liturgical testimony to God’s revelation (¶78). Both exist in and for the Church, since it is God who “remains present and active in the Church” (¶79). Both have the same origin in the triune God and both “move towards the same goal” (¶80). Scripture and Tradition thus form an indissoluble unity, rooted in the singularity of revelation in Jesus Christ. In other words, because the content of revelation is the same, the forms of revelation can be multiple without resulting in contradiction and confusion.

1.3. What is the relation between faith and the Church?
Faith not only depends upon the work of the Spirit, but it is also strengthened and matured through the influence of biblical study, theological research, spiritual experience, and the preaching of the Word (¶94).

1.4. What is the role of the Holy Spirit?
The Spirit is the operative agent within the community of believers. In dramatic terms, we might say that the Spirit is the bond that ties the drama together; the Spirit is the actor who pushes the drama forward toward its proper conclusion. The Spirit gives unity to the story and keeps the story going. We see the Spirit’s role in the story through the Catechism. In this section alone, the Spirit has a central role: teaches and inspires the apostles (¶76, 83), part of triune self-communication (¶79), leads the Church to the full truth (¶79), breathed out Holy Scripture as the speech of God (¶81), enlightens the apostles of the Church (¶81), enables the teaching of the Magisterium (¶86), anoints the faithful (¶91), arouses and sustains faith (¶93), assists in understanding the faith (¶94), unites and empowers the different modes of transmission in order that they might be effective for salvation (¶95):

“It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls” (Dei Verbum)

The Spirit, therefore, is the one who enables the being and life of the Church. The Spirit is the agent who establishes, sustains, and perfects the Church. Without the Spirit, there would be no Scripture, no tradition, and no faith.

2. Holy Scripture

2.1. The Word of God and the words of Scripture
Through Holy Scripture, God speaks “only one single Word” (¶102), and that Word is Jesus Christ: “All Scripture is but one book, and this one book is Christ” (¶134). The words of Scripture are thus grounded in and determined by the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ, God’s Son in the flesh. The Word of God is thus the heart and center of the words of Scripture; or, to be more accurate, the Word of God incarnate is the heart and center of the Word of God written. According to the Catechism, Holy Scripture is a unity because “Christ Jesus is the center and heart” of the Scriptures (¶112).

Moreover, the Church views Holy Scripture as a kind of sacrament: “the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s Body” (¶103). In Scripture, “the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength” (¶104), not unlike the way the Church receives nourishment from the Sacrament of Communion. The Catechism thus says that “God’s Word and Christ’s Body” form “one table,” from which the Christian faithful receive “the bread of life” (¶103).

2.2. Scripture and the truth
The basis for Scripture’s truthfulness is found in its divine authorship (¶105). The Holy Spirit divinely inspired the text of Holy Scripture by working through the human authors to compose a text that faithfully attests to God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. We can thus speak of the Bible as infallible or inerrant: the books of Scripture teach the truth about God “without error” (¶107).

Consequently, Christianity is a religion of the Word, not a “religion of the book” (¶108). The missiologist Andrew Walls makes the astute point that Jesus Christ is to Christianity what the Koran is to Islam. Just as the Koran is viewed by Muslims as the divine Word come down from heaven, so too Christianity sees Christ himself as the divine Word from heaven. Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, is the center of the Christian faith, not the text of Scripture. We worship a person, not a book. Our faith is grounded in the Word made flesh, not the Word written. As a result, our faith need not be shaken by historical research into the text of the Bible, because our faith is grounded in the person of Jesus Christ himself to whom the words of Holy Scripture faithfully witness by virtue of the Spirit’s inspiration.

2.3. Scripture and the Spirit
The Spirit is the true author and interpreter of Holy Scripture, which does not override or nullify human authorship and interpretation (¶111). On the contrary, the Spirit grounds and establishes the proper place of human involvement in the writing and interpreting of Scripture. All of this simply means that humans are not independent from God in their involvement in the composition and interpretation of Holy Scripture. The Spirit is involved prior to, during, and after both the composition of Scripture and its interpretation.

