Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 454 – Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 454 – Part I. How strongly obligatory is the truth of the faith?

(Youcat answer) Every Christian must give testimony to the truth and thereby follow after Christ, who before Pilate said, “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (Jn 18:37).

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2473) Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity. He bears witness to the truth of the faith and of Christian doctrine. He endures death through an act of fortitude. "Let me become the food of the beasts, through whom it will be given me to reach God" (St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Rom. 4, 1: SCh 10, 110).

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) This can even mean that a Christian lays down his life out of fidelity to the truth and love for God and mankind. This ultimate form of commitment to the truth is called martyrdom.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2472) The duty of Christians to take part in the life of the Church impels them to act as witnesses of the Gospel and of the obligations that flow from it. This witness is a transmission of the faith in words and deeds. Witness is an act of justice that establishes the truth or makes it known (Cf. Mt 18:16). All Christians by the example of their lives and the witness of their word, wherever they live, have an obligation to manifest the new man which they have put on in Baptism and to reveal the power of the Holy Spirit by whom they were strengthened at Confirmation (AG 11).      

(This question: How strongly obligatory is the truth of the faith? is continued)