Dcn. Phúc's Reflections & Notes for "Catechism in a Year" (Days 21 - 30)

Day 21 (CCC 150 - 155): True freedom is the power to do what I ought. Faith, our response to God's revelation, is a grace AND a human act. "Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has reveled are contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason" (CCC 154). Therefore, "[it] is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says" (CCC 150). I particularly love the example of when a man and a woman marry, they believe each other tells about themselves and their intentions or to trust in their promises (CCC 154). When my wife and I married, we believed and trusted in the promises that we made to each other through our the vows that we share on our wedding day. If we can trust another person like that, then why is it sometimes so hard for us to trust God in just the same way? If anything, we should trust in God more than in people, even if that person is our spouse. In those moments when we have a hard time with our trust in God, let us turn to the Holy Spirit and ask for the gift of grace. In the same way, if we are struggling in our own relationships, then turn to the Holy Spirit and ask for the gift to trust.

Day 22 (CCC 156 - 162): Here are a few sentences from the CCC that struck me:

We believe "because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived." [. . .] Faith is certain. . . because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. Faith seeks understanding. . . better what He has revealed. . . there is no discrepancy between faith and reason. . . nobody is is be forced to embrace faith against his will. . . To live, grow, and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God. . .

Faith is a free gift from God but faith is also our response to God revealing himself to us. The signs and wonders that Jesus performed, the lives of the saints, the holiness of the Church and her stability and fruitfulness are the "motives of credibility" that show the assent of faith is not "blind" but that God is knowable through our intellect and reason. Moreover, we can struggle and wrestle with faith; however, we ought not doubt because God is Truth and He does not deceive us. Thus, "[ten] thousand difficulties do not make one doubt" (John Henry Cardinal Newman) should encourage us to persevere in faith even in time of difficulties and challenges in our lives that test our faith.

Day 23 (CCC 163 - 169): We profess not only an individual faith but also one that we believe as a community of the faithful people of God, called to hand on the faith to others as others before us have done so - including Moses, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the apostles. Hebrews Chapter 11 is a litany of the acts of faith that came before us and calls us to walk by faith, not by sight.

Moreover, this line, in CCC 166, is important in our understanding of why our faith impels us to share the Good News with others: Our love for Jesus and for our neighbors impels us to speak to others about our faith. We cannot embark on the journey of faith alone, we need those who came before us, someone to walk with us in faith, and we need to pay if forward to the generations after us. This is the mission of Holy Mother Church, one that we who are her members, baptized into the One Body of Christ, are carry out as priests, prophets, and kings.

Day 24 (CCC 170 - 175): Today's (2/17) first reading is the account of the tower of Babel and how God "down and there confuse their language" because the people's leads them to want to become like God. Yet, God reunite us all in His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and his bride, the Catholic Church, in the one language of faith. Through the centuries, in so many languages, cultures, peoples, and nations, the Church has constantly confessed this one faith. . . For though languages differ throughout the world, the content of the Tradition is one and the same.

One of the things that my wife and I always so when we visit a new city (for vacation) is, we look for the nearest Catholic Church to attend Mass. It is amazing how the Mass is universal, just as the Catholic Church is universal, no matter where we attend Mass. It is the same Mass across languages as well, because I have been to Mass in English, Vietnamese, and Spanish. How beautiful is that! So, while we do not speak the same language, we share the same Catholic faith and traditions.

Day 25 (CCC 176 - 184): Today is the "In Brief", which is the summary of CCC 142 to 175. Faith is not just knowing God, but we believe and trust in God Himself because He is Truth and Love and will never deceive us. We do not believe in the Church but we believe in God but, through our belief in God, we trust in the teachings of the Church as revealed to her from the Father.

Day 26 (CCC 185 - 192): The "articles" of the Creed (Credo or I Believe) articulate what we believe as to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and his one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. The Creed is the "one teaching of the faith in its entirety. . ." (St. Cyril of Jerusalem). What I believe, I pledge myself to what we believe. When we respond "Amen", we are saying that we believe in everything that the Catholic Church professes and teaches to the the Truth revealed to her by God. This can be a "hard pill" for us - who cannot believe everything about anything - to swallow but, as we mentioned before, God is Truth and Love and we can believe and trust in God who will not deceive us.

Day 27 (CCC 193 - 197): The Apostle's Creed is the oldest known Creed and will be the basis of the "What We Believe" section of the CCC. I love this. . . the Apostle's Creed "is 'the Creed of the Roman Church, the See of Peter, the first of the apostles, to which he brought the common faith" (CCC 194 citing Saint Ambrose). The importance of the Creed and our understanding of it is underscored by how catechumens are dismissed before the Profession of Faith (during Mass) because they have not yet been presented with the Creed. They cannot profess a faith until they have a better understanding of that faith. Therefore, it is also critical for the rest of us Catholics to be attentive to the words of the Creed with we recite them during Mass, perhaps even invite the Holy Spirit to be with us and open our hearts and minds to better understand the faith that we profess we believe.

Day 28 (CCC 198- 204): Our faith begins with God. We do not believe in a what, but we believe in a who; someone we can encounter and enter into a personal relationship with. God is one being, three persons. He is 1 "what" and 3 "who". As the Lateran Council tells us: "We firmly believe and confess without reservation that there is only one true God, eternal, infinite and unchangeable, incomprehensible, almighty, and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely simple" (CCC 202). Moreover, God is knowable because He reveals His "divine name to Moses in the theophany of the burning bush", making himself accessible to us. This is foundational and fundamental for Jews of the Old Covenant and Christians of the New Covenant.

Day 29 (CCC 205- 211): YHWH - "I AM WHO I AM" - "This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery" (CCC 206). As the Catechism unfolds, we are reminded of the story of our salvation, rather than mere facts and teachings. It is an encounter with our Father in heaven. When we realize who God is, when we realize who Jesus Christ is, and when we realize who we are, we come to realize how insignificant we are. Yet, God desires to be close to us because He is merciful and gracious. CCC 2011: "By giving his life to free us from sin, Jesus reveals that he himself bears the divine name: "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will realize that 'I Am'" (John 2:28). He and the Father, along with the Holy Spirit, are God - three Divine Persons, God.

Day 30 (CCC 212- 221): God IS. God revealed himself as the one "abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6). God IS truth, so his promises always come true. Therefore, we can "abandon ourselves in full trust to the truth and faithful of his word in all things" (CCC 215). God IS love. God's love for us is compare to a father's love for his son. Yet, His love for his people is stronger than a mother's love for her children (CCC 219). "God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange" (CCC 221). This is God's "innermost secret."