YOUCAT – Questions and Answers

Question # 1 – For what purpose are we here on earth?

We are here on earth in order to know and to love God, to do good according to His
will, and to go someday to heaven.

To be human being means to come from God and to go to God. Our origin goes back farther
than our parents. We come from God, in whom all the happiness of heaven and earth is at home,
and we are expected in his everlasting, infinite blessedness. Meanwhile, we live on this earth.
Sometimes we feel that our Creator is near; often we feel nothing at all. So that we might find
the way home, God sent us his Son, who freed us from sin, delivers us from all evil, and leads us
unerringly into true life. He is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).

According to the Ignatian Spiritual exercise, “Man was created to praise, reverence, and serve
God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul; and the other things on the face of the earth
were created for man’s sake, and in order to aid man in the pursuit of the end for which he
himself was created.”
“We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God
and are called according to his purpose for them” (Rom 8:28). “I came that they may have
life and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). We, Catholics, believe that the purpose of life is to
have life and have it more abundantly. For this reason, we constantly try to love God with
all our heart, mind and soul and our neighbor as ourselves.1 It is through understanding that
Jesus, the Son of God, who lived on earth as a human, worked with human hands, thought
with a human mind, acted by human choice, love with a human heart and died for the
forgiveness of our sins that we can being to comprehend our reason for being.2
God who created man out of love also calls him to love – the fundamental and innate vocation
of every human being. For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself
love (cf Gen. 1:27; Jn 4:8, 16). Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love
becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man (CCC 1604).

Reflection Question: How do I appreciate the life that has been given to me by our Creator?

Question # 2 – Why did God create us?

God created us out of free and unselfish love.

When a man loves, his heart overflows. He would like to share his joy with others. He gets this
from his Creator. Although God is a mystery, we can still think about him in a human way and
say: Out of the “surplus” of his love he created us. He wanted to share his endless joy with us,
who are creatures of his love.

1 https://brisbanecatholic.org.au/life/teachings-of-the-catholic-church
2 Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes 23, 24.
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he
created them.” (Gen. 1:27) Man occupies a unique place in creation: (I) he is “in the image
of God”; (II) in his own nature he unites the spiritual and material worlds; (III) he is
created “male and female”; (IV) God established him in his friendship (CCC 355). “Of all
visible creatures only man is ‘able to know and love his creator” (GS 12). He alone is called
to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life. It was for this end that he was created,
and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity (CCC 356).
God created everything for man (GS 12), but man in turn was created to serve and love God
and to offer all creation back to him: “What is it that is about to be created, that enjoys such
honor? It is man – that great and wonderful living creature, more precious in the eyes of God
than all other creatures! For him the heavens and the earth, the sea and all the rest of creation
exist. God attached so much importance to his salvation that he did not spare his own Son
for the sake of man. Nor does he ever cease to work, trying every possible means, until he
has raised man up to himself and made him sit at his right hand”3 (CCC 358).

Reflection Question: How do I feel or experience the love of God in my day-to-day activities?
How is my friendship with God?

Question # 3 – Why do we seek God?

God has placed in our hearts a longing to seek and find him. St. Augustine says, “You
have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” We call this
longing for God – Religion.

It is natural for man to seek God. All of our striving for truth and happiness is ultimately a search
for the one who supports us absolutely, satisfies us absolutely, and employs us absolutely in his
service. A person is not completely himself until he has found God. “Anyone who seeks truth
seeks God, whether or not he realizes it” (St. Edith Stein).

Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it
is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. As personal adherence to God and
assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and
just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile
and false to place such faith in a creature (CCC 150).
Faith seeks understanding.4 It is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the
One whom he has put his faith, and to understand better what He has revealed; a more
penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love.
The grace of faith opens “the eyes of your hearts” (Eph 1:18) to a lively understanding of
the contents of Revelation; that is, of the totality of God’s plan and the mysteries of faith, of
their connection with each other and with Christ, the center of the revealed mystery. “The
same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and

3 St. John Chrysostom, In Gen. Sermo II, 1.

4 St. Anselm, Prosl. prooem, PL 153, 225A.
more profoundly understood.”5 In the words of St. Augustine, “I believe, in order to
understand; and I understand, the better to believe”6 (CCC 158).

