Traditional Catholic Teaching - Lesson 1

Lesson 1 - Religion

This course is about the Catholic Faith. That is why you have asked for it to be sent to you. I think you will probably be surprised to find that you agree with much of it already. In fact you may find yourself rather impatient for the first two weeks because we don't seem to be getting to the Catholic Faith quickly enough. You read this leaflet on Religion, and the next one on Christ Our Lord and you may say "Why — I know this already". That is because you are, probably, a Christian, though not a Catholic.

Therefore I ask you to be patient, to read these two leaflets as carefully as the rest. It is always good to think about these basic truths. Your time will not be wasted.

On the other hand you may be quite a different kind of reader. Perhaps you are one who is wondering if there is anything in this matter of Religion at all. These first two leaflets are written especially for you.

They start from rock bottom. We talk about God. Is there a God? We talk about Religion. What about it? Is it a duty or a hobby? Can a man take it or leave it without making any great difference to himself? Or is it the most important thing in anyone's life? We talk about Christianity. Who was Christ? Was he just a good man like many another? Or was He God as well as Man?

These leaflets are short. The thoughts we print here are developed at greater length in many books. What I ask you to do is to read this leaflet and the following ones several times. Make sure you have grasped the ideas.

A few clear ideas well digested will take you further than a lot of ill-digested reading.

Especially may I draw your attention to what is said about prayer at the end of the lesson.

Finally please read on to the end of the Course. Things which may puzzle you in the early leaflets will become clearer when you read the later ones. Bit by bit you will see the structure of the Faith growing and when you see the whole then each part will be a help to understanding the others.

WHAT IS RELIGION?

Religion means how I stand to God. It doesn't just mean being kind to one another. Still less does it only mean doing nobody any harm. Those are two admirable characteristics. But they are not the main thing in religion. The main point about religion is knowing, loving and serving God.

Religion must be centred on God. God made us and made us for Himself. From Him we come and to Him we go, unless we turn our back on Him and lose him. He loves us, He gives us everything we have, He wants us to love Him in return and to love all and everybody He has made. The secret of a successful life is to keep it centred on God. All our activities should be centered on God like the spokes are centered on the hub of a wheel. Knock away the hub and all the spokes lie in confusion. Leave God out of your life and all your life is confused aimless and frustrated.

GOD

1. Where there is Order there is a Mind

A number of people nowadays would immediately say:

"But what makes you think there is a God?"

To which the obvious answer is:

"What makes you think there isn't a God?"

If you come across an empty bus in a side street you take it for granted that somebody made it and that somebody put it there. All that rubber, steel, glass, timber and the rest didn't come together without some person of intelligence designing it. If somebody told you that it just happened you'd say he was talking nonsense.

To say that the whole created universe "just happened" is nonsense too.

A very young man who prided himself on being an atheist once came into the study of the scientist Kircher. He saw there a very fine model of the globe, the sun, moon and stars. By pressing a button the stars could be made to revolve round the globe.

"Who made that" he said.

"Nobody", replied Kircher. "It just happened."

And when the young man looked bewildered Kircher said: "Is it more surprising to think this could make itself than to think that the real universe made itself?"

It stands to sense that where you have things in order there was a mind which put them in order. It stands to sense that things that can't make themselves must have been made by another. That is one reason why all men with rare exceptions have believed that behind the universe there is a vast intelligence, the intelligence of God.

2. Where there are Receivers there is a Giver

Look at it another way. Think of the word "dependent". Everybody and everything in the universe is dependent. Of course every one of us prides himself on his independence. I like the jolly miller who lived beside the Dee we say:

"I care for nobody no not I and nobody cares for me."

But no matter how independent we are in our character, our income or our political status the fact remains that we depend upon a great many things for our very existence.

If a man and a woman, my father and mother, had never met, then I would not exist at all. I received my existence from them and they received it from their parents and they from theirs and so you go back and all the time you find people receiving their existence from others.

What is true of persons is true of things. The river comes from the rain, the springs and the mountain snows. But the snow, the rain, the water in the springs came from the clouds in the sky. And the clouds from the sea. The earth itself, the sea and land, came from the fiery nebula which threw off the whole system of sun, moon and stars.

Everybody and everything is dependent, is a receiver of existence. Now go back as far as you like. Suppose there is just no end to the number of receivers. Yet none of them could exist at all unless there were a giver, an independent being.

I want a drink of beer. I put out a glass on the table to receive it. Nothing happens. I put out an empty jug to fill the glass. Nothing happens. I bring in an empty barrel to fill the jug. Nothing happens. I can add barrel to barrel and tuns and hogsheads and vats. But there will never be any drink of beer for me unless there is someone who puts the beer in at the beginning so that I can draw from the vat to the barrel and from the barrel to the jug and then the jug to the glass.

