To the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit
Catechesis “transmits the words and deeds of Revelation; it is obliged to proclaim and narrate them and, at the same time, to make clear the profound mysteries they contain” (GDC no. 39). God’s Revelation of Himself is “the central mystery of Christian Faith and life. It is the mystery of God in Himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of Faith, the light that enlightens them” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC] no. 234).5 The mystery of the most Holy Trinity, more than a doctrine to be intellectually acknowledged, is the bedrock foundation of creation, redemption and sanctification. Christians participate intimately in the holy life of the Triune God through baptism—as adopted children of the Father, co-heirs with the Son, and living temples of the Holy Spirit. The Christian, configured to Christ in Baptism, is baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Through sacramental initiation, the baptized becomes part of the Trinitarian drama of salvation.

The Church expresses the drama in this way:

It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature. By his revelation, then, the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends and moves among them, in order to invite and take receive them into his own company. The most intimate truth which this revelation gives us about God and the salvation of man shines forth in Christ, who is himself the mediator and the sum total of Revelation. (Dei Verbum [DV] no. 2) 6

This quote begins Dei Verbum, and presents in dense form the whole of Revelation. It captures the threefold shape and structure of Divine Revelation: it is nothing less than God the Father speaking through Christ to mankind so that, through the Holy Spirit, man might find access to the Father and partake in the Triune life. This is the economy of Salvation—the plan of God’s action to fully reveal himself so that man, in turn, might give himself to God. This is the “big picture” of all evangelization and catechesis.

The Trinitarian dimension of Revelation is quickly indicated in the opening lines of the document: we have access to the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit. The Triune God is a communion of persons—three persons. It is a God who speaks, lives among us, and invites us to communion and fellowship with Him. Revelation must always be specified in its Trinitarian dimension, which is its integrating and organizing center. If not, catechesis violates the unity of Divine Revelation and mutilates its into a corpus of unrelated doctrines.
Another council document, the Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) speaks eloquently of the Trinitarian economy of Revelation:

The eternal Father, in accordance with the utterly gratuitous and mysterious design of his wisdom and goodness, created the whole universe, and chose to raise up men to share in his own divine life; and when they had fallen in Adam, he did not abandon them . . . . The Son, accordingly, came, sent by the Father who, before the foundation of the world, chose us and predestined us in him for adoptive son-ship. When the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that he might continually sanctify the Church, and that, consequently, those who believe might have access through Christ in one Spirit to the Father (LG 2-4).

This quote and the previous excerpt from Dei Verbum serve as a sort of “mission statement” of God’s plan of salvation, and are thumbnail sketches of the entirety of God’s saving action and divine providence in human history, from the beginning of time. These statements, incorporate the essential contours and the core “themes” of the economy of salvation and Divine Revelation: the Trinity, creation, humanity and the call to divine communion, original sin, Christ, the paschal mystery, the Holy Spirit, the Church, eternal beatitude with the Trinity.7 Beginning in God and ending in God, this providential plan emanates from divine self-giving love, and is carried out with an ingenuity and originality that only the Triune God could conceive.

An essential feature of the Triune and personal God is that He is a God of dialogue. He is a God who speaks to and with man. “. . . [I]t is true that Revelation, like faith, engages the mystery of a person and not of a thing, of an “I” who addresses a “You”; an I who unveils the mystery of his own life and thereby make it known to human beings that the full meaning of human existence is found in encounter with this I . . . .”8 Thus unfolds the dialogical character of Revelation. God speaks and listens to man; man speaks and listens to God. The personal God who speaks to man becomes the paradigm for a catechetical pedagogy: among other elements, catechesis, “is rooted in inter-personal relations and makes its own the process of dialogue” (GDC no. 143).

Against the modern view of meaningless reality and impersonal relationships, Dei Verbum boldly proclaims the real picture of existence: God is at work in the world and in human history. More than a grand designer or scientific principle, He is a God of love (Trinitarian love) who calls mankind into a communion of his inner life. As a relation of divine persons, the Trinitarian life of God-in-himself forms the basis of that dialogue that characterizes uniquely Divine Revelation. Real relationship, then, is possible with God. God enters into covenant with man and engages man in his fullness as a human person. In the face of this engagement, man must hand over his entire self and submit to the Word of God. God’s intervention into human history finds its fullness and plentitude in the Person of Jesus Christ. He is the Word of the Father and the acme of God’s self-communication.

