“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.“
John 14:6 NIV
The Way
After a person has made a decision to follow Christ and become His disciple, how then should we aim to live our lives? Without direction, this can be an overwhelming prospect. The Bible is a large collection of books. Christian doctrine has been developing for over 2,000 years. This can all seem a bit daunting.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church outlines a catechesis which reveals “in all clarity the joy and demands of the way of Christ”. (CCC 1697)
What is catechesis?
“…the name catechesis was given to the totality of the Church’s efforts to make disciples, to help men believe that Jesus is the Son of God so that believing they might have life in his name, and to educate and instruct them in this life, thus building up the body of Christ.” – CCC 4
“Catechesis is an education in the faith of children, young people, and adults which includes especially the teaching of Christian doctrine imparted, generally speaking, in an organic and systematic way, with a view to initiating the hearers into the fullness of Christian life.” – CCC 5
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”
Matthew 7:13 NIV
Newness of life
CCC paragraph 1697 outlines catechesis “for the “newness of life” in him”:
- a catechesis of the Holy Spirit, the interior Master of life according to Christ, a gentle guest and friend who inspires, guides, corrects, and strengthens this life;
- a catechesis of grace, for it is by grace that we are saved and again it is by grace that our works can bear fruit for eternal life;
- a catechesis of the beatitudes, for the way of Christ is summed up in the beatitudes, the only path that leads to the eternal beatitude for which the human heart longs;
- a catechesis of sin and forgiveness, for unless man acknowledges that he is a sinner he cannot know the truth about himself, which is a condition for acting justly; and without the offer of forgiveness he would not be able to bear this truth;
- a catechesis of the human virtues which causes one to grasp the beauty and attraction of right dispositions towards goodness;
- a catechesis of the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity, generously inspired by the example of the saints;
- a catechesis of the twofold commandment of charity set forth in the Decalogue;
- an ecclesial catechesis, for it is through the manifold exchanges of “spiritual goods” in the “communion of saints” that Christian life can grow, develop, and be communicated.
Why is this important?
It is my belief that without an education in the faith in a systematic way, believers cannot fully embrace the life that God intends for them. It’s also important to understand the Christian life is not just about head knowledge. It is about experiencing the Way of Christ through the presence of the Holy Spirit. All believers, however, should know about the abundant life they are called to live.
Do all believers need to be educated this way?
Scripture tells us in Acts 2, shortly after the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised would come, Peter stood up with the other apostles and preached with such conviction that many came to believe.
Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
Acts 2:41 NIV
One of the very next things those new believers did was to devote themselves to the apostles teaching.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Acts 2:41 NIV
My goal
My aim with this section, aside from bringing glory to God which is my number 1 motivator, is to edify anyone who reads this to be more educated in the Way of Christ, so that they can indeed walk in the abundant life that God intended them to. Using a wide variety of resources, I will aim to cover each catechesis outlined above.