My Journey to A Comp Exam - What I Have Learned Part III

I am doing a series of articles related to the upcoming comprehensive exam I will be taking at Franciscan University of Steubenville in order to complete my MACE degree.  In order to make the process go smoothly, one of my classmates, Patti Christensen, has done an excellent job of organizing a collaborative effort on the part of all of us to make the process of studying for the exam to be a little more manageable.  The way she organized this effort was to have each of us tackle one of the questions, and then create a study outline that we all could use.  That is the skeleton for this series of articles.

The class I am addressing with this article is what is called Deposit of Faith, and I took this course myself last Fall (2016).  As part of the collaborative effort organized by Patti, I want to give credit to Katie Torrey, one of my classmates who created the outline for this question from which I am building my article.  Each of my classmates who contributed the outlines for these efforts will be acknowledged and given due credit, as they did amazing work as well.  

When we speak of the "Deposit of Faith," (or in Latin, Fidei Depositum) in a catechetical context it refers to that body of teaching and tradition which has been historically preserved and handed down by the Church, and as catechists it is our duty to transmit and teach that Deposit as faithfully as we are able to do so - opinions and speculations concerning these teachings are irrelevant, and have no place in the catechetical work.   This Deposit is summarized by what are known as "the Four Pillars of Catechesis" (the Creeds, the Decalogue and Summary of the Law, the Sacraments, and the Our Father), and at their center is the person of Jesus Christ - emphasizing the supremacy of Christ as the central core of the Deposit is known as Christocentricity.  As late Monsignor Eugene Kevane points out in his seminal work, Jesus the Divine Teacher (Bloomington, IN:  Authorhouse, 2003), the Name of Jesus Christ is one of the most important and illuminating among all the biblical foundations of catechetics, and as such the Prophets all taught the Chosen People to expect Jesus's coming as a teacher of mankind - all Christian Revelation centers upon the teaching of Christ, and this central facet is also an integral part of Hebrew Revelation (as embodied in what we know as the Old Testament) (Kevane, p. 99).  That is why the "Four Pillars," which link Hebrew and Christian Revelation together as one and the same, summarize this faith, and also point us to Jesus Christ.

The first of these "Pillars" that merit some discussion are the historic Creeds of the Church themselves.  This name "Creed" comes from the Latin word Credo, which simply means "I believe."  In essence, then, the Creeds literally express what a Christian is supposed to believe and confess.  At least two of the three historic Creeds - the Nicene and the Apostles' - are subdivided into three parts.  The parts are distinct and related, and also clearly Trinitarian.  The Apostles' Creed is perhaps the oldest, as it summarizes the faith of the first Apostles, and thus embodies the earliest convictions of the Church.  In its use, the Apostles' Creed is reserved mostly for private devotions such as the Rosary or for non-sacramental liturgical worship, such as the Morning Prayer office in the Anglican tradition for example.  At only one paragraph, it is short, concise, and summarizes every major doctrine of the faith in a paragraph.  As Anglo-Catholic priest and scholar Dr. Paul S. Russell notes, the religious connection to God through Jesus is the primary concern of communicating the faith creedally to the next generation, and in doing so, all of the Creeds are to be seen as a tool and not an end in themselves (Paul S. Russell, The Apostles' Creed.  Berkeley, CA:  American Church Union, 2008. p. 10).  In other words, the Creeds express the faith, but they are not the fulness of the faith, which is only in the person of Jesus Himself.  Yet, the Creeds are also not to be seen as superseded or irrelevant either, as their purpose is to attain and deepen the faith of all times by their summation of it (CCC 193).  The longer Nicene Creed, as we commonly call it today, was the summation of the faith from the authority of two Ecumenical Councils ( AD 325 and AD 381).  This means then that the Creeds even precede the final decision on the canon of Scripture, which was made at the Council of Carthage in AD 397.  A third Creed that came later was the much-longer Athanasian Creed (or the Quicumque) , which is often professed by the Church on Trinity Sunday, some 7-10 days after Pentecost.  The Athanasian Creed is attributed to the first Council of Nicaea in AD 325, which condemned the heretic Arius who denied both the divinity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity.  It is attributed to St. Athanasios, who was a participant in the Council.  At any rate, all the Creeds provide a concise summary of the Fidei Depositum, and hence their place among the "Four Pillars."

