Catholicism

1. The Incarnation: God Became Man to Divinize Humanity

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (Jn 1:14): that is the Catholic thing.

God's enfleshment. Catholicism's distinctive principle is the Incarnation—God, the Word by whom the universe came to be, entered the ordinary, compromised human condition. This reveals that God is not a competitor with his creation but rather the sheer act of being itself, grounding and sustaining all existence. The Incarnation enhances and elevates humanity, rather than diminishing it.

Destined for divinization. The Incarnation teaches us that we are destined for theiosis, transformation into God. God became human so that our flesh might partake of the divine life, participating in the love that holds the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in communion. This makes Christianity the greatest humanism, offering a destiny far more extravagant than any other philosophy or program.

Prolongation through the Church. The Catholic mind embraces the full implications of the Incarnation, seeing its prolongation throughout space and time through the mystery of the Church. This includes God's continued enfleshment in the sacraments, liturgy, theology, governance of popes and bishops, and the lives and works of saints, poets, and artists. Catholicism is a matter of the body and senses as much as mind and soul, precisely because the Word became flesh.

2. Jesus's Unique Identity: The God-Man Who Fulfills Prophecy

What is ruled out—and C. S. Lewis saw this with particular clarity—is the bland middle position taken by many theologians and religious seekers today, namely that Jesus wasn’t divine but was indeed an inspiring ethical teacher, a great religious philosopher.

Unprecedented authority. Jesus of Nazareth, a Nazarene carpenter with no formal religious education, spoke and acted with an authority greater than Moses, forgiving sins and mastering nature. Unlike other religious founders who pointed away from themselves, Jesus drew attention to his own identity, compelling a choice: either he was who he claimed to be, or he was a madman.

Fulfilling ancient hopes. The first followers of Jesus were startled to see him accomplish four great tasks expected of Yahweh:

• Gathering the scattered tribes of Israel: Through open table fellowship and healing, he created a new social space, restoring people to communion.
• Cleansing the Temple of Jerusalem: He redefined the Temple, declaring himself the true Temple where God and Israel meet, a claim ratified by his resurrection and symbolized by blood and water flowing from his side.
• Dealing with the enemies of the nation: He fought not with worldly power but by allowing the world's darkness to envelop him on the cross, drowning all sins in divine mercy.
• Reigning as Lord of heaven and earth: His bodily resurrection from the dead validated his messianic claim, establishing him as Lord, a message Paul proclaimed subversively against Caesar's claim to Lordship.

The undeniable resurrection. The emergence of Christianity as a messianic movement is practically impossible to explain apart from Jesus's actual resurrection. This shocking novelty, not vague symbolism, propelled the first disciples to the ends of the earth, proclaiming Jesus as the risen Lord to whom final allegiance is due.

3. The Path to Happiness: Jesus's Radical Teachings on Love and Detachment

The law that the new Moses offers is a pattern of life that promises, quite simply, to make us happy.

Freedom through discipline. Jesus's teachings, especially the Sermon on the Mount, offer a new law designed to make us happy, not restrict us. True freedom is not mere choice but the shaping of desire to effortlessly achieve the good, much like a master musician or athlete achieves mastery through disciplined practice. Joy is the consequence of this rightly ordered desire.

The Beatitudes: Detachment for joy. The Beatitudes reveal that happiness comes from detachment from worldly idols (wealth, pleasure, power, honor) and attachment to God:

• Positive: Merciful (receive mercy), clean of heart (see God), hunger for righteousness (be satisfied), peacemakers (children of God).
• Negative (detachment): Poor in spirit (not attached to material things), mourn (not addicted to good feelings), meek (not attached to worldly power), persecuted (not attached to honor).
  The crucified Christ perfectly exemplifies these, despising worldly attachments while loving the Father's will, becoming the icon of beatitude and liberty.

Non-violence and radical love. Jesus's teaching on non-violence ("turn the other cheek") offers a third way beyond fight or flight, preventing counter-violence and mirroring injustice back to the aggressor. This radical love (agape), actively willing the good of the other as other, transcends mere reciprocity, aspiring to love as God loves, even enemies. The parable of the Prodigal Son illustrates God's superabundant, non-calculating love, inviting us into a loop of grace where giving away what is given leads to celebration.

