Understanding Our Faith: The Creed€¦ · collected under God's inspiration. God speaks to us through the Bible. Of course, ... who is a real, live Person, ... need the Church to

Understanding Our Faith: The Creed 1

Rev. Kevin J. Bobbin, M.Div., M.A., S.T.B.

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible

and invisible...

What does it mean to believe? What is faith? Faith is not just a "shot in the dark." It is not choosing to

believe something is true without evidence. Faith most certainly is not opposed to science or human reason.

It is not something that is purely someone's view or opinion.

Faith begins with some basic facts: God exists. God has revealed Himself to human beings in history.

God is present and active in our lives today, continuing to reach out to every one of us. There are two ways

of knowing about God: our natural human reason, and divine revelation. Great Christian theologians in

history have demonstrated that it is possible to know that God exists and to know many of the attributes of

God just by using our natural human ability to think and reason. But human reason can only take us so far.

We also need divine revelation to know God.

Divine revelation simply means that God has taken the initiative to communicate with humanity

throughout history. God has revealed things we could never figure out on our own. Divine revelation takes

two forms: the Bible and the Church's sacred Tradition. The Bible is the collection of writings created and

collected under God's inspiration. God speaks to us through the Bible. Of course, many parts of the Bible are

challenging to understand because they come from historical and cultural circumstances very different from

ours. There are many different types of literature in the Bible and not everything is meant to be taken

literally. One of the core ideas behind Protestantism is personal interpretation of Scripture. However, the

Catholic faith does not espouse this idea. We realize that we need help to correctly understand the Bible and

avoid misinterpreting it. The Church's Magisterium (the Pope and bishops in communion with him) is the

teaching authority responsible for correctly interpreting the Bible because, we believe, the Magisterium is

guided by the Holy Spirit in its work of teaching the faith.

The second way revelation comes to us is in the Church's sacred Tradition. The Bible alone does not

contain everything! Revealed truths were first of all passed on from Jesus Christ to the Apostles to future

generations of Christians. The Church's Tradition is also a form of divine revelation. (Protestantism does not

believe in Tradition as a form of revelation. For Protestants, the Bible is the only authority they recognize.)

The Bible and Tradition work together, and both are handed down and authentically interpreted by the

Magisterium, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Faith is based on everything discussed above: our natural human ability to think and reason, working

together with God's revelation, which is passed down through the Bible and through the Church's Tradition.

To believe is to choose to accept the truths of faith with our minds and hearts.

The Bible and the Church's Tradition are public revelation. There is also such a thing as private

revelation, such as when someone sees or hears Jesus or Mary or the saints. If private revelation is truly

authentic, it will never contradict, add to, or subtract from public revelation.




and invisible...

In Latin, the first word of the Creed is credo, meaning "I believe." Our previous English version of

the Creed began with the words "We believe." Actually, the words "I" and "We" reflect two different aspects

of faith that are both correct and inseparable: faith is both personal and communal.

Faith is personal. God has revealed Himself to humanity in the course of history. This revelation calls

for a personal response. Will we accept it as true and authentic or not? Do we choose to believe in the truths

of the Catholic faith as taught to us by our parents, teachers, clergy, the Church, or not? Our choice to believe

or not to believe will affect how we live our lives on earth and what happens to us after we die. However,

faith is not just something intellectual. It is also a relationship with God. It is not enough to believe in the

truths of faith in our heads. We must also live the faith. We must live our lives in a relationship with God,

who is a real, live Person, someone present with us at all times with whom we communicate by prayer. We

must live the way our faith teaches us, always striving to grow closer to God and to let our relationship with

Him shape the type of persons we are.

Faith is both a gift from God and a choice we ourselves make. Why do many people seem to believe

very easily while many others do not, either because they have never encountered the Catholic faith or

because they just seem to have a very difficult time accepting it? Why doesn't God give the gift of faith to

everyone? This will always be a mystery. But it is clear that every person is unique and every person's

relationship with God is unique. God wants everyone to be with Him in heaven someday and He desires to

meet every person wherever he or she is in life and make His presence known to them. God uses us to help

bring Him into other people's lives and help them believe. When we are confronted with the reality of God

and our Catholic faith, we must make a choice. We must respond in faith. This response is not a one-time

"yes." It is a "yes" that we must live out every single day of our lives, in our thoughts, attitudes, words, and

actions.

Faith is communal. The Catholic Christian is not alone in his or her faith. We believe in the truths of

our faith as a community. In fact, we are more than a community. The Church is the Body of Christ, the

family of God united by our Baptism into Jesus' death and resurrection. We profess our faith together as one

Body just as we worship God as one Body. The individual Catholic Christian cannot simply have faith in

God while remaining apart from the Church. We must be part of the believing, worshiping community. We

need the Church to authentically teach the faith and to provide us with the means of salvation in the Mass

and the sacraments.




and invisible...

What is your image of God? Is He a grandfatherly figure with a long, white beard? Is He just a

"force" out there? Is He more like a loving father we can always turn to or is He more like a strict lawgiver

always watching us from above? How certain can we be that God exists? Many atheist thinkers argue that

believing in God is like believing in the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny: a childish fantasy that a little

science and maturity will wipe away. Are they right?

When God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus), Moses asked God what His

name is. (Pagan gods all had names.) God responded: "I AM." This revelation foreshadows what philosophy

would eventually demonstrate: God is existence itself. God's very essence and nature is to exist. He is pure

being. As such, God is the cause of everything else that exists. Take away "existence" and you are left with

nothing. Christian philosophers and theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas have thought out "proofs" for

God's existence. For example, look at the world around us. Things don't just pop into existence by

themselves without a cause. Everything that exists has a cause. If we try to trace the causes of things back to

the very beginning, there must be an "Uncaused Cause" that is pure existence. We call this "God." Or, as

another example, if we look at the world around us, we see that where there is order, there must be some

intelligence to put things in order. By themselves, things tend toward chaos. (Look at your desk if you don't

keep on top of things.) If we look at the incredible order throughout nature and the universe, an order not

caused by human beings, we must conclude that there is ultimately some "Intelligence" responsible for this

order. We call this "God."