Reflection Question: When was the last time that I truly prayed? How was the experience?

Question # 4 – Can we know the existence of God by our reason?

Yes. Human reason can know God with certainty.

The world cannot have its origin and its destination within itself. In everything that exists, there
is more than we see. The order, the beauty, and the development of the world point beyond
themselves toward God. Every man is receptive to what is true, good and beautiful. He hears
within himself the voice of conscience, which urges him to what is good and warns him against
what is evil. Anyone who follows this path reasonably finds God.

According to Peter Kreeft who wrote Catholic Christianity, “Faith can never contradict
reason, when reason is properly used, though faith goes beyond reason. As a result of
divine revelation, the Catholic faith tells us many things human reason could never have
discovered by itself. But faith and reason are both roads to truth, and truth never contradicts
truth.”7
God is infinitely greater than all his works: “You have set your glory above the heavens” (Ps
8:2). Indeed, God’s greatness is unsearchable (Ps 145:3). But because he is the free and
sovereign Creator, the first cause of that exists, God is present to his creatures’ inmost being:
“In him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) In the words of St. Augustine,
God is “higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self”8 (CCC 300).
The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in
God the Creator. God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes: “For
God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13) Far from
diminishing the creature’s dignity, this truth enhances it. Drawn from nothingness by God’s
power, wisdom and goodness, it can do nothing if it is cut off from its origin, for “without a
Creator the creature vanishes.”9 Still less can a creature attain its ultimate end without the
help of God’s grace (Mt 19:26) (CCC 308).

Reflection Question: How sensitive I am to the voice of my conscience? What are the bases of my
decisions with regard to choosing what is right and what is wrong?

5 Dei Verbum, 5.
6 St. Augustine, Sermo 43,7,9.
7 Kreeft, Peter J., Catholic Christianity, p. 26.
8 St. Augustine, Confessiones 3,6,11.
9 Gaudium et Spes, 36 par. 3.
Question # 5 – Why do people deny that God exists, if they can know him by reason?

To know the invisible God is a great challenge for the human mind. Many are scared
off by it. Another reason why some do not want to know God is because they would
then have to change their life. Anyone who says that the question about God is
meaningless because it cannot be answer is making things too easy for himself.

God is the ultimate reality. However, there are fundamental errors about ultimate reality.
First, one may be an agnostic and claim to know or believe nothing about God. Second, one
may be an atheist and believe in no God at all. To be an atheist you must be an elitist and
believe that there was nothing but a fantasy and an illusion at the very center of the lives of
many. Third, one may be a polytheist and believe in many gods, like most ancient pagans.
Fourth, one may be a pantheist and believe that God is everything and everything is God or
a part of God or an aspect of God. Fifth, one may be a deist. Deism is another error that is the
opposite of pantheism. Deism denies God’s immanence (presence), while pantheism denies
God’s transcendence.

Reflection Question: Do I know someone who is an atheist? Or someone who has a different view
about religion and faith? How will I be able to understand their belief and somehow encourage
them to believe in God?

Question # 6 – Can we grasp God at all in concepts? Is it possible to speak about him
meaningfully?

Although we men are limited and the infinite greatness of God never fits into finite
human concepts, we can nevertheless speak rightly about God.

In order to express something about God, we use imperfect images and limited notions. And so
everything we say about God is subject to the reservation that our language is not equal to God’s
greatness. Therefore, we must constantly purify and improve our speech about God.

God is infinite. Therefore, he cannot be defined. But this does not mean he has no nature. He
is not a “whatever”, an “everything in general and nothing in particular.” He is one thing and
not another; righteous, not wicked or indifferent; wise, not foolish; merciful, not cruel. But
each of his attributes is infinite (unlimited). He is infinitely righteous, infinitely wise,
infinitely merciful, and so on. He is infinite but not indefinite. He is infinitely himself.
We can get to know this character by: (a) better by faith than by reason; better by trusting
his own revelation of himself than by trusting our own cleverness; (b) better still by
prayer, by real personal contact with him, both private and public, both spontaneous
and liturgical; (c) and best of all by loving him, doing his will and obeying his
commandments, especially that of loving each other; “for he who does not love his
brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn 4:20).
We can know something about God’s nature, or character, from ourselves, from our deepest
desires. God is our ultimate joy. God is the one whose presence will give us infinite and
unimaginable ecstasy without boredom forever. A sea of infinite beauty, a light of infinite
understanding, a heart of infinite love. And more, always more, infinitely more, “what no eye
has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived” (1 Cor 2:9).10
(Tell the story of St. Augustine with regard to the boy in the beach trying to fit the sea waters
into his pale.)

