FUNDAMENTALS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH.
God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, came to this world as a man to teach us human kind those things that God Father, the first person of the Holy Trinity, wanted to reveal to us humans. This was ilumunation, ligtht, and without it our world would not be what it is, it would be chaos.
And if we ignore this light we get near to catastrophe; as the moral theology teach, being it´s objective to show us the way of salvation trough to proper behavior according to Gods will, that tells us, we need this light to assure that our way is adequate to Gods salvation plan.
We have to keep in mind that our faith is not only our believes, of course they are part of our faith but it is living our faith that is important, our faith has to be operative, this is that we have lo live according to our believes, and if we are conscious of Gods will and act accordingly we are in the safe way of salvation. Nothing is more important than this, in our mind it is necessary that we are sure that Gods will is being served by us.
Serving God as he expects us to do it, includes that we have a clear knowledge of our obligations, and norms, that is to have the information that, given our faith, since it is mandatory that the faith exists, in order to be able to profit from catholic education.
There are three foundations, that sustained in our faith, let us clearly believe without doubt whatsoever, all what is related to the Holy Trinity, and Jesus´ Doctrine: A) the Cannon of the Holy Scriptures, specially the New Testament, B) the Holy Tradition, and C) the Ministry of the Church, lets examine each of this issues:
A.-HOLY SCRIPTURES, SPECIALLY THE NEW TESTAMENT, are for the Old Testament a” corpus” of books that started to be written in the time of “Moises” , after the Exodus, They start with the Genesis and end with a short book written as disputes, by ” Malaquias”, a prophet of Jesus Christ, probably in the last quarter of the V century before Christ. All these books were inspired to the authors (“hagiógrafos”) by the Holy Spirit, so they come directly from God. They are free of errors, and try to teach the way of eternal salvation. The contents of the NEW TESTAMENT, is an other “ corpus “ of books that along with the other corpus form the one and single book called the Bible, this second “corpus” contains part of the direct Revelation, self made by Jesus Christ to his Apostles, and reveled to S. Paul, in a very special manner, along with a historical book of the acts of the Apostles, after the death and Resuscitation of Jesus. Jesus Christ never wrote himself and not all that He teached was written.
B.-HOLY TRADITION, many of the teachings of Christ were not written, they were transmitted oraly, as a matter of fact all of the Gospels, were TRADITION before they were written, these teaching, not written was transmitted oraly from person to person to all generations. So the apostolic teaching and Revelation of Jesus Christ is not only the written word, it is also the TRADITION that is the oral word brought and kept in the TRADITION.
C.-THE MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH, by Ministry of the Church we have to consider two aspects, one is the hole of the hierarchy of the church, that is, all its bishops in good relation with the Pope, head of the church in all the world, considered as a corporation, and the other aspect is the contents of its official teaching , here we have to remember and consider that they are assisted by the Holy Spirit who until the end of times will be its guardian and inspiration, the teaching of the Ministry of the Church is focused to all human beings , not only Christians, but to all mankind. This is the way that guaranties the purity, the fidelity and conservation of the word of Christ as it was spoken to his apostles, and is transmited to us. The existence and work of the Ministry is of great necessity and service, to assure that what was told directly by Jesus Christ to his apostles, is the same that the past, the actual and the future bishops get. This is the reason of the “sinodos” and councils that take place in different parts of the world, that assisted by the Holy Spirit interpret the doctrine of Christ.
The conclusions of this gatherings are transmitted to the diocesan priests, Catholics in general, and in documents that are intended for all mankind, there fore, the sermons of priests and bishops, and the ample catechize that the Catholic Church practices, assures that the knowledge is of benefit. “Enciclicas” and pastoral letters are published in ample diffuseness, in media, including Internet.
If on the contrary, in place of the specialists assisted by the Holy Spirit, and this was the promise and offer of Jesus Christ, the interpretation is left to the lay person, misinterpretation will occur and the extravagant profusion of sects happen, (there are more than 36,000 different sects). It is imperative that the promise and offer of Jesus that was done to his only and one church, be remembered and recognized.
Jorge Casas y Sánchez.
