Journeying Through the Catechism: Our Calling
This is the eleventh part of a series that follows The Catechism in a Year podcast. Dr. Matthew Minerd journeys with us and presents a “travel guide” through the major themes of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Need to catch up? You can find the other parts of the series here: The Catechism: A Guide for the Christian Life, Divine Revelation, A God Who Reveals Himself, Creation and the Fall, The Son, The Holy Spirit, The Church, The Last Things, The Mysteries of Salvation, and The Sacraments.
The truths that God has revealed to us are not a set of abstract teachings. Rather, they convey the most concrete, fundamental of all realities—namely, the truth of who God is and who we are. To know that God is a Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is no mere abstract bit of knowledge but an awareness that God is a communion of divine Persons, who are united in an eternal relationship of love. As St. John tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1 and 14). Jesus Christ, the Word Incarnate, true God and true man came to touch the deepest point of our identity:
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
John 10:10
And what is this life? It is the very life of Christ himself: “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily … And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace” (Colossians 2:9; John 1:16).
In short: doctrine, morality, and spirituality go together. The truths we believe through faith are the deepest truths about who we are and about how we are called to live. Therefore, although the Catechism is subdivided into various sections, there are no impervious walls between them. The teachings of the Church are the soul of Christian morality, for we are not merely called to live “better” than others. We are called to live a divine life through grace, as “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).
As we saw in our discussion of creation, this was God’s plan from the beginning. He created man and woman for communion with him. Despite this lofty calling, our first parents did not trust in God’s love and chose their own will over his. They had been created in his image and likeness, capable of sharing in the divine life, indeed sharing in this life in Paradise. Instead, they freely chose to reject the divine light that he had given them. The entire mystery of salvation is, therefore, a kind of second creation, a re-creation, a restoring of humanity through the saving work of Christ. As is sung in the Byzantine Liturgy during the week prior to Christmas:
“If we partake of his divinity, we shall live and not die like Adam. Christ is born to raise up the likeness that had fallen.”
The Path to Happiness
It is for this reason that we speak of the beatific vision of God in heaven. This is our greatest blessing and ultimate source of happiness—to know, love, and serve God. In fact, the generosity of God’s love calls us beyond merely serving him; it calls us to friendship, to intimacy, with him. As Jesus tells us, “You are my friends if you do what I command you,” and then immediately adds, as though He wanted to cram it into His disciples’ heads:
“No longer do I call you servants … I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
John 15:14–15
Beatitude lies at the very center of Christian morality. God’s own blessedness is communicated to us through grace. Thus, we can say without exaggeration that a relationship with Christ is the fulfillment of all our desires. In fact, this relationship fulfills more than we could ever dream of desiring. Our Faith tells us that the fullest human life is the life of God, given to us through Jesus in the Spirit:
“God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.”
Romans 5:5
This is the deepest meaning of Christ’s words, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
A well-lived Christian life is truly a foretaste of heaven. When we live the life of grace, the Holy Trinity dwells in our souls:
“If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
John 14:23
This indwelling presence of God illuminates our minds through faith and strengthens our hearts through hope and love. These three theological virtues refashion our mind so that we can know and love God and all of creation as he knows and loves himself and all that he has created. What else could we call this but beatitude?
Thus, Christian morality is utterly divine. Our vocation is not merely to imitate Christ but to be completely remade in him:
“For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
Colossians 3:3
In the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5–7), Jesus calls his followers to something much greater than merely avoiding sin; he calls us to divine perfection:
“You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matthew 5:48
Not merely our external actions but our interior intentions must all be stamped with this heavenly ideal. Such morality is not limited to priests, monks, and nuns but extends to all his disciples, regardless of vocation. All of us are called to holiness from the moment of our baptism, as Vatican II proclaims:
“The classes and duties of life are many, but holiness is one.”
Since all men and women are created in God’s image and likeness, all are called to be restored in this divine likeness. St. Paul’s words are addressed to all Christians:
“Be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Ephesians 4:23–24)
Understand the Catholic Faith Like Never Before
This exclusive, specially designed Ascension edition of the Catechism clearly shows the ancient roots of the Faith and helps Catholics integrate the fullness of Catholic teaching into their daily lives.
A Well-Formed Conscience
Through faith and knowledge of the natural truths of morality and virtue, we can form for ourselves a correct conscience. The Catholic Church is the great defender of the conscience, for she proclaims the true vocation of mankind—to discover and choose the true path to life in Christ. Through the judgment of conscience, we discern the deepest truths of who we are. Indeed, the true Christian idea of conscience is a kind of “Christification” of the mind:
“The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one … We have the mind of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 2:15–16
Therefore, Christian conscience must be informed by the truths of Scripture and Tradition. It must listen to the teaching authority of the Church, in whose voice it hears the voice of the one true Shepherd, instructing us how to live the life of grace. Moreover, such conscience must be informed by the truths of the natural law and the human virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and courage. In short, we need a keen moral eye and a ready character, never hesitating to do the good and to avoid anything that is evil.