4. The Ineffable God: Being Itself, Both Transcendent and Immanent

"I am who am" (Ex 3:14).

Beyond human concepts. God's name, "I am who am," signifies that He is not one being among many, but "to be itself" (ipsum esse), the sheer act of existence. He cannot be defined or delimited by human concepts, remaining essentially mysterious. This prevents idolatry, which reduces God to a creaturely object we can control.

Indirect knowledge through creation. While God's "face" cannot be seen directly, His "back" is glimpsed indirectly through His creatures and effects. Thomas Aquinas's argument from contingency observes that the fleeting nature of all created things points to a "necessary" reality—God—who exists simply through His own essence. Joseph Ratzinger adds that the universe's inherent intelligibility points to a great Intelligence who thought it into being, showing deep compatibility between faith and science.

Radical transcendence and immanence. God is both radically transcendent (beyond all worldly objects and categories) and radically immanent (working His way into every aspect of finite existence). He is "closer to me than I am to myself and higher than anything I could possibly imagine." This unique way of being means we cannot grasp at Him or hide from Him, but must surrender to Him in love.

The problem of evil and the Cross. The existence of evil is the most serious challenge to belief in a loving God. Evil is a privation of good, not something God creates. God permits evil to bring about a greater good, a principle seen in the book of Job, where suffering is contextualized within God's infinitely subtle providence across all space and time. For Christians, the ultimate "resolution" to evil is God himself on the cross of Jesus Christ, where divine love transfigures even death into hope.

5. Mary: The Mother of God and Prototype of the Church

To say that Mary is the Mother of God is to insist on the density of the claim that God truly became human, one of us, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.

Eve's reversal, grace's reception. Mary's "fiat" at the Annunciation—"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word"—reverses Eve's grasping disobedience. Mary, "full of grace," profoundly disposed to receive gifts, becomes the new Eve, mother of all reborn by receptivity to God's life. Her freedom, surrendered to God, becomes the matrix for all church mission.

Fulfillment of Israel. Mary is the summation of Israel, recapitulating its great figures and hopes. She is the daughter of Abraham, the true Ark of the Covenant, the new Temple, and the seat of Wisdom. At Cana, her request for wine symbolizes Israel's prophetic longing for God's grace, and her instruction "Do whatever he asks" sums up Israel's teachers and prophets.

Theotokos and Assumption. The Council of Ephesus (431 AD) declared Mary Theotokos (Mother of God), affirming Jesus's full divinity by stating Mary is mother of Jesus, who is divine. This glorifies Mary not as a goddess, but as the one privileged to bring God into the world. The dogma of the Assumption (Mary taken body and soul into heaven) signifies her full salvation and becomes a sign of hope for our own bodily resurrection, entering a "higher dimensional system" called heaven.

Ongoing mission and impact. As Mother of the Church, Mary continues to draw people to her Son, often through quiet intercession, but sometimes through striking apparitions like Lourdes and Guadalupe. Our Lady of Guadalupe, appearing as a mestiza, brought a new birth to Mexico, ending human sacrifice by proclaiming the God-man who conquered violence through non-violent love. Her impact led to the conversion of nine million Mexicans in ten years.

6. The Church: Christ's Mystical Body, One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic

About Jesus Christ and the church, I know only this: they’re simply one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.

A sacrament of Jesus. The Church is not merely a human organization but a sacrament of Jesus, sharing in his very being and life. As Paul's metaphor suggests, it is Christ's mystical body, an organism where when one member suffers, Christ suffers. This is why acts of charity to the "least brothers" are done for Christ himself.

Called out from the world. The Church is ekklesia—"called out from" the "world" (the network of institutions and practices fostering division, sin, and the "lust to dominate"). It is a place of safety, like Noah's Ark, preserving God's good order during chaos. However, this distinctiveness is not for isolation but for transformation, as the Church is meant to "flood out into the world and remake it," as exemplified by John Paul II's impact in Poland.

