From Blessing to Blessing

By Scott Ferrier, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

Have you been intending to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church but are a little intimidated by the some 700 pages of Church teaching? Started but never finished? Read some here, some there? May I recommend that you pause to read a small, sixty-page book by Dr. Sean Innerst entitled From Blessing to Blessing—The Catechism as a Journey of Faith. Dr. Innerst teaches theology and catechetics at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary and the Augustine Institute in Denver, Colorado. You will begin to see the Church’s masterpiece—the Catechism of the Catholic Church—in a new light, and you will make a promise to yourself to begin reading it again.

Dr. Innerst explains the intentions and themes of the Catechism that make its content come alive. As you read this book, you begin to understand that the Catechism reveals nothing less than the meaning of history. To quote Dr. Innerst: “Before beginning a journey, a traveler needs to consider three things: the starting point, the destination, and the route or path between the two.” In the very first paragraph of the Catechism, we read: “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness, freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.” The rest of the Catechism goes on to explain how this is accomplished. Everything that exists, including all of humankind, has come from God. Everything will return to Him. The Lord Jesus Christ is our Guide on the way back to the Father.

Using the three expressions, “Blessing-Plan-Economy of Salvation,” Dr. Innerst presents in relief the Trinitarian order of the Catechism. The economy of salvation (oikonomia) is “the working out of God’s saving plan in history, from creation and fall to Christ’s Second Coming in glory” (p. 5). In this way, the reader is able to see how the four pillars of the Catechism—(1) the Creed, (2) the Sacraments, (3) the moral life, and (4) prayer, are part of the story of salvation and how we ourselves enter into the history of God dwelling among His people. The Catechism is not just another collection of Church doctrines. This book by Dr. Innerst will surely change your mind about that.