The Trinity: Starting Point of the Catechism
The Universal Catechism proceeds from the outset according to a Trinitarian form in the initial chapters (“God Comes to Meet Man”) of Part One. In its opening paragraph, the Catechism states:

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life (no. 1).

In essence, we have the whole of what will follow in the Catechism. The rest of the text (2864 paragraphs to be exact!) is a gradual unfolding of God’s plan offering to man a share in the divine life through Christ, in the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Trinitarian theme emerges as the overall perspective of the Catechism. This perspective is fertile ground for the proper presentation of the sacraments, the commandments, and prayer. This is only “natural” for the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian Faith and life. “It is the mystery of God in himself. Therefore, it is the source of all the other mysteries of faith; it is the light that illuminates them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching within the hierarchy of the truths of faith.”9

Part One presents the Creed in its traditional structure of twelve articles. However, a more foundational presentation is at work. The Creed is essentially Trinitarian in structure: a profession of faith in Father, Son and Holy Spirit (see nos. 189-191). Specifically, the doctrine of the Trinity is formally presented as the Catechism speaks of the first article of the Creed: “I believe in one God the Father Almighty.” In these paragraphs (nos. 232-267), the basic teaching of the Trinity is explicated: as the central mystery of Faith; the Revelation of the Triune God; the formation and dogma of the Trinity; and the economy of salvation as the common work of the three divine persons. In paragraph 260, the “why” of Divine Revelation is sublimely proclaimed: “the ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity.”

The Trinity is interwoven throughout the exposition of the other articles of faith. We see this in the teaching on creation (nos. 290-92) and the Resurrection (nos. 648-650). Under the creedal article (nos. 748-870), “I believe in the holy catholic church,” the doctrine of Mater Ecclesia is seen in its Triune mystery: in its origin (Father), foundation (Son), and mission (Holy Spirit).

How does this primary mystery of the Faith color and vivify the doctrinal presentation in the other parts of the Catechism? We see, for example, that in Part Two, the catechesis on the sacraments (i.e. nos. 1076-1112), the sacramental economy—the sacred liturgy—is firmly anchored as a “work of the Holy Trinity.” In the sacraments God encounters his children and dialogues with them (see no. 1153). The Church’s liturgy, a celebration of communion and feast (no. 1136), already participates in the Heavenly liturgy and its praise of the Triune God: with the Lord God, the Lamb, and the Holy Spirit, the water of life, at the center, surrounded by the heavenly powers, all creation, the people of God, and the all-holy Mother of God (see nos. 1136-1139). God the Father is the “source and goal of the liturgy;” the paschal mystery of Christ is the heart the sacramental celebrations; and the Holy Spirit is the teacher of the Faith and artisan of the sacraments. Baptism is set into context as the entrance of the baptized into the life of the Trinity (see e.g. nos. 189, 247, 265, 1239-1240, 1266).

In Part Three of the Catechism, the life of the baptized Christian—guided and sustained by the commandments and grace—is presented in Trinitarian fashion. “Christ’s disciples are invited to live in the sight of the Father . . . in order to become perfect . . . . Following Christ and united with him, Christians can strive to be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love . . . . Christians have become the temple of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit . . . prompts them to act so as to bear the fruit of the Spirit by charity in action” (nos. 1693-1695). Christian holiness—participation and perfection in divine, self-giving, self-sacrificing love—finds its source and culmination in the mystery of Christ, and through Him, in the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity (see no. 2014). The Decalogue, as the dialogue between God and man that sets forth the rudimentary human response to God’s revelation, “is the gift of God himself and his holy will. In making his will known, God reveals himself to his people.” (no. 2059; and see no. 2063).