Reflection Question: Despite my limitations, how can I be able to proclaim the Word of the Lord?

Question # 7 – Why did God have to show himself in order for us to be able to know what
he is like?

Man can know by reason that God exists, but not what God is really like. Yet because
God would very much like to be known, he has revealed himself.

God did not have to reveal himself to us. But he did it – out of love. Just as in human love one
can know something about the beloved person only if he opens his heart to us, so too we know
something about God’s inmost thoughts only because the eternal and mysterious God has
opened himself to us out of love. From creation on, through the patriarchs and the prophets
down to the definitive – Revelation in his Son Jesus Christ, God has spoken again and again to
mankind. In him he has poured out his heart to us and made his inmost being visible for us.

Man’s faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal
God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal
himself to man, and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith.
The proofs of God’s existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to see that
faith is not opposed to reason (CCC 35).
By natural reason man can know God with certainty, on the basis of his works. But there is
another order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own powers: the
order of Revelation. Through an utterly free decision, God has revealed himself and given
himself to man. This he does by revealing the mystery, his plan of loving goodness, formed
from all eternity in Christ, for the benefit of all men. God has fully revealed this plan by
sending us his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit (CCC 50).
It pleases God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery
of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word
made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature (CCC 51).
God’s very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time,
God has revealed his innermost secret (cf. 1 Cor 2:7-16; Eph 3:9-12): God himself is an
eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that
exchange (CCC 221).

Reflection Question: If God revealed himself to us through creation, how would I be able to value
our nature? In my own simple ways, how can I become a steward of God’s gifts?

10 Kreeft, Peter J., Catholic Christianity, p. 36.

Question # 8 – How does God reveal himself in the Old Testament?

God shows himself in the – Old Testament as God, who created the world out of love
and remains faithful to men even when they have fallen away from him into sin.

God makes it possible to experience him in history: With Noah he establishes a covenant to save
all living things. He calls Abraham so as to make him “the father of a multitude of nations” (Gen
17:5b) and to bless “all the families of the earth” in him (Gen 12:3b). The people Israel, sprung
from Abraham, becomes his special possession. To Moses he introduces himself by name. His
mysterious name – YHWH, usually transcribed Yahweh, means “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex 3:14). He
frees Israel from slavery in Egypt, establishes a covenant with them in Sinai, and through Moses
gives them the Law. Again and again, God sends prophets to his people to call them to
conversion and to the renewal of the covenant. The prophets proclaim that God will establish a
new and everlasting covenant, which will bring about a radical renewal and definitive
redemption. This covenant will be open to all human beings.

In the Old Testament, God revealed himself through biblical signs made up of both deeds and
words. He made covenants with Noah, with Abraham, and with Moses. He performed
great works for His chosen people, and proclaimed their saving power and truth through
the prophet’s words (cf. CCC 56-64). Through chosen men and women – kings, judges,
prophets, priest and wisemen, God led, liberated and corrected His people. He forgave
their sins. He thus revealed himself as Yahweh, He-who-is-with His people. He is “the Lord,
a merciful, and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity (Ex 34:6). Today,
through His inspired word in the Old Testament, God still reveals Himself to us, and inspires
us to respond to His covenant (CFC 69).

Reflection Question: God remained faithful to his people in the Old Testament despite their
weaknesses and sins. Knowing this fact, how can I be able to describe my faithfulness to God as
my response to His faithfulness to me?

Question # 9 – What does God show us about himself when he sends his Son to us?

God shows us in Jesus Christ the full depth of his merciful love.

Through Jesus Christ the invisible God become visible. He becomes a man like us. This shows us
how far God’s love goes: He bears our whole burden. He walks every path with us. He is there in
our abandonment, our sufferings, our fear of death. He is there when we can go no farther, so
as to open up for us the door leading into life.

