Canon of Ignas Christianto Galih Prasetyo

In eternity, since man is immortal by his soul and eventually his body, man is always connected to God by the love of God since remember, that man exists is an immortal decree of God. However, this connection to God can be forgotten, overlooked, or explicitly rejected by man. This can be caused by many things. First, the problem of evil, which if man refuses to acknowledge sound reason can be a stumbling block towards faith. Second, ignorance or indifference in respect to God, which may be caused by other factors of their own. Third, the cares and riches of the world, which is classical idolatry. Fourth, the scandal of bad example from the believers. Fifth, ideologies intentionally against God. Finally, the attitude of sinful man which flees God out of fear.

The natural consequence of the universal desire for God which inheres within the nature of man is that we should expect a universal tendency towards God in all history of mankind. Yes it is possible for man to be deceived, either by himself or by the demonic beings, but even in their deception they still strive toward God. Though many times they will fail and fall into eternal loss of God. This universal tendency of man throughout all history makes man a religious being. What it means is that man is a being which tends or even will absolutely bind himself to something higher than himself, even if that thing is himself. God has decreed everything which includes the times and places each man shall live. This expression is to illustrate that God has provided sufficient grace for each man so that man may recognize the invitation of God and search for Him. Yet even so, it is written, that God is not far from all of us, for it is in Him that we live and move and have our being. This is the...

Desire is distinct from will. While will is the principle of motion in rational creatures, desire is an attraction which has potential to affect the will. I hypothesize that desire has a relationship with happiness and suffering, or positive and negative moral experiences. In general, sensitive creatures avoid suffering and tend toward happiness. Suffering may be defined as the experience when a desire is not fulfilled and contradicted. Happiness is thus the experience when the desire is fulfilled. It seems to me that there is a hierarchy of desires. With the desire for God being the deepest or highest desire in mankind. As such, the fulfillment or contradiction of this desire constitutes the greatest happiness or suffering. Yet this law of desire does not find itself in the necessary reality but seems to me a product of God’s creative design. For it seems logically possible for me that a being experiences happiness and suffering irrespective of desire. So without desire, beings can ...

When God reveals Himself to man, man has two choices of responding. He can accept God, that response which we call faith, and any other response which is not faith. An unfaithful response to God is not always an outright rebellion or rejection, though in essence you either accept or reject God, there is no middle. What I intend to say is that this rejection need not be so explicit, but it can be implicit. For example, a man who idolatrously worships himself in practice while saying glories to God by his mouth alone would perhaps not be identified as an explicit rebel against God, but he is for sure against God in essence. For an acceptance of God will involve the entire life and being of the person in faith. God’s light is a multifaceted object in relationship to humanity. At once, physical light is a kind of light from God as it is indeed created by God. Yet the meaning of light in the Catechism is indeed more than just physical light, it is instead illumination of the intellect by ...

Catechesis refers to the totality of the Church’s efforts to make disciples, to help men believe in Jesus Christ so that by faith they may have life in His name, to educate and instruct them on the doctrines of God, thus building up the body of Christ. It is the teaching of Christian doctrine in an organic and systematic way to initiate hearers into the fullness of Christian life. Yet I say that catechesis can simply be the teaching of theology in so far it is the correct and soundly taught theology of the Holy Catholic Church to sanctify and deepen one’s relationship with God. Catechesis is built upon some elements of the Church’s pastoral mission which are not formally identical to catechesis but have an aspect of catechesis. These elements are initial proclamation or preaching of the Gospel, apologetics or examination of the reasons of belief, experience of Christian living, celebration of the sacraments, integration into ecclesial community, and apostolic and missionary witness. ...

God is the Supreme Being which possess all perfections and all goodness in Himself. By this principle, there is no necessity or debt or deserving for God to have granted us existence and so creating us. Yet by His free love and grace He has created man for one purpose alone, to “seek Him, to know Him, and to love Him will all of his strength.” In short, union with God, which we Catholics call the beatific vision, or literally what it means “Blessed Sight”. However, man has fallen through sin, which is disobedience against God and now man is separated from God and from each other. The solution is Christ Jesus and the family of God which is the Church, the Holy Catholic Church. At all times God calls man to the unity of the Church even from before Christ came. As such, no man can excuse himself, but must give a proper account of their deeds before God when they die. We are called to enter the family of God and be adopted children of God, so we too may be heirs and inherit that blessed li...