Whoever is without love does not know God,
for God is love.
1 John 4:8
WHO IS GOD?
God the Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christianity. There is one God, always and forever, who consists of three distinct persons: God the Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christianity. There is one God, always and forever, who consists of three distinct persons:
- God the Father (a pure spirit and the almighty Creator).
- God the Son (who became man—Jesus Christ).
- God the Holy Spirit (the Counselor or Spirit of Truth, who dwells in every baptized person).
God created the entire universe, everything you can see and everything you cannot see. God knows everything and is everywhere all at once. He transcends time. He is perfect love and perfect goodness.
GOD’S RELATIONSHIP WITH US: WHY DID HE CREATE US?
Of all the living things God created, only man and woman are created in his likeness. As the Baltimore Catechism (an early American Catholic catechism) states: “God made me to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this world, and to be happy with him forever in the next.” We come to know God through prayer, Scripture reading, and reception of the sacraments. We love God through worship, obedience, and loving the people around us. We serve God by using the gifts he has given us to glorify him and bring others to him.
Walking with God in these ways will lead us to his kingdom and eternal salvation. This is God’s will for us. “Man . . . is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity” (CCC, 356).
SALVATION THROUGH JESUS CHRIST
The first humans, Adam and Eve, separated themselves from God by a devastating and disobedient action referred to as original sin (see Genesis 3). The results: humans have a nature inclined to sin and experience physical death. Yet God promised to send a redeemer. Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, came to open heaven to us. Through Jesus, all of humanity has the gift of salvation and can live forever with God in his kingdom.
In Jesus, God did the unthinkable: he humbled himself to become a man, born a helpless infant dependent on the care of other humans, so that he could save us from our sins. Out of love for each one of us, Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice. He took the weight of all of our sins on himself, dying a humiliating and excruciatingly painful death, and then rising victorious over all evil. He did it all so that you and I can live eternally with God.
Jesus is the path on this earthly pilgrimage to our true home, life forever in union with God. Jesus Christ is “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
GETTING RIGHT WITH GOD (JUSTIFICATION)
God is fair, generous, and loving, and he offers us eternal life through Jesus Christ. But we need to cooperate with God in the purification of our souls. By faith we accept Jesus Christ as our redeemer. The Holy Spirit then calls and equips us to follow God and serve him. Our obedience to God, our cooperation with his grace, is crucial to our salvation and that of the world.
We cannot merit being right with God. “This vocation to eternal life . . . depends entirely on God’s gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself” (CCC, 1998). Our good works are responses to God’s grace, not reasons for it. In chapter 10, “Living the Fullness of the Catholic Faith,” we’ll talk about how to receive and cooperate with God’s grace.
ABOUT GRACE
Grace is a gift from God, a tool that helps us on our faith journey. “Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life” (CCC, 1996; see John 1:12-18, 17:3; Romans 8:14-17; 2 Peter 1:3-4). This grace can be manifested in physical ways, or God might simply give us the strength to be humbler or more loving. In whatever way we receive his grace, we know it is from God because it increases the virtues of faith, hope, and love in us, brings peace, and encourages us to do his will.
It is exciting to see grace making us better people. Jesus Christ works in us, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We should always welcome God’s grace and thank him for it.
SUGGESTED READING
- Answering Atheism, How to Make the Case for God with Logic and Charity, Trent Horn.
- The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence that Points toward God, Lee Strobel.
- The Gift of Faith, Fr. Tadeusz Dajczer.
- Grace & Justification: An Evangelical’s Guide to Catholic Beliefs, Stephen Wood.
- Made for Love, Loved by God, Fr. Peter John Cameron, OP.
- New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy, Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, SJ.
This page is taken from the book, A Miracle Awaits: Encountering Christ In His Church by Carol Dintelman, which is available for purchase in print or digital formats here.
Or read the full book online! Click to visit the contents page, endorsements, copyright, acknowledgments, and notes.