Finally, Part Four illustrates the object of Christian prayer: “. . . the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with him (nos. 2558; 2655). The essence of Christian prayer encompasses a Trinitarian movement: “prayer in and to the Holy Spirit; prayer in and through and to Christ, the way to the Father.”10 The simple prayer of contemplation is the living out of the “covenant relationship established by God within our hearts” and is a “communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God, ‘to his likeness’” (no. 2713). When we pray the “Our Father,” it is a prayer that is inclusive of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (cf. nos. 2789, 2801). It is through Christ, however, that the drama of Christian prayer is fully revealed for mankind (see no. 2598).

The Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the Son of the Father. Christ is God’s final and authoritative word of Revelation (see no. 65). He is the key for interpreting and responding to Divine Revelation.

The Person of Christ: Fullness of Divine Revelation
The privileged encounter with the living God takes place in the person of Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, who is the mystery of God enfleshed in human form. Christians contemplate the face of Christ “who is to be known, love and imitated, so that in him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with him, transform history until its fulfillment in the heavenly Jerusalem” (NMI, no. 29). God’s word was spoken through the prophets. God’s speaking reached peak when He sent his only begotten Son, the Word who “became flesh and dwelt among us.” In such fashion, the person of Jesus discloses to man the personal, inner life of God (cf. John 3:1-21). All of Revelation was directed to Christ who would fulfill God’s plan of saving mankind and bringing him back to God.

[Jesus] himself—to see whom is to see the Father—completed and perfected Revelation and confirmed it with divine guarantees. He did this by the total fact of his presence and self-manifestation—by words and works, signs and miracles, but above all by his death and resurrection from the dead, and finally by sending the Spirit of truth. He revealed that God was with us, to deliver us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life eternal. (DV 4)

We see throughout the constitution the Christ-centeredness of Revelation and salvation. “Christ the Lord in whom the entire Revelation of the most high God is summed up, commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel . . . .” (DV no. 7). In the transmission of Revelation through Sacred Scripture, the Old Testament prefigures Christ and the New Testament wonderfully sets forth the Person of Christ, the Word of God. Christ and His salvific works are the heart of the New Testament. Particularly and potently, the Gospels pass on to us the life, message, and mission of Jesus: they are the “principal source for the life and teaching of the Incarnate Word, our Savior” (DV no. 18).

The Christocentric dimension of Divine Revelation reveals the paternal manner in which God the Father speaks to His people. We are able to taste and see God’s speech in living flesh. Our Faith is not rooted in something; it is someone: the living person, Jesus Christ. It is Jesus — the Dei Verbum — who came to fulfill the law and the prophets, the Incarnate Word of God. He is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity come in human flesh who was seen, heard, and touched (see 1 John 1:1-3). It is He who, “for us men and our salvation, came down from Heaven.” The Catholic Faith breathes and lives from the Person of Christ.

Therefore, catechesis must devotedly “show who Jesus Christ is, his life and ministry, and to present the Christian faith as the following of his person” (GDC no. 41). All efforts must converge on this vital task. The drawing of the baptized into this relationship with Jesus has weighty results. From such communion with Christ, the faithful become associated and united with all that is Christ’s: with His Father and the Holy Spirit; with the Church and with all mankind (see GDC nos. 80-81).

The Centrality of Christ in the Catechism
The Catechism, borrowing the words of the Holy Father, introduces the “heart” of all catechesis and underscores the centrality of Jesus in catechesis:

“At the heart of catechesis we find, in essence, a Person, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son from the Father . . . who suffered and died for us and who now, after rising, is living with us forever.” To catechize is “to reveal in the Person of Christ the whole of God’s eternal design reaching fulfillment in that Person. It is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ’s actions and words and of the signs worked by him.” Catechesis aims at putting “people . . . in communion . . . with Jesus Christ: only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity.” (no. 426)

Christ is the fulcrum and pinnacle of Revelation. He is therefore the heart and center of evangelization and catechesis. The Catechism reflects this perspective. As the hinge of God’s Revelation, Christ fully manifests Trinity and the plan of salvation. Indeed,”. . . it is through the Incarnation of the Eternal Son, his life, death and Resurrection, that the Father is revealed and the Spirit is given.”11

The Catechism underscores this connection in the beginning pages of the Prologue which opens with the words of Jesus’ priestly prayer: “Father . . . this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (Prologue, quoting John 17:3).

