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The Christ-centered Plan in the Catechism & the Modern Malady of Meaninglessness

Sean Innerst

In Christ, God’s plan for our lives is made present. Catechizing on this is provides the answer to the pervasive sense of meaningless afflicting so many in our society.

The term ‘plan’ is used at least a hundred times in the Catechism, and that is no accident! We live in a time when the providential care of God is often doubted, when various ideologies suggest everything in the universe is meaningless or the product of a random series of accidents. With this worldview, we can begin to think of ourselves as accidents. The Catechism wants to stress that the exact opposite is true.

In his letter to the Ephesians (1:9-10), St. Paul says that God ‘has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.’ We should first note from this that Christ is the expression of the Father’s ‘plan,’ and that plan is in accord with his ‘will’ and ‘purpose.’

Second, the purpose of that plan is to ‘unite all things in [Christ].’

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Dr. Sean Innerst is Professor of Theology and Catechetics at the Augustine Institute, where he directs the concentration in catechetics in the Master of Arts in Pastoral Theology program. He was a founding member of the faculty at both St. John Vianney Theological Seminary and the Augustine Institute, both in Denver, Colorado. He is also a contributor to many of the online resources produced by the Augustine Institute for FORMED.org, such as The Search, Beloved, Reborn, Symbolon, Eternal Rest, and others.

This article is from The Sower and may be copied for catechetical purposes only. It may not be reprinted in another published work without the permission of Maryvale Institute. Contact [email protected]

Categorized Under
Categorized Under: 
Catechesis and Culture
Issue: 
32.3

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