As to how the Deposit is Christocentric, first off it is to be affirmed that Jesus not only transmits the Word of God, but He is the living Word of God Himself. This intimately ties the catechetical vocation directly to Him (General Directory on Catechesis, 98).  That is why, as Monsignor Kevane notes, the content of Jesus's teaching doesn't have its source in human empirical sciences or human philosophies, but rather it transcends human reason, coming out of the prophetic light, and is the very Word of God spoken from the lips of God Incarnate (Kevane, p. 176).  This means that at the heart of our faith is a Person, not an abstraction, and that Person is Jesus Christ.  Jesus is also at the very center of salvation history - it all culminates in the Incarnation, and is in essence completed at the Ascension of Christ after His Resurrection to the right hand of the Father, as we also profess in the historic Creeds of the Church.  Our faith, therefore, has as its locus the Word of God, not just written but living in the Person of Christ Himself.

The Deposit however is not only Christocentric, but is Trinitarian.  The Word of God (Jesus) is spoken as the Word of the Father who is spoken to the world through His Spirit (the Holy Spirit).  Jesus constantly refers back in His teachings to the Father, as well as to the Holy Spirit - by the Father He communicates He is only-begotten, and by the Spirit He knows He is annointed (Messiah).  The Trinity is a mystery (something known but beyond expression) that is central to Christian faith and life (CCC 234).  This is also reflected in the devotional practice of the Sign of the Cross as well - it calls upon the Savior's grace to dedicate the day to the glory of God, and that grace in turn facilitates the person to act in the Spirit as a child of the Father (CCC 2157).  And, by tying this to another "Pillar" - the Decalogue and the Summary of the Law as found in Matthew 22:37 - by engaging our whole being in dedication to the Trinity.   When we cross ourselves, we are saying we love God with our whole mind (by touching our brow), our whole strength (by touching the left and right shoulders), and with our whole heart (by touching our chest).   We therefore hand on the Fidei Depositum by our lives as well as with our lips, which is where that entire "love your neighbor as yourself" thing comes in. In doing so, we hand on the Deposit through Christ in us, to the Father, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit (GDC 98).

This now leads to how, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that the Christocentric and Trinitarian character of the Deposit of Faith is expressed.  Its expression is first of all to ensure understanding, living, and handing on this Deposit in an organic way, and that is the challenge of the catechist to make sure this is done in the way it should be done.  It is also done through each of the "Pillars," as the Catechism deals with each at length.  Regarding the Creeds, for instance, we know that the Creeds are a profession of faith at Baptism in the name of the Trinity (CCC 189).  We also know the Creeds are constructed along Trinitarian lines (CCC 190).  Additionally, we understand the faith we have is foundated upon the Trinity (CCC 232).  As such, the Trinity is also the central mystery of our faith (CCC 234).  Our faith has at its heart a Person, Jesus Christ (CCC 426), and everything therefore must be taught with reference to Christ (CCC 427).  That therefore summarizes how the Trinitarian character of our faith is expressed in the historic Creeds of the Church.

