The Companion to the Catechism of The Catholic Church: A Compendium of Texts

The Companion to

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Companion

to

The Catechism of

the Catholic Church

~

A Compendium of Texts

Referred to in

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Including an Addendum

for the

Second Edition (1997)

IGNATIUS PRESS    SAN FRANCISCO

Cover art by David Clark

Cover design by Roxanne Mei Lum

Second edition © 2002, Ignatius Press, San Francisco

First edition © 1994, Ignatius Press, San Francisco

All rights reserved

ISBN 978-089870-451-8 (PB)

ISBN 978-168149-107-3 (eBook)

Library of Congress catalogue number 94-75256

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

PREFACE

Editor’s Note

Prologue

Part One: The Profession of Faith

Part Two: The Celebration of the Christian Mystery

Part Three: Life In Christ

Part Four: Christian Prayer

Acknowledgments

Addendum

PREFACE

In summarizing the fundamental content of the Catholic faith, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as John Paul II states, "presents the ‘newness of the Council’ and at the same time situates it in the whole of Tradition. The Catechism, he goes on to say in his letter to priests for Holy Thursday 1993, is so filled with the treasures found in Sacred Scripture and in the Fathers and Doctors of the Church in the course of two thousand years that it will enable each of us to become like the man in the Gospel parable ‘who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’ (Mt 13:52), the ancient and ever-new riches of the divine deposit."

These many treasures are displayed at different levels within the Catechism—from the simplest and most concise summary form given in the In Brief sections to the more extensive treatment provided by supplementary explanations and quotations in smaller print. An opportunity for still further enrichment is afforded by indirect references, given in the footnotes, to a wide variety of patristic, liturgical, magisterial and hagiographic sources. The texts to which these references refer are intended, as the Prologue indicates, to give an in-depth understanding of the relevant passages of the Catechism and to be a working tool for catechesis. In addition, they heighten our awareness of the continuity of doctrine, as it unfolds in Scripture, is discussed in texts drawn from the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and receives its most recent treatment in conciliar texts and papal documents. At times the references are to a single verse of Scripture or to a single paragraph from a conciliar text. At others, they are to entire documents.

The purpose of the present volume is to gather together in a single source this wealth of reference texts and documents for the convenience of the English-speaking reader of the Catechism. To facilitate use, the arrangement here follows the paragraph numbering of the Catechism. All texts are provided in English translation, either reprinted from existing publications or newly translated here. It is hoped that this companion volume to the Catechism will prove a rich source of enlightenment, inspiration and reflection for all who seek to know and understand the Catholic faith.

Editor’s Note

Several small points are to be noted. There are minor discrepancies between the references in the original French edition of the Catechism and those in the approved English translation. In general this volume follows the 1994 English edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. However, some of the interesting documents cited in the French edition, but omitted in the English edition, have been included. Conversely, some of the references which have been added in the English edition refer to citations within the texts referred to in the French edition. These have been omitted.

Sometimes the reference for a direct quotation in the French has become an indirect (i.e., cf.) reference in the English. These also have been omitted.

* An asterisk in the margin by an item indicates that there is a change to conform to the Second Edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. These changes are listed in the Addendum, which begins here.

PROLOGUE

3    Acts 2:42  And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

4    Catechesi tradendae 1-2  The Church has always considered catechesis one of her primary tasks, for, before Christ ascended to His Father after His resurrection, He gave the apostles a final command—to make disciples of all nations and to teach them to observe all that He had commanded. He thus entrusted them with the mission and power to proclaim to humanity what they had heard, what they had seen with their eyes, what they had looked upon and touched with their hands, concerning the Word of Life. He also entrusted them with the mission and power to explain with authority what He had taught them, His words and actions, His signs and commandments. And He gave them the Spirit to fulfill this mission.

Very soon the name of catechesis was given to the whole of the efforts within the Church to make disciples, to help people to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, so that believing they might have life in His name, and to educate and instruct them in this life and thus build up the Body of Christ. The Church has not ceased to devote her energy to this task.