There is much we can know about God just by using our natural ability to observe the world around

us, think, and reason. But this is not enough. God has revealed Himself to humanity throughout history. He

revealed Himself to the patriarchs and leaders of what would become the Jewish people: Abraham, Moses,

etc. The ultimate revelation of God to humanity is in Jesus Christ. Through this revelation, God shows us He

is not just some impersonal force behind the universe. He is a Person. His essence, besides being pure

Existence, Truth, Goodness, Beauty, etc., is also pure Love. We are created in God's image and likeness: we

are made for love. We are made to enter relationships with God and with each other. We each have a heart (or

“will”) that desires love and goodness, and a mind (or “intellect”) that desires truth. These human desires for

love, goodness, and truth, whether we realize it or not, are rooted in the very fabric of our existence and they

can only be fulfilled by the infinite Love, Goodness, and Truth that is God. We can only be satisfied by God.

We are made for eternal life with Him. Nothing less can perfectly satisfy us, although the things of this

world, the things God created, can help lead us to God.

Although pagan religions believed in the existence of multiple gods, we believe in one God. To the

people of Israel God revealed that He is the only one. Furthermore, if we have a correct understanding of

God as Being, Truth, Goodness, etc. as explained above, we can see that it is logically impossible to have

more than one God.




and invisible...

One of the most difficult mysteries of faith to understand is that God is a Trinity: a communion of

three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet, we believe in one God; we know there cannot be three

Gods. How can this be? How can God be three Persons? This is a mystery we cannot expect to fully

understand. That does not mean believing in the Trinity is irrational. It is simply something above our ability

to reason. We do know that God is three Persons. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are real, distinct Persons.

One is not either of the others. The three Persons are not simply three different "masks" of one God. Yet, the

three Persons are inseparable. They all share one divine nature and so are truly one God, not three Gods.

The Trinity has profound implications for us as human beings. We are created in God's image and

likeness. If God is a community of three Persons, in a relationship of perfect love, then we as human beings

are meant to reflect this. The human person is not meant to be isolated. We are made to be in relationships

with God and each other. Pope John Paul II in his Theology of the Body explained how we see this most

clearly in the relationship between man and woman: marriage is a life-giving union between man and woman

which reflects the very mystery of God Himself. Our final destiny as human beings is to share in the perfect

loving communion of the Trinity.

The three Persons of the Trinity always existed. One did not come before the other. Yet, the "first"

Person is God the Father. He "begets" the Son (Jesus), not in the sense of bringing Him into existence at a

certain time; rather, the Father "eternally" begets the Son, outside of time. Why is the first Person of the

Trinity Father and not "Mother"? It is true that God does not have gender. It is true that God, in His love for

us, has both fatherly and motherly qualities. But God revealed Himself to us as "Father." Masculine language

is used to speak of God because masculinity is associated with action while femininity is associated with

receptivity. God's identification as "Father" is an expression of His sovereign role in creating and sustaining

the world.

We must keep in mind that our attempts to understand and describe God will always fall short. There

is much we can know about God, but there is also far more that transcends our limited human minds. Yet, we

must always keep in mind that knowing God (in the sense of being in a relationship with Him) is much more

important than knowing about God.




and invisible...

One of God's attributes is omnipotence. Because God is pure Being, He is almighty. Nothing is

impossible for Him. We can see that God is almighty in His acts of creating the world out of nothing,

creating every human person out of love, and redeeming us through Christ. God has stepped into human

history in many different ways for the good of His people; for example, liberating the people of Israel from

slavery in Egypt. There is no limit to God's power.

Many people have misunderstood God's omnipotence. People have believed that, since God is

almighty, He could create, for example, a four-sided triangle if He wanted to. But, we must keep in mind that

God is not only omnipotent; He is also Truth or Reason. God is almighty but He cannot contradict Himself

by doing something irrational, or unreal, such as creating a four-sided triangle. By definition, a triangle is a

figure with three sides. The very idea of a "four-sided triangle" is nothing more than a meaningless

combination of words.

The fact of God's omnipotence raises the question: "If God is almighty, why is there evil in the

world?" This is known in philosophy as the "problem of evil." How do we explain the presence of evil in the

world, especially evil that causes innocent people to suffer, if God is good and loving and all-powerful?

Atheists point to evil in the world as "proof" that God does not exist. Why God permits evil is a mystery we

cannot expect to fully understand in this life. But there are some truths of reason and some truths of faith that

help us begin to understand why there is evil:

1. There are two kinds of evil. Moral evil is evil caused by human beings. Physical evil is not caused

by human beings (e.g. earthquakes, floods, terminal illnesses). Man has only himself to blame for moral evil.

God gave us free will. He could have created human beings without free will, but without free will, it is

impossible to love, and we could not enter into relationships with God or with each other. It is an incredible

act of love on God's part to take the risk of giving us freedom, knowing we would misuse it.

2. What about physical evil? If God created the world good, why are there disasters and sickness that

harm innocent people? God is perfect but this does not mean He had to create a perfect world. We may think

of God's creation as continually developing, continually moving toward a goal, continually moving toward

perfection. We must also keep in mind that one of the effects of original sin (the first sin against God by

human beings, the "fall of man" which damaged our human nature from the way God originally created it) is

a profound change in creation itself. Original sin damaged man's relationships with God, with each other, and

with the created world. Was it God's original intention for the world that natural disasters and sickness claim

innocent lives? Perhaps not.

3. Through faith, we know that God's love for each and every one of us is limitless. We trust Him as

our loving Father that He would not permit bad things to happen unless there was some greater good to come

out of it. Who can know the mind of God? We often cannot see the big picture. Our view tends to be very

narrow, especially when we are in the midst of our own suffering.

4. Thanks to the redemptive suffering and death of Jesus Christ, our suffering does not have to be

meaningless. Suffering can be redemptive for the one who is suffering and for other people. When we

experience suffering, how do we handle it? What do we do with it?




and invisible...

