Besides the material help thus offered, the deeper, more lasting
contribution may well be in showing “good example” by putting the faith
into practice. Such “good example” is especially effective when joined
with reliable guidance and direction in essential Christian attitudes and
responses to today’s challenges. The Catholic Church in the Philippines can rightfully claim to
be especially blessed on both accounts.
C.
Unbelief vs. Trusting/Worshipping
191. In this third
area of faith — worship — one common attack comes from some contemporary
psychologies which charge that religion is an illusion, an infantile projection
of the lost father feature. They claim that we invent a father-god to provide
security against our fears in this hostile world. Consequently they attack the
ground for Christian Hope, thus leading some to discouragement and even
despair. Others are tempted to presumption: either presuming on
human capacities alone, or on divine mercy without repentance and conversion of
heart (cf. CCC 2091-92).
192. PCP II presents an opposite form of unbelief relative to worship.
In the Philippines worship has,
unfortunately, been often separated from the totality of life. The liturgy is
not seen as the source and apex of the Church’s life. Rather it is seen
as one department of life, without an intimate connection with social, economic
and political life (PCP II 167).
It is also true that too often certain popular pious practices and
customs may appear more like superstition and self-centered, privatized
attitudes than authentic Christian prayer.
Response
193. The way to
respond to unbelief attacks against faith as worship is obviously “A Renewed
Worship” (cf. PCP II 167-81). The Plenary Council prescribed one
aspect of the needed remedy:
There is an urgent need to
stress to Filipino Catholics that the whole of life must be an act of worship,
as St. Paul
points out (cf. Rom 12:1). We cannot worship God in our churches and
shrines, and then disregard Him in the daily business of life (PCP II 168).
194. Renewing the
worship of our people requires renewing their prayer
life and popular religious practices. Regarding the latter, PCP II
counsels that
our attitude has to be one of
critical respect, encouragement and renewal. These practices must lead to the
liturgy. They have to be vitally related to Filipino life, and serve the cause
of full human development, justice, peace and the integrity of creation. We
must have the courage to correct whatever leads to fanaticism or maintains
people infantile in their faith.
Yet, it adds, “at the same time, seeing how many of our people cherish
these religious practices, we must use them as vehicles of evangelization
toward worship in Spirit and truth” (PCP II 175).
Now the basis for renewing our
prayer life and religious practices is surely the Church’s Trinitarian prayer.
195. Trinitarian Prayer/Worship. “The function of
the Church is 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” (GS 21). It is the Catholic worship of
Father, Son and Spirit in the Christian community that can most effectively
purify and heal our prayer of “illusion” and individualistic self-centeredness.
For Trinitarian prayer calls us away from inauthentic “faith” seeking private
security, to outgoing self-giving in sharing Christ’s and the Church’s saving
mission of loving service.
“This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one
another” (Jn 13:35)
shown in the service of each “one of my least brothers” (Mt 25:40).
196. Christian
prayer, then, is no childish projection of a “father-idol” or a “Baby Jesus” serving as escape images from the
pain of growth and love in the real world. Secular psychology’s
objection actually touches the abuse of religious faith rather than its
authentic reality. Genuine Christian prayer and hope are based, rather, on
mature personal realization of God’s PRESENCE, and our consequent gratitude,
thanksgiving, adoration and love of Him.
197. Trinitarian
prayer draws the Catholic Filipino, by the indwelling Holy
Spirit, into sharing Christ’s own experience of Abba, Father, whose
“will be done on earth as in heaven” (Lord’s Prayer). Being rooted in
the Church’s worship of Father, Son and Spirit, the Catholic Filipino is
motivated to the greatest social responsibility, inspired by the Trinity’s
infinite interpersonal, creative, and redeeming love. Filled with this Love,
Catholics together in the liturgy respond with a resounding “Amen!” to the
finale of all the Eucharistic Prayers:
Through him [Risen Incarnate Son], with
him and in him,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father,
for ever and ever.
198. Trinitarian
prayer can also help Filipino Catholics in the “inter-religious dialogue” discussed
in PCP II. While the Plenary Council focused on the principles for the
evangelizing mission to Filipino Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, etc, (cf. PCP
II 110-15), it implied the larger mission extending to all our fellow
Asians who follow the great traditional religious cultures of the East.
