Christ brought light of Kingdom of God to follow

Article 129 - Catechism of the
Catholic Church Series
Paragraphs 1691-1698
As a small child, do you remember learning to pray to your guardian angel? Perhaps you remember your mother teaching you that your guardian angel helped keep you from hurting your soul by sin. Perhaps you remember her telling you that your guardian angel helped steer you away from sin. Perhaps you remember her telling you that your guardian angel helped you understand what God wants. Perhaps you remember the little prayer to your guardian angel ...

“Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom His love commits me here.
Ever this day be at my side,
To light, to guard, to rule and guide.
From sinful stain, oh, keep me free,
And in death’s sorrow my helper be.
Amen.”

Why would your mom teach you to pray to your guardian angel? Most likely, because she realized how precious you are and wanted to protect you with all the special help available. No doubt she also realized the dignity you enjoy as one who shares in the very nature of God!
This section of the Catechism takes up this theme with a quotation from a sermon composed by St. Leo the Great, a pope in the 5th century who wrote the following: “Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God” (ccc 1691).
In the next paragraph, we are reminded, “What faith confesses, the sacraments communicate: by the sacraments of rebirth, Christians have become ‘children of God,’ partakers of the divine nature” (ccc 1692). Further, Christians are made capable of leading a life worthy of the Gospel “by the grace of Christ and the gifts of his Spirit, which they receive through the sacraments and through prayer” (ccc 1692). Like Jesus who did what was pleasing to God the Father, we who are his disciples “are invited to live in the sight of the Father” as well (ccc 1693).
All of this comes to pass when we are reborn through the waters of baptism. Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, “Christians can strive to be ‘imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love’ by conforming their thoughts, words and actions” to the mind Christ Jesus, and by following his example (ccc 1694). We are reminded, too, that “Christians have (also) become the temple of the Holy Spirit” (ccc 1695).
The Catechism tells us that our options are to fall victim to the power of sin and darkness or to opt for the light of the Kingdom of God. In fact, the Catechism explains that the Catechesis of the Church acknowledges that “two ways remain ever present in the catechesis of the Church...the one of life, the other of death” (ccc 1696).
Paragraph 1697 of the Catechism outlines that a Catechesis for the ‘newness of life’ in Christ should include:
—    a catechesis of the Holy Spirit: a gentle guest and friend who inspires, guides, corrects, and strengthens this life.
—    a catechesis of grace: it is by grace that we are saved and again it is by grace that our works can bear fruit for eternal life.
—    a catechesis of the beatitudes: the way of Christ is summed up in the beatitudes, the only path that leads to the eternal beatitude for which the human heart longs.
—    a catechesis of sin and forgiveness: unless man acknowledges that he is a sinner he cannot know the truth about himself.
—    a catechesis of the human virtues: which causes one to grasp the beauty and attraction of right dispositions towards goodness.
—    a catechesis of the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity: generously inspired by the example of the saints.
—    a catechesis of the twofold commandment of charity: as set forth in the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments).
—    an ecclesial catechesis: it is through the manifold exchanges of ‘spiritual goods’ in the ‘communion of saints’ that Christian life can grow, develop, and be communicated.
“The first and last point of reference of this catechesis will always be Jesus Christ himself, who is ‘the way, and the truth, and the life’” (ccc 1698). “It is by looking to him in faith that Christ’s faithful can hope that he himself fulfills his promises in them” (ccc 1698).
In the words of the 17th century priest and mystic, St. John Eudes, “I ask you to consider that our Lord Jesus Christ is your true head, and that you are one of his members. He belongs to you as the head belongs to its members; all that is his is yours: his spirit, his heart, his body and soul, and all his faculties. You must make use of all these as of your own, to serve, praise, love, and glorify God. You belong to him, as members belong to their head. And so he longs for you to use all that is in you, as if it were his own, for the service and glory of the Father” (ccc 1698).
We have all been blessed with a wonderful life...if only we choose to use it as God intended!
Father Hillier serves as Director of the Office of the Pontifical Mission Societies, Censor Librorum and oversees the Office for Persons with Disabilities