Index : I
As we begin the Apostles’ Creed, I would like to explain the method we will follow in these teleconferences. Each article of the Creed is an ocean of revealed truth. Not just a single conference, nor even a volume could be written about every one of these articles. Literally a dozen libraries would not exhaust the revealed wisdom contained in the Apostles’ Creed. My plan, therefore, is to briefly explain each of these twelve professions of faith, and then share with you what I consider the single most important spiritual implications of each article of the Creed.
The second article of the Apostles’ Creed is the foundation of our Christian faith. It is at once a profession of our belief that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ and that the Incarnate God is the Lord, who is the Master of our eternal destiny. Who, then, is Jesus Christ? He is the second Person of the Holy Trinity, whom the Father sent into the world to save the human race from sin. Having lost the friendship of God by sin, mankind could not regain this life of grace any more than a man who is dead can bring himself to life again.
Faith in life everlasting is deeper than merely believing that our souls will continue to exist once they leave the bodies when we die. Life everlasting is nothing less than the unending share in God’s own life.
We do not ordinarily associate Christmas with the forgiveness of sins. But we should. God became man in the person of Jesus Christ in order to redeem the human race. So true is this that we merely speculate whether the Incarnation would ever have taken place if sin had not entered the human family. However, having sinned, we are absolutely sure this was the reason why God came into the world.
It may seem strange to begin with the statement that Christ founded the Church during His visible stay on earth. But over the centuries, this has been widely denied by many so-called Christians. They claim that Christ merely inspired a religious movement, or started a reformed movement of Judaism, or was a great leader whose ideals were later adapted and later became what we now call the Church.…But Jesus Christ did found not only a Church, but the Church, the same visible body of believers united under visible authority, which is the Catholic Church.
The third and last part of the Apostles’ Creed begins with our profession of faith in the Holy Spirit.…Now we express our belief in the Third Person of the Trinity, as the Spirit by whom Our Lady conceived her Divine Son, as the Spirit promised by Christ to those who profess that Jesus is their Lord and Redeemer, and the Spirit who animates the Church as the Soul of the Mystical Body of Christ.
As Christians, we not only believe that the human soul is immortal, but also that the human body is to rise immortal from the grave. However, our souls are spiritual by nature and are therefore naturally immortal. Our souls will never die.…In the short time at our disposal, we will ask and briefly answer a series of questions: How is the resurrection of the body reasonable? Will all human beings rise from the dead? Will each of us receive our own body? What are the qualities of the risen body? What are some implications for our spiritual life?
"It is just five hundred years since his birth in 1491 at the Castle of Loyola, Spain. During this half millennium, the Church has been under the most severe pressure since her foundation: to conform to the world to which her Founder said He did not belong. Ignatius set down the conditions for preserving the Church's freedom from conformity." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
The most popular book in the world, after the Bible, is The Imitation of Christ. Since it was published in the early fifteenth
century, it has deeply influenced the spirituality of millions of believing Christians. Its basic theme is that, since Jesus Christ is
true God and true man, by imitating Christ as man, we become more and more like Christ, who is God.
"Since the dawn of Christianity, the divinity of Christ has been the single most frequently and strongly challenged mystery of our faith. We say that the Church is going through the most serious crisis of the twenty centuries of her history. At the center of this crisis is the widespread doubt and denial that Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, is the Son of the Living God. There is nothing else in our Catholic faith that needs to be more clearly understood and firmly believed than Christ's divinity." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
Excerpts from The Imitation of Christ, written by Thomas A. Kempis.
Though not a dogma of the Church, there is a close relationship between devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of His Mother. Pope Pius XII said it was fitting that after our homage paid to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Christian people should manifest similar piety and love of their grateful hearts for the most loving heart of Mary, our heavenly Mother, through whom we have received the divine life from Christ.
My purpose will be to examine in some detail the influence of Catholic theological principles in our country, with some reference to the past but mostly with emphasis on the future. I shall try to answer, candidly and I hope with some profit, the question: What does Catholic theology offer to the upbuilding of the American mind?
"There are few great men in history who do not have both their ardent admirers and their virulent traducers. Christopher Columbus is no exception. But there is one main difference in the case of Columbus. We can identify his critics by their religious affiliation or ideology." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
"Since the Sovereign Pontiff published Humanae Vitae every news medium in the
country has carried statements by a variety of Catholic spokesmen supporting
or condemning the papal teaching. Among these statements the most weighty
was the one issued on July 30 in Washington, D.C., and signed by
“eighty-seven theologians,” protesting the papal declaration and seeking
widespread support throughout the country. What follows is an analysis of
this statement." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
In so much of our prayer, including the liturgy, as well as in scripture and the writings of the saints, the little
phrase "in Him" is seen repeatedly. We say or read it so often that it has become commonplace, and yet it is
a concept filled with opportunity for exploring our relationship with God. We cannot think about what it means to be in
Him without thinking about who this 'Him' is of whom we speak, and contemplate the many dimensions of the concept
of being in Him. We know it is Jesus of whom we speak, but who is this Jesus? Who is He for you, personally?
Having examined some of the ways in which we can contemplate what it means to be In Him, it is fitting to examine how we can
respond to Jesus being in us, to contemplate what is offered by Him, to understand that what He offers is possible, and desired by God,
for each of us, right here, right now. We must also consider what we must do in order for Him to come to us, to reside within us.
Without attempting to do justice to an immense subject, let me touch concisely on these issues, with a view to facilitating the resolution of what some consider the principal crisis of today’s missions: 1) How is the Incarnation a valid pattern for Christian missiology, with special reference to the need for adaptation? 2) What are the two historical extremes, mistakenly explaining the Incarnation, and how are they relevant to the matter of adaptation? 3) Authentic Christology as the only valid paradigm for apostolic acculturation.
Chosen-ness in Christ: Covenant of Divine Consummation, How Do We Respond, The Instrument of Divinization.
The Power of His Love, The Ultimate Gift, The Participation of the Holy Spirit, The Mystery of Life is Love, The Time for the
Fullness of the Revelation of Love.
"As the title of our conference indicates, we plan to cover two areas of an immense subject: first, to see something of what is Marxism, and then reflect on its influence in the United States." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
"I believe the breakdown of religious life in the Western world is a phenomenon unique in the history of Christianity.There have been, since the last half of this century, more departures from Catholicism, more closings of Catholic churches, more dioceses that have been secularized than ever before in the history of Christianity." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
"…the Real Presence is logically prior to the Eucharist as Sacrifice and Communion. The reason is obvious. Christ must first be really present on earth in the Eucharist, before we can intelligently speak of His offering Himself in the Mass and coming to us in Communion." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
An introduction to the Eucharist: Let us devote ourselves entirely to knowing God. The more we know Him, the more we want to know
Him. Since love is generally measured by knowledge, the deeper and more extensive the knowledge, the greater will be the love. And if our
love is great, we will love Him equally in pain and consolation.
There is nothing in Catholic Christianity that is either more distinctive or more important than the priesthood. When Christ ordained the Apostles on Holy Thursday night, He promised them that they would continue in their priestly work until the end of time. While the word "priest" is widely used, in the Catholic Church the priest is the one who carries on the work that God became man to establish.
To most Christians, Mohammedanism is only a vague religious movement that somehow gave rise to the Crusades and that presently affects the culture and political aspirations of certain people in North Africa, the Near East and Pakistan. Actually Mohammedanism is the most powerful force among the living religions outside of Christianity, and to many observers its greatest competitor for the spiritual domination of the world.
