When I was preparing for First Communion we used a children’s program based on the Baltimore Catechism. This was in 1959-1960. “Who made you?” was one of the first lessons. The answer was, “God made me.” Followed by, “Why did God make you?” “God made me to love, honor and serve Him in this life so as to be with Him forever in the next.”
Simple. Easy to remember. Sufficient for a young mind to be able to learn some basics of the Catholic faith.
My wife is a convert to the Catholic faith. She was catechized prior to the mandate of the use of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, R.C.I.A., in the United States. She and another man were taught by the pastor of our parish in the rectory. The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism was the book used for instruction.
It still used the same simple question and answer format but with additional information to explain the lesson. The pastor, Fr. Daniel Sheehan, also provided an adult level explanation of the faith.
Some people have mocked the Baltimore Catechism for the way it taught the faith. Too simplistic. Actually, the version used by my wife has quite a bit of useful information. It is not of the level one would use for a graduate catechesis program but it isn’t too bad.
However, compared to what was used in our daughters’ faith formation classes it was far superior.
Our daughters, in their elementary faith formation classes, were simply told “Jesus loves you”, and rather than actually being taught doctrines of the Church, which the Baltimore Catechism did, although in a simplified questions/answer format, they drew pictures or made collages about Jesus.
While I think the message that Jesus loves you is important I think it is also important to learn how we should respond to that love.
I have written at other times that God loves us unconditionally. Even if we are in the state of mortal sin, God still loves us. Our duty is to accept that love and return it by doing God’s will. His will is always what is best for us.
That doesn’t mean it is always easy or fun. We need to keep in mind that we are His children. As imperfect as humans are, good parents always try to guide their children to do what is best for them. God is perfect so His will is also perfect.
While He knows what is best for us, He does not force His will on us. He gives us the freedom to accept His will or to reject it.
I think there is a fuller explanation of the reason God made us.
Before God created man He created angels. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness.” [CCC 330]
Then Genesis tells us,
Genesis 1:26-27
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
So we are told angels surpass “in perfection all visible creatures”, which includes us, yet we are created in God’s image and likeness. Hmmm.
There isn’t a contradiction here or a competition. The angels are pure spirit and so is God. The angels exist in heaven and while they were not created in heaven, they enjoy the beatific vision which we do not. At least not yet. But we are created in God’s image and likeness, male and female He created us.
Now, God has no gender so male and female do not apply to Him.
In no way is God in man’s image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective “perfections” of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband. [CCC 370]
So not only did God make us in His image and likeness, He made us co-creators with Him.
To human beings God even gives the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of “subduing” the earth and having dominion over it. God thus enables men to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbors. Though often unconscious collaborators with God’s will, they can also enter deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers, and their sufferings. They then fully become “God’s fellow workers” and co-workers for his kingdom. [CCC 307]
God is the origin of all life. And while angels are immortal they are not capable of creating life. Humans, along with other creatures, do create new life. Male and female He created us and as male and female we participate in the creation of life. And the life we create is blessed by God who creates an immortal soul, “immediately”. 1
God wants us to be with Him in heaven. He didn’t just create us to be with Him, He desires every one of us to be with Him. He doesn’t force us. He gives us free will and wants us to choose to be with Him. He desires us to be there and gives us every opportunity in life to make that happen.
He desires that so much He became like us in all ways but sin. He suffered and died for us.
God made me to love, honor and serve Him in this life because He desires for me to be with Him forever in the next.
I need to cooperate with Him so I can fulfill His desire.
Thank you Abba Father.
1 The word “immediately” as used here is not a reference to time. Rather, it is stating there is no intermediary:
The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God—it is not “produced” by the parents—and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection. [CCC 366]
The Catholic Church has never defined when ensoulment occurs. However, it does say:
Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life. [CCC 2270]
October 20, 2024
© 2024 Greg Gillen
Image Credit/The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man (1617)/Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625)/ Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague/Public Domain/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jan_Brueghel_de_Oude_en_Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_Het_aards_paradijs_met_de_zondeval_van_Adam_en_Eva.jpg
Scripture/Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition/Ignatius Press
