Rev José Mario O Mandía
jmom.honlam.org
We have finished discussing Parts I (Creed) and II (Sacraments and Liturgy) of the Catechism.
In Part I, we have studied the things that God says about Himself, about how He created us, and redeemed us. We have learned what God says about us and about the world.
In Part II, we have learned how God sanctifies us with His grace and how we worship God.
In the previous two parts, we have basically spoken about what God has done and is doing for us. Now it’s time to ask, “What should we do for God?”
This third part is very much connected to the first two parts. This is why the CCCC (no 357) asks: “How is the Christian moral life [Part III] bound up with faith [Part I] and the sacraments [Part II]?”
It explains: “What the symbol of faith professes [Part I], the sacraments communicate [Part II]. Indeed, through them the faithful receive the grace of Christ and the gifts of the Holy Spirit which give them the capability of living a new life as children of God in Christ [Part III] whom they have received in faith. ‘O Christian, recognize your dignity’ (Saint Leo the Great).”
So, there’s the answer in a nutshell.
What should we do for God? Since we receive life (sanctifying grace) as well as light and strength (actual graces) from God through the Sacraments, God invites us to live as His children with Jesus Christ as our model.
What does being God’s children require of us? Jesus has summarized it for us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-38).
In the Beatitudes, Jesus pointed out in greater detail what this entails, and also taught us that if we strive, with God’s grace, to live according to these precepts, we will obtain the happiness that our hearts yearn for. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:12).
“We attain beatitude by virtue of the grace of Christ which makes us participants in the divine life. Christ in the Gospel points out to his followers the way that leads to eternal happiness: the beatitudes. The grace of Christ also is operative in every person who, following a correct conscience, seeks and loves the true and the good and avoids evil” (CCCC 359).
The CCCC adds that the Beatitudes “depict the very countenance of Jesus and they characterize authentic Christian life. They reveal the ultimate goal of human activity, which is eternal happiness” (CCCC 360; see BST 100).
And what is eternal happiness? “It is the vision of God in eternal life in which we are fully ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4), of the glory of Christ and of the joy of the trinitarian life. This happiness surpasses human capabilities. It is a supernatural and gratuitous gift of God just as is the grace which leads to it. This promised happiness confronts us with decisive moral choices concerning earthly goods and urges us to love God above all things” (CCCC 362).
This is the purpose of morality: to show us the way to the happiness and satisfaction that never ends. That is why the Psalm sings: “Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence there is fullness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11).
There is another word for this never-ending moment of delight and pleasure: holiness. Holiness is happiness. Morality does not only show us how to be good and decent people. It shows us how to be holy. It shows us how to be happy. Forever and ever.
(Image by Kiều Trường from Pixabay)
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