The four pillars of the Catholic Church
Etymologically speaking, the word church Ecclesia return to the Hebrew word Qahal which signifies “the people convoked by God”. At first, God has chosen Israel with whom he had realized an alliance (circumcision). This convocation of a particular people or nation has prepared to a new convocation regardless to geographic or ethnical belonging. In fact, this new alliance was realized by the blood of the son of God. After the resurrection of the Christ, the role of the church appeared by manifesting the love of God and therefore the church is the visible sign of the invisible Christ.
According to Lumen Gentium, the dogmatic constitution on the church: “The Church is a sheepfold whose one and indispensable door is Christ. It is a flock of which God Himself foretold He would be the shepherd, and whose sheep, although ruled by human shepherds; are nevertheless continuously led and nourished by Christ Himself, the Good Shepherd and the Prince of the shepherds, who gave His life for the sheep.” (Lumen Gentium I, 6).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church identified four pillars of the catholic church which are: creed, prayer, sacraments, and morality. Throughout this document, I will be explaining the importance of each pillar in the Catholic Church of today.
Every Sunday worldwide, in thousands of Catholic Churches, believers stand up after the homily and profess the Creed, this ancient text that states what we believe in. Creed comes from the Latin word “Credo” that means ‘I believe’. Two creeds in the Catholic Church are highlighted among all the other creeds: The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene-constantinople Creed. The Apostles’ Creed is considered as a summary of the apostles’ faith, whereas the Nicene-constantinople Creed stems from the two first ecumenical Councils back in 325 and 381 and it is until now the most common creed of both East and West great Churches. The Apostles’ Creed words are: “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.”.
We all know that faith has a content: if I believe in your love for me, that’s something personal, specific and real, and so it is with our belief in God. The Creed is the narration of God’s love for us in the story of Jesus. It retells that ancient story of Christ’s love for us. When we recite the Creed, we are not simply narrating historical events that happened back in the past, we are proclaiming that Jesus is active and alive in this moment, in our lives, in our communities, that His grace is present and plentiful for all, that His death and resurrection go on, in our midst, and we find life in His presence and His work among us. When we recite the Creed, we ask ourselves the following question: “Who is Jesus for us?”. What I answer in the age of six will be quite different than my answer at my sixties, because my life is in this all-time movement, this journey into the fullness of who Jesus is, and who I can become, in Him. When we profess the Creed, it’s that faith that unites us and propels us outward, to proclaim by our lives, the story of God’s love for us.
Second, prayer is “a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy” (St. Thérèse of Lisieux). In Christianity, prayer is a vital necessity. The contrary is not convincing at all: we will fall in the slavery of sin if we don’t allow the Spirit to be the lead.
There are many forms and ways for praying. The five forms of prayers in the Catholic Church are: blessing and adoration, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise. The prayer of blessing and adoration is centered upon God’s characteristics: His power, glory, and majesty; His beauty and love; His grace and mercy. It is also a response of men to God’s gifts. The prayer of petition is simply the prayer in which we ask God to supply us with our needs. In this prayer, we are aware with our relationship with God. We understand that every need is able to become an object of petition when we share in God’s saving love: “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” — John 14:13. The third form is the prayer of intercession. It leads us to pray like Jesus did: He’s the intercessor with the Father and on behalf of all of us, especially sinners. In intercession, we put our selfishness way too far and we pray on behalf of others and for others, even the ones that harmed us. Prayer of Thanksgiving is a characteristic of the prayer of the Church. It reveals and becomes fully what she is in the celebrating of the Eucharist. It is an appreciation for everything God has given us. Thanksgiving should be a part of every prayer in order to combat self-pity and depression. Finally, the prayer of praise rises directly to God, gives him glory, and lauds him. It is the form of prayer that recognizes immediately that God is God.
We can identify three main ways and expressions of Christian prayer: vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer. Vocal prayer is found in communal prayers like the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, or in blessings before family meals. Vocals are essential for us because our human nature needs to integrate activities of both soul and body, and vocal prayer gives us the opportunity to express what we feel through our senses of physical nature. Meditative prayer is mainly based in spiritual reading, a search for understanding what God is calling us to do. The two most popular forms of meditation are lectio divina and the Holy Rosary. A contemplative prayer is a silent prayer, it is the expression of the mystery of prayer and makes us share in God’s mystery.
