Charle Magne Jay M.

Bergado JD-1
1. What is the goal of Apologetics?
 The goal of Apologetics is to help us defend and strengthen our faith in Christ and to
share the gospel to others. The teaching of God is clear, that we should spread the
word, and make peace with others. It encourages us to have a positive relationship
with others while defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and
discourse.
2. What is your comprehension about Catholic Apologetics? Give some of its obstacles and explain
each.
 Catholic Apologetics explains the teachings, practices and beliefs of the Catholic
church and helps us defend it. Its only goal is to give clear explanations to different
misunderstood matters of the teachings of Christ. It draws us closer to God and want
us to be proud of being a Catholic.
According to my research these are the obstacles.

 God cannot be known by human reason- According to 1 Corinthians 1:21, the world's
wisdom was unable to reveal God to the world. It is asserted that this proves there is
no use in attempting to persuade people to believe in God by reason. That message
cannot be accepted by natural reason alone – it only makes sense because of the
special revelation of Scripture and as the Spirit enlightens.

 Natural humanity cannot understand God -  “The man without the Spirit does not
accept the things what come from the Spirit of God”. It is argued that there is no
point, therefore, in trying to explain them to him. Non-believers reject the gospel not
because it is illogical and they cannot understand what it means but because they
refuse to accept its claims over them.
 Without faith one cannot please God - Hebrews 11:6 clearly states that faith is
essential to please God, and some people suggest that this means that reason is
displeasing to Him. This claim sets up a false division between faith and reason.
Biblical faith is not blind belief in spite of the evidence, but trust in something that
has been commended to the person as trustworthy.
 Logic cannot tell us anything about God - Most people scorn or ignore apologetics
because it seems very intellectual, abstract and rational. They contend that life and
love and morality and sanctity are much more important than reason. Those who
reason this way are right; they just don’t notice that they are reasoning. We can’t
avoid doing it, we can only avoid doing it well
 Apologetics is not used in the Bible - If this claim is meant to say that Scripture
provides no examples of God providing evidence to support faith then it is simply
wrong. Geisler points to the miracles of Moses (Exodus 4:1-9), Elijah (1 Kings 18)
and Jesus (Acts 2:22) as well as the way in which Paul reasoned with people about
God’s existence, even using their own philosophical and religious ideas as a starting
point (Acts 17:22-31). The Bible, therefore, provides clear precedents for the task of
apologetics even if it does not contain the kind of detailed arguments necessary in
modern apologetics since it was written in a pre-modern world primarily to believers.

3. Why catholic do or make sign of the cross? Give at least 5 reasons or Catholic Church teachings on
the former.
  We do sign of the cross because it prepares us in receiving the grace and disposes us
to cooperate with it, being a prayer, a blessing and a sacramental. And most
importantly, it signifies, that we are Catholics.

FIVE REASONS WHY WE MAKE SIGN OF THE CROSS ACCORDING TO

CATHOLIC TEACHINGS:
A victory over the flesh - the word flesh sums up all the evil inclinations of
our old nature that persist in us even after we die with Christ in baptism.
Making the Sign of the Cross expresses our decision to crucify these desires of
the flesh and to live by the Spirit. Making the sign indicates our stripping
ourselves of our evil inclinations and clothing ourselves with the behaviors of
Christ.
A two-edged move against the devil. - The Sign of the Cross makes the devil
cower and flee. On one level, then, making the sign is a defensive move,
declaring our inviolability to the devil’s influence. But, more importantly, the
sign is also an offensive weapon, helping us reclaim with Christ all that Satan
lost at the cross. It announces our cooperation with Jesus in the indomitable
advance of the kingdom of God against the kingdom of darkness.
 A renewal of baptism. - When we sign ourselves, we are declaring that in
baptism we died sacramentally with Christ on the cross and rose to a new life
with Him. We are asking the Lord to renew in us those baptismal graces.
A mark of discipleship. - At baptism the Lord claimed us as His own by
marking us with the Sign of the Cross. Now, when we sign ourselves, we are
affirming our loyalty to Him. Signing ourselves recognizes that we are
Christ’s sheep and can count on His care; His soldiers, commissioned to work
with Him in advancing His kingdom on earth; and His servants, dedicated to
doing whatever He tells us.
A mini-creed. The Sign of the Cross is a profession of faith in God as He has
revealed himself. When we sign ourselves we are making ourselves aware of
God’s presence and opening ourselves to His action in our lives. That much
alone would be enough to transform us spiritually, wouldn’t it? But there is
much, much more.