Commitment to Christ, the Incarnate
Word of God, grounds the Christian dialogue with both Muslim and Jew
who also revere God’s Word. The Buddhist goal is release from all human
desires into the silent stillness of Nirvana. This relates to the Christian
worship of the Father, whom “no one has ever seen” (Jn 1:18) and whom Christian mystics
have experienced as “nothing, nothing, nothing. . .” of our worldly
consciousness. Finally, Advaitan Hinduism can be approached through the
Christian experience of the Holy Spirit, the source of oneness between the self
and God who draws all men to greater communion in love.
II. OBSTACLES TO BELIEF IN SELF-BECOMING
199. Besides the
obstacles to authentic faith’s three basic objective dimensions (what
we believe, do and worship), others touch the subjective factors (how
we believe, do and worship) in our natural process of maturing in the Faith.
Worthy of note is the common misconception among many Filipino youth that “questioning
in matters of faith” is sinful. This arises from a false view, commonly
instilled by good-intentioned but erroneous religious instruction, that faith
is something to be simply “accepted” from higher authorities. In actual
practice, since this view is most often imbibed in childhood, it later becomes
an easy excuse for not taking personal responsibility for one’s own religious
convictions.
Response
200. What helps
the most here is our on-going initiation into the Christian Faith involving
the active participation of family, friends, BCCs, parish, Catholic community,
etc. Christ and the Church call us to intelligent discipleship, in which we use
all our faculties of mind, will, imagination and affections.
We must clearly distinguish between
two different mind-sets. The first is honest questioning that
seeks through personal study, reflection and dialogue, to know our Lord better
so we can love Him more ardently and follow Him more closely. The second
is a self-centered attitude of real doubting, when, like doubting
Thomas, we put prior conditions to believing in God (“I will not believe it
unless . . . [Jn 20:25]).
201. Our life of faith challenges us to
constant growth in religious understanding, moral vision and practice,
and authentic prayer. This is made possible for us when we are strengthened and
confirmed by our fellow Catholics united in the local Church, Christ’s own
community of disciples.
INTEGRATION
202. The
Exposition has shown that challenges to authentic faith can arise from any of
its three basic objective dimensions of doctrine, morals and worship. The
obstacles touch Faith precisely as lived out in our particular personal and
social environment. We are Filipinos of the 20th century, living in a specific
economic, political, social, cultural, and religious context. The challenges to
authentic faith for us take on very definite “faces.” It is in courageously
confronting these together in our Christian communities that we respond to the
loving call of Christ our Lord.
203. If we do not “believe”
basic Catholic doctrine we certainly will not be motivated to obey
fundamental Catholic moral principles, nor participate
meaningfully in Catholic worship. Whether because of pride,
distrust, or indifferent negligence, we will not commit ourselves to the
service of others for Christ’s sake, nor be concerned for authentic worship of
the living God revealed by Jesus Christ. Thus, rejecting belief in God, Christ
and the Church involves many evil consequences for individuals, families, and
the community at large.
204. So we ask God
to “help for our lack of faith” as the only means of coming gradually to the
“truth” of ourselves, of others, and of God, in our thoughts, our moral acts,
and our prayer. Only in Christ and the Spirit can we perseveringly respond to
the challenges of “life in Christ” today.
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QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS
205. Does everybody have faith?
Everyone has natural faith, believing in
something or someone.
Believing in God
is God’s gift which He offers to everyone in different ways. God “wants all men
to be saved and come to know the truth” (1 Tim 2:4).
But experience shows we can misuse our human freedom
and reject God’s offer, or turn away from God through sin.
206. What challenges confront our life of faith in Christ?
Our life of faith in Christ is challenged by
• our own pride and sinful self-centeredness;
• the poverty, suffering and injustice of so many, contrasted
with the indifference and bad example of others;
• religious ignorance, misrepresentation of the Gospel,
one-sided practices, and
• atheistic doctrines and consumerist attitudes and values
pervading our environment.
207. How is faith hindered by one-sided practices?
Exaggerated stress on one dimension of the Faith tends
to misrepresent that very dimension and ignore the others.