The most recent Popes gave catechesis a place of eminence in their pastoral solicitude. Through his gestures, his preaching, his authoritative interpretation of the Second Vatican Council (considered by him the great catechism of modern times), and through the whole of his life, my venerated predecessor Paul VI served the Church’s catechesis in a particularly exemplary fashion. On March 18, 1971, he approved the General Catechetical Directory prepared by the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy, a directory that is still the basic document for encouraging and guiding catechetical renewal throughout the Church. He set up the International Council for Catechesis in 1975. He defined in masterly fashion the role and significance of catechesis in the life and mission of the Church when he addressed the participants in the first International Catechetical Congress on September 25, 1971, and he returned explicitly to the subject in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi. He decided that catechesis, especially that meant for children and young people, should be the theme of the fourth general assembly of the synod of Bishops, which was held in October 1977 and which I myself had the joy of taking part in.

6     Catechesi tradendae 18 Catechesis cannot be dissociated from the Church’s pastoral and missionary activity as a whole. Nevertheless it has a specific character which was repeatedly the object of inquiry during the preparatory work and throughout the course of the fourth general assembly of the synod of Bishops. The question also interests the public both within and outside the Church.

This is not the place for giving a rigorous formal definition of catechesis, which has been sufficiently explained in the General Catechetical Directory. It is for specialists to clarify more and more its concept and divisions.

In view of uncertainties in practice, let us simply recall the essential landmarks—they are already solidly established in Church documents—that are essential for an exact understanding of catechesis and without which there is a risk of failing to grasp its full meaning and import.

All in all, it can be taken here that catechesis is an education of children, young people and adults in the faith, which includes especially the teaching of Christian doctrine imparted, generally speaking, in an organic and systematic way, with a view to initiating the hearers into the fullness of Christian life. Accordingly, while not being formally identified with them, catechesis is built on a certain number of elements of the Church’s pastoral mission that have a catechetical aspect, that prepare for catechesis, or that spring from it. These elements are: the initial proclamation of the Gospel or missionary preaching through the kerygma to arouse faith, apologetics or examination of the reasons for belief, experience of Christian living, celebration of the sacraments, integration into the ecclesial community, and apostolic and missionary witness.

Let us first of all recall that there is no separation or opposition between catechesis and evangelization. Nor can the two be simply identified with each other. Instead, they have close links whereby they integrate and complement each other.

The Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi of December 8, 1975, on evangelization in the modern world, rightly stressed that evangelization—which has the aim of bringing the Good News to the whole of humanity, so that all may live by it—is a rich, complex and dynamic reality, made up of elements, or one could say moments, that are essential and different from each other, and that must all be kept in view simultaneously. Catechesis is one of these moments—a very remarkable one—in the whole process of evangelization.

14 (1)     Matthew 10:32 So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. . . .

14 (2)     Romans 10:9 . . . because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

23 (1)     Catechesi tradendae 20-22 Nevertheless, the specific aim of catechesis is to develop, with God’s help, an as yet initial faith, and to advance in fullness and to nourish day by day the Christian life of the faithful, young and old. It is in fact a matter of giving growth, at the level of knowledge and in life, to the seed of faith sown by the Holy Spirit with the initial proclamation and effectively transmitted by Baptism.

Catechesis aims therefore at developing understanding of the mystery of Christ in the light of God’s word, so that the whole of a person’s humanity is impregnated by that word. Changed by the working of grace into a new creature, the Christian thus sets himself to follow Christ and learns more and more within the Church to think like Him, to judge like Him, to act in conformity with His commandments, and to hope as He invites us to.

To put it more precisely: within the whole process of evangelization, the aim of catechesis is to be the teaching and maturation stage, that is to say, the period in which the Christian, having accepted by faith the person of Jesus Christ as the one Lord and having given Him complete adherence by sincere conversion of heart, endeavors to know better this Jesus to whom he has entrusted himself: to know His mystery, the kingdom of God proclaimed by Him, the requirements and promises contained in His Gospel message, and the paths that He has laid down for anyone who wishes to follow Him.

It is true that being a Christian means saying yes to Jesus Christ, but let us remember that this yes has two levels: It consists in surrendering to the word of God and relying on it, but it also means, at a later stage, endeavoring to know better and better the profound meaning of this word.

In his closing speech at the fourth general assembly of the synod, Pope Paul VI rejoiced to see how everyone drew attention to the absolute need for systematic catechesis, precisely because it is this reflective study of the Christian mystery that fundamentally distinguishes catechesis from all other ways of presenting the word of God.

