The Muslims are very admirable in devotion to daily prayer and in praise of God as Creator and mystery.
To understand Catholicism, you have to first understand the faith and history of the Jewish people. The Lord God led them out of slavery into the Promised Land. God gave His people the 10 commandments. God directed them how to build His temple, who was going to administrate the temple, and the atonement of sin.
The Jews recall God’s saving grace from ancient Egypt at Passover. The Jews also have many laws regarding daily life, commerce, marriage, eating, burial, etc.
Christ fulfills the prophets. The Prophet Isaiah described Christ as a man of suffering, who would not stand out, who would heal us through his wounds, who would be placed on a tree.
Of all of God’s creation, man is the most significant and greatest. Yet man turned against God through our first parents, Adam and Eve. Christ came and was baptized by St. John the Baptist. At that moment, a voice was heard by the followers of St. John the Baptist, ‘This is my Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased’. So God Himself is introducing Himself now as Father. The Holy Spirit also appeared over Christ in the form of a dove. So we have here a new introduction of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Christ was born in an animal feeder, poor of the Virgin Mary…to become nourishment for us, and the fulfillment of the manna from heaven that fed the Jews in the desert before they came to Israel. His first miracle was at Cana…symbolizing that we, His believers in the Church, would become His bride…providing the best wine for the wedding party, and at the request of His mother, to begin His ministry before His time.
Christ fed thousands of people with just so many bread and fish, He taught in parables that would make one look not so much at others, but deep into his heart to see what was of God and what was not, and to place his heart in love and not hate.
When Christ died on the Cross, there was great darkness, an earthquake, the souls of the just rose from the dead appearing to many, the curtain across the tabernacle in the temple now torn…meaning now Christ was the revelation for all to see.
Christ appeared to the apostles and others after His resurrection from the dead…He walked with those on the Road to Emmaus.
Christ rose from the dead to break the power of not only sin but death. Through Christ, the Lamb of God, we are restored to Him…but through Christ, now God is our Father as well. The Holy Spirit guides the Church to stay true to the teachings of Christ. Christ Himself sustains the Church on His body, blood, soul, and divinity found in the sacraments.
Finally, the new dimension of God is that He is now among us. He walks with us, He speaks to us through His Word in the Bible, because His Word is alive and speaks in all times. He nurtures us with His life in the sacraments and with fellow believers.
The closer we come to Christ, the more we can understand that our God is the God of love, and it is in the Cross that evil and suffering have meaning.
It is with Christ Who continues to walk with us, bears our sufferings and weakness, who helps us forgive and love…With Christ we are no longer alone. Christ is for those who want to recognize Him…He is here.