God sent his only Son to be our Savior, like us in all things except sin (cf. Jn 3:16; Gal 4:4; Heb
4:15; CCC 65). Jesus Christ “completed and perfected God’s revelation by words and works,
signs and miracles, but above all by his death and glorious resurrection from the dead.”11
Thus, the Risen Christ prefigured in the Old Testament and proclaimed by the apostles, is the
unique, irrevocable and definitive revelation of God (CFC 70).

11 Dei Verbum, 4.
God’s very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time,
God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange (CCC 221).

Reflection Question: How do I show the spirit of love for my classmates? For my teachers? For
my family?

Question # 10 – With Jesus Christ, has everything been said, or does revelation continue
even after him?

In Jesus Christ, God himself came to earth. He is God’s last Word. By listening to him,
all men of all times can know who God is and what is necessary for their salvation.

With the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the – Revelation of God is perfect and complete. To make it
comprehensible to us, the Holy Spirit leads us ever deeper into the truth. God’s light breaks so
forcefully into the lives of many individuals that they “see the heavens opened” (Acts 7:56). That
is how the great places of pilgrimage such as Guadalupe in Mexico or Lourdes in France came
about. The “private revelations” of visionaries cannot improve on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. No
one is obliged to believe in them. But they can help us understand the Gospel better. Their
authenticity is tested by the – Church.

The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass
away; and now new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of
our Lord Jesus Christ.12 Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made
completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over
the course of the centuries (CCC 66).
Throughout the ages, there have been so-called “private” revelations, some of which have
been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit
of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help
live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church,
the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever
constitutes an authentic call of Christ or hi saints to the Church. Christian faith cannot accept
“revelations” that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment,
as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base
themselves on such “revelations.” (CCC 67).

Reflection Question: What do I know about the apparition in Guadalupe or Lourdes? How does
it increase my faith to Jesus Christ?

Question # 11 – Why do we hand on the faith?

We hand on the faith because Jesus commands us: “Go therefore and make disciples of
all nations” (Mt 28:19).

12 Dei Verbum, 4.
No genuine Christian leaves the transmission of the faith exclusively to specialists (teachers,
pastors, missionaries). We are Christ for others. This means that every genuine Christian would
like God to come to other people, too. He says to himself, “The Lord needs me! I have been
baptized and confirmed and am responsible for helping the people around me to learn about
God and ‘to come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1 Tim 2:4b).” Mother Teresa used a good
comparison: “Often you can see power lines running alongside the street. Unless current is
flowing through them, there is no light. The power line is you and I! The current is God! We have
the power to allow the current to flow through us and thus to generate the light of the world:
Jesus – or to refuse to be used and, thus, allow the darkness to spread.”

God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim 2:4) that
is, of Christ Jesus (cf. Jn 14:6). Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so
that revelation may reach to the ends of the earth (CCC 74).
Christ the Lord, in whom the entire Revelation of the most high God is summed up,
commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel, which had been promised beforehand by the
prophets, and which he fulfilled in his own person and promulgated with his own lips. In
preaching the Gospel, they were to communicate the gifts of God to all men. This Gospel was
to be the source of all saving truth and more discipline.13 (CCC 75)
What the Church teaches, and summarizes in her creed was not invented by the Church. It
was handed down to her from Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. That is why it is called Sacred
Tradition – “sacred” because it came from God, and “tradition” because it was handed down.
Sacred Tradition is part of “the deposit of faith”, which also includes Sacred Scripture. It is
comprised of the Church’s data, given to her by the Lord. The Church has always been, is, and
must always be faithful to her deposit of faith. It is the sum of her data; she is not the author
or editor but only its mail carrier. It is God’s mail. It is sacred. She does not have the authority
to change or delete any part of it, no matter how unpopular it may become to any particular
human society or individual.14

Reflection Question: How can I spread our faith? How can I become a channel of God’s love?

Question # 12 – How can we tell what belongs to the true faith?

We find the true faith in Sacred Scripture and in the living Tradition of the Church.