In view of practical difficulties, attention must be drawn to some of the characteristics of this instruction:

—It must be systematic, not improvised but programmed to reach a precise goal;

—It must deal with essentials, without any claim to tackle all disputed questions or to transform itself into theological research or scientific exegesis;

—It must nevertheless be sufficiently complete, not stopping short at the initial proclamation of the Christian mystery such as we have in the kerygma;

—It must be an integral Christian initiation, open to all the other factors of Christian life.

I am not forgetting the interest of the many different occasions for catechesis connected with personal, family, social and ecclesial life—these occasions must be utilized and I shall return to them in Chapter VI—but I am stressing the need for organic and systematic Christian instruction, because of the tendency in various quarters to minimize its importance.

It is useless to play off orthopraxis against orthodoxy: Christianity is inseparably both. Firm and well-thought-out convictions lead to courageous and upright action; the endeavor to educate the faithful to live as disciples of Christ today calls for and facilitates a discovery in depth of the mystery of Christ in the history of salvation.

It is also quite useless to campaign for the abandonment of serious and orderly study of the message of Christ in the name of a method concentrating on life experience. No one can arrive at the whole truth on the basis solely of some simple private experience, that is to say, without an adequate explanation of the message of Christ, who is ‘the way, and the truth, and the life’ (Jn. 14:6).

Nor is any opposition to be set up between a catechesis taking life as its point of departure and a traditional doctrinal and systematic catechesis. Authentic catechesis is always an orderly and systematic initiation into the revelation that God has given of Himself to humanity in Christ Jesus, a revelation stored in the depths of the Church’s memory and in Sacred Scripture, and constantly communicated from one generation to the next by a living, active traditio. This revelation is not however isolated from life or artificially juxtaposed to it. It is concerned with the ultimate meaning of life and it illumines the whole of life with the light of the Gospel, to inspire it or to question it.

That is why we can apply to catechists an expression used by the Second Vatican Council with special reference to priests: Instructors (of the human being and his life) in the faith.

23 (2)     Catechesi tradendae 25 Thus through catechesis the Gospel kerygma (the initial ardent proclamation by which a person is one day overwhelmed and brought to the decision to entrust himself to Jesus Christ by faith) is gradually deepened, developed in its implicit consequences, explained in language that includes an appeal to reason, and channelled towards Christian practice in the Church and the world. All this is no less evangelical than the kerygma, in spite of what is said by certain people who consider that catechesis necessarily rationalizes, dries up and eventually kills all that is living, spontaneous and vibrant in the kerygma. The truths studied in catechesis are the same truths that touched the person’s heart when he heard them for the first time. Far from blunting or exhausting them, the fact of knowing them better should make them even more challenging and decisive for one’s life.

In the understanding expounded here, catechesis keeps the entirely pastoral perspective with which the synod viewed it. The broad meaning of catechesis in no way contradicts but rather includes and goes beyond a narrow meaning which was once commonly given to catechesis in didactic expositions, namely, the simple teaching of the formulas that express faith.

In the final analysis, catechesis is necessary both for the maturation of the faith of Christians and for their witness in the world: It is aimed at bringing Christians to attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; it is also aimed at making them prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls them to account for the hope that is in them.

24     1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation. . . .

25     1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

I

THE PROFESSION

OF FAITH

29 (1)     Gaudium et spes 19-21 The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. The invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator. Many however of our contemporaries either do not at all perceive, or else explicitly reject, this intimate and vital bond of man to God. Atheism must therefore be regarded as one of the most serious problems of our time, and one that deserves more thorough treatment.

The word atheism is used to signify things that differ considerably from one another. Some people expressly deny the existence of God. Others maintain that man cannot make any assertion whatsoever about him. Still others admit only such methods of investigation as would make it seem quite meaningless to ask questions about God. Many, trespassing beyond the boundaries of the positive sciences, either contend that everything can be explained by the reasoning process used in such sciences, or, on the contrary, hold that there is no such thing as absolute truth. With others it is their exaggerated idea of man that causes their faith to languish; they are more prone, it would seem, to affirm man than to deny God. Yet others have such a faulty notion of God that when they disown this product of the imagination their denial has no reference to the God of the Gospels. There are also those who never enquire about God; religion never seems to trouble or interest them at all, nor do they see why they should bother about it. Not infrequently atheism is born from a violent protest against the evil in the world, or from the fact that certain human ideals are wrongfully invested with such an absolute character as to be taken for God. Modern civilization itself, though not of its very nature but because it is too engrossed in the concerns of this world, can often make it harder to approach God.

