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What Does It Mean to Be a Catholic?
The love of God and neighbor combined with self-love constitutes Catholicism according to Jesus' response to an audience demanding a concise explanation while standing on one leg. A basic yet essential command shapes Catholicism's core values even though a full understanding of its meaning requires exploring the fundamental themes from the course. The eastern theological philosophy of Catholicism delivers an abundant tale that handles the fundamental existential mysteries of life through its explorations of human eternity and God’s plan of divinity.
Module 1: The Desire for Eternal Life and the Existence of God
Module 1 examines human desires for everlasting life among its core themes immediately following the start of the spiritual journey. All humanity shares the common desire to achieve eternal life because one scribe asked Jesus “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” In his observations, CS Lewis demonstrates that human beings have a yearning for eternity which proves our existence extends beyond physical realms to include spiritual realities. The human desire for eternal life guides individuals toward God since God remains their source of existence and true meaning. The First Module evaluates the rational basis for embracing faith in God through both philosophical proofs such as St. Thomas Aquinas’ Five Proofs and religious teachings. Reason enables us to understand God as the Creator and Final Cause but revelation adds personal knowledge about God's relationship with humanity according to the Compendium of the Catechism. (Ratzinger, 2010).
Module 2: The Meaning of Love and the Problem of Sin
The central subject of Module 2 explores what Jesus demanded when He said to love. According to Catholic teaching love surpasses emotions to become a behavior derived from God’s example of love. To Joseph Ratzinger Christian love requires divine kind of love we receive from God which remains unconditional even though loving becomes challenging. Through Genesis creation accounts God presents the world as His love-gift to humanity. Creation experiences disunity because of sin which Genesis 3 describes. The entry of sin generates three broken relationships: God’s relationship with humanity and between people and our internal communion with self. Turmoil exists in human life because we lack the capacity to love perfectly without divine help.
Module 3: The Christian Event and the Incarnation
Module 3 reveals the Christian event called the Incarnation as the answer to resolve the challenge presented in this predicament. According to Catholic teaching God sent Jesus Christ to walk among humanity as the divine solution for uniting people with divinity. According to John’s Gospel the eternal Word took human form to live among humanity (John 1:14). Jesus who exists as complete humanity together with divine nature provide complete love while healing the relationships damaged by sin. Jesus offers salvation by his living and dying and rising again so people can experience the complete kind of love which God intended for human beings. Through Incarnation God established an ongoing reality that changes our lives by compelling us to embody Jesus' identity. (Barr, 2003).
Conclusion
The journey of Catholicism leads us through love which starts from our longing for eternal life followed by confronting sin and ends in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Reason and revelation together with Christ’s transforming love form the path that Catholicism presents for living in harmony with God and others and oneself. Eternal life means to express love exactly as Jesus loves his people according to His teaching.
References
Barr, S. M. (2003). Retelling the story of science. First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, 16-26.
Ratzinger, J. (2010). What it Means to be a Christian. Ignatius Press.