We believe that God is the Creator of everything that exists. Although the Father, Son, and Holy

Spirit are inseparable and all three have a role in creation, we identify God the Father more specifically as

the Creator. The universe did not always exist. It did not develop by chance, or by necessity, or by purely

mechanical processes. The universe came about through God's creative action. The universe as it continues

to unfold and develop is part of God's plan. God creates ex nihilo -from nothing. He creates the world out of

love, as a reflection of His Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

But do the claims of modern science challenge our belief in God as Creator? What about evolution, a

very popular theory today? God or evolution: must it be one or the other? Did God really create the world in

six days as the book of Genesis tells the story? The book of Genesis conveys the truth that God created the

world, but it does not tell us how God created the world. God creates through the natural processes that

science uncovers and explains for us. If evolutionary theory is true (which is not certain), God's plan is what

is guiding the process. It does not matter how things came about. Whatever the process, God is ultimately the

Intelligence behind it. We who believe in God as the Creator have no reason to be afraid of the discoveries of

science. In fact, without God's reason, His intelligible plan behind created reality, modern science would not

even be possible!

Many people have believed that God is like a clockmaker who made the world and then let it start

running on its own, without having to do anything more. But creation was not once and done. God is

continually creating and sustaining the world right now, indeed at every moment. Things would cease to exist

if it were not for God continually sustaining them. Keep in mind God's nature: Existence, Truth, Goodness,

etc.

Despite the claims of people who believe human beings are simply part of the evolutionary flow of

nature like all other animals and have no inherent special dignity (and note that this is a philosophical, not a

scientific claim), the human person is God's greatest creation. The human person is unique because he is the

only creature that is part of both the material and the spiritual worlds. We are each made in God's image and

likeness. This is the foundation of our inherent human dignity, which has strong moral implications. As

human beings, we each have a body and a soul. Our souls have two "faculties:" an intellect and a will. Unlike

other living creatures, our intellect enables us to think and reason, to look at the world around us objectively,

which animals cannot do. Animals lack the ability to reason. They can only relate to the world around them

from their own perspective and operate on instinct. Our intellect desires to know the truth, which is

ultimately God. We also have a free will. Because we have a will, we have the ability to determine ourselves

as persons for good or bad. Free will opens the arena of morality: how ought we to live our lives? Our will is

the seat of our desires. We all desire love, which is ultimately God.

God creates human beings male and female. A human being is "incomplete" without someone of the

opposite gender. This attraction of man and woman is a sign of the communion we desire with each other

and with God. Marriage is a reflection of the mystery of God Himself: a Trinity, a communion of perfect love

that brings forth new life. When a new human being is conceived, God creates a new soul out of nothing at

that very moment of conception. At that moment, the new human being is a person with an immortal soul.




and invisible...

God is the Creator of everything that exists, "visible and invisible." There have always been many

people who do not believe in anything other than what we can see or hear, touch, taste, or smell. But, there

are many things that are very real that we cannot know through any of our five senses. The human soul is

real, even though it is not something we can sense. The very fact that we can think, or experience emotions,

or love, demonstrates that there is more to us than just a material body.

We believe that God created angels. Human beings are creatures of God with a body and a soul.

Angels, however, are purely spirit; they do not have bodies, and so we cannot sense them. One of the ways

we know angels exist is that God has used some of them to communicate with or help human beings (e.g. the

angel Gabriel communicating to Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus). The word "angel" comes from

a word that means "messenger." It has also been part of our faith tradition to believe that every human being

has a guardian angel. Guardian angels are not meant to protect us from all harm during our lives on earth but,

we believe, they play a mysterious role in keeping us from spiritual harm and helping us reach heaven. Of

course, our guardian angels cannot force us to make spiritually healthy choices in life. Yet, one might

speculate that they do much more for us than we could possibly realize in the course of our daily lives.

To dispel a popular false belief: when we die, we do not become angels! When a human being dies

and goes to heaven, he/she does not become an angel. A human being who goes to heaven is still a human

being even though body and soul are temporarily separated.

Not all angels are good. Like human beings, angels have free will. Demons or evil spirits are angels

that chose to reject God and live only for themselves. Satan, or the Devil, is the foremost evil spirit. We must

keep in mind that Satan is not the "source" of evil the way God is the source of all good. Satan is not all-

powerful like God. Satan is a real person with real power to cause trouble in our world. But God is always

supreme. A person with true faith has no reason to fear Satan or engage in superstitious beliefs or activities.

We must avoid two opposite errors about Satan. One mistake would be to believe he doesn't exist.

Yet, people have speculated that one of Satan's strategies for leading us away from God is to get people to

believe he (Satan) doesn't exist! (Think about that one.) The other mistake people make is blaming all the

evil in the world on Satan. This is a mistake because so much of the evil in the world is not the work of

Satan; it is the work of human beings. Only by honestly facing our own sinfulness and taking responsibility

for our immoral choices will we be able to experience salvation.

One more bit of food for thought: a frequently asked question is "why doesn't God just destroy

Satan?" We must keep in mind that Satan was an angel of God who decided to reject God. Yet, God loves

Satan just as He loves everyone and everything He created. God is Love. He never stops loving His

creatures. That is good news for us when we find ourselves guilty of sin.



...I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father

before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not

made, consubstantial with the Father; through Him all things were made. For us men and for

our salvation He came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin

Mary, and became man...

The second part of the Nicene Creed is what makes us Christian: we believe in one Lord, Jesus

Christ. We believe Jesus is not just a man who lived a long time ago in history. He is truly God along with

the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is our Lord and we are His followers. It helps us understand Jesus' identity

if we know something about His names or titles.

Jesus: The name Jesus was a common Hebrew name which literally means "God saves" or "savior."

This name was revealed to Mary and Joseph by God. (Luke's Gospel describes the Annunciation to Mary in

which the angel Gabriel reveals the name Jesus. Matthew's Gospel describes Joseph's dream in which an

angel tells him to name the child Jesus.) Jesus' name indicates His mission, which is inseparable from His

identity. He is our Savior. By His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus saves us from sin and death. He made it

possible for us to live forever when our lives on earth come to an end.

Christ: This is the Greek word for Messiah, which literally means "anointed one." When someone or

something is anointed, it is a sign that the person or object is consecrated: permanently set apart to fulfill a

special purpose for God. (Priests, altars, persons receiving the sacraments of Baptism or Confirmation are all

anointed as a sign of consecration.) Jesus is the Anointed One. He is the Messiah the people of Israel had

been expecting. However, the people of Israel had a variety of ideas about who and what the Messiah would

be. Many thought he would be a great king or military leader, perhaps one who would overthrow the Roman

occupation of Judea. The Messiah would be someone who would inaugurate a permanent golden age for

Israel in God's name. Jesus was not what most people were expecting. He did not come to change the

political situation or bring worldly prosperity. The true Messiah would do what no one ever dreamed: liberate

every human being from the oppression of sin and death.