Without doubt those who wilfully try to drive God from their heart and to avoid all questions about religion, not following the biddings of their conscience, are not free from blame. But believers themselves often share some responsibility for this situation. For atheism, taken as a whole, is not present in the mind of man from the start (Atheismus, integre consideratus, non est quid originarium). It springs from various causes, among which must be included a critical reaction against religions and, in some places, against the Christian religion in particular. Believers can thus have more than a little to do with the rise of atheism. To the extent that they are careless about their instruction in the faith, or present its teaching falsely, or even fail in their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than to reveal the true nature of God and of religion.

Modern atheism often takes on a systematic form also which, in addition to other causes, so insists on man’s desire for autonomy as to object to any dependence on God at all. Those who profess this kind of atheism maintain that freedom consists in this, that man is an end to himself, and the sole maker, with supreme control, of his own history (propriae suae historiae solus artifex et demiurgus). They claim that this outlook cannot be reconciled with the assertion of a Lord who is author and end of all things, or that at least it makes such an affirmation altogether unnecessary. The sense of power which modern technical progress begets in man may encourage this outlook.

Among the various kinds of present-day atheism, that one should not go unnoticed which looks for man’s autonomy through his economic and social emancipation. It holds that religion, of its very nature, thwarts such emancipation by raising man’s hopes in a future life, thus both deceiving him and discouraging him from working for a better form of life on earth. That is why those who hold such views, wherever they gain control of the state, violently attack religion, and in order to spread atheism, especially in the education of young people, make use of all the means by which the civil authority can bring pressure to bear on its subjects.

The Church, as given over to the service of both God and man, cannot cease from reproving, with sorrow yet with the utmost firmness, as she has done in the past, those harmful teachings and ways of acting which are in conflict with reason and with common human experience, and which cast man down from the noble state to which he is born.

She tries nevertheless to seek out the secret motives which lead the atheistic mind to deny God. Well knowing how important are the problems raised by atheism, and urged by her love for all men, she considers that these motives deserve an earnest and more thorough scrutiny.

The Church holds that to acknowledge God is in no way to oppose the dignity of man, since such dignity is grounded and brought to perfection in God. Man has in fact been placed in society by God, who created him as an intelligent and free being; but over and above this he is called as a son to intimacy with God and to share in his happiness. She further teaches that hope in a life to come does not take away from the importance of the duties of this life on earth but rather adds to it by giving new motives for fulfilling those duties. When, on the other hand, man is left without this divine support and without hope of eternal life his dignity is deeply wounded, as may so often be seen today. The problems of life and death, of guilt and of suffering, remain unsolved, so that men are not rarely cast into despair.

Meanwhile, every man remains a question to himself, one that is dimly perceived and left unanswered. For there are times, especially in the major events of life, when no man can altogether escape from such self-questioning. God alone, who calls man to deeper thought and to more humble probing, can fully and with complete certainty supply an answer to this questioning.

Atheism must be countered both by presenting true teaching in a fitting manner and by the full and complete life of the Church and of her members. For it is the function of the Church to render God the Father and his incarnate Son present and as it were visible, while ceaselessly renewing and purifying herself under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is brought about chiefly by the witness of a living and mature faith, one namely that is so well formed that it can see difficulties clearly and overcome them. Many martyrs have borne, and continue to bear, a splendid witness to this faith. This faith should show its fruitfulness by penetrating the whole life, even the worldly activities, of those who believe, and by urging them to be loving and just especially towards those in need. Lastly, what does most to show God’s presence clearly is the brotherly love of the faithful who, being all of one mind and spirit, work together for the faith of the Gospel and present themselves as a sign of unity.

Although the Church altogether rejects atheism, she nevertheless sincerely proclaims that all men, those who believe as well as those who do not, should help to establish right order in this world where all live together. This certainly cannot be done without a dialogue that is sincere and prudent. The Church therefore deplores the discrimination between believers and unbelievers which some civil authorities unjustly practice in defiance of the fundamental rights of the human person. She demands effective freedom for the faithful to be allowed to build up God’s temple in this world also. She courteously invites atheists to weigh the merits of the Gospel of Christ with an open mind.

