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Catechetics
— from The Catechism Simply Explained by Canon Cafferata. This new edition has been completely revised and brought up to date by the late Canon Cartmell, DD, PhD, MA. Certain explanations have been rewritten in the light of new regulations, as, for example, those concerning the Eucharistic fast, fasting days and abstinence days, and others expanded to deal more fully with problems which have come to the fore since earlier editions.
Faith
1. Who made you? God made me.
There is no doubt about this. Psalm 99 of holy David says: “Know ye that the Lord he is God: He made us, and not we ourselves. We are His.”
Some people do, indeed, deny the existence of God: but this is to act against reason: “All men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God: and who by these good things that are seen, could not understand Him that is. Neither by attending to the works have acknowledged who was the workman” (Wisdom xiii.1). A man who denies the existence of God makes his own existence a greater mystery than that which he denies.
2. Why did God make you? God made me to know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in the next.
God always has some end in view in all that He does. Surely, then, in creating man, the noblest work of His hands, He must have had a very special end in view. The Catechism tells us what that end is, namely, God Himself.
First, He made us to know Him. Although we have never seen God, we can, and do, know a great deal about Him: (1) from the Old Testament, in which He revealed much about Himself to the patriarchs and prophets, to Abraham, Moses, Isaias and the rest; (2) from the New Testament, in which through His only Son, Jesus Christ, He has made known much more about Himself and about our destiny.
Secondly, to love God. Even in this world we naturally love what we know to be beautiful and good. Therefore the more we know about God and His infinite beauty and goodness, the more we are led to love Him.
Lastly, to serve God. We prove our love for God by serving Him, by doing His will. He Himself has said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John xiv.15).
We all long to be happy, but we can never be completely happy in this life. But if we do our best to know all we can about God, to love Him and serve Him, we shall have in the next life a completely happy life with God for ever. He has promised this, so we cannot doubt it.
So you understand now why God made you, why you are here: not to make a great name for yourself, not to get rich, not to enjoy yourself as you like, but simply to serve the God who made you. You are one of His creatures; you depend on Him entirely for everything. As your Creator, God has His rights over you, and the greatest of these rights is that you should know, love and serve Him.
The Mystery of Man
3. To whose image and likeness did God make you? God made me to His own image and likeness.
4. Is this likeness to God in your body or in your soul? This likeness to God is chiefly in my soul.
5. How is your soul like to God? My soul is like to God because it is a spirit, and is immortal.
A spirit is a living being which is not material in its nature and which therefore cannot be seen or handled or made contact with by any of the senses. God is a Spirit; an angel is a spirit; the human soul is a spirit. God and angels are called pure spirits since they have no body. Man on the contrary is not a pure spirit; he is composed of body as well as soul. Man’s body and the whole of the material creation must bear some remote likeness to God, for God must reflect His truth, goodness and beauty in all that He has made. But since God is a Spirit, man’s likeness to Him must reside chiefly in his soul. God is the great Spirit, existing of Himself, and infinite in all perfections. The angels and our souls are immeasurably lower than God. They do not exist of themselves, but by the power of God; and they are limited in their nature and perfections.
Please ponder upon and commit to memory all the above. We will follow the Catechism chapter by chapter to the end.
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