Lord: In the Old Testament God revealed His name to Moses as "I AM" or, in Hebrew, "Yahweh."

This is the divine name, held so sacred by Jewish people that they do not pronounce it. Instead, they

substitute the word Adonai ("my Lord"). In the New Testament, St. Paul and other Apostles frequently refer

to Jesus as Kyrios, the Greek word meaning "Lord." In other words, they are referring to Jesus as God. Every

Christian of Jewish background during the time of the Apostles would understand this reference. Jesus truly

is God and has absolute sovereignty over all creation with the Father and the Holy Spirit.



...I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father

before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not

made, consubstantial with the Father; through Him all things were made. For us men and

for our salvation He came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the

Virgin Mary, and became man...

Jesus has two natures: divine and human. In other words, He is 100% God and 100% human. This is

extremely important and has many implications for our faith. Jesus is not God who simply "appeared" as a

human being. Nor is He simply a man who somehow received divine power. He is truly God and truly man.

In the early centuries of Christianity, there arose a false teaching called Arianism (named for the

priest Arius). Arians believed that Jesus was only human, not divine. In response to this widespread heresy

(false teaching), the Church affirmed the truth about Jesus' divinity by adding various expressions to the

Creed: Jesus is "the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light

from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father." All these

expressions are meant to make it as clear as possible that we believe in Jesus' divinity. Jesus is of the same

divine nature as God the Father.

This brings us back to the Trinity. In the Gospels, there are many occasions when Jesus refers to God

the Father or prays to God the Father. But there are many other places where Jesus makes Himself out to be

God. Which is it? Is Jesus God Himself, or is He God's Son? The answer is that He is both. God is a Trinity:

three distinct Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but all three are one God. All three are inseparable and

share one divine nature. Thus, Jesus is truly the Son of the Father, but both Father and Son (and Holy Spirit)

are truly one God.

Twice the Creed mentions that Jesus was "begotten" by God. This does not mean the same thing as a

human father "begetting" a son. Jesus was not made or created by the Father. As God, Jesus always existed

along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. But the word "begotten" is an attempt to capture the sense of a

Father-Son relationship between the Father and Jesus. We must keep in mind that the language we use to

speak about God will never completely capture the mystery of God.



...I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before

all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made,

consubstantial with the Father; through Him all things were made. For us men and for our

salvation He came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin


We may have a tendency to think that Jesus, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, was

not doing much until it was time for Him to become man and be born into our world to redeem us. On the

contrary, Jesus has been quite busy from all eternity. Even though the work of creating the world is attributed

mainly to God the Father, the three divine Persons of the Trinity are inseparable. The Father, Son, and Holy

Spirit act in unison. This means that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are also active in creation along with the

Father.

In the story of creation in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, God creates by speaking a word.

God said "Let there be light" and there was light... God said "Let the earth bring forth vegetation..." And so it

happened. God said "Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures..." And so it happened. God creates

through His Word. When God speaks, things happen. The Gospel According to John begins with the

beautiful prologue: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He

was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be...

And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us..." In just these few verses John tells us that

Jesus is truly God, yet Jesus and the Father are distinct Persons. Jesus is the Word through whom God creates

the world. Jesus is the Word who takes on human flesh and is born into our world to redeem us.

Paul's Letter to the Colossians includes an early Christian hymn that sums up some of these truths

about Jesus and His role in creation from all eternity. "For in him were created all things in heaven and on

earth... All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold

together" (Colossians 1:16-17). All things were made by the Father through Jesus. All of creation is for

Jesus, meaning that perfection in Jesus is the goal of all creation. All things hold together through Jesus,

meaning that Jesus is the sustaining force that holds all things in existence.

The words of the Creed, "Through Him all things were made," point to many truths: Jesus'

relationship with the Father, Jesus' role in creation, Jesus as God's Word.








If we want to more fully understand and appreciate our faith, it is essential that we understand our

need for redemption. Maybe one reason many people have little or no faith or do not practice any religion is

that they do not realize their need for redemption. All human beings have need of redemption -every single

one of us. Every single person must face the reality of death. Every single person must face the reality of his

or her own sinfulness and imperfection. We all know there is a difference between the way we should be and

the way we really are. We all fall short in some way and we know it. Why is it so often hard to be good?

Why do we so often know the right thing but fail to do it? Why do many people try to "change the rules" or

make up their own rules for life -could it be that it is hard to live the way we know we should live; could it be

that people want to escape the reality of their own imperfection? Why do we seem to be tossed around by our

emotions and urges and desires instead of obeying our reason? Why does life so often seem hard? Why do

we experience physical or emotional suffering?

We are all born into a condition called "original sin." This does not mean that, as newborn babies, we

are guilty of sin and deserve punishment. Original sin simply means that the first human beings sinned

against God, which damaged their relationship with God. Thus, every human being born into the world is

born into a humanity that is in a damaged relationship with God, a state of alienation from God. Because

humanity is in a damaged relationship with God, the Creator, the source of life, we experience all sorts of

unpleasant consequences: suffering, difficulty in doing the right thing, and most of all: death. God did not

intend these things for us. They are results of the damaging of our human nature by the first sin of the first

human beings.

This is illustrated in the story of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis. Adam and Eve were the first

human beings and lived in a condition where life was not difficult, there was no suffering, they were in a

perfect relationship with God and with each other, and they were perfectly at home in their environment.

God asked that they simply not eat from the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil." This tree is a symbol

that we are human beings; we are not God; there are certain lines we must not cross. Only God can decide

what is good and what is evil. However, the Devil, in the form of a serpent, tempts Adam and Eve to eat the

fruit from the tree so that they can be like God. Adam and Eve, by their own free choice (the Devil did not

force them to eat the fruit) disobeyed God. By doing this, they damaged their relationship with God and the

consequences naturally followed. God did not arbitrarily punish the first human beings and He is not

punishing the rest of us either when we inherit original sin. The unpleasant consequences of the first sin

naturally follow from the fact that man has turned his back on God, the source of his life.