The specific teaching on the Person of Jesus takes place, of course, in the catechesis on the Apostle’s Creed: I believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of God (Part I, Chapter 2). A pithy overview of the historical concreteness of the Incarnation introduces the Christological dimension of the Creed (nos. 422-424). The proper object of the transmission of the Faith (i.e., Jesus Christ) is included in the opening paragraphs of this section. Christ-centered catechesis is again emphasized (nos. 426-428). The following paragraphs (nos. 422-682) present to the reader a basic Christology: from the Incarnation, through Christ’s private and public life, and to his redemptive death and resurrection. In the segment on the conception and virginal birth of Christ, the Catechism poses an imperative question, “Why did the Word become flesh?” In answering the question regarding the Incarnation, the Catechism synthesizes well the Christ-centeredness of Divine Revelation and how Jesus, being both God and Man, mediates the life of the Trinity and the life of man. “The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God; so that we might know God’s love; to be our model of Holiness; and to make us partakers of the divine nature” (nos. 457-460). Thus we see wholeness of the Faith and its organic unity splendidly arising from the mystery of Christ. The various parts of the Catechism reflect this unity of Faith found in the Son of God.

In Part Three (“Life in Christ”), the Catechism speaks of the Christian’s baptismal life of charity and his life of Christian morality. Proper moral life, already rooted in man’s creation as the image of God, is only attained in reference to Christ and the gifts of the Holy Spirit (no. 1692). Incorporation into Christ at baptism is the foundational event that orients Christian morality (no. 1695). This new life in Christ traverses the way of the Holy Spirit and grace, the beatitudes, sin and forgiveness, human and Christian virtues, the twofold form of charity, and always in the communion of the Church (no. 1697). Thus, the following of Christ is the starting point for understanding morality and living the Ten Commandments. Therefore, “catechesis has to reveal in all clarity the joy and the demands of the way of Christ.” (no. 1697). If the sequela Christi seems overwhelming and burdensome, the Catechism underscores that Jesus is the first and the last point to be considered. The text also emphasizes repeatedly that the grace of Christ—a real participation in the life of the Trinity (no. 1997)—is the supernatural disposition to “live with God, and act by his love” (no. 2000). It is the irreplaceable condition for Christian living . . . .”12

Finally, in Part Four, Jesus is the basis of Christian prayer. Through Baptism, we have been united to Christ, and so our prayer is Christian — as we always pray: “through Christ our Lord.” Prayer was revealed at the beginning of creation. Now, “the drama of prayer is fully revealed to us in the Word who became flesh and dwells among us” (no. 2598). Through our contemplation of him in prayer, we learn how to pray and realize that that he responds to our prayers (see nos. 2599-2616). Through the Gospels, we see Jesus in intimate and consuming prayer to His Father. It is in His relationship as Son to the Father that Jesus is the source and way of our prayer. He thus teaches the Church the prayer that sets in bold relief the style and attitude of all Christian prayer: “When you pray, say ‘Our Father’….” (nos. 2759ff).

It is in this context that today’s catechesis must take seriously its primary objective of putting people in communion with Jesus Christ. In reciprocal fashion, it is Christ Himself who directs us to our life’s goal: union with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The life of the Triune God is both the beginning and end of the Church’s evangelical efforts. Catechesis, in its total objectives and goals—e.g. Christian initiation, conversion, knowledge of God, liturgical education, moral formation, and the art of prayer— must always keep in view this basic scheme and dynamic of Divine Revelation.

The Human Vocation: Communion with God
In revealing Himself, most powerfully in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, God shares with mankind the most “intimate truth” about Himself (DV no. 2). This truth has “vital implications for the lives of human beings” (GDC no. 100). God’s Divine Word and gift of Himself in revelation gives decisive meaning to the vocation of the human person, his salvation from sin and death, and the call to unity in the family of God (see GDC nos. 37; 116).

Christ “fully reveals man to man himself and brings to light his most high calling” (Gaudium et Spes no. 22). In His very person, Jesus, true God and true man, opens fully the anthropological dimension of Revelation. Jesus Christ “revealed that God was with us to deliver us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to eternal life” (DV no. 4). When we gaze on the face of Christ (e.g. the Scriptures, Sacraments, prayer, etc.), we behold the supreme countenance of the Father and the true face of man.

