Intro

Another important area to grow your mind is in the intellectual understanding of your Faith. For many of us, we have KCPE and KCSE certificates for our knowledge of mathematics, diplomas for our knowledge of accounting or computer programming, undergraduate degrees for our knowledge of medicine or economics, masters degrees for our knowledge of business administration or actuarial science, and so on. If I were to be academically examined, would I get a certificate, a diploma, an undergraduate degree or a masters degree for my intellectual knowledge and understanding of my Faith?


Short Exercise 19

These days we are celebrating the historical event of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This event has witnesses to it and their recorded reports as handed down to us.

  1. From your knowledge of Scripture, are you able to more or less narrate the sequence of events at least of the morning of Easter Sunday?  Who came to the tomb first: was it Mary Magdalene or the other women or the disciples from Emmaus?  Was there one angel or two at the empty tomb?
  2. Once you’ve genuinely tried answering that, read the annex for today authored by Monsignor Charles Pope.

Commentary
It is true that we are saved according to what we loverather than what we know.  The “entrance exam” into heaven is a test of love not of knowledge (a test of what you have loved rather than what you know).  So you can get into heaven even if you know incredibly little about God or your Faith.  In this sense idiots and retards canmake it into heaven (thankfully for most of us! J ) and professors of theology (like many of the Pharisees and Sadducees Jesus interacted with) can fail to do so.


At the same time however, ignorance is not a virtue.  It would be a strange God who could be loved better by being known less.  From Part 14b, even with God, we can love Him more the more we know about him.

Knowing more of him depends on your education: formal, passive informal and active informal (ref. Part 18).  If you’re in university or already working and have certificates, diplomas and degrees for this and that, but your knowledge of God and of your Faith is stunted to primary school level, then we have a problem.

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