For the Church knows full well that her message is in harmony with the most secret desires of the human heart, since it champions the dignity of man’s calling, giving hope once more to those who already despair of their higher destiny. Her message, far from impairing man, helps him to develop himself by bestowing light, life, and freedom. Apart from this message nothing is able to satisfy the heart of man: Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rest in thee.

29 (2)     Matthew 13:22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

29 (3)     Genesis 3:8-10 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, Where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

29 (4)     Jonah 1:3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

32 (1)     Acts 14:15 Men, why are you doing this? We also are men, of like nature with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. . . .

32 (2)     Acts 14:17 . . . yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

32 (3)     Acts 17:27-28 ". . . that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for

           ‘In him we live and move and have our being’

 as even some of your poets have said,

          ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ . . ."

32 (4)     Wisdom 13:1-9

     For all men who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature;

     and they were unable from the good things that are seen to know him who exists,

     nor did they recognize the craftsman while paying heed to his works;

     but they supposed that either fire or wind or swift air,

     or the circle of the stars, or turbulent water,

     or the luminaries of heaven were the gods that rule the world.

     If through delight in the beauty of these things men assumed them to be gods,

     let them know how much better than these is their Lord,

     for the author of beauty created them.

     And if men were amazed at their power and working,

     let them perceive from them

     how much more powerful is he who formed them.

     For from the greatness and beauty of created things

     comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.

     Yet these men are little to be blamed,

     for perhaps they go astray

     while seeking God and desiring to find him.

     For as they live among his works they keep searching,

     and they trust in what they see, because the things that are seen are beautiful.

     Yet again, not even they are to be excused;

     for if they had the power to know so much

     that they could investigate the world,

     how did they fail to find sooner the Lord of these things?

33     Gaudium et spes 14, 2 Man is not deceived when he regards himself as superior to bodily things and as more than just a speck of nature or a nameless unit in the city of man. For by his power to know himself in the depths of his being he rises above the whole universe of mere objects. When he is drawn to think about his real self he turns to those deep recesses of his being where God who probes the heart awaits him, and where he himself decides his own destiny in the sight of God. So when he recognizes in himself a spiritual and immortal soul, he is not being led astray by false imaginings that are due to merely physical or social causes. On the contrary, he grasps what is profoundly true in this matter.

36 (1)     Vatican Council I (1870): DS 3026 [Against those denying natural theology]. If anyone shall have said that the one true God, our Creator and our Lord, cannot be known with certitude by those things which have been made, by the natural light of human reason: let him be anathema.

36 (2)     Dei Verbum 6 By divine Revelation God wished to manifest and communicate both himself and the eternal decrees of his will concerning the salvation of mankind. He wished, in other words, to share with us divine benefits which entirely surpass the powers of the human mind to understand.

The sacred Synod professes that God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world, by the natural light of human reason (cf. Rom. 1:20). It teaches that it is to his Revelation that we must attribute the fact that those things, which in themselves are not beyond the grasp of human reason, can, in the present condition of the human race, be known by all men with ease, with firm certainty, and without the contamination of error.

36 (3)     Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

38 (1)     Vatican Council I (1870): DS 3005 [The necessity of revelation]. Indeed, it must be attributed to this divine revelation that those things, which in divine things are impenetrable to human reason by itself, can, even in this present condition of the human race, be known readily by all with firm certitude and with no admixture of error. Nevertheless, it is not for this reason that revelation is said to be absolutely necessary, but because God in His infinite goodness has ordained man for a supernatural end, to participation, namely, in the divine goods which altogether surpass the understanding of the human mind, since eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him [1 Cor. 2:9; can. 2 and 3].

38 (2)     Dei Verbum 6: see 36 (2).

38 (3)     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I, i, 1

Question 1. on what sort of teaching Christian theology is and what it covers

In order to keep our efforts within definite bounds we must first investigate this holy teaching and find out what it is like and how far it goes. Here there are ten points of inquiry:

     1.  about the need for this teaching;

     2.  whether it be science;

     3.  whether it be single or several;

     4.  whether it be theoretical or practical;

     5.  how it compares with other sciences;

     6.  whether it be wisdom;

     7.  what is its subject;

     8.  whether it sets out to prove anything;

     9.  whether it should employ metaphorical or symbolical language;

     10. whether its sacred writings are to be interpreted in several senses.

article 1. is another teaching required apart from philosophical studies?