If Faith is reduced to only:
• doctrine, an insensitive
prayerless dogmatism, out of touch with real life, often results;
• an activist thrust for justice, faith can become an
ideological, unjust pursuit of one’s own ends;
• prayers, devotions, and church-going, faith
becomes a substitute for real practical Christian charity.
208. Who are today’s “unbelievers”?
“Unbelievers” today are:
• either “practical atheists” so intent on acquiring
riches, reputation or power that they have no time for God;
• or others who claim special knowledge and power
from God, beyond the ordinary.
Neither represent
authentic Christian Faith in Jesus Christ.
209. How can we respond to doctrinal unbelief?
We need a renewed catechesis in the truth of
the Christ-centered Gospel, calling us to respond in Christian service of our
neighbor and authentic worship of our loving Father in Spirit and truth, in the
Christian community.
210. How can we respond to the unbelief of “NOT doing”?
A “renewed social apostolate” shows the
essential human value of following Christ today in concrete service of the poor
and oppressed that leads toward social transformation.
211. How can we respond to the unbelief of “NO worship”?
PCP II’s call for a
“renewed worship” means helping all Filipino Catholics to truly understand
Christian worship of God our Father, through Christ His Son-made-man, in their
Holy Spirit.
It means learning to integrate our personal “popular
religiosity” with the Church’s liturgical worship. This is achieved only if we
worship God in faith, by relating personally to Jesus Christ as members
of His Body, the Church, and not merely going through some external rituals.
212. What helps us respond to the challenges of faith?
We can respond adequately to the challenges of faith
only through the Holy Spirit, working within us; through our family and
friends, and through the Church’s teaching and its sacraments, especially the
Eucharist.
213. How do we grow in faith?
We grow in our Catholic faith by deepening our
understanding of Christ’s saving message (believing), by “doing” the
truth in Christian service, and by “celebrating” in authentic prayer and
sacramental worship through Christ in the Holy Spirit.
214. How can we help those who sincerely doubt and question
Christian faith?
We can help those who doubt about faith by:
• clarifying the very act of believing, through common
examples drawn from their own interpersonal relations in family life and
friendships;
• explaining the chief truths of our faith (the Creed) and
how they are lived in Christian moral values and sacramental worship; and
• showing them how the Christian Faith grounds and develops
basic Filipino cultural values, both personal and social.
215. Does Christian Faith change?
The basic truths of Christian Faith remain but as living
and vital, not static and dead. As living, authentic Faith is constantly
led by the Spirit to respond to the new challenges in the world, with new
expressions and new emphases, precisely in order to remain faithful to the
abiding truth of the Gospel.
Chapter 5
Catholic Doctrine:
Christ Our Truth
“If you live according to my teaching, you are truly
my disciples; then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
(Jn
8:31-32)
“This is the Christ we proclaim, while we admonish all
men and teach them in the full measure of wisdom, hoping to make every man
complete in Christ.”
(Col 1:28)
OPENING
216. Christian Faith is centered on Jesus Christ, who is himself “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (Jn 14:6).
As the Truth, Christ is the “real light which gives light to every man
coming into the world” (Jn 1:9). He reveals the Father (cf. Jn 14:6)
and sends the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth (cf. Jn 14:17) who guides us to all truth (cf. Jn
16:13). Through Christ
we become “consecrated in truth” (cf. Jn 17:19), walk in the path of truth (cf. 2 Jn 4),
act in truth (cf. Jn 3:21),
share in the work of truth (cf. 3 Jn 8) and worship in Spirit and truth (cf.
Jn 4:24).
217. Catholic doctrine expresses the truth that Christ our Lord brings
us. This truth does not resolve all the problems and riddles of our daily
lives. It does not take the place of our planning what we should do, or sharing
our experiences with others, and learning from them. But, as Christians who are
open to Christ’s truth in faith, we have a direction and a basic insight into
life. We are better able to work out our own pesonal response to the basic
human questions: “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?”, “How am I to relate to
others?”. . . Christ’s truth gives each person “the strength to measure up to
his supreme destiny” (GS 10).
CONTEXT
218. There is a real challenge today for the Catholic Filipino. From all
sides questions are being asked about the Catholic Faith that up to fairly
recently was accepted by most Filipinos. “Why do you worship the Blessed
Virgin Mary?” Catholics are asked. “Why do you collect statues of Sto.
