What Does It Mean to Believe?
Posted by Pat Gohn in Faith on Friday, February 19, 2010 6:00 AM
Fans of the classic question-and-answer style of the Baltimore Catechism will appreciate The Compendium. In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI released The Compendium as a shorter, question-and-answer introduction of the universal Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC).
As we continue to study Part One of the Catechism, here’s a brief detour into one of the questions offered by The Compendium.
“Question 27” is both brilliant and deceptively simple: What does it mean in practice for a person to believe in God?
At first blush, to formulate my own answer, I’m tempted to list pious practices like praying and attending Mass, loving and serving one’s neighbor.
(Nice try, Patty, but it’s way deeper than that.)
Actually there’s no need for guesswork, The Compendium offers the answer in this powerful little sermon-ette:
What does it mean in practice for a person to believe in God?
It means to adhere to God himself, entrusting oneself to him and giving assent to all the truths which God has revealed because God is Truth. It means to believe in one God in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
A brief word study of this response will yield a better understanding of the concepts.
First, examine the verbs.
Believing means adhering to God himself. Duct tape adheres. Super Glue adheres. A weld adheres. Believing means we are stuck on or to God (and vice versa.) We stick, we stay, and we remain bonded together. Adhering is holding fast to God.
I once heard a preacher deliver a graphic portrayal of adherence: Jesus nailed to the cross. He preached that the love of Jesus was so great for us that, even if nails did not pin him to the cross, His love would have held him there.
To adhere also means to obey. Parenting presents suitable examples of this. Most parents have certain rules that make the home a happy place to abide. Children are invited to adhere to the rules for their own protection and happiness. Analogously, but more transcendently, belief in God should render obedience.
The second verb states that believing is entrusting oneself to God. We hand ourselves over to God. We commend ourselves to God. We assign responsibility to God, and to ourselves. This involves trust. A mutual and communal relationship is implied and reciprocated.
The third verb follows the second. Believing in God means giving assent. That means subscribing to, or agreeing with God’s revealed truths. The intellect and will concur.
Note well the little pronoun all before phrase the truths that God has revealed.
We’re talking radical commitment here. True belief is bigger than just believing there IS a God. It believes IN God. And everything that entails: like followin’, trustin’, and obeyin’.
The Catechism reminds in CCC 178:
[We] must believe in no one but God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
But then, if you are already adhered to God, entrusting yourself to Him, most likely you have got that concept down by now. Or at least, you are working on it.
The primary truth that God reveals is Himself. We know this to be the Blessed Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
All the nouns in the Compendium’s text above echo that central truth of our Faith: God, in the three Persons of the Trinity. Everything other truth flows from that.
If we use this one paragraph from the Compendium as a guide, holding fast to God and his truths probably has a lot to do with entrusting oneself to God in the first place. If we truly trust God, who is Truth, we can trust the truths he reveals.
No matter what “version” of the Catechism you prefer to read, be it the unabridged universal CCC, or the modified Q-and-A content of the Compendium, be sure to pay attention to the language of the text. It is highly intentional and instructional.
Taped to the wall of my office is a quote from the late Bishop Fulton Sheen:
“Most people don’t hate what the Catholic Church teaches, they hate what they think the Catholic Church teaches.” Sheen’s quote challenges and cajoles.
All of us can go deeper in our belief in God. And God gives us the grace to do it!
“I am not ashamed, for I know him in whom I have believed.” (2 Tim. 1:12).
Want to read more?
CCC 150:
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.
—Pat Gohn is a wife & mother celebrating 27 years of Catholic family life. Her Catholic writing, podcasting, and ministry life are found at PatGohn.com.
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