As was seen earlier from the opening lines of the Dei Verbum, God has made known the mystery of His will: “that men have access to the Father . . . and thus become sharers in the divine nature.” Man has received an open invitation be in God’s company. God’s offering of himself to man corresponds to the nature of the human person: for he is made in the image of God, and his essence is marked to be like that of his Creator: a communion of persons.

Thus we can see how the idea of Revelation also outlines a conception of man: man as the creature of dialogue who, in listening to the word of God, becomes contemporaneous with the presentness of God and in the fellowship of the word receives the reality which is indivisibly one with this word: fellowship with God himself.13

The required human response to such a divine calling is the “obedience of faith.” Man must give his “yes” to the divine initiative—God reveals himself and man responds in faith. It is the human person’s exchange in the dialogue of salvation—an entrustment, no less, of the person’s whole self to the mystery of God. In the conversion of man to God, it is always a matter of God acting first, through the Holy Spirit, to move the person to such a turnabout. Dei Verbum asserts:

The obedience of faith is to be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man commits his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals, and freely assenting to the truth revealed by him. To make this act of faith, the grace of God and the interior help of the Holy Spirit must precede and assist, moving the heart and turning it to God, opening the eyes of the mind and giving “joy and ease to everyone in assenting to the truth and believing it.” To bring about an ever-deeper understanding of Revelation, the same Holy Spirit constantly brings faith to completion by his gifts. (no. 5)

Communion with God is for man the definitive and authentic way of genuine existence—to be for another, and not for himself. Divine Revelation is an offer to man to turn from selfish-love to salvational-love, offered by God in Jesus Christ. In hearing what God has to say—and boldly says in Jesus—man hears a Word that he can only answer with a complete and absolute response of his entire being. Man must turn over the center of his person (his heart) to the call of God by trusting in his creator and not in himself. This human entrustment to the words and works of the Triune God (creation, redemption, sanctification) takes form through a full-bodied participation in faith, sacramental living, charity, and prayer (cf. GDC no. 117).

The Human Person in the Catechism
From the outset, the Catechism brings in the anthropological question. This is done in the very first paragraph of the text: “He [God] calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church” (no. 1). Thus, man has a vocation—both personal and communal—to seek, know, and love God. The layout of the Catechism gives the concrete means by which man undertakes his response to the calling: through an ecclesial life of contemplating the Mystery of the Triune God through Jesus Christ and celebrating the Mystery in the sacraments; living in the Mystery by grace and the commandments, and pondering the Mystery through prayer.

In Part One the groundwork is laid for a basic anthropology. The first chapter is entitled, “Man’s Capacity for God.” Since man is created by God and for God, the human heart is naturally meant to know and love God. Human reason, in its natural contemplation of creation and human existence, manifests this desire; religious ritual and expression confirms it (nos. 28; 31-35). In order, however, that man may fully know God, “God has revealed himself and given himself to man” (no. 50). Chapter Two, “God Comes to Meet Man,” presents God’s plan of salvation, starting with creation, proceeding through the covenants, and fully realized in Christ (see nos. 51-73).

The human response to the divine initiative is summed up in a word: faith. Through faith, man makes of his entire self a gift to the Word of God. This obedience of faith is essentially docile receptivity to what God has revealed. [Note: the word “obedience,” as noted in the no. 144, etymologically stems from Latin, ob-audire— “hear or listen to.” Applied to the life of Faith, obedience is everything: God first speaks to us; man must attentively hear God’s word and receptively respond to that word.] Obedience is that virtue of the human heart that faithfully hears, ponders, and keeps the word of God. Mary, the mother all of believers, embodies such great faith. Man’s faith, while wholly personal, must be lived and rooted in the communion of the Church (nos. 166-184). The whole of existence is always contingent and interconnected (no. 166). For man, he must always live that communion of persons for which he was created. The highest fulfillment of man’s existence, therefore, is found in the life of the Trinity, which is sacramentally fulfilled in the communion of the Church. The teaching of the Catechism demythologizes the myth of modernity that man finds happiness through solitary existence, unbound to all relationships, human or divine.

