– Lesson Two – Man’s Desire for God

“The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God....”

― Catechism #27

Q. 127. How do you know that man was created for God alone?A. I know that man was created for God alone because everything in the world was created for something more perfect than

itself: but there is nothing in the world more perfect than man; therefore, he was created for something outside this world, and since he was not created for the Angels, he must have been created for God.

-Baltimore Catechism

Who are we and what are we doing here? At some point in everyone’s life, these questions about our purpose and our life’s meaning arise. They are sometimes

provoked by crisis, illness, or death, although often they simply come about in the course of everyday life. When we examine our minds and hearts we find our

limitations, but we also find our desire for the infinite - the desire to reach for the stars. This stems from our desire for God.

The atheist tells us that this is a useless passion - there are no stars to reach for, and that we only think they are there because we want them so badly. The

agnostic warns us that we have no way of knowing if the stars we are reaching for are real or even exist. The secular culture doesn’t understand why we would work so hard to reach something so challenging to achieve - and urges us to

instead be happy with what the world can offer us. Who can we look to when we are confronted by these many different schools of belief, or when we are discouraged in our journey and need direction? We look to the Church.

The Church encourages us in Faith, and in Hope, but also in Reason. She asks us to notice how our reason drives us toward God. God has planted signs of Himself in nature and in our conscience. What we look for we will find. The First Vatican

Council assures us that “The Church teaches that God can be known with certainty by reason, from created things.” But the Church also insists that we

know God by Divine Revelation. Nature tells us there is a God. Divine Revelation tells us there is a God that loves us. Reason pushes us to seek God. Revelation reminds us of God’s drive to meet us. Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition

(imparted and explained in the Catechism) intertwine and intermingle to give us the full Deposit of Faith - the full story of

Divine Revelation.

“Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together and communicate one with the other.” (CCC 80) Imagine the confusion if the Founding Fathers had not had the foresight to establish a Government to interpret and enforce the laws of our Constitution. Surely we must know that the Creator of the Universe had the same foresight - and gave us His own

Church with Authority to interpret and enforce His law, thereby ensuring the protection of Divine Revelation.

Q. 6. Why did God make you?A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him

for ever in heaven.Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared

for those who love him. (I Corinthians 2:9) –Baltimore Catechism

Video Worksheet

Helpful Vocabulary

● Revelation - God’s self-disclosure of His inner life and His plan for our salvation to us, His creatures. This plan is found in Scripture and Tradition.

● Dogma - Truths contained in Divine Revelation, or that propose in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with truths contained in Divine Revelation.

Video Notes● The Catechism teaches that the desire for God is written on the human heart.

● “When people cease to believe in God, they don’t believe in nothing, they believe in anything.” –G. K. Chesterson

● Our very existence is an invitation to life with God.

● Just as we develop a relationship with others through time spent and conversation, so do we develop our relationship with God the same way.

● Try and read “Five Truths for God’s Existence” by Thomas Aquinas

● We acquire our sense of justice from our conscience - and our conscience comes from God.

● Everything in this world that exists bears the mark of the Creator in some way.

● The fullness of God’s Revelation is through His Son Jesus Christ.

● There will be no new public revelation until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

● The Church does, however, accept and approve verifiable Private Revelations.

● Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.

● The Apostles preached the Gospel message for years before they ever wrote anything down.

● The Church preceded the Scriptures.

● Preaching preceded the writing down of the message.

● Hierarchy of Truths - Example: Christological Dogmas > Dogmas about the Blessed Mother - dogmas about Mary flow from dogmas about Christ.

● Sustained by the Spirit; guided by the Magisterium

● The Church continues to grow in her ability to present Divine Revelation to the faithful.

● Paragraph 95 - Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium are like a three legged stool - one can not stand without the others.

YOUR NOTES________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For Next Week

For Next Week’s Lesson, “Sacred Scripture”, please read the following paragraphs in the Catechism and the correlating Scripture that is listed next to them:

● 103● 105-108● 113 (Luke 24:25-35)● 120-127● 130-132 (1 Cor 10:1-11)

● 134-141 ‘In Brief’ Summary

Please also reflect on the following questions:

1.) Who is the primary author of Sacred Scripture? (CCC 105) Who are the secondary authors? (CCC 106) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2.) How do you think that God inspired the writers of Sacred Scripture? Through a dream, a vision, or some other way? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3.) What are the three Spiritual Senses of Scripture? (CCC 117) ________________________________________________________

4.) How many books are in the Old Testament? In the New Testament? ( CCC120) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5.) Why are the Gospels the heart of all Scripture? (CCC 125) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6.) What are the three stages in the formation of the Gospels? (CCC 126) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7.) Is there one Gospel that you prefer reading over the others? Why? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8.) Why do we see variances in the details of the Gospels? (CCC 126 #3) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9.) What does it mean to take something “out of context?” How can this apply to misinterpreting Scripture, and how do you think we can avoid doing this as we read Scripture? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10.) “The Old Testament ____________________ for the New and the New Testament _______________________ the Old.” (CCC 140)

The Catechism/Scripture ConnectionCatechism Paragraph # Corresponding Scripture

CCC #102 Hebrews 1:1-3;PS 104; Jn 1:1

CCC #104 1 Thess 2:13

CCC #105 Jn 20:31; 2Tim 3:16;2Pet 1:19-21; 3:15-16

CCC #108 Luke 24:45

CCC #112 Luke 24:25-27, 44-46; PS 21; PS 11PS 22:15

CCC #114 Rom 12:6

CCC #117 1Cor 10:2; 1Cor 10:11; Heb 3-4:11;Rev 21:1-22:5

CCC #124 Rom 1:16

CCC #126 Acts 1:1-2

CCC #128 1Cor 10:6, 11; Heb 10:1; 1Pet 3:21

CCC #129 Mk 12:29-31; 1 Cor 5:6-8, 10:1-11

CCC #130 1Cor 15:28

The Church Preceded the Scriptures

But I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me. –St. Augustine (CCC 119)

IV. THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE 120 It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books.90 This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.91 The Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi. The New Testament: the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Acts of the Apostles, the Letters of St. Paul to the Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, the Letter to the Hebrews, the Letters of James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John, and Jude, and Revelation (the Apocalypse).From Sacred Scripture I Timothy 3:15 “But if I should be delayed, you should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.” (The Church is the pillar and foundation of truth, not the Holy Bible.)

Mark 16:15 “He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” (Jesus commands the apostles to preach the Gospel to every creature. But Jesus did not want this preaching to stop after the apostles died, and yet the Bible was not compiled in its books until four centuries later. The word of God was transferred orally.)

Mark 3:14 “He appointed twelve [whom he also named apostles] that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach…” (Jesus commands the apostles to preach (not write) the gospel to the world. Jesus gives no commandment to the apostles to write, and gives them no indication that the oral apostolic word he commanded them to communicate would later die in the fourth century. If Jesus wanted Christianity to be limited to a book (which would be finalized four centuries later), wouldn't He have said a word about it?)

Luke 10:16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” (He who hears you (not, ‘you who reads your writings’), hears me. The oral word passes from Jesus to the apostles to their successors by the gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit. This succession has been preserved in the Catholic Church.)

II Timothy 1:13 “Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”