The Baltimore Catechism Explained | Lesson 2: On God and His Perfections

Our Lady of the Rosary Family Catechism

Fr. Anthony Pillari JCL, MCL, STD

Lesson 2: On God and His Perfections

(The following is a transcript from the Our Lady of the Rosary Family Catechism with Fr. Anthony Pillari. Each presentation focuses on a lesson from the Baltimore Catechism. While these catecheses are intended for young Catholics, a prayerful study of the subject matter and materials provided would greatly benefit anyone. This video series is available free online.)

Welcome to the second lesson of Our Lady of the Rosary Family Catechism – On God and His Perfections. Let us begin with the prayer taught by our Lady to the children of Fatima, praying it slowly and well, so that you might help save souls even now, as you study your Catechism. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. O Jesus, I choose to live this day, for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Amen.

One day Jesus taught his disciples about how the heavenly Father takes care of them. About how He takes care even of the birds and flowers. He said, Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well (Matt 6:26-33).

Today we will learn a bit more about who God is. We know that God made everything that exists out of nothing. The sky with all its stars, the moon, the sun, the earth and all that it contains. God spoke and everything was made. But what is God like? In the words of the Catechism:

Q. What is God?

A. God is a spirit infinitely perfect.

In the world we see different degrees of goodness. You see something that is good. Other things that are better still. Something else which is even better. And then somethings that are so good that nothing could possibly be better. For example, you might have several friends who play football. One of them plays football alright. Another plays better than him, he can run faster or he’s taller, and so forth. Yet another friend might be even better. And then there might be still another friend who is so good at football that nobody can beat him. Here you see different degrees in the ability to play football. Or to take another example; if you like chocolate cake, you might find that one type of chocolate cake is ok. Another is better. And still another is so delicious that it’s hard to imagine any cake tasting better.

Here you see different degrees of perfection in chocolate cake. Well these are very small examples, very small things compared to something that’s much more important – to much more important perfections such as being generous, or patient, or loving, or wise, and so forth. For example, you may have a sister, and your sister hopefully is a loving sister. So you might recognize my sister is loving. But then you might realize, but my mother is so loving, she’s extremely loving. So you can see different degrees of the perfection of love in your sister and in your mother.

Every goodness, every perfection in the world, comes from God. So whenever you see someone who is good, whether it’s your father who’s good at playing with you and making you laugh, or you mother who’s good at cheering you up and taking care of you, or someone else. You know that it is God who gave them those good qualities. It is God who created them. And these good things that exist in them exist in God in a much greater way. That is what we mean by saying that God is infinitely perfect.

Any good quality that we see in someone on the earth, God has that quality in a much, much greater way. So much so that it would be impossible to ever find someone better than God. He is infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, infinitely loving, and so forth. And now what does it mean to say that God is a spirit?

One day when Jesus was sitting beside a well, a woman of Samaria came to draw water. In His conversation with her Jesus said, God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.

What is a spirit? Think for a moment about the angels. The angels also are pure spirits. That is, they are persons, like you and I, who can think, who can love, who can make free choices, who can do many things. But they do not have bodies. They are pure spirits. God also is spirit, and so He has no body. But He is infinitely greater than any angel. This is what the Catechism means by saying God is a spirit infinitely perfect. The Catechism now asks if God had a beginning, using an old English way of speaking that you will see from time to time in the Catechism questions and answers. It asks:

Q. Had God a beginning?

A. God had no beginning; He always was and He always will be.

Was there ever a time when we could say there was no God? While there was a time that we could say there was no heaven, no earth, no angels, no men, no animals, there was never a time when there was no God. He had no beginning, and He will never cease to exist.

Q. Where is God?

A. God is everywhere.

Everywhere, not spread out like a great cloud, rather God is completely present everywhere. All of Him, in each and every particular place. So right now, He is completely present in your home, where you are studying your Catechism. And He is completely present right here to me in Italy, where I am teaching you this lesson. He can do this because He is God. Now if God is everywhere, why do we not see Him?

Q. If God is everywhere, why do we not see Him?

A. We do not see God, because He is a pure spirit and cannot be seen with bodily eyes.

God is not clothed with any material body. He has no body and is spirit alone. And that is why He cannot be seen with our eyes.

Q. Does God see us?

A. God sees us and watches over us.

He loves you so much that He watches over even the tiniest details of your life. Even each hair on you head. As Jesus said, "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows" (Luke 12:6-7).

Fear not. Jesus wants us to have great faith in our Father who watches over us. As we heard in the Gospel passage at the beginning of this lesson, He tells us, "If God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well."

