Article 3. Social Justice

In Brief (cont’d)

Christ on the Cross | Diego Velazquez, 1632

(1946) The differences among persons belong to God’s plan, who wills that we should need one another. These differences should encourage charity.

(1947) The equal dignity of human persons requires the effort to reduce excessive social and economic inequalities. It gives urgency to the elimination of sinful inequalities.

(1948) Solidarity is an eminently Christian virtue. It practices the sharing of spiritual goods even more than material ones.

Chapter Three. God’s Salvation: Law and Grace

(1949) 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:

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Creation of Adam by Michelangelo | Source: The Integrated Catholic Life

Article 2. Our Vocation to Beatitude

In Brief (cont’d)

(1729) The beatitude of heaven sets the standards for discernment in the use of earthly goods in keeping with the law of God.

Article 3. Man’s Freedom

(1730) God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. “God willed that man should be ‘left in the hand of his own counsel,’ so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him.”

Man is rational and therefore like God; he is created with free will and is master over his acts.

I. Freedom and Responsibility

(1731) Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.

Pope John Paul II giving blessing | Credit: Getty Images

Article 1. Sacramentals

Various forms of sacramentals (cont’d)

(1673) When the Church asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the power of the Evil One and withdrawn from his dominion, it is called exorcism. Jesus performed exorcisms and from him the Church has received the power and office of exorcizing. In a simple form, exorcism is performed at the celebration of Baptism. The solemn exorcism, called “a major exorcism,” can be performed only by a priest and with the permission of the bishop. The priest must proceed with prudence, strictly observing the rules established by the Church. Exorcism is directed at the expulsion of demons or to the liberation from demonic possession through the spiritual authority which Jesus entrusted to his Church. Illness, especially psychological illness, is a very different matter; treating this is the concern of medical science. Therefore, before an exorcism is performed, it is important to ascertain that one is dealing with the presence of the Evil One, and not an illness.

Popular piety

(1674) Besides sacramental liturgy and sacramentals, catechesis must take into account the forms of piety and popular devotions among the faithful. The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in various forms of piety surrounding the Church’s sacramental life, such as the veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the stations of the cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals, etc.

In the Chapel of St. Raphael at St. John Vianney College Seminary, there is mural on the wall directly behind the sanctuary that illustrates the missionary activity of the Catholic Church. The mural quotes Sacred Scripture by stating: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” In the midst of the contemporary piece of art completed by Gabriel Loire, those who enter the chapel are reminded of their baptismal call of bringing the salvific message of Jesus Christ to the entire world.

Over the last several months of seminary formation, the mural in the seminary’s chapel has been speaking to me more and more each day. As many of you have read in my blog posts over the last couple of years, the discernment of the priesthood of Jesus Christ is not easy.

The Church asks a lot of someone who is in the discernment process of becoming a priest. We are asked to take a look at the deepest recesses of our hearts and examine who we are at our inner most cores. That journey can be very painful at times because all of us begin to open wounds and hurts that we have experienced throughout our lives. When we recall those events, we are asked to bring them to spiritual direction to find healing. Over the past couple of years, as I have taken this inward journey, I have begun to discover who I am and what the Lord is asking me to do with my life.