THE FIRST POINT: 1. Any other teaching beyond that of science and philosophy seems needless. For man ought not to venture into realms beyond his reason; according to Ecclesiasticus, Be not curious about things far above thee. Now the things lying within range of reason yield well enough to scientific and philosophical treatment. Additional teaching, therefore, seems superfluous.

2. Besides, we can be educated only about what is real; for nothing can be known for certain save what is true, and what is true is identical with what really is. Yet the philosophical sciences deal with all parts of reality, even with God; hence Aristotle refers to one department of philosophy as theology or the divine science. That being the case, no need arises for another kind of education to be admitted or entertained.

ON THE OTHER HAND the second epistle to Timothy says, All Scripture inspired of God is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in righteousness. Divinely inspired Scripture, however, is no part of the branches of philosophy traced by reasoning. Accordingly it is expedient to have another body of sure knowledge inspired by God.

REPLY: It should be urged that human well-being called for schooling in what God has revealed, in addition to the philosophical researches pursued by human reasoning.

Above all because God destines us for an end beyond the grasp of reason; according to Isaiah, Eye hath not seen, O God, without thee what thou hast prepared for them that love thee. Now we have to recognize an end before we can stretch out and exert ourselves for it. Hence the necessity for our welfare that divine truths surpassing reason should be signified to us through divine revelation.

We also stood in need of being instructed by divine revelation even in religious matters the human reason is able to investigate. For the rational truth about God would have appeared only to few, and even so after a long time and mixed with many mistakes; whereas on knowing this depends our whole welfare, which is in God. In these circumstances, then, it was to prosper the salvation of human beings and the more widely and less anxiously, that they were provided for by divine revelation about divine things.

These then are the grounds of holding a holy teaching which has come to us through revelation beyond the discoveries of the rational sciences.

Hence: 1. Admittedly the reason should not pry into things too high for human knowledge, nevertheless when they are revealed by God they should be welcomed by faith: indeed the passage in Ecclesiasticus goes on, Many things are shown thee above the understanding of men. And on them Christian teaching rests.

2. The diversification of the sciences is brought about by the diversity of aspects under which things can be known. Both an astronomer and a physical scientist may demonstrate the same conclusion, for instance that the earth is spherical; the first, however, works in a mathematical medium prescinding from material qualities, while for the second his medium is the observation of material bodies through the senses. Accordingly there is nothing to stop the same things from being treated by the philosophical sciences when they can be looked at in the light of natural reason and by another science when they are looked at in the light of divine revelation. Consequently the theology of holy teaching differs in kind from that theology which is ranked as a part of philosophy.

47     Vatican Council I (1870): DS 3026 [Against those denying natural theology]. If anyone shall have said that the one true God, our Creator and our Lord, cannot be known with certitude by those things which have been made, by the natural light of human reason: let him be anathema.

50     Vatican Council I (1870): DS 3015 [The twofold order of knowledge]. By enduring agreement the Catholic Church has held and holds that there is a twofold order of knowledge, distinct not only in principle but also in object: (1) in principle, indeed, because we know in one way by natural reason, in another by divine faith; (2) in object, however, because, in addition to things to which natural reason can attain, mysteries hidden in God are proposed to us for belief which, had they not been divinely revealed, could not become known [can. 1]. Wherefore, the Apostle, who testifies that God was known to the Gentiles by the things that are made [Rom. 1:20], nevertheless, when discoursing about grace and truth which was made through Jesus Christ [cf. John 1:17] proclaims: We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a wisdom which is hidden, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knows. . . . But to us God hath revealed them by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God [I Cor. 2:7, 8, 10]. And the Only-begotten Himself confesses to the Father, because He hath hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hath revealed them to little ones [cf. Matt. 11:25].