Thus, if we desire to live forever, if we desire to overcome our sinfulness and imperfections, if we

desire to deal with the difficulties of life, we need redemption. We need to be saved. This is where Jesus

comes in...








The two greatest mysteries of our Christian faith are the Incarnation and the Resurrection (celebrated

on Christmas and Easter, respectively). The Incarnation is the birth of Jesus into our world as a human being.

Without giving up His divinity, Jesus, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, took on human flesh.

He took on our humanity and was born into our world in a specific place at a specific time in history. Jesus is

fully God and fully man. He has two natures: divine and human. This does not mean that Jesus is somehow

two people in one body. He is one Person who is both divine and human. As God, He is in perfect harmony

and communion with the Father. But as man, He shares everything about our human experience, with the

exception of sin.

Why did Jesus become man? By sharing our humanity, Jesus reveals God to us in a way that is more

complete and more profound than any previous revelation. Jesus is the fullest revelation of God to us.

Furthermore, every human being is in need of redemption but, by ourselves, there is nothing we can do to

repair the relationship between God and humanity. It takes an act of God. The Incarnation is the first step. In

His love for us, God steps down and enters our world to save us. Just as disobedience put us in the state we

are now in, a state of alienation from God with all its consequences, it is the obedience of Jesus that saves us.

Throughout His historical time in our world, Jesus was perfectly obedient to His Father, despite the fact that

this perfect obedience would get Him in trouble with the religious authorities and lead to the sacrifice of His

life. But it is in this ultimate sacrifice -not only Jesus' life but His will- that Jesus opens the path of salvation

for us.

How did the Incarnation happen? Well, redemption is not only an act of God. It also requires the

cooperation of humanity. God awaits our consent to give us the gift of salvation. This consent is given on

behalf of all humanity by Mary. God chose Mary to be the embodiment of His Chosen People, the people of

Israel. He chose Mary to be the embodiment of His new people, the Church. God kept Mary free from sin

throughout her entire life so she could give a totally pure "yes" to His plan of salvation (we call this mystery

the Immaculate Conception). The angel Gabriel revealed to Mary that she was chosen to be the mother of

Jesus and she accepted. Her "yes" on behalf of all humanity was the consent God was looking for in order to

extend the gift of salvation to us. Mary's perpetual virginity is a sign of her total dedication to God and the

purity of her "yes." By the power of the Holy Spirit she miraculously conceived Jesus, the Son of God. Yet,

Mary's marriage to Joseph is authentic and very important. Although not the biological father of Jesus,

Joseph is Jesus' legal father, which connects Jesus to the line of King David and other great figures in the

history of Israel: Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. Thus begins the re-creation of humanity...



...For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, He suffered death and was buried,

and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living

and the dead and His kingdom will have no end...

The death and resurrection of Jesus (the "Paschal Mystery") is at the very center of the Christian faith

because it brought about our redemption. Jesus' total faithfulness to the Father in heaven led to trouble with

the religious authorities of Israel. The people of Israel were deeply committed to living by the Law (the

"Torah" -God's instructions for life, God's instructions for living out the Covenant He established with Israel

through Moses). However, even though the Law contained fundamental, unchanging moral precepts (such as

the Ten Commandments), it also contained mere human precepts, rules meant only for Israel, rules never

meant to be permanent. Jesus measured the Law against the highest standard possible: the pure will of God

that is Truth and Goodness itself. But people misunderstood. To the religious authorities: the Sanhedrin, the

scribes and priests, and most of all the Pharisees (a sect of Judaism known for strict adherence to the Law) it

seemed as though Jesus was breaking the Law. Accusations of blasphemy and speaking against the Law and

the Temple led to the eventual arrest and condemnation of Jesus.

Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Palestine, who condemned Him

(urged along by accusations that Jesus declared Himself a king and posed a threat to the Roman authorities).

Jesus was put to death by crucifixion, the most shameful form of execution for criminals. In spite of His

power to free Himself from suffering and death, Jesus willingly embraced it because in this is our

redemption. The night before He died, Jesus struggled with the Father's will while praying in the Garden of

Gethsemane. In His humanity, Jesus experienced fear and a desire to escape the suffering in store for Him;

yet, He willingly embraced the Father's will. In this Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures and brought about our

redemption.

The night before Jesus died, He celebrated the Last Supper with His Apostles. He instituted the

Eucharist, changing bread and wine into His Body and Blood. He empowered the Apostles and their

successors to do this until the end of time, making them the first priests. The Eucharist makes the death and

resurrection of Jesus Christ present. Every Mass is a remembrance of the Paschal Mystery: the death and

resurrection of Jesus Christ that redeems us.



...For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, He suffered death and was buried, and

rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and

is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and

the dead and His kingdom will have no end...

The Resurrection is the center of our Christian faith. Jesus was faithful to the Father's will even unto

suffering and death. In this ultimate sacrifice, this perfect obedience, Jesus brought about our salvation and

redemption, healing the rift between God and humanity caused by the disobedience of the first human

beings. The Resurrection profoundly confirms Jesus' act of salvation. It is a sign that the Father has accepted

the sacrifice of His Son. It is a sign that Jesus has conquered sin and death. It is a sign of hope for all of us:

just as Jesus rose from the dead, we have the possibility of rising again and living forever despite the fact that

our lives in this world will end someday. It is possible to be free from sin. Suffering is not the end; it is not

hopeless or meaningless. Death is not the end. Jesus' Resurrection shows us that heaven is real.

The Resurrection has implications for all of humanity in all times and places but it is also a historical

event that happened at a particular time in a particular place. The women who followed Jesus, the Apostles,

and other disciples witnessed the Resurrection: they found the tomb empty and Jesus later appeared to them.

They were so moved by this experience of Jesus coming back from death that they could not help but spread

this message, this "Good News." They realized everything Jesus had said during His earthly life was true. In

light of the Resurrection, they were able to look back on the things Jesus said and did and they began to

understand more profoundly. Thus began the spread of the Gospel and Christianity.

