THE P RTAL
October 2013
Page 10
The A - Z of the Catholic Faith
by Fr Stephen Wang
I is for…
Incarnation
Two thousand years ago God sent his
only Son to us so that we could find peace with him
and with each other, and share in his divine life.
Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, who was born in
Bethlehem, is the eternal Son of God, the Second
Person of the Most Holy Trinity. His Holy Mother,
therefore, is truly called the Mother of God.
He became a human being like us, while remaining
truly and completely divine. He came into the world
that had been created through him. He lived among
us, he taught and healed and forgave, he suffered and
died and was raised to life again.
Jesus Christ is the way to God; he is the truth about
God and about ourselves; he is God’s own life lived
among us. He is the beginning and end of all our
deepest longings and hopes, and of all the other things
that we never dared to hope for.
This is the mystery of Incarnation: Jesus Christ is
truly God and truly human; he is God with us.
Infallibility
The bishops united with the Pope teach and
feed and unite the Church all the time, but they do
so in a special way through their infallible teaching.
This teaching is at the heart of the Catholic faith. It
is about beliefs and morals that are so clearly a part
of the Church’s faith that to reject them would be to
reject the Church itself. In these matters the Catholic
Church cannot be in error.
The infallibility of the Church is usually expressed in
the constant and common teaching of all the bishops.
It is sometimes expressed when the bishops meet in
an ecumenical council, or when the Pope decides after
consulting the bishops that a belief must be held by the
whole Church. On these rare occasions, Christ’s Spirit
helps the Pope and the bishops to remain faithful and
to be sure about the truth.
Catholics believe all the infallible doctrines that the
Church believes, even the ones that confuse or unsettle
them. In asking people to believe, the Church is doing
no more than Jesus did. He often told people things
that they did not like or understand. He accepted that
some people who could not accept his words might
leave him — and many did leave.
The infallibility of the Church is the infallibility of
Christ; it is the fact that he is always faithful to his
Church. The infallibility of the Pope and bishops is one
way that we come to see something that the Church
has known all along. This belief may be put in new
words or phrases, but it is not a new belief, not new
revelation. The Church constantly finds new ways
of expressing its faith; it is always seeing its one true
treasure in a dazzling new light.
Intercession
In prayer, we lift our hearts to God, and we let
him enter our lives. We don’t need to pray a lot, but we
do need to pray every day. If we don’t, then our faith
gets weaker and our love grows cold.
One part of our daily prayer is intercession. Jesus
tells us, in the Gospels: “Ask!” We need to ask God
the Father to help us in all our needs: big things;
small things; everyday things; spiritual things.
We are his children, and we should come to him
with childlike simplicity, asking him to give us what
we need and what we desire – as long as it is according
to his will.
We should put these requests into words, not
because he is unaware of them, but because he wants
us to express our needs and show him how much we
trust him; and because he uses our prayer – united
with Christ’s – to fulfil his will in the world and build
his Kingdom.
The answer to our intercessions may come much
later than we want, or in an unexpected way – but it
will come somehow, in accord with God’s holy will.