the implications of faith. Look out for this feature in the Catechism — for example, you will find it at the end of the presentation on the Trinity (260), on that of God’s almightiness (274), of God as creator (313), and so on.
Spend time prayerfully with today’s text, pondering how believing “in God, the only One, and loving him with all our being has enormous consequences for our whole life” (222).
Day 37
CCC 232-237
“In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”
The title of today’s reading — the formula we recite when we make the Sign of the Cross — reminds us that the deepest mystery of the Christian faith is also the most common profession of faith that we make, and also that this most common profession of faith is the most profound entry into prayer that we have.
In the Sign of the Cross, all that is most profound in the Christian faith is translated into the simplest of all actions. This action is made over us at the very beginning of the Christian life, at Baptism (232), and so marks our entire life. It is thereafter the entry point into every encounter God wishes to have with us in his sacraments.
Through the wording of the formula, we express the profound truth that God is both One and Three, for we speak of three Persons with a single Name (233). This truth is the central mystery of our faith and of the Christian life (234), and we show its centrality for our lives by making the Sign over the body. Our actions, as well as our prayers and beliefs, are placed under the governing protection of the Blessed Trinity. It is he, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, whom we ask to direct our ways.
The movement of the hand as it traces the Sign of the Cross over the body reveals to us not only the innermost mystery of the Blessed Trinity (the theologia) but also the economy (the oikonomia) of the Three-in-One (236). “Economy” is the term given to the loving plan of God (235-236). The descending hand evokes the sending of the Son from the Father, and then the tracing of the Sign of the Cross is completed — the costly work of our redemption — with the movement of the hand to the shoulders also expressing the sending of the Holy Spirit to strengthen and seal the work of Christ.
Day 38
CCC 238-248
The Revelation of God as Trinity
The final paragraph in yesterday’s reading explained the term “mystery of faith” (237), and this understanding underpins all that we discover today. When the Church uses the term “mystery,” she does not mean to signify a puzzle that is unclear. “Mystery” signifies, rather, the truth that God and his ways are utterly beyond us, are “hidden.” Mysteries “can never be known unless they are revealed by God” (237). The Blessed Trinity is the greatest of all mysteries.
The term mystery proclaims both the transcendent nature of God — that he is beyond us — and God’s personal nature. God’s mystery can be revealed, but only in a free relationship with us, a relationship of trust and faith into which we must choose to enter.
Today’s paragraphs are concerned with that gracious revelation of himself. They explain that the divine Persons do not reveal themselves, but rather each reveals the other. A beautiful “giving way” characterizes God’s revelation. The Son introduces us to the Father (238-241), while the Holy Spirit reveals the Son and his relationship with the Father (243-248). The Holy Spirit is sent to guide us into the whole truth about God, completing the revelation of the life of God (243).
Only One who is God can reveal God to us. We can trust Jesus’ revelation of the Father because Jesus is God (242); and we can trust the revelation given by the Holy Spirit because the Spirit is God (245).
The detailed account of this revelation in the Catechism may surprise us, but it is vital for us to appreciate, because the Son invites us to share in his relationship to the Father — we are to be adopted as children in the Son. Jesus wants to introduce us to “my Father and your Father” (Jn 20:17). Jesus has come to show us the face of the Father, to show us what his relationship is with the Father, so that we may enter into this same relationship (Jn 14:1-14).
Day 39
CCC 249-256
The Holy Trinity in the Teaching of the Faith
That which is most precious is what we love with the most passion and seek to guard the most closely. The faith of the Church in the Blessed Trinity underpins the whole of the Christian life. Nothing is more important.
This sense of having been entrusted with a priceless jewel is beautifully expressed in the quotation from Saint Gregory of Nazianzus cited in CCC 256. Saint Gregory “lives and fights” for this belief. It is his beloved “companion” whose dear company enables him to “bear all evils and despise all pleasures.” This apt quotation explains why so many councils of the Church appear in the footnotes to today’s passage. The bishops, gathered together, wanted to deepen their own understanding of this mystery and to defend it against error (250).
The question was, in part, how to do justice in language to the greatest of all mysteries which God had so graciously revealed. A renewed language was needed, and from this new language of the faith, as Christianity spread, a renewed culture took shape which expressed the central truths of the Holy Trinity. The terms “person,” “substance,” and “relation” took on new meanings as they were used in service of God’s revelation (251).
In today’s reading, the meaning of each of these central terms is, first of all, helpfully explained (252), and then a paragraph unpacking each of the terms is presented (253-255):
• Substance designates the Oneness of God and that each of the Persons is truly God.
• Person (Greek: hypostasis) designates the fact that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit really are distinct in God. It is not just that there are three human “ways” of looking at God.
• Relation explains that the distinctions between the Persons lie solely in their relation each to the other.
Day 40
CCC 257-260
The Divine Works and the Trinitarian Missions
We have seen that the Creeds are typically structured according to the divine economy, the divine plan. This plan is normally presented as having three main parts — creation, redemption, and sanctification (235). These three great works are then, in turn, associated with one of the divine Persons in particular. Thus the work of creation flows from the Father, redemption from the Son, and sanctification from the Holy Spirit. Such a presentation records the order in which the Persons were revealed (238-248).
Today’s reading reminds us that because there is only One God, the whole divine plan is in fact the common work of the three divine Persons (258). Creation, redemption, and sanctification all flow from the Father and are unfolded in the “missions” of the Son and the Holy Spirit, with each Person contributing to this loving plan of God according to what is “proper” to each (258-259).
What is this “common work” to which each Person contributes in a perfect union of love? The answer is given in a wonderful statement at the heart of today’s reading: “the whole Christian life is a communion with each of the divine persons, without in any way separating them” (259). The vision with which we are presented is that of a daily walk with each of the Persons, coming to know, to love, and to trust them more and more deeply. The whole Christian life, then, consists in the overflowing grace of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each of whom is working to make in us their dwelling place on earth so that they might finally dwell in us as in heaven, forever (260).
Day 41
CCC 268-274