In the study of the Creed, the dignity and vocation of man finds its proper place in the context of creation, under the profession of faith in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth (nos. 355-384). “He [man] is the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake, and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life. It was for this end he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity . . . .” (no. 356). Made in the image of God, man’s life takes the form of a call “by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead” (no. 357). The reality of sin signifies man’s abuse of freedom and rejection of communion (nos. 385ff). Thus, man knows the “bad news” of sin, suffering, evil, and death. But man also knows, through Divine gratuity, Christ, the source of redemption—the Good News of salvation (nos. 388-389; 410-412).

When the Church celebrates the Christian Mystery (Part Two), man encounters God through Jesus Christ. Through participation in the Church’s liturgy, the human person is led to a deeper communion with God and other men. Thus, in the “here and now,” the voation of man to divine communion is being gradually accomplished. Through the work of the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of communion—”the Church is the great sacrament of divine communion which gathers God’s scattered children together. Communion with the Holy Trinity and fraternal communion are inseparably the fruit of the Spirit in the liturgy” (no. 1108). Sacramental spirituality is a requisite element of any Christian vision of man.

The life of Prayer (Part Four) also has its place here. For prayer is none other than the constant remembrance and contemplation of our communion with God:

In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. The grace of the Kingdom is “the union of the entire holy and royal Trinity . . . with the whole human spirit.” Thus, the life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with him. This communion of life is always possible because, through Baptism, we have already been united with Christ. Prayer is Christian insofar as it is communion with Christ and extends throughout the Church, which is his Body. Its dimensions are those of Christ’s love. (no. 2565)

We arrive at the heart of a catechetical anthropology in Part Three. The Christian is called to new life in Christ and the Holy Spirit. This new life of baptism builds upon human nature. Man is made in the image and likeness of God, yet fallen and in need of grace and forgiveness. Integral components, then, for a catechesis on morality include: human dignity, the desire for happiness, human freedom, human action, the passions, the virtues, conscience, and sin (see nos. 1701-1876). By aligning them to their proper ends (e.g. natural happiness to eternal beatitude; freedom to truth, or in the case of sin, self-mastery and entrustment to God’s mercy) man grows in the divine image and his humanity is fully realized.

The divine call to communion is lived out concretely through charity and human solidarity. Basing itself on the inherent nature of man, social life is thus an expression of man’s response to God. Life with and for others (e.g. family, community, parish) always requires inner conversion, respect for lawful authority, adherence to the common good, reciprocal responsibility and participation (see nos. 1877-1948). “Through the exchange with others, mutual service and dialogue with his brethren, man develops his potential; he thus responds to his vocation” (no. 1879).

Man must align his whole self to make that total assent of faith to the divine plan. The fallen condition of sin in which man finds himself is an impediment on his way to God. “Called to beatitude but wounded by sin, man stands in need of salvation from God. Divine help comes to him in Christ through the law that guides him and the grace that sustains him…” (no. 1949).

The moral law is God’s fatherly wisdom bestowed to man so that he may reach eternal beatitude (see nos. 1949-1986). The law is natural—present from the beginning of creation—and thus concerns man in his very being and directs his action in accordance with his rational nature and the natural moral law. In this light man’s moral life is a “response to the Lord’s loving initiative” (no. 2062). The Commandments guide us towards happiness, with God and each other; and we are capable of obeying them through participation in the life of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (grace). The relationships that characterize man’s life—with God, other men, the world, and with himself—find their pattern and direction in the moral law.

Moral life, in summary, is the concrete response to the call of love for the human person. The response takes on the shape of obedience to the moral law, concretized through the Decalogue. The Commandments teach man how to properly love God and neighbor. The Commandments become the path of life—a divine path plotted for man that leads to true happiness—eternal happiness (cf. no. 2057). Like all things Christian, moral life can only be lived in reference to Jesus Christ (cf. no. 521)—by our communion with Him, we are able to nobly live the human vocation of love and thus realize our most inner self as created and desired by God. Cardinal Ratzinger offers an enlightening thought on this aspect and magnificently summarizes the Catechism’s basic teaching on the life of man:

