A Catechism is something that explains the Christian faith using questions and answers. The Catechism found in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is very short, easily read in one sitting, and was intended to be studied by those about to be Confirmed by their Bishop, which means that it assumes the student has already been Baptised.

The ‘Catechist’ is the person who asks the questions, usually a Priest, Sunday school teacher, parent, or other spiritual leader, and the student gives the answers, either reading them aloud from the book or reciting them from memory.

This Catechism has a five part structure, it covers: (1) our identity as Christians, (2) the key doctrines of Christianity found in the Apostle’s Creed, (3) the ten commandments, (4) the meaning of prayer as derived from the Lord’s Prayer and (5) the meaning of the two sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Since the Catechism is many centuries old, I have modernised its language and clarified some points especially for a younger audience, so that they can (hopefully) understand everything they are saying, but I have been very careful to not alter any of its meaning in any way. My modernised Catechism without the commentary can be found here, and please feel free to use it.

I will be writing a commentary on each of the five parts of the Catechism, intended especially for mature Christians to refresh their minds about our faith, but also for the Catechists themselves to have a clearer picture of the contents so that they can better educate the students.

Part One: Our Identity as Christians

Q. What is your Name?

A. (Name)

Q. Who gave you this Name?

A. My Godfathers and Godmothers gave it to me at my Baptism; which was when I was joined to Jesus Christ and made a member of his Church. At my Baptism I was also made a child of God, and now I look forward to entering the Kingdom of Heaven.

Commentary:

For young people especially, it is important for them to have a clear sense of who they are to ground them before they learn about other things. This Catechism tells us four things about our identity:

1. Joined to Christ

For the Baptised, our identity is centered above all else in Christ. Jesus was, and is, the pure and definitive Image of God and therefore is, in his very being, the definition of what a human being ought to be, since all humans were made to reflect God’s image. As humans then, our ‘true’ identity is Jesus since we are supposed to reflect his character. In Baptism, we were joined to Jesus by receiving his Holy Spirit, and in some mystical way our old self is said to have died when they entered the water, and our new self came to life, and that new self is joined to Christ. What this means for our identities is that we no longer represent ourselves to the world, instead, wherever we go we represent Jesus. The secular world is fixated on the idea of ‘being yourself,’ but in the Christian faith, being yourself means being more like Jesus, who is the standard we must always compare ourselves to. St Paul said ‘I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I that live, instead, Christ lives in me’ (Galatians 2:30). St Paul also tells us to ‘put away your old self, which was corrupted by evil desires and be made new… put on the new self, created to be like God in righteousness and holiness’ (Ephesians 4:23-24).

2. Member of the Church

A crucial aspect of our identity is the community that we belong to, which can include our biological family, our hometown, our economic class, our school, our race or our nationality. For the Baptised, the community that defines us above all else is the Church. The Church is the family that is made up of people who have been joined to Christ and love and serve Him as their Lord, and crucially, who love each other. When other people meet you, it is therefore important that they understand that the community you belong to is the Church, you are a ‘Church person’ and that should make you proud. Often the secular world, especially in the West, wants to make our identity entirely an individualistic thing, where we are defined entirely by ourselves alone. But in Christianity, you cannot be a ‘Christian’ and not be a part of the Christian community, the Church. It is therefore essential that throughout your Christian walk you are walking amongst the community of faith. St Paul says ‘we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of each other’ (Romans 12:5)

3. Child of God

Because we are joined with Christ, our identity before God is no longer someone who he is separated from or angry with. When Jesus was baptised, God said to him ‘you are my beloved Son, and I am very pleased with you’ and now, because we have been baptised and joined with Christ, God says this same thing to us! Just as Jesus was God’s Son, if we are joined to Him we become God’s son/daughter as well! It is important then that our identities are grounded in God’s love for us and that our sense of self-worth proceeds not from the fleeting praise of the world but from the eternal love of God the Father as shown and expressed through his Son Jesus. However, just as a truly loving father must punish his children when they disobey, being grounded in God’s love does not mean that he will approve of all our actions. Sometimes, in order to love us, God will punish us by causing sorrow and pain to occur in our lives in order to set our feet back on the right path. St Paul says we have ‘received the Spirit of adoption as sons… the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God… fellow heirs with Christ’ (Romans 8:14-17) and that ‘in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For all you who were baptised into Christ have put on Christ’ (Galatians 3:26-27).