One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic. The Church is:

• One: Because its founder, Jesus, is one, and God is one. Unity is fostered by creeds, liturgy, sacraments, charity, and shared structure, allowing for diversity within harmonious tension.
• Holy: Because Christ is holy, and the Church is His spotless bride, despite its sinful members. As Augustine argued against the Donatists, Christ's grace works even through unworthy instruments.
• Catholic: Meaning "according to the whole," possessing all gifts Christ wants for His people (Scripture, sacraments, tradition, etc.) and having a universal dynamism to evangelize all peoples. It assimilates "rays of light" or "seeds of the Word" from other cultures and religions.
• Apostolic: Grounded in the twelve apostles who knew Jesus intimately, their faith passed on through apostolic succession. This ensures the preservation of the original faith, with the Pope, Peter's successor, exercising an infallible "umpiring" role in matters of faith and morals, not to stifle but to enhance the Church's life.

7. The Liturgy: The Source and Summit of Christian Life, Where God Becomes Present

The most useless activity of all is the celebration of the Liturgy, which is another way of saying that it is the most important thing we could possibly do.

Supreme act of praise. The Liturgy is the most important activity because it is "useless" in the Aristotelian sense—done entirely for its own sake, resting in God and honoring Him. It is a consummate form of play, rightly ordering the personality by surrendering everything to God, bookending Scripture from Adam's priesthood to the heavenly Liturgy of Revelation.

Encounter with Christ. The Mass is an intense encounter with Jesus Christ, mirroring human interaction: conversing and eating.

• Liturgy of the Word: We gather, sing, make the Sign of the Cross (belonging to the Trinity), confess sins (awareness of imperfection), and sing the Gloria (giving God glory for peace). We then sit to listen to God's Word (faith comes from hearing) and hear the homily (preacher speaks Christ's mind), professing our faith in the Creed and praying for one another.
• Liturgy of the Eucharist: We offer bread and wine (representing all creation) to God, which, through the Eucharistic Prayer and the priest acting in persona Christi, are transformed.

The Real Presence. The faith of the Church is that by the power of Jesus's words ("This is my body," "This is the cup of my blood"), the bread and wine are "really, truly, and substantially" transformed into Christ's Body and Blood. This "transubstantiation" means the deepest reality changes, even if appearances remain. As John 6 reveals, Jesus intensified his teaching on eating his flesh and drinking his blood, leading to mass defection, but Peter's confession affirmed this truth.

Communion and mission. After receiving Christ in communion, the faithful are blessed and sent forth. The dismissal, "Go forth, the Mass is ended," signifies that the people, now formed and nourished by Christ, are scattered like seed into the world to transform it. "No one comes to Christ and goes back the same way he came!"

8. The Saints: Transfigured Lives Reflecting God's Diverse Holiness

Saints are those who have allowed Jesus thoroughly to transfigure them from within.

Cooperating with grace. Saints are individuals who have allowed Jesus to "get into their boats," meaning they cooperate with divine grace, which enhances and elevates their humanity rather than destroying it. They become fully human, as God intended, reflecting His perfection like prisms refracting white light into diverse colors. The Church needs this variety to represent God's infinite goodness.

Four exemplary women:

• Katharine Drexel (Transfigured Justice): Born into immense wealth, she dedicated her entire fortune to founding schools and missions for Native Americans and African Americans. Her giving went beyond mere justice, becoming a superabundant gift of love, a "going out into the deep" that yielded miraculous results.
• Thérèse of Lisieux (Transfigured Prudence): This cloistered Carmelite nun cultivated "the little way"—a path of spiritual childhood and doing simple, ordinary things out of great love. Her holiness was a transfigured prudence, knowing the precise demand of love in every moment, culminating in her vocation to be "love in the heart of the Church."
• Edith Stein (Evangelical Courage): A brilliant Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism, she found "the truth" in Teresa of Avila's autobiography. As a Carmelite nun, she deepened her scholarship and faced the Nazis with serene courage, calmly going to Auschwitz, embodying a willingness to give her life out of love for Christ and her people.
• Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Transfigured Temperance): Called to serve "the poorest of the poor," she founded the Missionaries of Charity, embracing radical poverty and self-denial. Her life was a transfigured temperance, disciplining desires far beyond justice to serve infinite love, even enduring a profound "darkness" of God's absence, which allowed her to share more fully in the suffering of those she served.