It is important to understand that the risen Jesus was not simply an apparition. It was not as though

the disciples were seeing a ghost. The risen Jesus was physically present. The Gospel accounts show the

disciples (such as Thomas) touching Jesus and Jesus eating in front of them. The wounds from the

crucifixion were still present (perhaps as signs of victory?). However, the Resurrection was not simply a

"resuscitation." Jesus' risen body was not like His earthly body. He could pass through locked doors and

cover great distances instantaneously. There was something about His appearance that made it difficult for

people to recognize Him at first. Jesus' Resurrection was a profound bodily transformation. His risen body is

a sign of what our risen bodies will be like someday.







What does it mean when we say that Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures? By the "Scriptures" we are

referring, of course, to the Bible: the collection of writings that we believe are divinely inspired. The Old

Testament is the collection of books held sacred by the people of Israel. The Old Testament represents a long

historical time span from Abraham, father of the nation of Israel (around 1800 BC) up to around the time of

Jesus. The New Testament is the collection of writings held sacred by Christians: the Gospels, the letters of

St. Paul, etc. Why do we as Christians retain the Old Testament? Why do we believe the Old Testament is

divinely inspired?

We believe the Old Testament is not complete in itself. Rather, it represents God's action throughout

the history of Israel leading up to Jesus Christ, the true Messiah anticipated by the people of Israel. Many of

God's saving deeds in the Old Testament foreshadow salvation through Jesus Christ. For example, God

liberated the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, leading them through the Red Sea to the Promised Land.

Through Jesus, He liberates us from sin and death, leading us via the waters of Baptism to the Promised

Land of heaven. The words of the Old Testament prophets often contain deeper meanings that point to Jesus.

Take, for example, the words of Isaiah: "Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he

endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for

our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we

were healed" (Isaiah 53:4-5). The prophet spoke these words in a particular historical context but we can

easily discern a deeper meaning applicable to Jesus.

Jesus Christ fulfills the Old Testament. This is why Christians hold the Old Testament sacred. God

truly speaks to us through the words of the Old Testament just as He speaks through the words of the Gospels

and the other writings of the New Testament. It has been said that the New Testament is hidden in the Old

and the Old Testament is revealed in the New. At Sunday Mass, the first reading is usually taken from the

Old Testament to correspond to that day's Gospel passage in order to demonstrate how Jesus fulfills the Old

Testament.







Forty days after the Resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven. During those forty days, the risen Jesus

continued to walk among His disciples as He did before His death and Resurrection. He continued to instruct

them and encourage them. The risen Jesus did not appear to everyone in the world but to His own selected

witnesses who would spread the Gospel message and constitute the beginnings of the Church, which would

carry the message and the means of salvation to everyone in the world until the end of time. However, at the

end of these forty days, the disciples witnessed Jesus physically ascend upward, out of their sight, a scene

described at the end of the Gospels and at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles.

How do we understand the Ascension? Heaven, of course, is not a physical place up in the sky. It is a

state of union with God, with all of the peace and happiness and new life this entails. Jesus' Ascension does

not mean that He left us, that He left our world, that He is somehow now absent from us. Because He rose

from the dead, Jesus is alive. He remains with us, He remains present in our world with each and every one

of us. Perhaps we might understand the Ascension as the end of Jesus' public appearances in His risen body.

If Jesus never ascended, that is, if He continued to walk around here on earth in His risen body, He could

really only be in one place at a time. However, by ascending into heaven, He is no longer bound by time and

space. He can be everywhere. He can be with all of us at once.

Jesus is truly present in our world in many ways. The Eucharist is the Real Presence of Jesus: His

Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity under the sensible appearances of bread and wine. Jesus is also present in

the Word; this means that whenever we read or listen to the inspired words of Sacred Scripture, Jesus is

speaking to us. He is present in the sacraments: when one goes to Confession, Jesus is present in the priest

who speaks the words of forgiveness; Jesus is present in Baptism, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick; He is

present when a man and woman exchange vows and enter the bond of marriage. Jesus is present in priests

when they celebrate the sacraments and otherwise speak and act in His name. All of these things are means

by which the presence of the risen Jesus is extended to all people in all times and places so that they may be

drawn into a closer relationship with God and experience the benefits of Jesus' death and Resurrection: the

gift of salvation. When we reach heaven, we will see our Lord face to face, no longer hidden behind signs

and symbols. Then our union with Him will be perfect.







Our faith teaches us that Jesus will come again (which is not to say He is absent from us and our

world now) but He will come again "in glory." At the end of the world He will be fully manifested to

everyone, to those who believe in Him as well as to those who do not believe in Him. The "Second Coming"

or the "Parousia" at the end of the world is a truth expressed in Sacred Scripture (from Jesus' own mouth)

and it has been passed down through the Church's Tradition from the very beginning. In fact, the first

generation of Christians thought that Jesus meant to return soon: within their lifetimes! Paul's First Letter to

the Thessalonians is a response to the concerns of some Christians who were worried about what would

happen to their fellow Christians who were dying before Jesus' Second Coming. Paul reassures them that, at

Jesus' return, it doesn't matter whether one is still alive or has already "fallen asleep." All will be raised up.

What will the end of the world and Jesus' Second Coming be like? We do not know exactly. The

Gospels and the Book of Revelation suggest that the end will be foreshadowed by what we call "apocalyptic

signs" (perhaps natural disasters, war, persecution, etc.). All throughout history, people have never tired of

trying to predict when and how the world will end. Many people have tried to interpret events in history as

signs of the end. However, Jesus is perfectly clear: the Father has not revealed to us when the world will end.

It is perfectly natural to be curious about the end of the world but the faithful Christian does not engage in

serious speculation about how or when the world will end. Instead, the faithful Christian is far more

concerned about growing in his / her relationship with Jesus and living a good life right now in the present so

as to be prepared for the future. The season of Advent, besides preparing for Christmas, is intended to remind

us that Jesus will return at the end of the world, so we should be prepared by faithfully following Him right

now.

Jesus' first coming was the Incarnation: He was born into our world as a human being to redeem us

by His sacrificial death and resurrection. The first coming of Jesus was only seen by a few people (Mary and

Joseph, the shepherds and Magi, later the disciples and the people of Israel). He was born into our world to

save us. The Second Coming at the end of the world will be much different: Jesus will be plainly visible to

everyone and all things will be brought to an end. For us, this entails the "Last Judgment." Those people who

lived their lives in union with God, honestly seeking to do good, will find themselves in heaven. Those who

separated themselves from God through their immoral choices in life will find themselves in hell. We

experience this same type of judgment when we die: if we lived in union with God during our lives on earth,

we will remain in union with Him when we die (heaven); if we separated ourselves from God during our

lives on earth, we will remain separated from Him after death (hell). There also exists the possibility of

purgatory: a state of purification for those who are going to heaven but still need healing from the sinfulness

of their lives.

