What Every Christian Must Know and Believe: Revisiting Catechesis
You may be asking yourself what’s gone wrong with the world. Why does everyone seem mad and disoriented, even the most basic concepts of humanity, once understood by all former generations since the dawn of creation, now being scrutinized and made confusing by most all leaders? At first glance, this may seem like a difficult question to answer … but the reality is it’s quite simple.
Our world has moved into a post-Christian era. Church and state have been separated and we’ve removed Almighty God from almost every institution affecting our daily lives. As a result, God has been removed from most homes as well. Church attendance that once flourished, now plummets. The core tenants of the Christian faith are no longer known, believed, nor cared about. Being that Jesus warned us that we would “know them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:16), we can know with certainty that this post-Christian era is not working simply by its rotten fruit.
Bad fruit
One of the many bad fruits of this post-Christian era is spiritual blindness, aka “diabolical disorientation.” As with every generation before us, removing God from society and from the home produces a divine chastisement from above. Said another way, when almost every sector of daily life is no longer rooted in Almighty God He gives us what we’ve asked for – His absence. In this absence, we are devoid of any Light or Truth; and in the world’s darkness, it is nearly impossible to navigate through even the simplest of situations. In addition, we lose sight of the most basic and fundamental aspects of human existence – better known as good ol’ common sense.
Another bad fruit of a post-Christendom era is poor catechesis. Spiritual blindness in tandem with corruption always leads to poor catechesis. In former generations, almost everyone knew their faith inside and out – the faith passed down through apostolic succession for all generations in order to be saved. While the precious “deposit of faith” handed down from the apostles will never completely be taken from humanity (as this is safeguarded by God Himself for His saints), it will be increasingly hidden due to a chastisement, demanding us to labor in order to find and know the Truth, as well as vicious attempts to bury it by evil persons.
Catechesis
Simply said, Catechesis is religious instruction that helps a person understand their faith. In order to have faith and properly live it out in our lives, we must at the very least know what we’re supposed to believe, why we are to believe it, and what we’re supposed to do with it. Without catechesis a soul quickly loses its way to the powerful winds of the world – blowing every which way except to the Truth of Jesus Christ and His one, holy, and apostolic Church.
The purpose of this article
The purpose of this article is to take a walk back into history and discover some of the infallible truths of faith that have always been taught by holy Mother Church and her teaching Magisterium, as well as what all Christians must believe — from the apostles to us twenty-first century persons striving for holiness. God and His Truth is indeed for all generations of all time.
What Every Christian Must Know and Believe: Revisiting Catechesis
Christian faith and practice
[taken from the “Manual of Prayers” originally published in 1888]- Every Christian must believe that there is one God, and no more than one. That God is pure Spirit, the Lord and Maker of Heaven and earth, Who has neither beginning nor end but is always the same. He is everywhere present; knows and sees all things; can do all things whatsoever He pleases; and is infinite in all perfections.
- Every Christian is bound to believe that in one God there are three distinct Persons, perfectly equal, of the same substance, and having the same nature: the Father, who proceeds from no one; the Son, who is born of the Father before all ages; and the Holy Ghost, Who proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son as from one principle. The three Persons are all equally eternal, equal in wisdom and power, and are all three one and the same Lord, i.e. one and the same God.
- We must believe that God created the angels to be with Him forever, and that one part of them fell from God by sin and became devils. We must believe also that God created Adam and Eve, the first parents of all mankind, and placed them in the earthly Paradise, the Garden of Eden, from whence they were justly banished for the grave sin they committed in eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree. By this transgression of Adam, as he was the ultimate “head” of the family, we are all conceived and born in(to) sin. Thus, we would have been lost forever if God had not sent us a Savior.
- We are bound to believe in the Savior of all mankind, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, true God and true man; perfect God from all eternity, equal to His Father in all things; and perfect man, from the time of His coming down from Heaven for us, having a body and soul like ours.
- We must believe that Jesus Christ, our Savior, who had been long foretold by the prophets was, at God’s appointed time and by the power of the Holy Ghost, without having any man for His father, conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, whom God had prepared for this wonderful Maternity in a wonderful manner. By a singular grace and privilege, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, she was in the first instant of her conception preserved free from every taint of original sin. Of her, who is blessed among women forevermore, was born our Lord, God incarnate, while still remaining a pure virgin. During the time of His mortal life, Jesus Christ founded the Christian religion; and then offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world by dying upon a Cross. This was to obtain mercy, grace, and salvation for every man. Neither mercy, nor grace, nor salvation can, or ever could, since Adam’s fall, be obtained except through the mediation of the Son of God.