To many, the words “virtue” and “virtuous” conjure up an image of a stuffy, prudish person, someone who lives a joyless and repressed life. This is the very opposite of the truth! Living virtuously allows the flowering of our human perfection and of grace. To be virtuous is to have our entire character transformed by grace, all our desires, all our fears, every stirring of anger, all our relationships, everything being placed in perfect, Christ-conformed order:
“Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct.”
1 Peter 1:15–16
Genuine love, hatred of evil, rejoicing with the rejoicing, weeping with those who are sorrowing, living a harmonious and humble life (see Romans 12:9–21)—how far Christian virtue is from a sour face! It is the character of the person for whom the love of God has conquered all things and has made this divine affection the gravitational center of every thought, word, and deed!
Community
God wants his grace to inform every human relationship. He wants it to illuminate the whole world. Individual conversion is not enough. All things must be restored in Christ. Society itself must be transformed by grace. While recognizing the independence of church and state, the Church remains active in stewarding the goods of the whole society of mankind. She is the mother and teacher of all peoples, bringing the light of truth and goodness that is needed by all. The radiating of her truth and life into the political order is the particular vocation of the laity. As Christian families exercise virtuous citizenship in their communities, the grace of marriage infuses the whole of society, like a humble but energetic leaven. Moreover, the Church’s indirect authority in the political domain is exercised by means of her role as teacher, instructing not only the faithful but also all nations. Finally, she exercises her authority through the powerful witness she offers by helping to provide for the physical and spiritual needs of the peoples of all nations. Fighting for the oppressed, the orphaned, the widowed, and the dispossessed, she heeds today the words of our Savior:
“As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”
Matthew 25:40
Thus, she bears witness to the fact that her divine mandate extends over all of human life without violating the legitimate freedom of peoples. She is a leaven for true social justice, by which all the parts of society are set in right order, with the rights of all being recognized, above all the rights of God and his love.
Missing the Mark
The catastrophe of sin, then, is a falling short, a missing the mark of our calling. It is a transgression of either the natural moral law that God has written into the very fabric of creation, or of the divine law revealed to us by God in salvation history and through the continued teaching activity of the Church (e.g., the Ten Commandments, the Gospels, the apostolic writings, and the teachings of the Church). Ultimately, it is a failure in our relationship with the God who has loved us to the point of sacrificing his Son on the cross for our salvation—the God who offers us a share in his own divine life.
The Church distinguishes between sins that are mortal and those that are venial. Mortal sin involves a serious (or “grave”) matter, is known by the one who commits it to be wrong, and was done with full consent of the will. Such sin leads to a loss of sanctifying grace; it is a kind of “spiritual death” of the new life received in Baptism. This is the shipwreck of the Christian life, requiring conversion and confession for the sinner to return to life from such a lethal moral wound. Venial sins do not involve something that is objectively gravely sinful and does not cause the death of grace in the soul. It is more like a “smothering” of the divine life of without killing it off. But deliberate venial sin can dispose one toward mortal sin, leading us down the deadly ramp toward moral catastrophe and spiritual death.
Salvation
Therefore, it is clear that Catholic morality is not merely a kind of “good Christian accounting,” making sure that we check certain boxes. Rather, acting morally means living a new life, the new law of grace in the Spirit. Justification is not merely a decree from God stating that we are in his “good graces.” To be “justified” is to be transformed, to be remade in the righteousness of God:
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:21
There is no opposition between faith and works, between grace and merit. Grace is a divine gift that enables us to share in God’s own life and love as he loves—thereby meriting an increase in his life within us. It is faith working through love:
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.”
Galatians 5:6
By our works we bear witness to the faith that is in us (see James 2:18).
The Christian life, then, is a lofty calling. Every baptized person is called to moral perfection. All Christians, of every state of life, are called to holiness—that is, to a life that is led by the Spirit at every moment, so that we might “be perfect as
“Be aware, therefore, of your dignity, and given your kinship with the divine nature, never consent to return by degenerate morals to the base vulgarity of your former existence!”
Understand the Catholic Faith Like Never Before
This exclusive, specially designed Ascension edition of the Catechism clearly shows the ancient roots of the Faith and helps Catholics integrate the fullness of Catholic teaching into their daily lives.
Dr. Matthew Minerd is a Ruthenian Catholic, husband, and father, serving as a professor of philosophy and moral theology at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh. His academic and popular writing has been published in the journals Nova et Vetera, The American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, The Review of Metaphysics, Études Maritainiennes, Downside Review, and Homiletic and Pastoral Review. He has also served as a translator or editor for volumes published by The Catholic University of America Press, Emmaus Academic, and Cluny Media. He is the author of Made by God, Made for God: Catholic Morality Explained.