2.4. How to read Holy Scripture
We must read with a kind of threefold hermeneutic: (1) first, we interpret Holy Scripture by reading the text in light of Jesus Christ, the “center and heart” of Scripture; (2) second, we read within the living Tradition of the Church; (3) third, we read canonically, which means we read each passage in light of the whole text; and (4) we must read prayerfully in the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit who guides the faithful into the truth of Scripture (¶112-14).

In addition to reading in the light of Christ, the Church’s Tradition, and the Holy Spirit, we must also keep in mind the two “senses” of Scripture: the literal and spiritual. By the literal sense, the Catechism means those events and actions which the Bible describes and which we accept as true; in other words, we don’t search for any hidden meaning beyond the words on the page. The spiritual sense, on the other hand, refers to a way of reading which investigates the text for meanings that go beyond the literal words on the page. Within the spiritual, there are three subdivisions: allegorical, moral, and anagogical (¶115-17).

2.5. Diversity and unity in the canon
The use of typology is an ancient practice of reading the Old Testament in light of its fulfillment in the New Testament. “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New” (¶129). Typology rests on the conviction that Holy Scripture is one book (¶134) that witnesses to one single plan of God for salvation, a plan that changes shape and form throughout history but finds its unity and fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ.

2.6. Scripture and discipleship
We are called to read Scripture faithfully and regularly, as well as to hear and receive the ministry of the Word faithfully and regularly. As Jesus himself said, “One does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).

3. I Believe – We Believe

3.1. What is faith?
God’s revelation in the Word of God demands an obedient human response, and this response is faith. Faith is the free submission to the Word of truth. Faith obeys the God who encounters us in the Word of revelation (¶144). According to letter to the Hebrews, faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1; ¶146).

3.2. Who has faith?
Throughout the history of God’s people, from Abraham until today, God has granted faith to those least likely. The story of Scripture is a story of people graced by God for faith against all odds. Faith is not a sign of intelligence or special ability; it is not an indicator of any human capacity. It is rather a mark of God’s special grace given to unworthy human persons. Faith is thus a gift given to us by God, who seeks out the least of all people—those who are neglected, ignored, oppressed, poor, and weak—and grants them faith. St. Paul writes the following in his first letter to the Corinthians:

For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. . . . God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. (1 Cor. 1:25, 27-29)

3.3. Where do we place our faith?
We place our faith in God alone, which means we place our faith in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—revealed to us in Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit. It is common to hear today people speak about belief in God, without specifying what they mean by this. To believe in God is, for many people, to believe in the God of all religions, a kind of abstract deity who includes all religious faith. But the Christian faith declares that to believe in God means “believing in the One he sent,” Jesus Christ (¶151). Faith in God means faith in Jesus Christ as God incarnate. It also means faith in the Holy Spirit as the one sent by Christ after his ascension, and the one by whom we participate in God (¶152).

3.4. What are the characteristics of faith? (¶153-65)
(1) Faith is a grace, which means it is wholly a gift of God (¶153); (2) faith is a free human act in cooperation with the power of the Holy Spirit (¶154, 160); (3) faith is reasonable—i.e., not irrational (¶156, 159); faith is certain because it is founded on the trustworthy and true Word of God (¶157); faith pursues knowledge and understanding, not in a rationalistic sense but in a relational one, like a person who seeks to know his or her friend (¶158); faith is necessary for salvation (¶161); faith is a gift that can be lost if we do not persevere in our faith (¶162); and faith is a foretaste of the future enjoyment of God (¶163).

3.5. What is the relation between faith and the Church?
Faith is first and foremost a communal reality in the body of the Church and only then is it an individual reality. The Church “believes first, and so bears, nourishes, and sustains my faith” (¶168). There is only one faith because there is only one Church—and there is only one Church because there is only one Lord. But while there is only one faith, there are infinitely many ways to articulate and describe this faith in theology, liturgy, and practice (¶170).

Week 1: The Revelation of God (¶1-73)

1. Prologue

1.1. What is the meaning of life?
The most ancient and ubiquitous question—“what is the meaning of life?”—is the one which the Catholic Catechism answers in ¶1. The answer: to share in the divine life; to seek, know, and love God. We come to experience the life intended for us in the place which God has chosen to be the location where men and women seek, know, and love him: the Church. In other words, the meaning of life, here and now, is to be part of God’s family on earth—the Church. The meaning of life is found in the fact that God has graciously called us to share in the blessedness of God’s own abundant life. To put it simply, the meaning of life is grace, which means that life’s meaning is not something that we can discover on our own or bring about through our own human powers. Rather, life’s true meaning is something which we discover when we discover the God of love and grace. The rest of the Catechism is an attempt to explore and explain the depths of this grace as revealed by God.

1.2. What is a catechism?
According to the Catechism (¶4-5), catechesis is “an education in the faith,” which means that the Catechism itself is the comprehensive teaching of the Church which facilitates this education. The Catechism is “an organic presentation of the Catholic faith in its entirety” (¶18). The Catechism has four parts or “pillars”: the profession of faith (the Creed), the sacraments of faith, the life of faith (the Commandments), and prayer in the life of faith (the Lord’s Prayer).

1.3. What is the goal of catechesis?
“The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends. Whether something is proposed for belief, for hope or for action, the love of our Lord must always be made accessible, so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no other objective than to arrive at love” (Roman Catechism).

Catechesis is not about brute facts or building up knowledge. Instead, we study the Catechism in order that we might “arrive at love.” As the Apostle Paul puts it, “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). Knowledge puffs up the one who claims to have knowledge, while love builds up others. Love is a virtue which supports and strengthens the community. When we gather together to study the Catechism, we gather not simply to gain knowledge but to grow in love. The goal of catechesis is to become a person of love by entering into a community of love in order to worship and serve a God of love.


2. Man’s Capacity for God (I.1.1.)

2.1. What is faith or belief?
Faith, according to the Catechism, is a “response to God.” In this first part of the Catechism, the emphasis is on our knowledge of God. The focus is thus on belief, which is an aspect of faith—viz. the aspect related to knowledge. Faith is not limited to belief, but rather includes it. We will discuss faith in more detail when we arrive at Chap. 3: “Man’s Response to God” (¶142-84).

2.2. What is the basis for belief in God?
The Catechism lists a number of things as the ground for religious belief, in particular: innate desire for God and proofs from the world and from humanity for the existence of God. We might call these cosmological and anthropological proofs. In theology, these belong to the category of thought known as metaphysics, which is just a fancy word meaning that which concerns things beyond the physical world. (To be more precise, the word itself comes from a Greek phrase meaning, “after the Physics,” referring to Aristotle’s treatise. After physics, Aristotle treated abstract topics such as being, substance, knowing, and time. These were later classified under the heading of “metaphysics,” and with the rise of Christianity, this field of knowledge became centrally concerned with the knowledge of God.) The cosmological and anthropological proofs for the existence of God have fancy Latin names in metaphysics. A cosmological proof is knowledge via causalitatis, while an anthropological proof is knowledge via eminentiae. There is one other way of knowing—viz. via negativa, or the “way of negation”—that is briefly referenced in ¶43.

2.3. What enables our knowledge of God?
The Catechism does not always make this clear, but we might list the following: (1) the existence of God as a given; (2) the acts of God in creating and in communicating with creation; (3) the created capacity of human reason (the “image of God”); (4) the faithful witness of others; and (5) the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. The Catechism also states that “this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, ‘an upright heart,’ as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God” (¶30).

2.4. What gets in the way of our knowledge of God?
According to the Catechism, our knowledge of God is hampered first and foremost by original sin, which disorders our human desires (including our desire for God) and causes confusion regarding truth and falsity. In addition, we are hampered by “the impact of the senses and the imagination” (¶37). This is another way of saying that our senses can distract or deceive us: they can distract both because our senses are exciting and because God is not sensible like the rest of the world, and they can deceive because our mind can be confused by them. In addition to sin, a major obstacle regarding the knowledge of God is the fact that “God transcends all creatures” (¶42). This means that God is not an object alongside other objects in this world. God is a mystery. God is transcendent and mysterious, and thus not something we can control or manipulate or define willy-nilly.

As a result of the fact that God is transcendent and we are sinful, the only way we can truly come to have knowledge of God is if God graciously makes himself known to us. This brings us to the heart of this week’s study: The Revelation of God.


3. God Comes to Meet Man (I.1.2.1.)

3.1. What is revelation?
When we speak about revelation on an everyday level, we say things like, “I had a startling revelation today…” Revelation means that we now know something which we did not know before. It is something new and surprising, and it affects how we go about living in the future. All of this is true in relation to God’s revelation. When we speak about revelation in relation to the Christian faith, we are referring to something new and surprising that has huge implications for our life. We aren’t speaking about something that was there all along which we simply have to discover for ourselves. Revelation does not refer to some general religious principle or something resident within the world; it refers rather to a new event. Revelation is not simply a novel interpretation of the world; it is rather a reality which forces to see the world in a whole new way. Revelation is thus a divine reality, a divine event, a divine appearance which shatters the old and ushers in the new. In short, revelation means that we aren’t making this up. God has really arrived on the scene. God has appeared on the stage.

The drama portrayed by the Bible is God’s initiative, and so between man’s blueprints of existence and God there is not a continuous transition but a leap. (H. U. von Balthasar, Theo-Drama II, 53).

God is the actor, the world is the stage, and revelation is the dramatic event. Scripture is the written testimony of this drama. And humanity is the other actor which God’s revelation brings on to the stage. Revelation is therefore not a piece of knowledge or a text; it is first and foremost an acting person, Jesus Christ. God appears on the world-stage in the person of Jesus. God is not some abstract or distant deity who has no concern for the world. On the contrary, the Church confesses that God loves the world, interacts with the world, forms relationships with people and communities in the world, and will one day dwell together with all the redeemed of the world. And at the heart of this divine action is the person of Jesus, who is God in the flesh.

According to the Catechism, “Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father’s one, perfect, and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one.” The Catechism discusses revelation using linguistic metaphors, and this is also very helpful. Revelation is a dialogue, and Jesus Christ is the Word of God that communicates to us who God is and what God has done. But it is also helpful to use a dramatic metaphor, because revelation is not just information or speech; it is also and perhaps primarily a divine action. God really does something. Or, to be more precise, God has done something, God is doing something, and God will do something. The drama is ongoing and eternal. Revelation is drama, and like any good drama, God’s revelation includes dialogue. Action and speech are both involved in the revelation of God. As Balthasar puts it,

In the Christian drama God does not speak in monologues. He engages in conversation, shared speech. This shows once again that Christianity is not (like the Koran, for example) a ‘teaching’ that has fallen from heaven but an interaction, a kind of negotiation between two parties. . . . In contrast to the world, which is closed in on itself, does not want to listen to him and distorts all his words even as he utters them, God is the One who allows himself to be most profoundly affected by this partner so unfit for speech. . . . And only on the basis of the Cross is faith given to the disciples and all subsequent believers, rendering them capable of dialogue with God. (TD II, 71-72)

As we noted before, the Christian life is not primarily about knowledge but about love, and love is an action. This is why we can speak about revelation properly as a drama. God demonstrates his love toward humanity by redeeming us and adopting us his children. The Catechism says that in revelation, God seeks 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” (¶52). Revelation is thus the drama of our reconciliation and adoption. This drama of revelation is both ontic and noetic in nature—that is, it concerns our being (ontic) and our knowledge (noetic). Our redemption and adoption are ontic realities, but the communication and explication of this redemption are noetic realities. The dramatic metaphor emphasizes the ontic dimension, while the dialogical metaphor emphasizes the noetic. When we bring these two dimensions together, we can say that through the testimony of Scripture and the Church (noetic), we come to understand both who God is, as the one who redeems and adopts, and who we are, as those who are redeemed and adopted into God’s family (ontic).

