Catholicism For Dummies - Rev. Kenneth Brighenti

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Catholic Church teaches that after general judgment, the risen bodies go back to heaven or hell, and the world ends. The material universe ceases to exist, and reality consists only of heaven and hell — nothing else. Theologians and scientists are in agreement that the universe will end someday. When the world ends is irrelevant because your eternal destiny of heaven or hell is already decided well before that happens. Better to be worried and prepared for your particular judgment (see the earlier section “Facing the four last things”) because you don’t know the day or hour for that one, either. The Catechism also talks about the creation of a new heaven and new earth for the glorified, resurrected bodies, since the old earth will be destroyed at the end of the world. But no one knows what that’ll be like except God alone.

      

You don’t have to be worried about hell or the end of the world if you live a moral life by obeying the Ten Commandments (see Chapter 12), seeking God’s forgiveness for your sins, and trying to live a saintly life. Thanks to Jesus, Original Sin doesn’t prevent us from getting to heaven. Read more about Jesus’s sacrifice in Chapter 4.

      Believing in Jesus

      IN THIS CHAPTER

      

Understanding the human nature and the divine nature of Jesus

      

Examining the Gospels from the Catholic perspective

      

Looking at some nasty rumors about Jesus that ran wild

      Like all Christians, Catholics share the core belief that Jesus of Nazareth is Lord and Savior. The term Lord is used because Christians believe Jesus is divine — the Son of God. The term Savior is used because Christians believe that Jesus saved all humankind by dying for our sins.

      Some people may think that Catholicism considers Jesus a hybrid — half human and half divine. That’s not the case at all. Catholicism doesn’t see Jesus as having a split personality or as a spiritual Frankenstein, partly human and partly divine. He’s regarded as fully human and fully divine — true man and true God. He’s considered one divine person with two equal natures, human and divine. This premise is the cornerstone of all Christian mysteries. It can’t be explained completely but must be believed on faith. (See Chapter 2 for the scoop on what faith really means.)

      The Nicene Creed, a highly theological profession of faith, says volumes about what Christianity in general (and the Catholic Church in particular) believes about the person called Jesus. (You can read the Nicene Creed in Chapter 10 and the Apostles’ Creed in Chapter 2.) This chapter doesn’t say volumes, but it does tell you the need-to-know points for understanding Catholicism’s perspective on Jesus.

      Jesus, the God-Man, having a fully divine nature and a fully human nature in one divine person, is the core and center of Christian belief.

      “True God” and “became man” are key phrases in the Nicene Creed, which highlights the fundamental doctrine of Jesus as the God-Man:

       As God, Jesus possessed a fully divine nature, so He was able to perform miracles, such as changing water into wine; curing sickness, disease, and disability; and raising the dead. His greatest act of divinity was to rise from the dead Himself.

       As man, Jesus had a human mother, Mary, who gave birth to Him and nursed Him. He lived and grew up like any other man. He taught, preached, suffered, and died. So Jesus had a fully human nature as well.

      You can read the complete Nicene Creed in Chapter 10.

      

The Old Testament usually uses the word Lord (Adonai in Hebrew) in connection with the word God (Elohim in Hebrew). An example is the phrase “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” in Deuteronomy 6:4. But the New Testament asserts through the Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians (2:11) “that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

      The human nature of Jesus

      Jesus had a physical body with all the usual parts: two eyes, two ears, two legs, a heart, a brain, a stomach, and so on. He also possessed a human intellect (mind) and will (heart) and experienced human emotions, such as joy and sorrow. The Gospel According to John, for example, says that Jesus cried at the death of his friend Lazarus. Jesus wasn’t born with the ability to speak. He had to learn how to walk and talk — how to be, act, and think as a human. These things are called acquired knowledge. Other things were directly revealed to His human mind by the divine intellect; these are called infused knowledge.

      Jesus did not share sin with human beings. As a Divine Person, He could not sin because it would mean negating Himself (sin is going against the will of God). Being human doesn’t mean being capable of sinning, nor does it mean that you’ve sinned somewhere along the line. Being human means having a free will and rational intellect joined to a physical body. Humans can choose to do good or choose to do evil.

      

It’s important to keep in mind that Catholicism doesn’t depend exclusively on the Bible for what’s known about Jesus. Sacred Tradition (see Chapter 2) fills in some of the gaps when the Bible is silent or ambiguous on certain points, such as whether Jesus ever married or had any siblings.

      Did Jesus have a wife and kids?

      The last verse of the Gospel According to John (21:25) says, “There are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” The Bible is silent in some areas. Was Jesus ever married? Did He have a wife and children? The Bible doesn’t say either way. You could presume He was unmarried, because a wife is never mentioned. (The Bible does mention Peter’s mother-in-law being cured, but the Bible never classifies the other disciples and apostles as married or single.)

      No Christian denomination or religion has ever believed that Jesus was married, even though the Bible never categorically states that He remained unmarried. The reason? Tradition. Christianity has maintained the tradition that Jesus was celibate and never married, even though the Bible at best implies it by never mentioning a wife or children.

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