Transcript

The Catholic Church claims that the highest knowledge that we can have of God in this life is given to us through supernatural faith.

Well, what do we mean by that phrase, supernatural faith?

The word supernatural means above or beyond nature, something we can't attain by our own natural powers.

Faith is a light given to us from God by grace, which elevates our minds so we begin to know who God is in Himself intimately and personally.

Now, by faith, we also mean that act by which we believe God, saying yes to the whole truth that He's revealed to us.

And this is what leads to an intimate relationship of trust.

It's something like when a friend tells you a profound truth that's very important to them and you believe that person because of who they are.

So supernatural faith creates a kind of friendship with God.

Faith's first and foremost a grace, and that means it's a gift of God.

It's given to human beings in our intellects, our minds, so that we can begin to judge or perceive intuitively what the real mystery of God is.

So when you and I receive the grace of faith, we come to know that Jesus Christ truly exists, that He's real, that He's raised from the dead, that the Holy Trinity is the reality and mystery of God.

It's obscure, but it's concrete.

We begin to know really who God is.

When we read the Bible, we perceive it no longer simply as a collection of human writings, but we perceive in it the voice of God.

We really recognize it's an inspired book.

And when we participate in the life of the Catholic Church, we begin to perceive by faith that the Church is of divine origin.

That's to say, it's an institution truly founded by Christ.

We can't produce all this in ourselves merely by our natural learning or our gut instincts.

It's a gift infused in us by the Holy Spirit.

And the principal way we receive the grace of faith is through the Sacrament of Baptism.

By baptism, we're incorporated into life in Christ and receive the grace of faith.

Now, at the same time, we have to consent freely to this gift.

It's not forced on us.

It's sustained in us by our commitment to Christ and our commitment to life in the Church, and by our active search for understanding.

So faith is like a seed.

It can grow, and we can grow and gain greater insight into the mystery of God if we're faithful to God.

To do that, we need to adhere to what He reveals with hope and trust and confidence, and remain faithful to His teaching by actively living it out in our baptismal life.

Now, some would say belief in things that God has revealed is unwarranted, it's irresponsible, but actually belief in God is not irrational or unwarranted.

And the Catholic faith is reasonable to believe in, even if it's supernatural and above reason.

Actually, trust is just part of the way we learn things every day.

Every day, other people tell us things and we learn truths from them.

If you're assembled together with other people right now, it's because you trusted someone to tell you the time and place to assemble.

Most of us have no firsthand knowledge of the planets of our solar system.

We haven't been to Pluto, but we trust astronomers to tell us that they are there and maybe we correct our learning through time, through science.

We believe what people tell us about what's going on in the stock market in Japan.

We, we learn a lot of things through trust.

But in those cases, it's fallible because there's human beings teaching us and they're doing their best or they could deceive us.

But in this case, we trust in God, who is Himself the truth, who reveals Himself to us in Christ.

And God cannot deceive us, nor can His true revelation contain error.

So we're learning from the greatest teacher and we're trusting in that teacher.

Now, furthermore, God has given us what the Catholic Church calls signs of credibility.

These are signs that show us the rational warrant for accepting the Catholic faith as an intellectually responsible act.

These signs include things like the miracles of Christ and the Saints, the enduring reality of the Church down through time over 2,000 years, the consistency of her teaching and its sensibleness, the holiness of her Saints, and the moral perfection of her teaching, which is challenging but beautiful.

These are some of the signs that show us the rational warrant for believing the faith.

Now, at the same time, that doesn't mean we, by faith, understand everything.

The faith concerns mysteries that remain hidden from view, partially manifest, partially hidden.

Our mind doesn't fully comprehend them.

They're above us.

That's good.

We're invited into something greater than ourselves.

So even though it's reasonable to believe in the mysteries, they are also filled with a richness of truth content that we explore the whole of our lives.

Truths like the divinity of Christ, the reality of the Holy Trinity, they can't be proven by natural reason, they can't be disproven by natural reason.

They are embraced by the supernatural light of faith in which the believer enters into something above himself that God has given us to know.Now, what does faith believe or trust in?

Well, the Church professes faith in God's divine revelation.

That's another interesting term.

Revelation comes from a Latin word, revelatio.

