My dear Parishioners,

Peace! The first article of the Apostle’s Creed is: I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth. There are forty “in brief” statements in The Catechism of the Catholic Church which treat this article of our saving faith. What follows is a reflection on article 381.

When some people speak of ‘predestination’ it is in relation to ‘free will’ our responsibility for our actions. The Catechism does not deny our free will which is part of the way we are ‘in the image of God’ (more on free will when we treat that quarter of the Catechism) but presents our being predestined to be not only in the image of God, generically, but specifically sons and daughters in the Son, Christ Jesus our Lord who is the ‘image of the invisible God’ (Colossians 1:15). This sort of predestination is another way of speaking of God’s eternal plan with which we cooperate on our better days.

Jesus Christ is true God and true man and He reveals God to us and us to ourselves. In history there have been various heresies (Gnosticism, Manichaeism, Albigensianism…) which decry matter and material things as bad, evil, no good. Catholics are happy to answer these objections by pointing out that: If matter was so bad, why did God make so much of it, let alone, in Christ assume human nature becoming like us in all things but sin to save us from our sins? While Christ the Lord is uniquely the image of the unseen God because of the Divine Nature which He shares with the Father and the Spirit, we who have been born again by water and the Spirit are likewise given the grace to reveal the mysterious God by His grace at work in us.

We are brothers and sisters to the Lord Jesus by His words spoken from the Cross: Behold your mother (John 19:27) which were not only ment for the beloved disciple. We are likewise brothers and sisters to the Lord Jesus and one another by the grace given in Baptism and the divine adoption which is a part of that sacrament of salvation. The Virgin Mary who is the Mother of God has many spiritual childern as does Mother Church. This is made clear in Romans 8:29 where God’s plan for all eternity is presented wherein Christ was to be ‘first born among a multitude of brothers and sisters.’

Let us be sure to remember God’s good will in our regard. God has given us so much: not just free will, but grace and faith, life and likeness and a family which includes not only our immediate relatives but likewise all of those who have lived and will live in Christ Jesus in the Communion of Saints. When we live holy lives, rejecting sin and Satan our family resemblance is all the stronger. May it be so!

God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr