YOUTCAT contents for At-Home Lesson#8

YOUCAT# 343, 344, 347 and p.190 margin [1]

YOUCAT#343 How does the Church help us to lead a good, responsible life?

In the Church we are baptized. In the Church we receive the faith that the Church has preserved intact down through the centuries. In the Church we hear the living Word of God and learn how we must live if we want to please God. Through the SACRAMENTS that Jesus entrusted to his disciples, the Church builds us up, strengthens, and consoles us. In the Church there is the blazing fire of the saints, by which our hearts are kindled. In the Church the Holy

EUCHARIST is celebrated, in which Christ’s sacrifice and strength are renewed for us in such a way that, united with him, we become his Body and live by his strength. Despite all her human weaknesses, apart from the Church no one can be a Christian. [2030-2031, 2047]

YOUCAT#344 Why does the Church also make declarations about ethical questions and about matters of personal conduct?

Believing is a path. One learns how to stay on this path, in other words, how to act rightly and to lead a good life, only by following the instructions in the Gospel. The teaching authority (MAGISTERIUM) of the Church must remind people also about the demands of the natural moral law. [2032-2040, 2049-2051]

There are not two truths. What is humanly right cannot be wrong from the Christian perspective. And what is right according to Christianity cannot be humanly wrong. That is why the Church must teach comprehensively about moral issues.

YOUCAT#347 Why is “not practicing what you preach” such a serious deficiency in a Christian?

Agreement between one’s life and one’s witness is the first requirement for proclaiming the Gospel. Not practicing what you profess is therefore HYPOCRISY, a betrayal of the Christian duty to be “salt of the earth” and “light of the world”. [2044-2046]

Paul was the one who reminded the Church in Corinth: “You show that you are a letter from Christ . . . written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Cor 3:3). Christians themselves, not the things they say, are Christ’s “letters of recommendation” (2 Cor 3:2) to the world. It is all the more devastating, therefore, when there are even PRIESTS and religious who abuse children. They not only commit unspeakable crimes against their victims. They deprive many people of hope in God and extinguish the light of faith in quite a few souls.

p.190 margin

Do you want to come to believe but do not know the way? Learn from those who were tormented by doubts before you. Imitate their way of acting, do everything that the faith requires, as though you were already a believer. Attend Mass, use holy water, and so on. That will no doubt make you simple and lead you to faith.

BLAISE PASCAL

(1588-1651)

References / Citations

[1] Miller, Michael J, and Benedict. Youcat English: Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church. San Francisco, Calif: Ignatius Press, 2011, pp.190~191.

[2] Catechism of the Catholic Church. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994.  https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM

[3] BibleGateway (online bible). https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/Good-News-Translation-GNT-Bible/