Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 280 - Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 280 - Part I. What reasons do Christians give for human dignity?

(Youcat answer) Every person, from the first moment of his life in the womb, has an inviolable dignity, because from all eternity God willed, loved, created, and redeemed that person and destined him for eternal happiness.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1700) The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God (article 1); it is fulfilled in his vocation to divine beatitude (article 2). It is essential to a human being freely to direct himself to this fulfillment (article 3). By his deliberate actions (article 4), the human person does, or does not, conform to the good promised by God and attested by moral conscience (article 5). Human beings make their own contribution to their interior growth; they make their whole sentient and spiritual lives into means of this growth (article 6). With the help of grace they grow in virtue (article 7), avoid sin, and if they sin they entrust themselves as did the prodigal son (Lk 15:11-32) to the mercy of our Father in heaven (article 8). In this way they attain to the perfection of charity. 

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) If human dignity were based solely on the successes and accomplishments of individuals, then those who are weak, sick, or helpless would have no dignity. Christians believe that human dignity is, in the first place, the result of God’s respect for us. He looks at every person and loves him as though he were the only creature in the world. Because God has looked upon even the least significant child of Adam, that person possesses an infinite worth, which must not be destroyed by men.

 (CCC Comment)

(CCC 1699) Life in the Holy Spirit fulfills the vocation of man (chapter one). This life is made up of divine charity and human solidarity (chapter two). It is graciously offered as salvation (chapter three). (CCC 1710) "Christ… makes man fully manifest to man himself and brings to light his exalted vocation" (GS 22 § 1).

(This question: What reasons do Christians give for human dignity? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 279 - Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 279 - Part II. Why do we need faith and the sacraments in order to live a good, upright life?

(Youcat answer - repeated) If we were to rely only on ourselves and our own strength, we would not get far in our attempts to be good. Through faith we discover that we are God’s children and that God makes us strong. When God gives us his strength, we call this “grace”. Especially in the sacred signs that we call the Sacraments, God gives us the ability actually to do the good that we want to do.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1694) Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, Christians are "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" and so participate in the life of the Risen Lord (Rom 6:11 and cf. 6:5; cf. Col 2:12). Following Christ and united with him (Cf. Jn 15:5), Christians can strive to be "imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love"  (Eph 5:1-2) by conforming their thoughts, words and actions to the "mind… which is yours in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:5), and by following his example (Cf. Jn 13:12-16). 

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Since God saw our misery, he “delivered us from the dominion of darkness” (Col 1:13) through his Son, Jesus Christ. He granted us the opportunity to make a new start in fellowship with him and to walk the path of love.

(CCC Comment) (CCC 1695) "Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God" (2 Cor 6:11), "sanctified … (and) called to be saints" (1 Cor 1:2), Christians have become the temple of the Holy Spirit (Cf. 1 Cor 6:19). This "Spirit of the Son" teaches them to pray to the Father (Cf. Gal 4:6) and, having become their life, prompts them to act so as to bear "the fruit of the Spirit" (Gal 5:22, 25) by charity in action. Healing the wounds of sin, the Holy Spirit renews us interiorly through a spiritual transformation (Cf. Eph 4:23). He enlightens and strengthens us to live as "children of light" through "all that is good and right and true" (Eph 5:8, 9).

(The next question is: What reasons do Christians give for human dignity?) 

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 279 - Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 279 - Part I. Why do we need faith and the sacraments in order to live a good, upright life?

(Youcat answer) If we were to rely only on ourselves and our own strength, we would not get far in our attempts to be good. Through faith we discover that we are God’s children and that God makes us strong. When God gives us his strength, we call this “grace”. Especially in the sacred signs that we call the Sacraments, God gives us the ability actually to do the good that we want to do.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1693) Christ Jesus always did what was pleasing to the Father (Cf. Jn 8:29),  and always lived in perfect communion with him. Likewise Christ's disciples are invited to live in the sight of the Father "who sees in secret" (Mt 6:6) in order to become "perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48). (CCC 1691) "Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God's own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God"  (St. Leo the Great, Sermo 21 in nat. Dom., 3: PL 54, 192C). 

 Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Since God saw our misery, he “delivered us from the dominion of darkness” (Col 1:13) through his Son, Jesus Christ. He granted us the opportunity to make a new start in fellowship with him and to walk the path of love.

(CCC Comment) (CCC 1692) The Symbol of the faith confesses the greatness of God's gifts to man in his work of creation, and even more in redemption and sanctification. What faith confesses, the sacraments communicate: by the sacraments of rebirth, Christians have become "children of God" (Jn 1:12; 1 Jn 3:1). "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4). Coming to see in the faith their new dignity, Christians are called to lead henceforth a life "worthy of the gospel of Christ" (Phil 1:27). They are made capable of doing so by the grace of Christ and the gifts of his Spirit, which they receive through the sacraments and through prayer.

(This question: Why do we need faith and the sacraments in order to live a good, upright life? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 278 - Part II

YOUCAT Question n. 278 - Part II. What is the purpose of a Christian funeral?

(Youcat answer - repeated) A Christian funeral is a service performed by the Christian community for the benefit of its dead. It expresses the sorrow of the survivors, yet it always has a Paschal character. Ultimately, we die in Christ so as to celebrate with him the feast of the Resurrection.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1689) The Eucharistic Sacrifice. When the celebration takes place in church the Eucharist is the heart of the Paschal reality of Christian death (Cf. OCF 1). In the Eucharist, the Church expresses her efficacious communion with the departed: offering to the Father in the Holy Spirit the sacrifice of the death and resurrection of Christ, she asks to purify his child of his sins and their consequences, and to admit him to the Paschal fullness of the table of the Kingdom (Cf. OCF 57). It is by the Eucharist thus celebrated that the community of the faithful, especially the family of the deceased, learn to live in communion with the one who "has fallen asleep in the Lord," by communicating in the Body of Christ of which he is a living member and, then, by praying for him and with him.

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1690) A farewell to the deceased is his final "commendation to God" by the Church. It is "the last farewell by which the Christian community greets one of its members before his body is brought to its tomb" (OCF 10). The Byzantine tradition expresses this by the kiss of farewell to the deceased: By this final greeting "we sing for his departure from this life and separation from us, but also because there is a communion and a reunion. For even dead, we are not at all separated from one another, because we all run the same course and we will find one another again in the same place. We shall never be separated, for we live for Christ, and now we are united with Christ as we go toward him… we shall all be together in Christ" (St. Simeon of Thessalonica, De ordine sepulturae. 336: PG 155, 684).

(The next question is: Why do we need faith and the sacraments in order to live a good, upright life?)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 278 - Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 278 - Part I. What is the purpose of a Christian funeral?

(Youcat answer) A Christian funeral is a service performed by the Christian community for the benefit of its dead. It expresses the sorrow of the survivors, yet it always has a Paschal character. Ultimately, we die in Christ so as to celebrate with him the feast of the Resurrection.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1686) The Order of Christian Funerals (Ordo exsequiarum) of the Roman liturgy gives three types of funeral celebrations, corresponding to the three places in which they are conducted (the home, the church, and the cemetery), and according to the importance attached to them by the family, local customs, the culture, and popular piety. This order of celebration is common to all the liturgical traditions and comprises four principal elements: 

 Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1687) The greeting of the community. A greeting of faith begins the celebration. Relatives and friends of the deceased are welcomed with a word of "consolation" (in the New Testament sense of the Holy Spirit's power in hope) (Cf. 1 Thess 4:18). The community assembling in prayer also awaits the "words of eternal life." The death of a member of the community (or the anniversary of a death, or the seventh or fortieth day after death) is an event that should lead beyond the perspectives of "this world" and should draw the faithful into the true perspective of faith in the risen Christ. (CCC 1688) The liturgy of the Word during funerals demands very careful preparation because the assembly present for the funeral may include some faithful who rarely attend the liturgy, and friends of the deceased who are not Christians. The homily in particular must "avoid the literary genre of funeral eulogy" (OCF 41) and illumine the mystery of Christian death in the light of the risen Christ.

(This question: What is the purpose of a Christian funeral? is continued)