52     Ephesians 1:4-5 . . . even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. . . .

53 (1)     St. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses III, 17, 1 It certainly was in the power of the apostles to declare that Christ descended upon Jesus, or that the so-called superior Savior [came down] upon the dispensational one, or he who is from the invisible places upon him from the Demiurge; but they neither knew nor said anything of the kind: for, had they known it, they would have also certainly stated it. But what really was the case, that did they record, [namely,] that the Spirit of God as a dove descended upon Him; this Spirit, of whom it was declared by Isaiah, And the Spirit of God shall rest upon Him, as I have already said. And again: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me. That is the Spirit of whom the Lord declares, For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And again, giving to the disciples the power of regeneration into God, He said to them, Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. For [God] promised, that in the last times He would pour Him [the Spirit] upon [His] servants and handmaids, that they might prophesy; wherefore He did also descend upon the Son of God, made the Son of man, becoming accustomed in fellowship with Him to dwell in the human race, to rest with human beings, and to dwell in the workmanship of God, working the will of the Father in them, and renewing them from their old habits into the newness of Christ.

53 (2)     St. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses IV, 12, 4 The Lord, too, does not do away with this [God], when He shows that the law was not derived from another God, expressing Himself as follows to those who were being instructed by Him, to the multitude and to His disciples: The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens, and lay them upon men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not so much as move them with a finger. He therefore did not throw blame upon that law which was given by Moses, when He exhorted it to be observed, Jerusalem being as yet in safety; but He did throw blame upon those persons, because they repeated indeed the words of the law, yet were without love. And for this reason were they held as being unrighteous as respects God, and as respects their neighbors. As also Isaiah says: This people honoreth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me: howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching the doctrines and the commandments of men. He does not call the law given by Moses commandments of men, but the traditions of the elders themselves which they had invented, and in upholding which they made the law of God of none effect, and were on this account also not subject to His Word. For this is what Paul says concerning these men: For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. And how is Christ the end of the law, if He be not also the final cause of it? For He who has brought in the end but Himself also wrought the beginning; and it is He who does Himself say to Moses, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have come down to deliver them; it being customary from the beginning with the Word of God to ascend and descend for the purpose of saving those who were in affliction.

53 (3)     St. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses IV, 21, 3 If any one, again, will look into Jacob’s actions, he shall find them not destitute of meaning, but full of import with regard to the dispensations. Thus, in the first place, at his birth, since he laid hold on his brother’s heel, he was called Jacob, that is, the supplanter—one who holds, but is not held; binding the feet, but not being bound; striving and conquering; grasping in his hand his adversary’s heel, that is, victory. For to this end was the Lord born, the type of whose birth he set forth beforehand, of whom also John says in the Apocalypse: He went forth conquering, that He should conquer. In the next place, [Jacob] received the rights of the first-born, when his brother looked on them with contempt; even as also the younger nation received Him, Christ, the first-begotten, when the elder nation rejected Him, saying, We have no king but Caesar. But in Christ every blessing [is summed up], and therefore the latter people has snatched away the blessings of the former from the Father, just as Jacob took away the blessing of this Esau. For which cause his brother suffered the plots and persecutions of a brother, just as the Church suffers this self-same thing from the Jews. In a foreign country were the twelve tribes born, the race of Israel, in as much as Christ was also, in a strange country, to generate the twelve-pillared foundation of the Church. Various colored sheep were allotted to this Jacob as his wages; and the wages of Christ are human beings, who from various and diverse nations come together into one cohort of faith, as the Father promised Him, saying, Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. And as from the multitude of his sons the prophets of the Lord [afterwards] arose, there was every necessity that Jacob should beget sons from the two sisters, even as Christ did from the two laws of one and the same Father; and in like manner also from the handmaids, indicating that Christ should raise up sons of God, both from freemen and from slaves after the flesh, bestowing upon all, in the same manner, the gift of the Spirit, who vivifies us. But he (Jacob) did all things for the sake of the younger, she who had the handsome eyes, Rachel, who prefigured the Church, for which Christ endured patiently; who at that time, indeed, by means of His patriarchs and prophets, was prefiguring and declaring beforehand future things, fulfilling His part by anticipation in the dispensations of God, and accustoming His inheritance to obey God, and to pass through the world as in a state of pilgrimage, to follow His word, and to indicate beforehand things to come. For with God there is nothing without purpose or due signification.

56 (1)     Genesis 9:9-10 Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.

56 (2)     Genesis 9:16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

56 (3)     Genesis 10:20-31 These are the sons of Ham, by their families, their languages, their lands and their nations.