4. Excited for the Kingdom

Another important part of our identity is our future hopes and aspirations. For young people, this is often what they want their main sense of identity to be: ‘I am someone who wants to be an astronaut!’ For the Baptised, our ultimate hope is that we will be with Jesus for all eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven that he will establish on Earth. We will be resurrected into our bodies and live forever, loving God and loving each other in a recreated world without sin, suffering or death. That is what we are looking forward to the most! And it is in this Kingdom, where we will finally become the truest version of ourselves. In this life, our bodies and minds are contaminated with sin; we are incapable of not thinking bad thoughts, wanting bad things and unfortunately, sometimes we do bad things too. Because of this, we are not properly reflecting Jesus’ image of purity, righteousness and love, and therefore we are not properly being who we are really supposed to be. But in the Kingdom of Heaven, when we will be set free from sin, we will finally be like Jesus, and therefore, like our true selves! St John says ‘beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will become has not yet appeared, but we know that when Jesus appears we shall become like him’ (1 John 3:2) and St Paul says ‘our citizenship is in Heaven and from there we wait a Saviour, Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body’ (Philippians 3:20-21).

Q. What did your Godfathers and Godmothers do for you at your Baptism?

A. They promised three things on my behalf: First, that when I grow up I will reject the devil and all the evil things he wants me to do, I will reject the ways of the secular world, and I will reject the sinful desires of my body. Second, they promised to ensure that I will grow up to believe in the Christian faith and all its doctrines. And thirdly, they promised on my behalf that I will follow God’s will and commandments all the days of my life.

Commentary:

Three more aspects of our identity as Christians are now given, and these aspects are what the Baptised person’s Godparents hoped they would one day choose to have. These three things are not made up by the student on their own, they are not inventing their own identity or lifestyle, which is what the secular world wants us to do. Instead, the students are freely choosing to live up to an identity that was pledged for them by their elders, which instills a sense of humility on them. The three new qualities are as follows:

1. Rejecting Evil

As Christians, we choose to be different. We choose to fight the Devil, rather than follow his temptations, and we choose to be pure and holy, rather than give in to the desires of our body, and we choose to be different to the secular world, rather than be like everyone else. This means that there are things that Christians must not do. Christians must not strive after things like sex outside of marriage, taking drugs, getting drunk, making lots of money and attaining luxurious products. Christians must be people who say ‘no.’ We say ‘no’ to promiscuous sex, ‘no’ to drugs, ‘no’ to getting drunk, ‘no’ to always having to buy the next best thing. Why? Because we strive not after pleasure, or wealth, or popularity, but after God. St Paul said ‘do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds’ (Romans 12:2).  St John said ‘do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life – is not from the Father but is from the world’ (1 John 2:15-16)

2. Believing in Christianity

Christians, above all else, are defined by belief. But we do not just believe in a vague notion of there being a ‘god,’ instead we believe in the specific doctrines of Christianity, which will be covered in Part Two. However, it must be said here that our faith must be the central aspect of our identity in the eyes of others. You must be remembered, above all else, as ‘someone who loved Jesus’ and someone who trusted and hoped with all your heart that you would be united with Jesus in the afterlife. When the world tells you that after death there is nothing and so you should enjoy life while you can, you must be the person who ‘lays up treasures in Heaven’ and hopes that the good deeds you do in secret will be rewarded by God. When the world tells you that there is no God and no right or wrong, you must be someone who knows that God is real, and that he will judge the world based on his commandments. Hebrews says that ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things that are not seen’  and that ‘without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him’ (Hebrews 11:1+6).

3. Obeying God

Finally, a Christian must be someone who obeys God. We cannot say that we believe Jesus is our Lord if we do not serve him as our Lord and seek to obey him. The specific commandments of God will be raised in Part Three, but here we should say that obeying God means our identities must be defined by purity. You must be known as someone who was sexually chaste, who was soft-spoken and kind, and who was always engaged in loving Jesus. Christians must be people who pray constantly, who read Scripture daily, and who attend Church regularly. Christians must be people who consult God’s wisdom in prayer before making big decisions, who try to bring God into their conversations with others and who never blaspheme his Name. St James said ‘what good is it, my family, if someone claims to have faith but has no good deeds?’ (James 2:14) and Jesus said ‘if you love me, you will keep my commandments’ (John 14:15).

Q. Do you want to do these things that they promised on your behalf?

A. Yes, I truly do; and with God’s help I will. And I thank our heavenly Father for saving me from a life of disobedience and giving me this new life through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I pray to God that he will give me his grace, so that I will continue having this identity and living this saved life forever.

Commentary:

The last aspect of our identity that must be covered is that all the good things that we do were not done by our own strength or goodness, but by God working in us through his Spirit. As Christians we must have no sense of pride in our accomplishments as though we achieved them by ourselves, instead, we must always give thanks to God and give him the glory. Moreover, if we are struggling to do good, or to resist temptation, we must never think that we can be better on our own, but must always seek God’s help in prayer and rely on his power to help us. St Paul says ‘it is God who works in you, both to will and work for his good pleasure’ (Philippians 2:13) and Jesus said ‘with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’ (Matthew 19:26).

That completes Part One of our commentary, stay tuned for Part Two, where we will look at the Apostle’s Creed and the key doctrines of Christianity.