"...I will show you the way to heaven."-St. John-Marie Vianney

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

From The Catechism (June 2010)

MAN'S CAPACITY FOR GOD I. The Desire for God

27 The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This 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

In this passage we read about our clear call to a higher union than anything on this earth can offer us. Through our call to union with the Ancient of Days, we simple humans, see our dignity unquestionably. Our relationship with the God of all is meant to be so intimate that we become one with him; we literally unite to him, so that we, God and man, are one. This call is brought to fruition when we receive from the Sacred hands of the Priest, the Body and Blood of Jesus.

28 In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being:

From one ancestor (God) made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For "in him we live and move and have our being."

We, as men, are a “religious people” in so far as we search the heavens for answers to questions that we find no answer for. In this search we offer prayers, sacrifices and so on. If religion in general can be defined as mans seeking out of God, Christianity can be defined as God’s seeking out of man. For it was our God who first loved us, who created us, who taught us, who chastised us, who descended to this world, becoming like us in all except sin, redeemed us and rose from the dead so that we may have life in Him for all eternity. Our religion beckons us to answer the call of a lover, who seeks communion with and sanctification of His beloved.



Recommended Reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church

-Paragraphs 1-28

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