Day 8 - Does Revelation continue after Christ?
With Jesus Christ, has everything been said, or does revelation continue even after him?
In Jesus Christ, God himself came to earth. He is God's last Word. By listening to him, all men of all times can know who God is and what is necessary for their salvation.
With the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the revelation of God is perfect and complete. To make it comprehensible to us, the Holy Spirit leads us ever deeper into the truth. God's light breaks so forcefully into the lives of many individuals that they "see the heavens opened" (Acts 7:56). That is how the great places of pilgrimage such as Guadalupe in Mexico or Lourdes in France came about. The "private revelations" of visionaries cannot improve on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. No one is obliged to believe in them. But they can help us understand the Gospel better. Their authenticity is tested by the Church. (YOUCAT question 10)
An approved Marian apparition you simply must know about: Check out
Our Lady of Good Success by Matthew Arnold.
Day 9 - Why do we hand on the Faith?
Why do we hand on the faith?
We hand on the faith because Jesus commands us: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Mt 28:19).
No genuine Christian leaves the transmission of the faith exclusively to specialists (teachers, pastors, missionaries). We are Christ for others. This means that every genuine Christian would like God to come to other people, too. He says to himself, "The Lord needs me! I have been baptized and confirmed and am responsible for helping the people around me to learn about God and to come to the knowledge of the truth' (1 Tim 2:4b)." Mother Teresa used a good comparison: "Often you can see power lines running alongside the street. Unless current is flowing through them, there is no light. The power line is you and I! The current is God! We have the power to allow the current to flow through us and thus to generate the light of the world: JESUS - or to refuse to be used and, thus, allow the darkness to spread." (YOUCAT question 11)
Dig Deeper: CCC section (68-73) and other references here.
Dig Deeper: CCC section (68-73) and other references here.
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Day 10 - What belongs to the True Faith?
How can we tell what belongs to the true faith?
We find the true faith in Sacred Scripture and in the living Tradition of the Church.
The New Testament developed out of the faith of the Church. Scripture and Tradition belong together. Handing on the faith does not occur primarily through documents. In the early Church it was said that Sacred Scripture was "written on the heart of the Church rather than on parchment". The disciples and the apostles experienced their new life above all through a living fellowship with Jesus. The early Church invited people into this fellowship, which continued in a different way after the Resurrection. The first Christians held fast "to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers" (Acts 2:42). They were united with one another and yet had room for others. This is part of our faith to this day: Christians invite other individuals to come to know a fellowship with God that has been preserved unaltered since the times of the apostles in the Catholic Church. (YOUCAT question 12)
Dig Deeper: CCC section (74-87) and other references here.
Interested in learning more about Catholicism and Sacred Scripture?Check out Building a Catholic Biblical Worldview by Dr. Scott Hahn
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