To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. Arpachshad became the father of Shelah; and Shelah became the father of Eber. To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan. Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan. The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar to the hill country of the east. These are the sons of Shem, by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

57 (1)     Acts 17:26-27 And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us. . . .

* 57 (2)     Deuteronomy 4:19 And beware lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and worship them and serve them, things which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

* 57 (3)     Deuteronomy 32:8

     When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,

          when he separated the sons of men,

     he fixed the bounds of the peoples

          according to the number of the sons of God.

57 (4)     Wisdom 10:5

     Wisdom also, when the nations in wicked agreement had been confounded,

     recognized the righteous man and preserved him blameless before God,

     and kept him strong in the face of his compassion for his child.

57 (5)     Genesis 11:4-6 Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. . . .

57 (6)     Romans 1:18-25 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.

58 (1)     Genesis 9:16: see 56 (2).

58 (2)     Luke 21:24 . . . they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

58 (3)     Dei Verbum 3 God, who creates and conserves all things by his Word, (cf. Jn. 1:3), provides men with constant evidence of himself in created realities (cf. Rom. 1:19-20). And furthermore, wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation, he manifested himself to our first parents from the very beginning. After the fall, he buoyed them up with the hope of salvation by promising redemption (cf. Gen. 3:15); and he has never ceased to take care of the human race. For he wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing (cf. Rom. 2:6-7). In his own time God called Abraham, and made him into a great nation (cf. Gen. 12:2). After the era of the patriarchs, he taught this nation, by Moses and the prophets, to recognize him as the only living and true God, as a provident Father and just judge. He taught them, too, to look for the promised Savior. And so, throughout the ages, he prepared the way for the Gospel.

58 (4)     Genesis 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High.

58 (5)     Hebrews 7:3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest for ever.

58 (6)     Ezekiel 14:14 . . . even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, says the Lord God.

59     Galatians 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed.

60 (1)     Romans 11:28 As regards the gospel they are enemies of God, for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.

60 (2)     John 11:52 . . . and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

60 (3)     John 10:16 And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.

60 (4)     Romans 11:17-18 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.

60 (5)     Romans 11:24 For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.

62     Dei Verbum 3: see 58 (3).

63     Exodus 19:6 . . . and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.

64 (1)     Isaiah 2:2-4

     It shall come to pass in the latter days

          that the mountain of the house of the Lord

     shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

          and shall be raised above the hills;

     and all the nations shall flow to it,

          and many peoples shall come, and say:

     "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

          to the house of the God of Jacob;

     that he may teach us his ways

          and that we may walk in his paths."

     For out of Zion shall go forth the law,

          and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

     He shall judge between the nations,

          and shall decide for many peoples;

     and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

          and their spears into pruning hooks;

     nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

          neither shall they learn war any more.

64 (2)     Jeremiah 31:31-34 Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

64 (3)     Hebrews 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds. . . .

64 (4)     Ezekiel 36 "And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God: Because the enemy said of you, ‘Aha!’ and, ‘The ancient heights have become our possession,’ therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord God: Because, yea, because they made you desolate, and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you became the talk and evil gossip of the people; therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, the ravines and the valleys, the desolate wastes and the deserted cities, which have become a prey and derision to the rest of the nations round about; therefore thus says the Lord God: I speak in my hot jealousy against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who gave my land to themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, that they might possess it and plunder it. Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I speak in my jealous wrath, because you have suffered the reproach of the nations; therefore thus says the Lord God: I swear that the nations that are round about you shall themselves suffer reproach.

But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they will soon come home. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown; and I will multiply men upon you, the whole house of Israel, all of it; the cities shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt; and I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more good to you than ever before. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Yea, I will let men walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no longer bereave them of children. Thus says the Lord God: Because men say to you, ‘You devour men, and you bereave your nation of children,’ therefore you shall no longer devour men and no longer bereave your nation of children, says the Lord God; and I will not let you hear any more the reproach of the nations, and you shall no longer bear the disgrace of the peoples and no longer cause your nation to stumble, says the Lord God.

The word of the Lord came to me: "Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their doings; their conduct before me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity. So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood which they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries; in accordance with their conduct and their deeds I judged them. But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that men said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel caused to be profaned among the nations to which they came.

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations will know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. You shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses; and I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that