BASIS OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH

If you want to know the basics of the Catholic
faith, look no further than the articles of
Catholic faith. This list of twelve articles
mirrors the Apostles' Creued, a prayer that sets
out Catholic tenets:
Article 1: I believe in God, the Father
Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
This affirms that God exists, that he's
a Triune God (one God in three persons,
known as the Holy Trinity), and that he
created the known universe.
Article 2: And in Jesus Christ, his only
Son, our Lord. This attests that Jesus
is the Son of God and that he's most
certainly divine. The word Lord implies
divinity, because the Greek Kyrios and
the Hebrew Adonai both mean "lord"
and are ascribed only t
o God. So the
use of Lord with Jesus is meant to
profess his divinity. The name Jesus
comes from the Hebrew Jeshua,
meaning "God saves." So Catholics
believe that Jesus is Savior.
Article 3: Who was conceived by the
power of the Holy Spirit and born of
the Virgin Mary. This affirms the
human nature of Christ, meaning he
had a real, true human mother, and
also affirms his divine nature, meaning
he had no human father but by the
power of the Holy Spirit was conceived
in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He's
therefore considered both God and man
by Christians—fully divine and fully
human.
Article 4: He suffered under Pontius
Pilate, was crucified, died, and was
buried. The human nature of Christ
could feel pain and actually die, and he
did on Good Friday. The mention of
Pontius Pilate by name wasn't meant
so much to vilify him forever in history
but to place the Crucifixion within
human history.
Reference is made to an actual
historical person, the Roman governor
of Judea, appointed by Caesar, to put
the life and death of Jesus within a
chronological and historical context. It
also reminds the faithful that one can't
blame all Jews for the death of Jesus,
as some have erroneously done over
the ages. Certain Jewish leaders
conspired against Jesus, but the actual
death sentence was given by a Roman
and carried out by Roman soldiers. So
both Jew and Gentile alike shared in
the spilling of innocent blood. Anti-
Semitism based on the Crucifixion of
Jesus is inaccurate, unjust, and
erroneous.
Article 5: He descended into hell. The
third day he arose again from the dead.
The hell Jesus descended into wasn't
the hell of the damned, where Jews
and Christians believe the devil and his
demons reside. Hell was merely a word
that Jews and early Christians used to
describe the place of the dead. This
passage affirms that on the third day
he rose, meaning Jesus came back
from the dead of his own divine power.
He wasn't just clinically dead for a few
minutes; he was dead dead — then he
rose from the dead. More than a
resuscitated corpse, Jesus possessed a
glorified and risen body.
Article 6: He ascended into heaven and
is seated at the right hand of God the
Father Almighty. The Ascension
reminds the faithful that after the
human and divine natures of Christ
were united in the Incarnation, they
could never be separated. In other
words, after the saving death and
Resurrection, Jesus didn't dump his
human body as if he didn't need it
anymore. Catholicism teaches that his
human body will exist forever. Where
Jesus went, body and soul, into
heaven, the faithful hope one day to
follow.
Article 7: He will come again to judge
the living and the dead. This article
affirms the Second Coming of Christ at
the end of the world to be its judge.
Judgment Day, Day of Reckoning,
Doomsday—they're all metaphors for
the end of time when what's known as
the General Judgment will occur.
Catholics believe that after the death
of any human person, immediate
private judgment occurs and the person
goes directly to heaven, hell, or
purgatory (an intermediate place in
preparation for heaven).
Article 8: I believe in the Holy Spirit,
This part reminds the believer that God
exists in three persons — the Holy
Trinity — God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. What's
referred to as the Force in the movie
Star Wars isn't the same as the Holy
Spirit, who is a distinct person equal to
the other two — God the Father and
God the Son.
Article 9: the holy catholic Church, the
Communion of Saints, Catholics believe
that the Church is more than a mere
institution and certainly not a
necessary evil. It's an essential
dimension and aspect of spiritual life.
Christ explicitly uses the word church
(ekklesia in Greek) in Matthew 16 when
he says, "I will build My Church."
Article 10: the forgiveness of sins,
Christ came to save the world from
sin. Belief in the forgiveness of sins is
essential to Christianity. Catholicism
believes sins are forgiven in Baptism
and in the Sacrament of Penance.
Article 11: the resurrection of the body,
From the Catholic perspective, a human
being is a union of body and soul, so
death is just the momentary separation
of body and soul until the end of the
world, the Second Coming of Christ,
the General Judgment, and the
resurrection of the dead. The just go,
body and soul, into heaven, and the
damned go, body and soul, into hell.
Article 12: And in life everlasting. As
Christ Our Savior died, so, too, must
mere mortals. As he rose, so shall all
human beings. Death is the only way
to cross from this life into the next. At
the very moment of death, private
judgment occurs; Christ judges the
soul:
* If it's particularly holy and virtuous,
the soul goes directly to heaven.
* If it's evil and wicked and dies in
mortal sin, it's damned for eternity in
hell.
* If a person lived a life not bad
enough to warrant hell but not holy
enough to go right to heaven, Catholics
believe the soul goes to purgatory,
which is a middle ground between
heaven and earth, a state where
departed souls want to go to be
cleansed of any attachments to sin
before going through the pearly gate

Onwukwe Chigozie
Department of Optometry
University of Benin