In this section we are dealing with God’s part in the drama. Later on, when we discuss the Church and the life of faith, we will discuss humanity’s role in the drama. But it’s important to remember that God’s action is always primary, and human action secondary. God makes us into actors; in the event of revelation, God welcomes us onto the stage. According to Balthasar, “human activity is embraced, directed and accompanied by divine activity” (TD II, 68). We will talk about this human activity at a later point. For now, we are concerned with the divine activity in which God makes himself known to humanity.

3.2. What is the “divine pedagogy”?
The “divine pedagogy” simply means that revelation is a relationship between God and humanity that occurs over time. Revelation is not instantaneous, because we could not possibly handle the knowledge of God all at once. We are finite, temporal creatures. The Bible calls us children who are easily blown about by different teachings and doctrines. What we need is a loving, caring teacher, and this is precisely what we find in the God of the Scriptures. The Catechism calls it “divine pedagogy” because God is our teacher, and he instructs us in a way that is suitable for our understanding.

3.3. What about other revelations of God?
We have to make an important distinction between sources and norms in relation to knowledge of God. There are many different sources of knowledge of God that God can and has used: trees, animals, books, friends, movies, politicians, etc. But there is only one norm, and that norm is Jesus Christ. According to the Catechism, “Christian faith cannot accept ‘revelations’ that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment…” (¶67). And later, “The Son is his Father’s definitive Word; so there will be no further Revelation after him” (¶73).

RCIA Syllabus

What is RCIA?
The RCIA, which stands for Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, is a process through which non-baptized men and women enter the Catholic Church. It is also for those baptized in a different faith tradition who wish to become Catholic, or baptized Catholic, but never confirmed. It includes several stages marked by study, prayer and rites at Mass. Participants in the RCIA are known as catechumens. They undergo a process of conversion as they study the Gospel, profess faith in Jesus and the Catholic Church, and receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Holy Eucharist. Here at the Aquinas Institute, the Tuesday meetings will focus on the study of the Catholic Catechism in preparation for your initiation into the Catholic Church. At the end of this period of study and prayer, you will partake of the sacraments during the Easter Vigil Liturgy.

Required Text
U.S. Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Doubleday, 1995)

Recommended:
Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Companion to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: A Compendium of Texts

Schedule

Week 1: Revelation, Jesus Christ, and the Word of God (¶1-100)

Week 2: Scripture and Tradition (¶101-84)

Week 3: The Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (¶185-267)

Week 4: Creator, Creation, and Humanity (¶268-384)

Week 5: Sin and Evil (¶385-421)

Week 6: Jesus Christ: True God and True Man (¶422-570)

Week 7: Jesus Christ: Savior of the World (¶571-667)

Week 8: Holy Spirit: The Power of New Life (¶683-747, 1987-2029)

Week 9: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church with an Excursus on Mary (¶748-975, 2030-51)

Week 10: Forgiveness of Sins, Resurrection of the Body, and Life Everlasting (¶668-82, 976-1065)

Week 11: Liturgy & Sacraments (¶1066-1209, 1667-90)
Week 12: The Sacraments of Initiation (¶1210-1419)
Week 13: The Sacraments of Healing and Service (¶1420-1666)
Week 14: Christian Ethics (¶1691-1876)
Week 15: The Christian in the World (¶1877-1986)
Week 16: The Ten Commandments (¶2052-557)
Week 17: Prayer (¶2558-758)
Week 18: The Lord’s Prayer (¶2759-865)

Welcome to RCIA!

Welcome to the blog for the 2007-2008 RCIA conducted by the Aquinas Institute at Princeton University! This blog will serve as a resource for those reading through the catechism. Each week I will post updates and notes for the readings. If you have any questions or comments, you can contact me at dwcongdon-at-gmail.com.