Week 14: Christian Ethics (¶1691-1876)

In the first section of the Catechism, we examined the articles of the faith according to the Apostles’ Creed, from the Trinity to the Church to eternal life. In the second section of the Catechism, we looked at the Seven Sacraments of the faith and how they function in the liturgy of the Church. Now, in the third section, we will examine how to live in the world as faithful followers of Christ.

Questions for the discussion of Christian ethics:

1. What are the aspects of humanity which enable us to live rightly?

2. What are the aspects of humanity which hinder us from living rightly?

3. What do we receive from Christ and the Church to help us live rightly?

4. What are the virtues which we seek to perfect in our lives?

5. What are the three moral rules which always apply (¶1789)?

6. How does your own experience relate with the material we read for today?

Week 13: The Sacraments of Healing and Service (¶1420-1666)

“Easter Communion”
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Pure fasted faces draw unto this feast:
God comes all sweetness to your Lenten lips.
You striped in secret with breath-taking whips,
Those crooked rough-scored chequers may be pierced
To crosses meant for Jesu’s; you whom the East
With draught of thin and pursuant cold so nips
Breathe Easter now; you serged fellowships,
You vigil-keepers with low flames decreased,
God shall o’er-brim the measures you have spent
With oil of gladness, for sackcloth and frieze
And the ever-fretting shirt of punishment
Give myrrhy-threaded golden folds of ease.
Your scarce-sheathed bones are weary of being bent:
Lo, God shall strengthen all the feeble knees.

I. The Sacrament of Reconciliation

(a) Summary: The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the representation and consecration of the Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial conversion, penance, and satisfaction. In this sacrament, the sinner is reconciled to God, Church, and self by receiving the priest’s sacramental absolution. This sacrament restores the communion broken by sin.

(b) Questions for discussion:

a. Why is this sacrament necessary if baptism purifies us from all sin?
b. What is the “treasury of the Church,” and what is its relation to this sacrament?
c. What is the “double consequence” of sin?

II. The Sacrament of the Sick

(a) Summary: The Sacrament of the Sick is a sacred anointing of the sick person in which the recipient of the sacrament is united with Christ’s Passion for the healing of both soul and body. The sacrament completes the union with Christ begun at baptism and fortifies the end of our earthly life in preparation for our passing from this world to the Father.

(b) Questions for discussion:

a. What is the relation between this sacrament and the Eucharist? And Penance?
b. What are the so-called “sacraments of completion”?
c. Can this sacrament be received more than once for the same illness?

III. The Sacrament of Holy Orders

(a) Summary: The Sacrament of Holy Orders is the sacrament of apostolic ministry, which includes three degrees: episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate. This sacrament is a special participation in the priesthood of Christ and consecrates specific men as successors of the apostles for the sake of serving the ecclesial community.

(b) Questions for discussion:

a. Why is the sacrament of Holy Orders given to men alone?
b. Why are priests celibate?
c. Why constitutes the “essential” difference between the “common priesthood of all the faithful” and the ministerial priesthood?

IV. The Sacrament of Matrimony

(a) Summary: The Sacrament of Matrimony is an indissoluble covenant between a man and a woman which signifies and communicates the grace of the New Covenant in Christ, the spouse of the Church.

(b) Questions for discussion:

a. If living together becomes practically impossible and reconciliation is not possible, will the Church grant a divorce? Why or why not?
b. Can a Catholic marry a non-Catholic? If so, how? If not, why?
c. What is the relation between marriage and childbearing?

Week 12: The Sacraments of Initiation (¶1210-1419)

“Love (III)”
By George Herbert

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.

“A guest,” I answer’d, “worthy to be here”;
Love said, “You shall be he.”
“I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.”
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
“Who made the eyes but I?”

“Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.”
“And know you not,” says Love, “who bore the blame?”
“My dear, then I will serve.”
“You must sit down,” says Love, “and taste my meat.”
So I did sit and eat.

1. Baptism

(a) What is Baptism? What are its effects?
(b) How is Baptism celebrated?
(c) Who can receive Baptism? Who can baptize?
(e) Why is it necessary?

2. Confirmation

(a) What is Confirmation? What are its effects?
(b) How is it Confirmation celebrated?
(c) Who can receive Confirmation? Who can confirm?