Hence the essential response which the Catechism in turn gives, based on the Bible, based on the Church’s faith, is a very simple one: for the human person happiness is love. In this sense the Catechism’s morality is an instruction on what love is. In this regard it tells us that the essence of true love became visible in the person of Jesus Christ, in his words as well as in his life and death. It also tells us that the Ten Commandments are only an explanation of love’s ways; that we read them correctly only if we read them in Jesus Christ. In this sense all the essential contents of the profession of faith are found in the moral part, and there they become praxis.14

“Go Out into the Whole World”

The third millennium has only just begun. Catechesis in the new Christian epoch must take its cue from the teachings of Vatican II and the Universal Catechism. Taken together, the teaching set forth in both Dei Verbum and the Catechism marvelously ponders the unity of God’s inner life and his plan of loving goodness, incarnately manifested in the Person of Christ. Catechesis must be firmly grounded in these documents and their style of presentation. In so doing, the “big picture” is provided for any serious catechetical initiatives and the proper mode of presentation for imparting the Faith of the Church.

Since catechesis is charged with handing on Divine Revelation, it must let this Revelation determine, orient, and forge all catechetical initiatives. By following the lead of the Church, which presents the integral message of salvation in all of its Trinitarian splendor and Christological fullness, the transmission of the Faith through catechesis will faithfully adhere to the unity and content of Divine Revelation. It is a matter of catechesis, as an essential part of the Church’s missionary mandate, to return to the feet of the Lord and come to Him for instruction and formation. The Church, through the graciousness of God, guarantees and secures such a living encounter.

The hour of the new evangelization is upon the Church to “go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15). Before it “goes out into the world,” catechesis must first “put out into the deep” and lower its net into the depth and vastness of the Trinitarian God. Only by pondering what God has done through Divine Revelation does catechesis realize what it must do through faithful transmission. From such a plunge into Divine Life, catechesis, as part of the new evangelization, will bear fruit according to the design of Divine Providence.

Daniel Klucinec, a 1992 graduate of Magdalen College, is working towards a master’s degree in systematic theology at the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College.

1 John Paul II. Novo Millennio Ineunte. 6 January 2001. Available at www.vatican.va.
2 Cf. Saint Augustine. De Catechizandis Rudibus, in Ancient Christian Writers, No. 2. Joseph P. Christopher, trans. (New York: Newman Press, 1946), Ch. 3, 5.
3 Congregation for the Clergy. General Directory for Catechesis. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), no. 39.
4 The contents of this paper draws partly from paragraph no. 123 in the General Directory for Catechesis which speaks about the Catechism’s “inspiration”: Trinitarian Christocentricity and the nobility of the vocation of the human person.
5 United States Catholic Conference, Inc. Catechism of the Catholic Church. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997.
6 Dei Verbum no. 2. Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents. Austin Flannery, ed. (New York: Costello Publishing Company, Inc. 1987). All excerpts from the documents of Vatican II in this article are taken from this translation.
7 Cf. John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae (no. 30): “What kind of catechesis would it be that failed to give their full place to man’s creation and sin; to God’s plan of redemption and its long, loving preparation and realization; to the incarnation of the Son of God; to Mary, the Immaculate One, the Mother of God, ever Virgin, raised body and soul to the glory of heaven, and to her role in the mystery of salvation; to the mystery of lawlessness at work in our lives (79) and the power of God freeing us from it; to the need for penance and asceticism; to the sacramental and liturgical actions; to the reality of the Eucharistic Presence; to participation in divine life here and hereafter, and so on?”
8 R. Latourelle and R. Fischella. Dictionary of Fundamental Theology. (New York: Crossroad, 1994). p. 936.
9 J. Ratzinger and C. Schonborn. Introduction to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994). pages 42-43.
10 Ibid., page 96. See also CCC, no. 2664-72.
11 Ibid., page 45.
12 Fidei Depositum no. 2.
13 J. Ratzinger. “Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation.” Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II, ed. Herbert Vorgrimler. (New York: Herder and Herder, 1969). p. 171.
14 J. Ratzinger, “The Catechism of the Catholic Church in Context.” Reflections on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. James Socias, ed. (Chicago: Midwest Theological Forum, 1993). p. 227-228.