The New Testament developed out of the faith of the Church. Scripture and Tradition belong
together. Handing on the faith does not occur primarily through documents. In the early Church
was said that Sacred Scripture was “written on the heart of the Church rather than on
parchment.” The disciples and the Apostles experienced their new life above all through a living
fellowship with Jesus. The early Church invited people into this fellowship, which continued in
a different way after the Resurrection. The first Christians held fast “to the apostles’ teaching
and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers” (Acts 2:42). They were united
with one another and yet had room for others. This is part of our faith to this day: Christian

13 Dei Verbum, 7.
14 Kreeft, Peter J., Catholic Christianity, p. 18.
invite other individuals to come to know a fellowship with God that has been preserved
unaltered since the times of the apostles in the Catholic Church.

Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture are bound closely together, and communicate one
with the other. For, both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come
together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal.15 Each of them
makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with
his own “always, to the close of the age.”16 (CCC 80).
The Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, “does
not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both
Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion
and reverence.”17 (CCC 82)

Question # 13 – Can the Church err in questions of faith?

The faithful as a whole cannot err in faith, because Jesus promised his disciples that
he would send them the Spirit of truth and keep them in the truth.

Just as the disciples believed Jesus with their whole heart, a Christian can rely completely on the
Church when he asks about the way to life. Since Jesus Christ himself gave his apostles the
commission to teach, the Church has a teaching authority (the Magisterium) and must not
remain silent. Although individual members of the Church can err and even make serious
mistakes, the Church as a whole can never fall away from God’s truth. The Church carries
through the ages a living truth that is greater than herself. We speak about a depositum fidei,
a deposit of faith that is to be preserved. If such a truth is publicly disputed or distorted, the
Church is called upon to clarify again “what has always and everywhere been believed by all”
(St. Vincent of Lerins, d. 450).

“The Church’s Magisterium” (teaching authority) exercises the authority it holds from Christ
to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas (CCC 88). (Note: The Church defines dogmas; she
does not invent them).
These dogmas, or fundamental doctrines, are also called “mysteries” of the faith. “There are
natural mysteries (e.g. time, life, love), just as there are supernatural mysteries (e.g. Trinity,
Incarnation, Transubstantiation). Natural mysteries are like the sun, which enables us to see
during the day, while the supernatural mysteries of faith are like the stars, which enables us
to see at night. They are called “mysteries” because we could not have discovered them by
our own reasoning (nor can fully understand them), but God revealed them to us on a “need
to know” basis, since they concern our ultimate destiny, our eternal salvation, and the way
to it.
Because these dogmas are so necessary for us to know, God did not leave us only fallible and
uncertain teachers. Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the living Magisterium of the

15 Dei Verbum, 9.
16 Matthew 28:20
17 Dei Verbum, 9.
Church, when it defines dogma, are all infallible (preserved from error), certain (for God can
neither deceive nor be deceived), and authoritative (binding in conscience).18
The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established
by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium’s task to preserve God’s people from
deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the
true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it
that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed
the Church’s shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. (CCC
890) The exercise of this charism takes several forms:
The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his
office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful – who confirms his brethren in
the faith – he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals... The
infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with
Peter’s successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium, above all in an Ecumenical
Council.19 When the Church through its supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine “for belief
as being divinely revealed,20 and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions “must be adhered
to with the obedience of faith.”21 This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine
Revelation itself (CCC 891).

Question # 14 – Is Sacred Scripture true?

“The book of Scripture firmly, faithfully and without error teach [the] truth... Written
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author” (Second
Vatican Council, DV 11).

The Bible did not fall from heaven in its final form, nor did God dictate it to human scribes who
copied it down mechanically. Rather “God chose certain men who... made full use of their own
faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that
they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more (Second Vatican Council,
DV 11). One factor in recognizing particular texts as Sacred Scripture was their general
acceptance in the Church. In the Christian communities there had to be a consensus: “Yes,
through this text God himself speaks to us – this is inspired by the Holy Spirit!” which of the
many original Christian writings are really inspired by the Holy Spirit has been defined since
the fourth century in the so-called Canon of Sacred Scriptures.