- We must believe that Jesus Christ, after He died and was buried, arose on the third day from death to life, never to die again; and that, for the space of forty days, He was pleased, at different times, to manifest Himself to His disciples, and then ascended into Heaven in their sight; where, as God-man, He continually intercedes for us. Thence He sent down the Holy Ghost upon His disciples to abide with them forever, as He had promised, and to guide them and their successors into all Truth.
- We must believe the Catholic or Universal Church of Christ, of which He is the perpetual Head, and His Spirit the perpetual Guide; which is founded upon a rock, and thus (the deposit of faith taught by the True Church) is ever victorious over all the powers of earth and hell. The Church is always One, in all its members professing one faith, in one communion, under one chief pastor, called the “Pope,” succeeding Saint Peter, to whom Christ committed His whole flock. The Church is always Holy, in teaching a holy doctrine, in inviting all to a holy life, and in the eminent holiness of many of its children. It is Catholic, or Universal, for it subsists in all ages, and teaches all nations, and maintains all truth. It is Apostolic, for it derives its doctrine, its communion, its orders, and its mission, by an uninterrupted succession, from the Apostles of Christ. And should it become interrupted by men of bad will, if the precious deposit of faith should become corrupted by ill-meaning men, it is the men who seize to be a part of the Church … the Church herself never ceases to be who she is because of evil men.
- With the Catholic Church, the Scriptures (both of the Old and New Testaments) were deposited by the Apostles. She (the Catholic Church) is the guardian and interpreter of them as well as the judge of all controversies relating to them. The Scriptures, thus interpreted, together with the traditions of the Apostles, are to be received and admitted by all Christians for the rule of their faith and practice.
- We must believe that, when the Pope speaks “ex cathedra” — i.e. when in discharge of his office of Pastor and Teacher of all Christians, he defines, in virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the Universal Church. He is endowed, by the Divine assistance promised to him in Blessed Peter, with that Infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed that His Church should be furnished (in defining doctrines of faith or morals); and therefore such definitions of a (true) Pope are irreformable of themselves, and not in virtue of the consent of the Church.
- We must believe that Jesus Christ has instituted in His Church seven Sacraments, or mysterious signs and instrumental causes of Divine Grace in our souls: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, Matrimony.
- We must believe that Jesus Christ has also instituted the great Eucharistic Sacrifice of His Body and Blood in remembrance of His Passion and Death. In this Sacrifice, called the holy Mass, He is mystically immolated every day upon our altars, being Himself both Priest and Victim. This Sacrifice is the principal worship of the New Law, in which, and by which, we unite ourselves to Jesus Christ; and with Him and through Him we adore God in spirit and in Truth; give Him thanks for all His blessings; obtain His grace for ourselves and the whole world, and pardon for all our sins; and pray for the living and the dead.
- We must believe that there is, in the Catholic or Universal Church of God, a Communion of Saints, by means of which we communicate with all holy persons and in all holy things. We communicate with the Saints in Heaven, as our fellow-members under the same head, Christ Jesus; we give thanks to God for His gifts to them, and we beg a share in their prayers. We communicate with all the saints upon earth in the same Sacraments and Sacrifice, and in a holy union of faith and charity; and we also communicate with the faithful who have departed this life in a more imperfect state – and who, by the law of God’s justice, are for a while in a state of suffering – by offering prayers and alms and sacrifice to God for them.
- We must believe that, by the full concession of Christ, there ever resides in the Church the active power of forgiving sin and of granting Indulgences for the remission of the temporal punishments of sin; which may be applied to the souls both of the living and of the dead who have died friends of God and in the peace of Christ.
- We must believe also the necessity of Divine Grace, without which we cannot make so much as one step towards Heaven; and that all our good and all our merits are the gift of God; that Christ died for all men, and that His grace does not take away nor oppress our free will.
- We must believe that Jesus Christ will come from Heaven at the last day to judge all men; that all the dead, both good and bad, shall arise from their graves, and shall be judged by Him according to their works; that the good shall go to Heaven with Him, body and soul, to be happy for all eternity in the enjoyment of the Sovereign Good; and that the wicked shall be condemned, both body and soul, to the torments of hell for all eternity.
Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for Your divine instruction through holy Mother Church. Lord of our hearts, have mercy on us.
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