The end of the world will not actually be the end. It will be the fulfillment of God's Kingdom which

will be perfect peace and happiness and which will have no end.



...I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and

the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through

the prophets...

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity. The Spirit is truly God along with the Father and

Jesus the Son. The Holy Spirit "proceeds" from the Father and the Son: He is the love between the Father

and Son, the bond between the Father and Son. As God, the Holy Spirit is not just some thing or some force;

He is a true Person who is worshipped and glorified. He shares the same divine nature and substance as the

Father and the Son.

What was the Holy Spirit's role in history? Since the three Persons of the Trinity are inseparable, their

actions in history are inseparable. Yet, there are distinctions in the roles of the Father, Son, and Spirit. It was

the Holy Spirit who came upon Mary so that she conceived Jesus. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus Himself

at His Baptism by John the Baptist. This was a sign that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, God's Anointed

One whose special mission was to redeem humanity.

The Holy Spirit was manifested most of all on Pentecost. Fifty days after Jesus' resurrection, He sent

the Holy Spirit upon His disciples. While the Apostles hid themselves for fear of the authorities who had put

Jesus to death, the Holy Spirit came upon them in the form of a strong wind and tongues of fire. The Spirit

gave them the courage and the ability to go out and begin to proclaim the Gospel message. Pentecost is the

birthday of the Church. The coming of the Spirit was the final step in forming Jesus' followers into the "new

Israel," the new People of God, the Church.

What is the Holy Spirit's role today? Just as the Holy Spirit's coming began the Church, the Spirit is

actively guiding the Church today. The Spirit works through the Pope and bishops to preserve the faith

through the ages and authentically teach it. The Spirit also works in the lives of individual Christians. Three

of the seven sacraments involve a personal encounter with the Holy Spirit. In Baptism, the Holy Spirit comes

to dwell in the person. Baptism permanently transforms a person into an adopted child of God so that divine

life truly dwells in him / her. In the sacrament of Confirmation, the Holy Spirit comes upon a person to

impart the gifts and graces that will enable him / her to live the Christian life. Confirmation, in a sense,

brings Baptism to its maturity. In the sacrament of Holy Orders, the Spirit comes upon a man to transform

him into a deacon, a priest, or a bishop, imparting a share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit may also impart gifts, or "charisms," to individual people to help them live their faith

and contribute to the good of the Church. Some charisms are somewhat unique and unusual such as

"speaking in tongues." Others are more common such that we might not think of them as gifts of the Holy

Spirit, such as a talent for preaching the faith or a talent for ministering to a certain class of people, for

example.

The Holy Spirit has spoken through the prophets. The Bible is the inspired Word of God because the

Spirit has spoken through the prophets of the Old Testament and others who put the Word into writing. The

Scriptures contain God's revelation. The same Spirit who spoke through the writers of Scripture also speaks

through the Pope and bishops so that the Scriptures will be correctly interpreted and the the faith

authentically handed on.



...I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the

forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world

to come. Amen.

When many people think of "church" they think about the building where they go to worship on

Sundays. When many people think of "The Catholic Church" they think of some bureaucracy based across

the ocean: a group of old celibate men, out-of-touch with the modern world, who impose rules concerning

some of the most intimate aspects of our lives. When some people think of "The Catholic Church" they

immediately cite examples of corruption and scandal throughout history. But, really, what is the Church?

Perhaps we can come to a more mature and accurate understanding of what we mean when we speak of "the

Church."

To put it simply, the Church (note the capital "C") is God's family. Baptism makes us the adopted

children of God the Father by uniting each of us to the death and resurrection of Christ, and so opening for us

the possibility of salvation. The Church is the community of all those who are baptized. Thus, the Church is

primarily a spiritual reality. However, the Church also has physical manifestations: it has a hierarchy to guide

it and to pass on the faith and to provide the sacraments. The Church has buildings and material goods for

worshipping God and serving people.

"The Church" subsists in the Catholic Church (to use technical language). This means that the

fullness of "the Church" is found in the Catholic Church. Other Christian churches and denominations share

in some of the means of salvation (the Scriptures, Baptism, possibly the Eucharist and other sacraments) but

not completely, or not in their fullness. It is popular in some scholarly circles to believe Jesus never intended

there to be any kind of organized church; the institution that we call the Church was just an invention of the

Apostles that does more harm than good. On the contrary, Jesus made Peter the "rock" on which He would

build His Church. He made the Apostles the first priests. He sent the Holy Spirit on the disciples on

Pentecost to empower them to spread the Gospel. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. The institution of

the Church is the visible community of God's People and it embodies the means of salvation. The Church has

both human and divine aspects. It takes faith to see the spiritual realities embodied in the visible elements of

the Church.

There are several images to help us understand the Church. The Church is the "Body of Christ."

Christ is the Head and we are members of His Body. This image expresses the fact that being members of the

Church is not like belonging to an organization. We share God's divine life within us by the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit, thanks to our Baptism into Jesus' death and resurrection. We are members of the same Body:

each a unique individual, but inseparable. We are united to Christ as our Head. This is expressed when we

receive the Eucharist: to receive Communion -the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ- is to say "I am

a properly initiated member of the Catholic Church, I believe and profess everything contained in the

Catholic faith, and I try to live my life in a manner consistent with these beliefs." The Eucharist is the

ultimate sign of our unity with each other and with Christ as the Church.

Another image for the Church is that it is the "Bride of Christ." Even in the Old Testament, the

relationship between God and His People has been described using marriage imagery. This continues in

describing the relationship between Jesus and the Church. Once again, this image captures the fact that

membership in the Church is far more profound than belonging to some other organization.





to come. Amen.

The words "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic" are called the four "marks" of the Church. They help to

describe what the Church is.

