This week’s Catechism reading covers two major themes: the death of Christ (599-623) and the nature of the Church (748-856). Before I comment on the progression drawn between these two topics, I wish to point out two nuggets I discovered early in these readings.
(Editor's Note: This is the fifth in a seven-part series designed to break open the beauties of the Catechism in hopes that more Catholics will begin exploring its riches for themselves. There is a veritable wealth of information in the Catechism, which is itself but a small reflection of the riches of the Deposit of Faith. So, if you’ve not been properly introduced, meet the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the most beautiful fruit to date of the Second Vatican Council. May the two of you enjoy a long and lasting relationship!)
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Next Friday: “Baptism & Eucharist”
Mark Dittman is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in the National Catholic Register, Lay Witness, and Catholic Dossier. He can be reached at [email protected].
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part One: The Profession of Faith
Section Two: The Profession of the Christian Faith
Chapter Two: I Believe in Jesus Christ, the Only Son of God, Article 4.2.II-III (599-623)
Chapter Three: I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church, Article 9, beginning to 9.3.III (748-856)
The first: “To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy” (600). God being outside of time, Jesus stepping into time, time being, in a sense, irrelevant to God—these ideas have always fascinated me. The second: “There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer” (605, quoting the Council of Quiercy). What an idea! Christ truly suffered for all—scoundrels as well as the virtuous, people I don’t like along with those I do. A powerful and humbling point to be reminded of.
This death that Jesus suffered for all—it took place according to God’s plan as foretold in Scripture (599-601). Jesus took on the sins of all (616) and willingly laid down his life (cf. 609) for the sake of our redemption, to undo the sin of Adam (cf. 615). A noteworthy point here is that Jesus’ human nature “is perfectly exempt from sin, the cause of death” (612). This fact raised the question in my mind as to whether or not Christ, were it not for the cruelty of men, would have been subject to death. Mary, who was also free from original and personal sin (491), did die (see Pius XII’s Munificentissimus Deus, on Mary’s Assumption, no. 14). It is reasonable, therefore, to assert that Christ’s human nature would have subjected him to the inevitability of death. It’s an academic point, to be sure, but one that I’m sure research would reveal has been raised before.
The Catechism puts forth Mary as the supreme example of being a partner in the paschal mystery. Christ calls his followers to “take up [their] cross and follow [him]” (618, quoting Mt 16:24). Like Jesus, we are to make sacrifice for sin and in that way “associate with his redeeming sacrifice” (618). The Catechism asserts that Mary “was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of [Christ’s] redemptive suffering” (618; see also 964). This is the closest the Catechism comes to the idea of Mary being what is termed a co-redemptrix.
In the section on the Church, the Catechism posits that the Church is born of the death of Christ, without mentioning the resurrection (cf. 758-769). “The wondrous sacrament of the whole Church” (766) came forth from the side of the dead Christ, symbolized by the blood and water that flowed from his side. How was the Church born? From the “pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross,” just as “Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam’s side” (766). That Adam/Christ-as-New-Adam concept keeps turning up!
Another frequently recurring figure in the Catechism’s treatment of a variety of subjects is Mary. In a statement that is as interesting as it is unexplained, the Catechism tells us that “Mary goes before us all in the holiness that is the Church’s mystery as ‘the bride without spot or wrinkle.’ This is why the ‘Marian’ dimension of the Church precedes the ‘Petrine.’” (773). The reference given here is John Paul II’s 1988 apostolic letter Mulieris dignitatem. Just what these concepts mean and how they fit into the nature of the Church would be a rewarding study.
Another recurring theme of interest to me is faith and reason (see the first article in this series). In two key places the Catechism speaks of the necessity of faith for understanding the Church, which is both human and divine (771). After all, the Church’s founder, Jesus Christ, is both human and divine. It takes a measure of faith to accept a divine person with a human nature—why wouldn’t it require faith to accept the Church? “It is only ‘with the eyes of faith’ that one can see” the Church in her visible and spiritual realities (770). Again at 812, the Catechism asserts that, despite the signs that “speak clearly to human reason,” “only faith can recognize that the Church possesses” the properties of being one, holy, catholic and apostolic.
Finally, we are told that the Church is “’the holy People of God,’ and her members are called ‘saints’” (823). Then in 827 we read that “all members of the Church, including her ministers, must acknowledge that they are sinners.” So, we are both saints and sinners. Christ the New Adam continually calls us out of our sinfulness to the light of sainthood, and his Church is the primary means of achieving this.