That word means manifestation or self-disclosure.

The divine revelation is something where God tells us who He really is.

He manifests Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We could never come to know this unless God revealed it to us and gave us the gift of faith to believe what He says.

So the Father says it to us, who He is, through His Word, His Son, whom He sent into the world as man, and who gives us the Holy Spirit.

In sending the Son into the world as man, in becoming human, and in sending the Spirit into the world from the Son, God has revealed to us who He truly is.

He reveals Himself, His own inner mystery as Holy Trinity.

Why do we insist on this?

Well, because the heart of divine revelation is personal.

God wants us not only to know about Him, to have information about Him, but to know Him in person, and to enter into communion with Him by grace, even to share in the life of God.

God has revealed Himself to us principally through the inspired books of the Old Testament, composed by the prophets and scribes of ancient Israel, and by the New Testament, consisting of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Apostles.

There's no authoritative revelation after the time of the Apostles.

That is, there's nothing that one must believe or should believe that comes after the Apostolic age.

Jesus Christ is the fullness of divine revelation, and the Apostles bear witness to Him and hand on His teaching to us.

The Bible, the Old and New Testaments together, constitutes a storehouse of revealed wisdom.

Its teaching concerns God above all.

That's to say, His identity.

But it's also concerned with His covenant with the people of Israel, the moral law, the mystery of Christ as God made man, the mystery of grace, the Church, the sacraments, and the life of Christian discipleship.

The Catholic Church teaches that the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God.

They have the Holy Spirit for their principal author, even as they are also the works of various human authors.

So consequently, the Bible is, we could say, wholly divine and wholly human.

You're never gonna find a part of Scripture that isn't written by a human author, and you're never gonna find a part of Scripture that isn't composed ultimately by the Holy Spirit.

Now, the Bible bears the marks of various historical ages and cultures, but at the same time, it's truly the Word of God.

God has revealed in Scripture all that He wishes us to know for the sake of our salvation, so that we can come to a certain knowledge of the truth about God and a sure way of life that can conduct us safely to eternal life with Him.

Now, the Catholic Church teaches that the Church herself is subordinate to Scripture, and bases her doctrines and teachings on the authority of the Word of God.

And at the same time, the Church recognizes the essential role of sacred tradition for a right interpretation of Scripture.

Okay, so here's another word, tradition.

Tradition can be defined in two distinct ways, as the apostolic tradition and as post-apostolic tradition.

The apostolic traditions are those that existed prior to or at the time that the New Testament was composed, what the Apostles themselves handed on to us.

These traditions include things like the celebration of the Eucharist and the other sacraments, which the Apostles handed down to the Church.

The post-apostolic traditions are those doctrines and liturgical prayers, the canonical laws, and the pious customs that the Church has maintained over the past 2,000 years in fidelity to the apostolic deposit of faith.

You might say it's the way the Church has received and codified the revelation from the Apostles given to us in Scripture and apostolic tradition.

Now, that tradition in the Church is overseen and maintained especially by the bishops of the Catholic Church, who are the true successors of the Apostles, as well as the head of the College of Bishops, who is the Bishop of Rome, otherwise known as the successor of St. Peter or the Pope.

The Pope and the bishops may not innovate or add to the New Testament or the apostolic teachings.

They don't create new revelation or doctrine outside of the Scriptures.

They're faithful witnesses to Scripture.

But what they do do is identify or interpret rightly the teaching of Scripture and the Apostles with the help of the Holy Spirit.

That's to say the bishops in communion with the Pope have the charism or gift in the Church to identify over time what it is that the Scriptures truly teach and what pertains authentically to the apostolic teaching of the Church.

This becomes especially important in times of controversy.

It's the bishops in communion with the Pope who have the final responsibility to clarify what it is that the Church believes and confesses in obedience to Scripture.

In doing this, they assure the unity of the Church and her public witness to the truth about Christ down through the ages.

To do so, they can and must clarify in doctrinal form the teaching of the Church in regard to faith in the moral life.

This is what we call dogmas and doctrines, which allow the whole Church to grasp the truth content of the New Testament and the revelation of God.

When they do this, the bishops of the Church exercise what is called the magisterium or teaching office of the Church.

In our next session, we'll be giving an introduction to prayer and the sacraments.