3. Eucharist

(a) What is the Eucharist?

a. A participation in and representation of the Lord’s sacrifice (¶1322, 1365-68)

b. A union and communion with Christ and with the Church as the Body of Christ (¶1325, 1329, 1391-92):

i. “To receive communion is to receive Christ himself who has offered himself to us” (¶1382)

ii. “Holy Communion is an intimate union with Christ Jesus” (¶1391)

c. A remembrance or memorial of the past (anamnesis) (¶1341, 1362-63)

d. A “making present” of the past (transubstantiation) (¶1364, 1375-77)

e. An anticipation of the future (prolepsis) (¶1344, 1402-05)

f. A church-constituting act in which those who partake become the body of Christ (¶1331, 1396)

g. A church-sending act in which those who partake are then sent into the world (¶1332, 1397)

(b) The Eucharist in Scripture

(c) The Eucharist and the Presence of Christ

(d) The Eucharist as Sign and Reality

a. Sign of Christ’s sacrifice; reality of Christ’s body and blood

b. Sign of Christ’s redemption; reality of the forgiveness of sin

c. Sign of the future messianic banquet; reality of God’s kingdom

d. Sign of the Church’s catholicity; reality of Christian unity as Christ’s Body

4. Comparing the Sacraments of Initiation

(a) Baptism and Confirmation are both “once for all” sacraments, and the Eucharist is the continuation or “making present” of Christ’s “once for all” sacrifice on the cross

(b) Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist all unite us with Christ

a. Baptism unites us with Christ’s death and resurrection (¶1214, 1227)

b. Confirmation unites us with Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit (¶1303)

c. Eucharist unites us with Christ’s body and blood (¶1365)

(c) Sacraments of Initiation and the Perpetuation of the Past

a. Baptism perpetuates the Paschal mystery of Christ in each individual (¶1239)

b. Confirmation “perpetuates the grace of Pentecost” (¶1288)

c. Eucharist perpetuates the sacrifice of the cross (¶1382)

d. The Church is the perpetuation of Christ’s body in the world

(d) Sacraments and Christian Unity

a. Baptism is a mark of Christian unity:

i. “Baptism constitutes the foundation of communion among all Christians, including those who are not yet in full communion with the Catholic Church” (¶1271)

b. Confirmation, as a sacrament always distinct from Baptism, is unique to Roman Catholicism

i. the Eastern church places Baptism and Confirmation together

ii. some Protestant churches have Confirmation, but it is not a sacrament

c. Eucharist both unites and divides the churches (¶1398-1401):

i. all churches celebrate the Lord’s Supper

ii. the Eastern churches share in virtually the same sacrament, with a greater emphasis on the epiclesis than on the consecration

iii. the Protestant churches do not have the Sacrament of Holy Orders, and they place a much greater emphasis on the anamnesis (remembrance) than on the consecration or epiclesis

Week 11: Liturgy and Sacraments (¶1066-1209, 1667-90)

1. What is the Liturgy?

Liturgy is the communal participation in the divine work of redemption that was accomplished in the Paschal mystery of Jesus Christ. Liturgy involves the proclamation of the Gospel, visible signs of communion, and a participation in the triune life of God through prayer and worship. Liturgy does not exhaust the life of the Church but is the heart and soul of the Church’s existence. One might say that liturgy makes the Church.

2. The Trinity and the Liturgy

a) The Father is the one who blesses creation, and thus is the source and ground of the liturgy (¶1077-83)

b) The Son, Jesus Christ, is the one who accomplished redemption in the Paschal event and unites the earthly and heavenly liturgies as the one Mediator between God and humankind (¶1084-90)

c) The Holy Spirit is the active agent within the Church, the one who empowers the liturgy—who prepares, awakens, illumines, vivifies, recalls, actualizes, sanctifies, and transforms all in the service of making Christ present to the people of God (¶1091-112)

3. Different Dimensions of the Sacraments

a) Five dimensions (¶1113-30):

a. Sacraments of Christ
b. Sacraments of the Church
c. Sacraments of Faith
d. Sacraments of Salvation
e. Sacraments of Eternal Life

b) Split up into groups of two or three and come up with a definition of a sacrament on the basis of one of these dimensions. We’ll gather again afterwards to see how each of these five dimensions illuminates the meaning of a sacrament.

4. The Celebration of the Liturgy

a) Who?
b) How?
c) When?
d) Where?