The Catechism Explained


PART I - FAITH. 
VIII. ON THE DUTY OF CONFESSING OUR FAITH. 
1.  God requires of us that we should make outward profession 
of our faith. 
Christ says, " So let your light shine before men, that they 
may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in 
heaven" (Matt. v. 16). 
We are bound in our words and actions to let men know that we 
are Christians and Catholics. It is by the open profession of our faith 
that we help others (as we see from the above words of Our Lord), to 
know God better and to honor Him more. We also thereby lead them 
to imitate our good deeds ; for men are like sheep, which though lazy 
in themselves and unwilling to move, will follow where one of them 
leads the way. The open profession of our faith also strengthens us 
in all that is good, for " practice makes perfect." Unhappily men are 
too often cowards. For fear of being laughed at by those around 
them, or through the dread of suffering some injury in their business, 
or some disadvantage in their worldly affairs or interests, they have 
not the courage openly to profess their faith, or to defend their re- 
ligion when it is attacked; they laugh at indecent or profane stories, 
join in immodest conversation, or in talk against the Church, priests, 
and religious, eat meat on Friday in order to escape the jests of 
their companions, and miss Mass on Sunday without excuse. They 
forget that those who laugh them out of doing what is right only 
despise them in their hearts, and would respect and honor them if 
they stood firm. They forget, too, that at the Day of Judgment the 
tables will be turned, and that those who now mock at them will be 
full of terror and of shame, and those who have been loyal to their 
religion will be the objects of the envy and admiration of their perse- 
cutors, who will bitterly lament their folly and wickedness (Wisd. i. 
1-5). Among the splendid instances of those who were faithful to 
their religion and fearlessly made confession of their faith, were the 
three young men who refused to adore the golden image set up by 
Nabuchodonosor (Dan. ii.) ; the holy Tobias, who alone of all his kin- 
dred refused to go to the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, and 
went up every year to the Temple in Jerusalem (Tob. i. 5, 6) ; Eleazar, 
who preferred death to even appearing to eat swine's flesh (2 Mach. 
vi. 18 seq.) ; St. Ignatius the martyr, St. Agnes, St. Lucy, St. Mau- 
rice and the Theban legion, and countless other Christian martyrs and 
confessors. It is by way of an open profession of her faith that holy 
Church has instituted processions like those of Corpus Christi, pro- 
cessions of Our Lady, etc. 
We are only bound openly to confess our faith when our 
omission to do so would bring religion into contempt, or do some 
injury to our neighbor, or when we are in some way challenged 
to declare and make profession of our religion. 
We are not bound always and on all occasions to confess our faith, 
but only when the honor due to God, or the edification due to our 
neighbor requires it. If officious people question us about our faith, 
we are not bound to answer them; we can refuse to answer, or turn 
away. But if we are questioned by some one who possesses legitimate 
authority to do so, we are bound to confess our faith, even though 
it should cost us our lives, as Our Lord did when questioned before 
Caiphas, and as thousands of the early Christians did when called 
upon to sacrifice to the idols. In such cases the words of Our Lord 
apply, " Fear not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the 
soul" (Matt. x. 28). To fear man more than God is to bring down 
on us His anger. We also should try and avoid all wrangling discus- 
sions and controversies about religion, which generally do harm 
and embitter men against the truth. Our faith is so holy a thing that 
it must be spoken of with great discretion and prudence. 
2. Our Lord has promised eternal life to him who fearlessly 
makes profession of his faith. 
For He has said " Every one that confesseth Me before men, 
him I will also confess before My Father Who is in heaven " 
(Matt. x. 32). 
St. Peter made a bold profession of his faith before his fellow 
apostles, and Our Lord made him at once the head of the apostles, 
and the foundation of His Church (Matt. xvi. 18). The three 
young men in Babylon confessed their belief in the true God, and 
God delivered them from the fiery furnace, and caused them to be 
raised to high honor. Daniel confessed his faith by disobeying the 
king's edict and continuing his prayers in the sight of all men, and 
God saved him from the lions. 
A great reward in heaven will be given to those who suffer 
persecution or death for the sake of their religion. 
" Blessed are they," says Our Lord, " that suffer persecution for 
justice sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, 
when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner 
of evil against you untruly, for My sake. Be glad and rejoice, for 
your reward is very great in heaven" (Matt. v. 11-13). Those who 
suffer great persecutions for the sake of their faith are called confes- 
sors; those who are put to death for their faith are called martyrs. 
A martyr goes straight to heaven at his death, without passing 