The Sacred Scripture, collected in the Bible, are the inspired record of how God dealt with
His people, and how they responded to, remembered, and interpreted that experience. The
Scriptures arose, then, as the expression of the people’s experience of God, and as a response
to their needs (CFC 81).
As Sacred Scripture grew from Tradition, so it is interpreted by Tradition – the life, worship,
and teaching of the Church. Tradition depends on Scripture as its normative record of

18 Kreeft, Peter J., Catholic Christianity, p. 21.

19 Lumen Gentium, 25.
20 Dei Verbum, 10, par. 2.
21 Lumen Gentium, 25, par 2.
Christian origins and identity, while Scripture requires the living Tradition of the Church to
bring its Scriptural message to the fresh challenges and changing contexts confronting
Christians in every age (CFC 84).
The Sacred Scriptures are said to be “inspired” in a special sense – not just as some artist or
author may be “inspired” to paint or compose. Rather, biblical inspiration means that the
sacred and canonical books of the Old and New Testament, whole and entire, were written
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so that we can call God their “author” and the Bible
“the Word of God” (cf. DV 11; CCC 105-106). God chose certain human authors, who as true
authors made full sense of their human powers and faculties, yet were so guided by the Holy
Spirit who so enlightened their minds and moved their wills, that they put down in writing
what God wanted written (CFC 85).
Since all of Scripture was written, compiled and edited under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, “we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture, firmly, faithfully, and without
error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the
Sacred Scriptures” (DV 11; cf. CCC 107). In recognizing the Bible as normative, the Church
confesses that when properly used, Scripture imparts saving truth that can be relied upon to
bring us into deeper communion with God (CFC 89).

Question # 15 – How can Sacred Scripture be “truth” if not everything in it is right?

The Bible is not meant to convey precise historical information or scientific findings
to us. Moreover, the authors were children of their time. Their forms of expression are
influenced by the sometimes inadequate cultural images of the world around them.
Nevertheless, everything that man must know about God and the way of his salvation
is found with infallible certainty in Sacred Scripture.

The inspired books teach the truth (cf. CCC 107). The Christian faith is not a “religion of the
book.” Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, a word which is “not a written and
mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living.” If the Scriptures are not to remain a
dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, “open
our minds to understand the Scriptures.” (CCC 108)
In order to discover the sacred authors’ intention, the reader must take into account the
conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of
feeling, speaking and narrating then current. “For the fact is that truth is differently
presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and
poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression.” (CCC 110)

Question # 16 – What is the right way to read the Bible?

The right way to read Sacred Scripture is to read it prayerfully, in other words, with
the help of the Holy Spirit, under whose influence it came into being. It is God’s Word
and contains God’s essential communication to us.

The Bible is like a long letter written by God to each one of us. For this reason, I should accept
the Sacred Scriptures with great love and reverence. First of all, it is important really to read
God’s letter, in other words, not to pick out details while paying no attention to the whole
message. Then I must interpret the whole message with a view to its heart and mystery: Jesus
Christ, of whom the whole Bible speaks, even the Old Testament. Therefore, I should read the
Sacred Scriptures in the faith that gave rise to them, the same living faith of the Church.

St. Paul tells us that “all Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching – for reproof,
correction, and training in holiness so that the man of God may be fully competent and
equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17).
The Second Vatican Council indicates three criteria for interpreting Scripture in accordance
with the Spirit who inspired it:
1. Be especially attentive “to the content and unity of the whole Scripture.” Different as the
book which comprise it may be, Scripture is a unity by the reason of the unity of God’s
plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since His Passover.
2. Read the Scripture within “the living Tradition of the whole Church.” According to a
saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church’s heart
rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the
living memorial of God’s Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual
interpretation of the Scripture.
3. Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By “analogy of faith” we mean the coherence of the
truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation. (CCC 112-
114)

Question # 17 – What significance does the Old Testament have for Christians?

In the Old Testament, God reveals himself as the Creator and preserver of the world
and as the leader and instructor of mankind. The Old Testament books are also God’s
Word and Sacred Scripture. Without the Old Testament, we cannot understand Jesus.

In the Old Testament a great history of learning the faith begins, which takes a decisive turn in
the New Testament and arrives at its destination with the end of the world and Christ’s second
coming. The Old Testament is far more than a mere prelude for the New. The commandments
and prophecies for the people of the Old Covenant and the promises that are contained in it for
all men were never revoked. In the books of the Old Covenant we find an irreplaceable treasure
of prayers and wisdom; in particular, the Psalms are part of the Church’s daily prayer.