In regard to the Sacraments, first it is important to understand that in the liturgy the Father is acknowledged and adored (via Latria - exclusive worship to God alone), and this is done through the Word.  When this happens, the Holy Spirit is dispensed to all who willfully, humbly, and joyfully participate in the reception of the mystery of Christ in the Eucharist (CCC 1082).  It is also in the liturgical context - particularly the Mass - that the Paschal Mystery is made present to us.  This was announced by Jesus in His earthly life and anticipated by His actions as part of the divine pedagogy (CCC 1085).  The beauty of the Paschal Mystery is that it transcends time - we are carried back to the foot of the Cross every time we partake of it.  This refutes the common Protestant charge that Catholics "crucify Jesus over and over" when we celebrate Mass.  The Passion was one time, and was never repeated, nor does it need to be so.  However, the grace of the Passion, as embodied in the Eucharist, is always available to those who are faithful, and when we partake of it we are participating in an event which cannot be defined by rationalism or linear time - by a "mystery of faith" it transcends all of that.  We therefore meet Jesus at Calvary in the Eucharist at the moment it happens, and there is no "recrucifixion" of our Lord at all.   Although the Eucharist does constitute a memorial of the mystery of salvation, it is a living memory that is prompted by the Holy Spirit, and it is a memory that takes us back to the spot it all happened in a mystical way (CCC 1099).

Regarding the "Third Pillar," which in the Deposit represents the moral life, primarily this points back to the Decalogue and the Summary of the Law in Matthew 22, but it also is intertwined with prayer as constant communion with God gives us the strength and determination to live out the moral mandate of our faith.  The Spirit's prompting to pray to the Father fosters action to bear the "fruits of the Spirit" described in many places of the New Testament, which in turn have moral dimension to them. Spiritual transformation by the Holy Spirit within us is what prompts us to live the moral life we are intended to live (CCC 1695).  That is why a vibrant prayer discipline - incorporating things like the sign of the Cross, praying the Our Father, the Rosary, other devotional practices, etc. - prompts a call on Christ's supernatural grace to act in the Spirit as a child of the Father.  So, disciplined by prayer and nourished by the Sacraments, we can also live out the moral aspects of our faith.

The "Fourth Pillar" of course is prayer, and when in reference to the Deposit it is embodied perfectly in the prayer Jesus teaches us in the Gospels, the Our Father.  The act of Christian prayer is a covenant act - it entails both an action of God and of man, and springs forth from both the Holy Spirit and ourselves, and is directed to the Father (CCC 2564).  This means too that the whole Trinity is involved in the process with us when we pray.  Communication with God, furthermore, brings communion with God as a Trinitarian Godhead.  Prayer also internalizes and assimilates the liturgy to us after its celebration is over, which then empowers a "living-out" of our faith in a dynamic way (CCC 2655).

There is an organic unity among all "Four Pillars," as you may have noticed they overlap a lot.  The reason is that Christocentric and Trinitarian faith is the foundation upon which all of them rest, and therefore there is no separating or favoring one of them over another.  On another level too, it means that it is also reflexive as to how we read and understand the written Word of God (Scripture) too, as defined in the "Fourfold Hermeneutic:"

1.  Historical - what it actually is (Scripture as written, the Trinitarian God as He is)
2.  Allegorical - what we believe and how (the Creeds)
3.  Moral - what we do with it and how we live (Decalogue and Summation)
4.  Anagogical - where we are going and how we get there (the Sacraments and Prayer both)

The way we affirm the "Four Pillars" will also determine how we view Scripture too - is it just a moral book, or is it truly God's living Word?   The Bible likewise is to be read Christocentrically too, in that there are types, symbols, and other aspects of the Old Testament that point us to Christ, even in the "boring begats" sections of genealogies, etc.  Christ is therefore both the heart of our faith, and the heart of salvation history as well - He is to be understood as relating to all we see in Scripture (GDC 98).  If we keep a Christocentric faith and reflect that in our catechesis, it leads to a Trinitarian faith (GDC 99).  The mystery of the Trinity is that it is a communion of Persons, and that Communion of Persons loves and desires communion with us too.  Hence, that is why all of our life in Christ - receiving and participating in the Sacraments, confessing the Creeds, living a life of prayer, and honoring God's moral law - must have the Trinity at its central focus, and all of our actions in these disciplines point us to the Trinitarian God we should love and serve.

Thank you again for allowing me to share, and will be back with the next part next week.