Catholic Understanding of God as Trinity
Catechism presents a theological understanding of the Trinity as a relationship between the three persons of God that come from one divine Being. The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church adds prayer texts and instructions to help recognize and show respect and love for the three persons of the Trinity. According to the Catechism, “Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit: not in their names.”
The Catholic Church asserts that all three persons of the Trinity are equal, inseparable, and united in their divine Being. However, as the Compendium states, “his inmost being as the Holy Trinity is a mystery which is inaccessible to reason alone.” Overall, the Church recognizes the three persons of the Trinity as one God, in whom there are three distinct and inseparable attributes – eternity, wisdom, and love.
Salvation Achieved through the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ
The salvation that Jesus Christ has brought to the people is known as the Paschal Mystery. This accurate Paschal Mystery brings real salvation to all people and gives them access to the Divine Father. At the center of this mystery are manifestations of divine mercy and love, including the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Through the Paschal Mystery, people were saved due to “all that he [Jesus] did and suffered for all men.” According to the Compendium, the Paschal Mystery “stands at the center of the Christian faith because God’s saving plan was accomplished once and for all by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ.” The Paschal Mystery has become a source of hope for eternal life and allows people to maintain spiritual communion with God and experience His love and mercy.
Eschatology – Death and the Afterlife
According to the Catholic faith, after a person’s death, their soul either goes to heaven, if they lived a righteous life, or to hell, if they died in sin. There is also a period of purification in purgatory for those who have not reached perfection but did not die in mortal sin. The end of time will be the day of judgment when there will be a final separation of the righteous and the wicked.
According to the Catechism, a Christian who connects his death to Jesus’s “views it as a step toward him and an entrance into everlasting life.” In the Compendium, eschatology is explained as “eternal life” that “begins immediately after death.” Hence, the main idea of eschatology is that the righteous will receive eternal reward in heaven, while the wicked will be condemned to eternal torment.
Freedom
In the Catechism, freedom is understood as the ability of a person to act according to their own voluntary choice. It does not contradict the obligations of honesty and consistency in observing God’s laws and obligations towards others. According to the Catechism, freedom enables people to “perform deliberate actions” and shape “one’s own life” by serving as a “force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness.”
Meanwhile, the Compendium explains the connection between “properly human acts” and freedom by stating, “The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes.” Freedom is a sincere effort to follow the privileged path, leading to a correct and good choice. It allows people to adhere to higher values and moral rules based on God’s grace. Freedom must be based on understanding God’s laws and should not break consistency and honesty in relations with others.
Virtues
Virtues are spiritual morals that allow man to obey God’s will. Virtues allow the person to act according to the principles of love and truth, as well as help Christians establish their relationship with God, themselves, and others. Catechism defines virtues as “firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will” that govern people’s actions and passions and guide their behaviors.
The Compendium states virtues can be acquired and strengthened “by the repetition of morally good acts, and they are purified and elevated by divine grace.” There are four cardinal human virtues: justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude. These four virtues are a basis for all other virtues grouped under the cardinal virtues. The most important virtues are faith, hope, love, honesty, wisdom, courage, generosity, patience, and forgiveness.
Sin
Sin is defined as an illegitimate action that contradicts divine righteousness. Sin is opposed to good, and the consequences of sin are spiritual death and punishment by God. In Catechism, sin is viewed as “an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience” that is “caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods.” Sin is an offense against God, treachery to Him, and disregard for His goodness.
The Compendium explains many sins based on “their object or according to the virtues or commandments which they violate.” Depending on their gravity, sins are divided into mortal and venial. A mortal sin is committed when “grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent” are simultaneously present. However, when the matter involved in the sin is not as serious or when full consent or knowledge is absent, the sin is regarded as venial.