The last “theology” book that many Catholics have read, unless they went to a Catholic high school or college, is whatever text they used for their Confirmation preparation. That’s really quite a shame. Most Catholics have really never formally studied their Catholic faith. Rightly so, they depend on the preaching of their priests to form them both spiritually and theologically. Yet is that really enough for the “average” Catholic? Not at all. No matter who we are, Priests, laypersons or Religious, the ongoing study of our Faith is essential to not just our growth in holiness, but also our basic spiritual health.
Jesus stated in the Gospel, when tempted by the Devil in the beginning of his ministry, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”. Revealed truth, the Word of God, then is food for us. And as Frank Sheed writes in his book, Theology for Beginners, when talking about the value of Theology, “Now it is a peculiarity of food that it nourishes only those who eat it. We are not nourished by the food that someone else has eaten. To be nourished by it, we must eat it ourselves.”
While it is true we are spiritually nourished by the Holy Eucharist when we receive it worthily and with love (as well as in our prayers), it is nonetheless true that the more we know about the Lord we receive, the greater the effect we can receive when we receive him sacramentally (and through the grace of prayer). Knowledge serves love. The more misunderstandings about God we can remove, the greater clarity we will have of our knowledge of God, which will make it easier to love Him and remain secure in our faith.
Here is an example: think about the times when you have a poor understanding of some topic. When it comes up in conversation, we can easily feel intimidated when someone seems to know more, and perhaps we even doubt our own understating of the topic. While it doesn’t really matter if the topic is for instance, what kind of new refrigerator to get, it does matter greatly when we are talking about our eternal salvation. It’s important to know what we believe and be secure in it.
I am not suggesting that a person goes out and gets the full three volume set of St. Thomas Aquinas’ watershed work, Summa Theologiae in Latin and start reading, but there are certainly a lot of wonderful texts available that are both easy to read without a theology degree and present the Faith in a coherent, complete, and most importantly - authentic and faithful manner.
The one text from Frank Sheed I mentioned above is a good start, or perhaps, What Catholics Really Believe by Karl Keating. I feel that probably everyone can read and understand the Catechism of the Catholic Church. What is most important is that we seek to learn about our faith in order to develop a mature, strong faith that is able to bear up under scrutiny. Relying on knowledge that we may just partially remember from our childhood is not the best way to remain strong in our Faith.
So go out and get one of these books. Spend a few minutes a day reading about our awesome Lord. Learn about what we believe. Develop a deeper and stronger faith. Having a well-informed, mature knowledge of our Faith is one of the best ways to protect it from harm and enable us to ultimately develop a greater love for the Lord and come ever closer to him. If you have a question about a particular text and whether it is good, or don’t understand something that you have read, feel free to talk to one of your priests - we will be happy to help!
God Bless you,
Father Joseph Byerley
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