Q. Does God know all things?

A. God knows all things, even our most secret thoughts, words, and actions.

He is everywhere and sees and hears everything, even the things inside of us. Even your thoughts that no one else sees. And as for your actions, darkness cannot hide then from His view, nor can noise prevent Him from hearing you. We should try to remember this during our day. When you are studying, or working, or playing, or eating, try to remember that God is right there present, seeing everything that you are doing or saying. Even what you are thinking. This is a wonderful thing, because it means that we can make God happy every moment of our day. Anytime that we try to be good, He immediately sees it and is happy. It also means that every moment of our day we can make Him sad, that we can offend him by our sins.

When we are tempted to sin, it is helpful to remember that God is right here, looking at me, and listening to me. Would I do this thing if I knew my parents, or my relatives, or my friends were watching me? Would I like them to know what I am thinking about, or what I am doing, or what I’m preparing to do? If not, then I should definitely not do them in God’s presence. Because He is right here with me, right now.

Moreover, not only does God see my every action and thought, but also by His gift, the Virgin Mary and your guardian angel are aware of everything that you do. One day, on the last day, when we will all come before God to be judged, our secret thoughts and actions will be revealed to the whole world, both the good ones and the bad. So let us do our best to act now in such a way that we will always make God happy, and so that we will give joy to our guardian angels and to our Lady.

Q. Can God do all things?

A. God can do all things, and nothing is hard or impossible to Him.

God created the whole world from nothing. He can do anything. We see glimpses of this in the many miracles that He has worked throughout history, some of which you will be learning about in these lessons.

Q. Is God just, holy, and merciful?

A. God is all just, all holy, all merciful, as He is infinitely perfect.

All just means completely just. Just means to give each person what belongs to him, what he deserves. It means to reward someone if he deserves a reward, or to punish him if he deserves to be punished. Holy means that which is good. Merciful means compassionate and forgiving, treating us better than severe justice demands. Thankfully, God is so merciful that He gave His only beloved Son to suffer and die for us on the cross for the redemption of our sins. But although God is all merciful, He is also all just.

In a court, a just judge is one who listens patiently to all the arguments for and against the prisoner. And then, the just judge, comparing the facts of the case and the arguments, decides exactly in accordance with the prisoner’s guilt or innocence. If the prisoner is in fact guilty, but the judge decides that he will inflict more or less punishment than what the prisoner deserves, or if the judge secretly accepts money from the prisoner’s friends or family, and makes an unfair decision, then he is an unjust judge.

By the same token, if the judge decides to let every prisoner go free, no matter how guilty he is, without any punishment, he would not be a merciful judge, but rather, an unjust judge who would soon be forced to leave the court.

Although God is all merciful, He is also just. He rewards or punishes us according to what we deserve. It’s true that He punishes us much less than He could in strict justice. But He also respects our free choices, and so, He treats us justly, according to what we have chosen to do or not to do.

God still to this day continues to manifest His power through the lives of the saints. Since nothing is impossible for Him, He can use the most unlikely people to work great miracles. I would like to tell you now about one such saint. Saint André Bessette is one of many saints whose lives were filled with miracles. In fact, his life included hundreds of miracles and cures of the sick which were performed so frequently that he became famous even while he was alive. André was the eighth of twelve children. He was born in Canada, but he lost his father at the age of 9. He would lose his mother three years later, leaving him orphaned at the age of 12.

From an early age, André developed a strong devotion to Saint Joseph, and gave his entire life to him. He was a hard worker, and although he had little education, he was accepted into religious life at the age of 26. After his initial training, he was given the humble position of doorman for a college run by his community. He was the one who would open the door when people knocked on it and receive them, and basically do that all day long, to take care of the guests that arrived. He carried out that work for more than 40 years. However, this didn’t stop the humble doorman from performing countless public miracles, including curing many of the sick students at the college.

In fact, Brother André soon became known as a great miracle worker, although, he always insisted that any miracles worked were due to the intercession of St. Joseph. Many people came to him asking to be cured. There were so many examples, it would be impossible for me to tell you of them all. So I'll just pick a small number, and some very ordinary examples, of things that happened all of the time in St. André’s life. One lady who couldn’t walk without the help of two men supporting her, asked Brother André to be healed. And the saint simply declared, "Let her walk," and immediately she was able to walk without assistance. On another day, he noticed a man who seemed troubled and in need of prayers. This man was worried about his wife who had been sick for many years. On hearing his story, Brother André told him that she had recovered, and in that exact moment, she did recover. When the man returned home, he found his wife in perfect health.

Brother André worked so many miracles that the streets on occasion were filled with children, men, and women who came to him to be healed. All of this took place, not a long time ago, rather, in Montréal, Canada very recently, where Brother André lived until 1937. There the magnificent shrine that this humble saint founded, Saint Joseph's Oratory, can still be visited today.

God has performed many other miracles to confirm the truth of the Catholic faith, some of which you will be learning about in future lessons. For now, work hard to memorize the questions and answers from this second lesson, seeing how many you can learn before the next one… May God bless you.