Third, sacraments are signs (actions and words) that are perceptible and accessible to our nature as humans. They were instituted by Jesus Christ and they are still part of the traditions of the Catholic Church. There are seven sacraments that Christ himself gave to us. First, there’s the sacraments of initiation which are Baptism, the Eucharist, and Confirmation. Second, there is the two sacraments of vocation which are Marriage and Holy Orders and then finally there are the two sacraments of healing which are the sacrament of Reconciliation also known as Confession and the sacrament of The Anointing of the Sick.
The Church uses the seven sacraments to sanctify us. As Christians, we are not just spirits trapped in bodies. Our bodies are part of who we are. By the sacraments, God comes to us and gives us his mercy according to who we are in a bodily physical way. The sacraments are a manifestation of God’s mercy that affects us not only spiritually but also physically. Here’s how it goes: your spiritual life as a Christian begins at Baptism, it is matured at Confirmation, your soul is healed in Reconciliation, your body is healed in Anointing of the Sick, families are made with Marriage, the Church is sustained with Holy Orders, and the Christ is present in the Eucharist.
The fourth pillar of the Catholic Church is morality. Man is a moral subject when he acts with freedom and becomes the father of his decisions. Human acts can be morally evaluated, and they are either evil or good. The morality of our acts depends on (constitutive elements): the chosen object, the intention (the end in view), and the circumstances of the action.
The object is the component with which the action is primarily concerned. For example, praying the rosary, stealing, helping our parents with house tasks, lying, etc. For a good act to be moral, its object must be good. In other words, it must confirm to the law of God. The circumstances form the environment, such as the person involved, the place, the time, the occasion. They are distinct from the object, but they can alter or change its moral tone. Circumstances can make a good action evil (a nurse with a night shift goes to sleep), increase the guilt (a boy lies to his father), or minimize the guilt (lying in order to avoid an embarrassing situation). When we are evaluating the moral quality of our human acts, we should always consider the circumstances simply because all our actions occur at a certain place and at a certain time. The third component is the intention or the purpose. A human act is morally good when the doer has a good intention, he must have the aim to accomplish something that is good. Stealing, for example is always wrong and no purpose, can make this act good. Other actions may be either, and it depends on why we accomplish them (the intention). Taking a drink at a party is not sinful but drinking a bottle in order to get drunk is. The morality of many acts that we make every day is determined by the intention.
To conclude, the four pillars of the Catholic Church are a key component for the permanence of our Church nowadays, in our world full of war and violence. A house without its pillar will be destroyed, and this explains the importance of the four pillars of the Catholic Church. In brief, these pillars are Creed, Prayer, Sacraments, and Morality. Creed reminds us of our beliefs every Sunday when we recite the Apostles’ or Nicene-constantinople Creed. Whether vocal, meditative, or contemplative, Prayer comes in many forms: blessing, petition, thanksgiving, intercession, and praise. It makes us in vital relation with our God. The seven sacraments make us experience the Lord’s grace. These seven sacraments are Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Anointing of the sick, Marriage, and Holy orders. Morality has three “sources”: the object, the intention, and the circumstances. A morally good act requires the morality of its intention (its end), its object, and of its circumstances all together.
References
Baker, K. (n.d.). What Makes Human Acts Good or Bad? Retrieved December 11, 2019, from https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/whatmakes-human-acts-good-or-bad.html.
Catholic Church. (1994). Catechism of the Catholic Church. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Expressions of Prayer — What Are the Three Expressions of Christian Prayer? (2015, August 22). Retrieved December 11, 2019, from http://www.stpatricksjaffrey.com/hrf_faq/expressions-of-prayer-what-are-the-threeexpressions-of-christian-prayer/.
Mary, R. (2010, May 5). The Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV-Cwo_L3Ok
Morality — How We Live. (2015, November 22). Retrieved December 11, 2019, from https://4pillarsofthechurch.wordpress.com/morality-how-we-live/.
The Seven Sacraments. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.jesuschristsavior.net/Sacraments.html