Holiness in action. These saints demonstrate that holiness is not abstract but concrete, lived out in unique ways, each revealing a particular dimension of God's goodness. Their lives are invitations to apprentice to them, learning how to allow Christ to live in us and transform us from within.

9. Prayer: The Mystical Union of Human and Divine Longing

The mystical coming together of these two longings—our longing for God and God’s longing for us—is prayer.

Raising mind and heart to God. Prayer is a universal human activity, a raising of one's mind and heart to God, born from the awareness that the transcendent impinges on our world. It is a meeting of our longing for God with God's even more passionate longing for us, a practice best "caught" by apprenticing to masters.

Contemplative masters:

• Thomas Merton: A modern spiritual teacher who, after a chaotic secular life, discovered God's "aseity" (existence through His own essence) through philosophy. His conversion led him to the Trappist monastery, where he became a master of contemplative prayer, finding the "still point" or "virginal point" where God sustains one's being. This deep contemplation led him to advocate for nonviolence and experience a profound sense of universal love.
• John of the Cross: This 16th-century Carmelite mystic taught that human souls have "great caverns" (intellect, will, feeling) that are infinitely deep, restless until filled by God. His "dark night of the senses" and "dark night of the soul" describe the painful but necessary purging of attachments to finite goods and even religious concepts, preparing the soul for blissful union with God, a "living flame of love."
• Teresa of Avila: John's contemporary, Teresa discovered Christ dwelling within her soul like an "interior castle"—a place of safety and power where the soul rests confidently in Christ. Her mystical experiences, though extraordinary, pointed to the "prayer of the center," where detachment leads to the realization that "God alone suffices."

Petitionary prayer. While contemplation is a deep union, petitionary prayer (asking God for things) is also fundamental. It's not to change God, but to change us. Like a good parent, God delights in hearing our requests, and through initial refusal, He expands our hearts to receive what He truly wants to give. As Augustine noted, God works a "spiritual alchemy" in us by making us wait, and as Aquinas suggested, God can pray through us, aligning our desires with His.

10. The Last Things: Justice, Freedom, and Purification Beyond This Life

Hell, we learn, is a place created not by God but by errant human freedom.

Fascination and objection. The doctrines of hell, purgatory, and heaven are both fascinating and objectionable, often critiqued as wishful thinking or divine cruelty. Yet, they appeal to our innate sense of justice, addressing the imbalance of good and evil in this life.

Hell: The consequence of refusal. Dante's Inferno portrays hell not as arbitrary divine cruelty but as the logical consequence of freely refusing God's love. Satan, at the bottom, is pathetic, frozen, and self-absorbed, exemplifying sin as being "caved in on oneself." C.S. Lewis suggests hell's "fire" is God's love burning those who resist it, and its door is "locked from the inside." The Church affirms hell as a possibility (due to human freedom and divine love) but does not declare anyone definitively "in" it, holding out hope for all salvation.

Purgatory: A school of souls. Purgatory is a state of purification for those who die in God's grace but are "imperfectly purified." It's not punishment but a necessary "school of souls" (Origen), where the effects of venial sins are corrected and healed. Like the penitential pilgrimage to Lough Derg, it's a willing submission to a "painful training in the way of love" to achieve the holiness necessary for heaven. Though the word "purgatory" isn't in Scripture, its concept is rooted in biblical passages like 2 Maccabees, which speaks of prayers for the dead.

Heaven: Transfigured existence. Heaven is the beatific vision, perfect happiness, and union with God. It's not an escape from the world but a "higher dimensional system" where our entire selves (body and soul) are transfigured. The Assumption of Mary is a sign of this bodily resurrection. Angels and devils represent an invisible spiritual order, part of God's vast creation, mediating between Creator and material creation. Heaven is the state where "everything that is not love has been burned away," a final, joyful communion with God.

Last updated: August 18, 2025