In the same way unless behind all the dependent universe that we see around us there is one who is independent, unless behind all the receivers of existence there is a giver of existence, then nothing and nobody would ever exist at all.

That is why the great scientist Ampere (we use his name whenever we talk about amps in electricity) used to look up from his studies and say to a friend who shared his house:

"How great God is! How great God is!"

Those are just some of the reasons out of many why men have always been convinced that there is a God, an intelligent being, completely independent, on whom everybody and everything else depends.

GOD IS A SPIRIT, ALL-KNOWING, ALL-POWERFUL, INFINITE

Now once we have got so far we have learnt a good deal about God. We can know a good deal about what God is like. If He is completely independent it means there are no limits on God. Nothing to shackle His independence. And so, first of all, God has no body because, as we all know from experience, our body limits us in very many ways. It keeps us in one place. It keeps us tied to food and drink and air. And so we say God is a spirit. A being who is intelligent and free but without a body.

Again, there are no limits to God's knowledge. He is, as we say, infinitely intelligent. He knows the past, the present and the future. He knows all things.

There are no limits to God at all. He always was, He is and He always will be. Because He depends on nobody and on nothing. There are no limits to His power — He is almighty. There are no limits to His presence — He is everywhere. In short He is perfect.

CONFIDENCE IN GOD

Think over these things. Ponder them deeply and often and you will see what immense confidence we can have in God. There are many things that baffle us and bewilder us in our lives. But behind everything there is this perfect knowledge, perfect truth. Of course there are many things that disturb us. There is the whole problem of evil. But since we know God is perfect there must be a reason for everything. And if He permits evil then He must do so for a purpose and we can be quite safe in trusting Him completely. We shall say more about this later.

WHY DID GOD MAKE YOU?

The next question that strikes a man is this: since God is independent, since God is perfect, since He needs nobody and nothing, why did He make me? There can be only one answer. He made me because He liked the idea of me. He made me because He loved me. It stands to sense therefore that I should love Him in return. That is why every Catholic child learns this question and answer on the first day he goes to school.

Question. Why did God make you?

Answer. God made me to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in the next.

That sums up the whole of religion. It is the programme of our duty to God and it is the programme of our own happiness. We shall not find true happiness except in knowing, loving and serving God. Serving Him not like a slave but serving Him as a lover serves the beloved. A lover is only truly happy when he is doing something for the one he loves. His greatest happiness is when he is united to the one he loves.

RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS

In the same way we can only be happy when we are serving God. Our true happiness lies in being united to Him. In this world we can be united to Him in heart and mind. In the next world we will be united to Him directly. And we shall never be perfectly happy until we reach that end.

Many people today are frustrated, are unhappy because they are trying to find satisfaction by ignoring God. It can't be done. If we want to be happy then we must live in the way God intends us to live. If you want to know how a machine should run smoothly and sweetly, and do what it was made to do, then ask the maker for his instructions, We are not machines. We are free intelligent beings. But we were made by God. If we want to know how we should live, to do His will and to achieve our own happiness, then ask the Maker.

The whole of this course will be concerned in showing what, in fact, God has told us about Himself. How God became man, to teach us, to speak to us directly. How He founded the Catholic Church to speak on His behalf. How He will give us all the help we need to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in the next.

PRAYER

Think over these things. Think of God. See the goodness of God in everything around you and let your heart go out to Him. That's what we mean by prayer. Prayer is a conversation with God like a conversation between a son and his father, between a lover and the beloved. Talk to God quite simply in your own words in your own way about anything you like.

The only way to know God is by prayer. You can get to know about Him by study and reflection. But that is not enough. We can learn a lot about food by study. But unless we eat it we lose our health. So unless we make contact with God by prayer we may lose what little knowledge we have got from studying Him.

Remember that God knows you through and through. He knows your strength — all the good you are able to do. He knows your weakness — all the harm you can do and, maybe, have done. Just as you are He loves you.

Here are some short phrases to say to Him. Say these often during the day. It doesn't matter if you don't feel anything. Enough that you are doing your best to talk to God. He hears and He will give you an insight into Himself that will astonish you.

My God I believe in You.
My God I trust You.
My God I love You.
My God teach me to know You; teach me to know myself.

And say the Our Father.

Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
Amen.¹

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

¹The words "For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen." are a very old Christian prayer and sometimes added to the Our Father.

End of Lesson 1

Supplement A

Supplement B: "Listent To Him!"

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