Niño?” “Why confess to a priest?” “Is Jesus really divine?” “Why
interfere in politics and take part in demonstrations and strikes in business
affairs?”. . .
219. The need to understand the practice of the Catholic Faith, then,
has become suddenly urgent. In the First Letter of Peter we are admonished:
“Should anyone ask you the reason for this hope of yours, be ever ready to
reply, but speak gently and respectfully” (1 Pt 3:15-16a). No longer is it enough for a
Catholic to say: “I don’t know why, but that’s just the way we do it here.”
Moreover, knowing “why” we Catholics practice our Catholic Faith in this way
obviously does not come from memorizing prepared formulas. Rather, it means
growing and maturing in our personal faith in Christ our Lord, within his Body,
the Catholic community.
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EXPOSITION
220. The truth that Christ brings us is both a gift of God and a task.
As gift, Christ’s truth is both life-giving and liberating. “If the Son
frees you, you will really be free” (Jn 8:36). At the same time, it is an ongoing task of 1) discerning the truth, and 2) professing
it with courage. Moreover we have to gradually learn to “distinguish the
spirit of truth from the spirit of deception” (1 Jn 4:6). “The natural
man does not accept what is taught by the Spirit of God. . . . The spiritual
man, on the other hand, can appraise everything” (1 Cor 2:14-15). Once recognized, we must “profess
the truth in love and grow to the full maturity of Christ the head” (Eph 4:15).
221. Catholic doctrine brings us the truth of Christ. It is this truth which
grounds our moral behavior and our prayer/worship. First,
regarding morality, we know we are committed to the truth when we keep God’s
commandments. “His commandment is this: we are to believe in the name of His
Son, Jesus Christ and are to love one another as He commanded us” (1 Jn
3:23). “Faith that does nothing in practice is thoroughly lifeless” (Jas
2:17). Second, as Catholics
we “must worship in Spirit and truth” (Jn 4:24). True worship is offered only through Christ,
for “no one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, ever at the Father’s
side, who has revealed Him” (Jn 1:18).
222. For the Filipino Catholic, therefore, to
believe in Christ means acting, feeling, hoping, trusting, loving, praying __
all supported and inspired by one basic conviction: “God is one. One also is
the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a
ransom for all” (1 Tm 2:5-6). Or more simply: “Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor
12:3). “And no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1
Cor 12:3). Faith in Christ, then, is essentially Trinitarian. Thus PCP
II concludes:
We must return to Christ, center our life of discipleship
wholly in Him, become a community after the image of the Divine Trinity itself __
that we may become truly His people (PCP II 660).
I. History of
the Creeds
223. It is at our Baptism that we first
received the rule of Faith, the Creed. “Creed,” from the Latin “Credo”
which means “I believe,” presents the essential truths of the Christian Faith.
The two principal Catholic Creeds, presented side-by-side in the Vatican’s Catechism
of the Catholic Church, are: 1) the Apostles’ Creed, recited
at Sunday Mass in the Philippines, which is an elaboration of the early “Roman
Creed” of the third century; and 2) the Nicene Creed,
which was promulgated by the First Council of Constantinople in 381. It
“confirmed the faith of Nicea,” the first Ecumenical Council held in 325 (cf.
CCC 185,194-96). These Creeds were created and handed down through Catholic
Tradition by the Magisterium, the teaching Church. Through them we touch the
living core of the Christian proclamation.
A. Biblical Creeds
224. Most Filipino
Catholics receive the Creed in infant baptism through our parents. In adult
baptism we can receive it personally. The Catholic Creeds have had a long
history in Scripture and Tradition. First there are the Biblical Creeds
or professions of faith from the Old Testament times. “Indeed the Lord
will be there with us, majestic; yes, the Lord our judge, the Lord our
lawgiver, the Lord our king, He it is who will save us” (Is 33:22). “The
Lord is God and there is no other” (Dt 4: 35).
In the New
Testament, the early proclamations of faith centered on the Risen Christ:
“The God of our fathers has raised up Jesus whom you put to death, hanging him
on a tree. He whom God has exalted at His right hand as ruler and savior is to
bring repentance to Israel
and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:30-31).
B. Liturgical and Catechetical
Creeds
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