The Church is one. The Church is God's family, which we share in by our Baptism into Jesus' death

and resurrection. In the Church we are united together with Christ and with each other; the Church is the

Body of Christ. We share one faith, one sacramental life, one apostolic hierarchy, and one hope for eternal

life. The one Church subsists in the Catholic Church. However, divisions have occurred among Christians in

history: the division between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches, the formation of various

Protestant denominations, and countless new independent Christian communities springing up even today.

Many of these churches and communities possess various elements of truth and some of the means of

salvation (such as the Scriptures). All baptized Christians, Catholic or not, are in a relationship with the

Church and so are our brothers and sisters in Christ. But, we must constantly pray for and work for the

restoration of unity among Christians.

The Church is holy. This (obviously) does not mean that the members of the church are perfect, or

never make mistakes, or are guaranteed to go to heaven. The Church is made up of human beings, and we are

all sinners. But the Church is described as holy because it is the work of Jesus Christ and He has made the

Church the source of sanctification. God wants all of us to be saved. The Church offers us a path to holiness

so that we can overcome our sinfulness, be reconciled with God, grow in love and virtue, and receive the gift

of salvation.

The Church is catholic. Notice the small "c" in "catholic." Here we are not referring to the proper

name of the Church but to one of its qualities. The word catholic means "universal." Wherever the Church is

present in the world, there is Christ. Wherever Christ is, there is His Church. Even the smallest parish church

in the most remote corner of the world manifests the universal Church because it contains all the means of

salvation. Another way the Church is catholic is that it seeks to embrace everyone in the world. Through

evangelization and missionary efforts, the Church invites everyone to embrace the truth and enter into full

communion with the Church. One of the most misunderstood sayings is that "there is no salvation outside the

Church." This does not mean one must be Catholic to go to heaven. It simply means that everyone who is

saved is saved by Jesus Christ through some relationship with His Church. Being a member of the Catholic

Church exposes one to the fullness of the means of salvation, but some of the means of salvation and

elements of truth are found in other Christian and non-Christian religions. God extends the gift of salvation

to those who try to live a good life and, through no fault of their own, never come to a full knowledge of the

truth embodied in the Catholic faith. Yet, we as Catholics fail to live up to our mission if we do not share our

faith with the world around us or if we act as though all belief systems are equally true.

The Church is apostolic. The Church was founded when Jesus called His twelve Apostles and sent

them out to spread the Gospel message. The Church to this day preserves the teaching of the Apostles that

comes from Christ. The Gospel message and the sacramental life of the Church are passed down through

history through apostolic succession. Apostolic succession is the passing of the priesthood down through the

ages via the sacrament of Holy Orders. The bishops of the Church are successors of the Apostles and inherit

their mission.





to come. Amen.

The whole purpose of salvation history, the whole purpose of Jesus becoming man, suffering, dying,

and rising from the dead for us is forgiveness. The first human beings, "Adam and Eve," committed sin: in

doing this they damaged their relationship with God. Because they were the first human beings, every one of

us ever born after them is born into a humanity alienated from God. This is what we mean when we say that

we are all born with original sin. We are all in need of salvation. Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection

makes salvation possible for us. In other words, it makes it possible for us to be forgiven and reconciled with

God.

But, salvation is not forced on us. We each have to freely accept it. We do this by being baptized.

Baptism unites us to the death and resurrection of Christ: Baptism takes away original sin and radically

changes our relationship with God and each other. We truly become the adopted children of God and

members of His family, the Church. Baptism not only takes away original sin but it also forgives any

particular sins an individual may have committed.

What happens if someone commits sin after being baptized? (Of course, there is no "if" about it. We

are all in this category.) Once we are baptized into the Christian life, it is impossible to be baptized again.

But, Jesus gives us another sacrament which allows us to experience His forgiveness: the Sacrament of

Reconciliation. As recounted in John's Gospel, on the evening of Easter Sunday, the day of the resurrection,

Jesus gave His Apostles the duty and the ability to forgive sins. Whenever we go to Confession, Jesus is

present in the priest (or bishop) who speaks the words of forgiveness. In God's great mercy, we are free to

use the Sacrament of Reconciliation as often as it is available and as many times as we need it. Although we

are only obligated to confess serious sins, it helps us grow in holiness when we bring even minor faults,

weaknesses, and bad habits to our Lord in Confession.

Jesus' death and resurrection, which happened one time in history, is what makes salvation possible

for us. In the sacraments of Baptism and Reconciliation, that gift of salvation touches each of us individually

and personally.




forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the

world to come. Amen.

As human beings, we each have a body and a soul. When we die, body and soul are separated: the

body decays while the soul goes on to exist in the state of heaven, hell, or purgatory, according to the choices

we have made in life. At the moment of death, we experience the particular judgment. If we have died in

union with God, we will remain in union with Him in the perfect happiness of heaven. If we have died in a

basically good relationship with God but we still need healing and purification from our sins, we enter

purgatory: a state of purification before we enter heaven. If we have died in a state of alienation from God,

we will experience hell: the pain of eternal separation from God. Many people do not believe in hell because,

they argue, a loving and merciful God would not let people suffer eternally. Yet, hell is precisely the result of

one's own choices to reject God's infinite love and mercy and separate oneself from God.

After death, one's body and soul are separated. But this is not the way it is meant to be. By definition,

a human being has a body and a soul. Just as Jesus rose from the dead, we (as His baptized followers) look

forward to our own resurrection at the end of the world when even our own bodies will be raised and

reunited with our souls. How is this possible if one's dead body returns to dust in the grave? For God who

created the world out of nothing, anything is possible. What will our resurrected bodies be like? We do not

know, but the descriptions of the risen Jesus in the Gospels may provide some clues. In the resurrected state

we will surely not experience any of the pain, weaknesses, or imperfections we experience in our mortal

bodies.

The resurrection will occur when Jesus returns at the end of the world. At this point, the final

judgment will take place, confirming the particular judgment of each individual at the moment of his / her

death and extending to those still living. At this time, the resurrected body will join the soul in eternal

happiness or eternal punishment. The world itself, in some way we cannot yet understand or imagine, will be

freed from decay and transformed to share in Christ's glory. Then the Kingdom of God will be fully

established and God's plan of salvation to unite all in Himself will be accomplished.

Documents

Understanding Our Faith: The Creed€¦ · collected under God's inspiration. God speaks to us through the Bible. Of course, ... who is a real, live Person, ... need the Church to