I delivered to you what I also received
Chapter 3: Article 37 - 49.
The Chapter invites us to understand the need for handing on faith from one to the other and underlines the element of a shared faith, picturing to us the role and the function of the Church, as the Mother of our faith. Infact, that is the subtitle of the section that begins this chapter saying, "since faith is hearing and seeing, it is also handed on as word and light"(37). A simple but profound image is given to us to understand this fact, from the Easter Liturgy where hundreds of small candles are lit from the One Paschal Candle, and the light is passed on from one candle to the other! Because faith is born of an encounter which takes place in history and lights up our journey through time, it must be passed on in every age(38), states the encyclical. Passing on is such an important element in our human life, for our knowledge and self awareness itself is linked to the others who have gone before us, to begin with those in the prime place - our parents! In the same way, when it comes to our faith, it is the Church, the mother, who teaches us to speak the language of faith (38). This relationship between faith and Church can be understood from various terms, such as Tradition, Shared experience, handing on, communication etc.
Those who believe are never alone; faith is always shared and it tends to be spread; it invites others to share in its joy (39). "Faith needs a setting in which it can be witnessed to and communicated, a means which is suitable and proportionate to what is communicated"(40). Faith and memory are related and the Church like a family passes on the store of memories! Of the means that the Church has to play this function, the first and foremost is, Tradition, which comprises of "everything that serves to make the people of God live their lives in holiness and increase their faith" (40).
Another prominent means is the Sacraments which are special means of passing on faith - they communicate "incarnate memory, linked to the times and places of our lives, linked to all our senses"(40). Baptism, gives new context and a new environment and through them a new life. One cannot give baptism to oneself, it is something received. The communal nature of Baptism is brought out in the elements like the Trinity, in whose name baptism is carried out - the filial identity granted by God, who is a communion; the Water, which at one and the same time symbolises death and the eventual rise to new life. It epitomises the womb from where one is born to new life (41-42). Baptism is a rebirth that gives one a new life, a new name. It is important that we see the significance of the infant baptism here, for "faith is a reality lived within the community of the church; part of a common 'We'"(43).
The Sacramental character of faith finds its highest expression in the Eucharist. Eucharist is a precious nourishment for faith: an encounter with Christ truly present in the supreme act of his love, the self-giving gift of himself (44). There are two dimensions of faith that we can find intersecting in the Sacrament of the Eucharist - One, the dimension of history - as an act of remembrance, making present the mystery of the past; second, the dimension of being led from the visible world to the invisible world! (44) The Celebration of the Sacraments bring together, faith and memory! For a specific instance, the Creed that is professed with its Trinitarian Structure, the Christological Confession and the Fellowship Factor, brings into picture the collective memory that signifies a "new life of faith as a journey of Communion with the living God"(45).
Faith, Prayer and Decalogue is the following section that highlights the other shared elements of our communitarian faith - The Lord's Prayer, which is a way of sharing Christ's own Spiritual experience and the Decalogue, which gives "concrete directions for emerging from the desert of the selfish and self enclosed ego in order to enter into dialogue with God, to be embraced by his mercy and to bring that mercy to others" (46). Thus, the profession of faith, the celebration of the sacraments, the path of the ten commandments and prayer - are the 4 elements of the memory that the Church hands down; notice here that these are the very four traditional formats in which the Catechism of the Catholic Church proceeds (46).
The final point that the section makes is about the Unity and Integrity of Faith - as expressed by the words of Paul in Eph 4:4-5- one faith, one body, one spirit, one baptism, one Lord! The society today rules any acceptance of one truth, as a breach of freedom of expression or autonomy of the self, while paradoxically it is ready to unite for one cause or one issue! Disregarding this bias, the Church affirms that Faith is one, because of the oneness of God, the One Lord Jesus, and the one body and one spirit which shares that faith (47). Since Faith is one, it has to be professed in all its purity and integrity (48); choosing some aspects and leaving out some is no Faith! Apostolic Succession (49), which is the gift of Christ to the Church, guarantees this oneness of faith and the integrity of truth.
In short the Chapter brings out the fact of the Church as the subject who has and expresses the faith, as a response to the self-revealing God who has changed the lives of the persons forming part of it, called them and constituted them into one body, one spirit, in the one Lord Jesus Christ.
The question that remains to be treated is, what would be the practical import of this faith in the concrete life in today's world. The next chapter would begin to analyse this question (to be continued...).