through purgatory. " We should be doing injustice to a martyr," 
says Pope Innocent III., " if we were to pray for him." A martyr 
possesses the love of God in the highest degree, since he despises life, 
the greatest of all earthly goods, for God's sake. Every martyr is a 
conqueror, and is therefore depicted with a palm in his hand, since the 
palm is the mark of victory. Yet no one is bound purposely to seek 
after persecution or a martyr's death. Any one who does so without 
an express inspiration from almighty God, is almost sure to yield to 
the persecutors. Nor is it forbidden to flee from persecution. "When 
they shall persecute you in one city," says Our Lord (Matt. x. 23), 
<( flee into another." Our Lord Himself fled before persecution (John 
xi. 53-54). So did the apostles and many of the saints, e.g., St. 
Cyprian and St. Athanasius. Yet the pastors of souls must not fly 
when the good of the faithful requires their presence. " The hire- 
ling fleeth, because he is a hireling," says Our Lord, " and careth not 
for the sheep" (John x. 13). Yet they may fly if their presence is 
not required, or if it seems likely to give rise to fresh persecutions. 
The heretic who dies for his heresy is no true martyr, for St. Paul 
tells us that if we give our body to be burned, and have not charity, 
it profits us nothing (1 Cor. xiii. 3). John Huss, who was burned at 
Prague in 1415, rather than give up his heresy, was no martyr, nor 
were Cranmer, Ridley, nor Latimer, who were burned at Oxford in 
the reign of Queen Mary. A man is a true martyr who receives a 
grievous wound for the sake of the faith and afterwards dies from the 
effects of it. So, too, are those who suffer imprisonment for life for 
their faith, or who die in defence of some Christian virtue or some 
law of the Church. Thus St. John Nepomucene, who was put to 
death because he would not violate the seal of confession, and St. 
John the Baptist, whose death was the result of his defence of the 
law of purity, were true martyrs. The whole number of the martyrs 
has been estimated at sixteen millions. 
The man who denies his religion through fear or shame, 
or apostatizes from the faith, is under sentence of eternal dam- 
nation, for Christ says, " He that shall deny Me before men, 
him I will also deny before My Father Who is in heaven " (Matt, 
x. 33), and again, " He that shall be ashamed of Me and of My 
word, of him the Son of man shall be ashamed, when He cometh 
in His majesty and that of His Father and the holy angels " 
(Luke ix. 26). 
He who denies the faith denies Christ Himself. In the times of 
persecution there were many who denied their faith. Even now there 
are some who, through fear of worldly loss or of being dismissed 
from their employment, deny their religion. Others from the same 
motives, though they do not explicitly deny that they are Catholics, 
yet do so implicitly by attending and taking part in the services of a 
false religion, or by being married in a Protestant church, or by a 
merely civil marriage, or by taking Protestants for the godfathers or 
godmothers of their children, or by allowing their children to be 
brought up in a false religion. (But there is no sin in attending a 
Protestant funeral or marriage out of courtesy, so long as no part is 
taken in the service.) Others again, though they do not deny their 
religion, are ashamed of it, because in many countries it is the 
religion of the poor, or because Catholics are not allowed to believe 
what they like. Those who deny or conceal their religion out of 
human respect are only despised by non-Catholics. The Emperor 
Constantius, father of Constantine the Great, once ordered all those 
of his servants whom he knew were Christians to sacrifice to the 
false gods. Those who obeyed he dismissed from his service, those 
who refused he promoted to the places of those he sent away. He 
who apostatizes from the faith is even worse than he who denies it 
from worldly motives. Solomon, whom God had filled with divine 
wisdom, in his old age was persuaded by his heathen wives to apos- 
tatize from the true religion and to worship their false gods. The 
Emperor Julian the Apostate fell away from the Christian religion 
and became a cruel persecutor. In the present day it too often hap- 
pens that Catholics give up their faith through motives of worldly 
interest, or because they want to marry a Protestant, or sometimes 
because they quarrel with the priest. A vicious and sinful life often 
prepares the way for an apostasy. No good man, from the time of 
Our Lord till now, has ever fallen away from the Catholic faith. 
The tree must be rotten within before it is blown down by the 
wind; the wind does not scatter the grains of corn, but the empty 
husks. He who apostatizes crucifies the Son of God afresh. He 
commits a sin almost unpardonable; he ceases to belong to the 
Church, and can no longer call God his Father, for as St. Cyprian 
says, " He cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church as 
his Mother." The Catholic must therefore keep far away from all 
occasions which could endanger his faith, for " he who loses his goods 
loses much; he who loses his life loses more; but he who loses his 
faith loses all."
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PART I - FAITH.

PART I - FAITH.

INTRODUCTION

PART I - FAITH.
