The Compendium of the Catechism & the Theology of the Body

In a recent Catholic Stand article (Why Catholics Need to Return to the Catechism, 6/5/21), Abigal Gripshover called for an embrace/re-embrace of the Catechism and its Compendium of the Catechism.  Bravo!  Bravo, Bravissimo!  Rather than in any way outdated, both treasures are timeless.

The Format of the Catechism

With regard to setup, those magnificent resources of the Catechism and the Compendium of the Catechism are both divided into the four pillars of 1) the Profession of the Faith, 2) the Celebration of the Christian Mystery, 3) Life in Christ, and 4) Christian Prayer.

1. With its focus on what we believe, much of the first parts explore the Apostles Creed.
2. Focusing on how we celebrate, much of the second part looks at the Seven Sacraments.
3. Focusing on how we are to live, much of the third part looks at the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes.
4. Focusing on how we pray, much of the fourth part, look at the Our Father.

When I first read the Catechism nearly three decades ago, I had numerous “aha” moments. There was so much that I had not truly and comprehensively understood!  It was truly Good News and life-changing.  Just as an example, I felt blown away by the first part’s notion of the “resurrection of the dead,” as it indicated that God wants both our bodies and souls in Heaven.  Wow!  The body itself is meant to have a glorious destiny.

The Compendium

It was in 2005 that Pope Benedict XVI published the Compendium of the Catechism – a “Readers’ Digest version if you will – of the Catechism.  With its compact 598 question and answer format, it makes an ideal resource/reference for every Catholic – a source of comfort, edification, and reassurance.

I have also found the Compendium of the Catechism to be a magnificent catechetical resource (As a study guide, for example, each of the 598 answers can be conveyed into American Sign Language for those who rely on that mode of communication – a particular area of interest to me.).  All of us need to arm ourselves to promote and defend God’s Truth, because it is only His Good News that leads humanity to authentic happiness.  We are called to help get ourselves, our loved ones, and all God’s people to Heaven.

Church Teaching on the Sanctity of Life

At our particular juncture of history, 2021, the Truth which the Church proclaims about the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of how human life is transmitted certainly seems to constitute what is most widely unappreciated, underappreciated, misunderstood, outwardly mocked, and mercilessly bashed – major stumbling blocks to accepting the Truth!

The Catechism and the Compendium of the Catechism absolutely proclaim the sanctity of human life, as well as and the sanctity of how human life is transmitted.  Yet because of the relentless resistance to accepting the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of its transmission, I suggest that we should also be familiar with complementary resources.

Marriage

No matter what a person’s own perspective, no one – Catholic, non-Catholic, or “none” –seems unaware that traditional Catholic teaching on marriage, family, and human sexuality is not being embraced.

More than a century ago, it was said: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” (G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With The World, 1910).  All of us know family, friends, and acquaintances with knee-jerk complaints to what the Church proclaims about marriage, family, and human sexuality.

While same-sex activities may presently receive the most attention, we risk overlooking that the teaching concerns any use of sexual faculties outside (or inside) marriage which is not simultaneously unitive and procreative for the husband and wife – a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman.

Theology of the Body

Across a span of five years (1979 to 1984), Saint Pope John Paul II used 129 general audiences, to convey a true appreciation of marriage, family, and human sexuality. Those 129 audiences are now known collectively as His Theology of the Body:

The whole of the catechesis that I began more than four years ago and that I conclude today can be grasped under the title, ‘Human Love in the Divine Plan,’ or with greater precision, ‘the Redemption of the body and the Sacramentality of Marriage’….

The first part is devoted to the analysis of the words of Christ….

the text in which Christ appeals to the beginning’…

about the unity and indissolubility of marriage….

the words Christ spoke in the Sermon on the Mount

about “concupiscence’ as ‘adultery committed in the heart’….

the words…in which Christ appeals to the resurrection of the body….

The second part of the catechesis is devoted to the analysis of the sacrament based on Ephesians…which goes back to…the words of Genesis, ‘a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one flesh’…at the end of this whole cycle of catechesis, the analysis of Humanae Vitae” (11/28/84; this quote utilizes the 2006 translations by Michael Waldstein.)

Those who cherish human life from the first moment of fertilization till natural death, while acknowledging marriage to be the only appropriate place for husbands and wives to cooperate in God’s continuing work of Creation, and acknowledging the need for each conjugal act to be open to life are promised authentic happiness – a happiness finding its fulfillment in Heaven itself.  Human life is sacred; the conjugal act between husbands and wives is sacred.  All of us need to be shouting this from the proverbial rooftops!

Those who become fluent with Saint Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body become best able to convey the Truth which the Church proclaims about the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of how human life is transmitted.