4. What comes into your mind when you hear the word “Faith”? and elucidate the teaching of the
Catholic Church through the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding “Faith”?

 First thing that comes to my mind when I hear the word Faith is belief and trust. In a
catholic point of view, it is an evidence of that which is not seen—the invisible
spiritual things. Faith comes before a prayer is answered or before an individual has
received what he or she has requested from God. If we have received what we asked
for, then faith is not needed. According to Catechism, faith is a personal and
communal relationship. “Faith is first of all a personal adherence to God. At the same
time, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed”. Faith is something
that is arrived at after deep thought and reflection within the mind of the man that
comes to profess trust in God. To have faith in something or someone ultimately
means that one trusts an authority. To count as true faith, we must make a free choice
to trust in the church’s religious authority. Otherwise, we are not really giving our
 assent, but just professing belief on some other grounds like personal desire or
experience. That’s why faith is a gift of God and not simply an opinion that one has
come to by some other means.

5. One of the most distinctive types of artwork to be found in the Catholic Church is the statue. To
some or non-Catholics this appears to contradict the Word of God, who said, “Do not turn to idols or
make for yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:4). Do Catholic worship
statues? Enunciate your comprehensive response.

 We Catholics do not worship statues or images in any form. According to Catholic

teachings, worship is reserved to God alone. It is called sacred art which is only used
to evangelize, catechize and inspire. We only used it to show reverence and honor to
God and his saints. Every time we kneel or bow to them, it doesn’t mean we are
worshipping them, we are just honouring or venerating them and asking for their
intercession.

6. Non-Catholic claim that “Catholic worship saints”. This statement usually comes from the fact that
catholic often pray to saints, performing various devotions to them. Do catholic worship saints.
Explicate comprehensively.

 We Catholics doesn’t worship saints. When we pray to saint, we are simply asking
them to pray for us. And also, we don’t idolize them, their statues and paintings, they
are venerated, where the faithful recognize their example of holiness as one to follow
in, as an inspiration to living the Christian life. However, we must never, under any
circumstances, allow ourselves to become so obsessed over a particular devotion to a
Saint or Blessed, thinking they are to be worshipped, in such a way it jeopardizes our
relationship with God.

7. Explain he Dogma of the Holy Trinity.

 Although the word "Trinity" is missing from the Bible, the dogma of the Holy Trinity
is based on God's self-disclosure of the secret of his internal life of loving, perfect
fellowship. It is a subject of public divine revelation held in the Catholic Church's
tradition and recorded in Sacred Scripture. This lovely riddle was beyond the capacity
of man to comprehend using only reason. Its need for revelation speaks volumes
about how much God loves his children. As one of a Trinity of Persons—Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit—the Creator has revealed his most secret and inner existence of
utmost love and relationship. God is not a one being; rather, he exists as three separate
individuals, each of whom is fully endowed with one divine nature. The natures of the
three divine individuals are not identical. Theirs is it. They own it entirely and utterly.
Should we try to discover more about this amazing mystery of God's inner life?
Should we attempt to comprehend it more fully? Yes! God has shared this priceless
personal information with us out of his deep love for us. It is regrettable that there is a
pretty pervasive and careless practice of not giving the Trinity much thought. It's true
that the ideology might appear frighteningly opaque. In the end, it remains a complete
mystery. Therefore, some believe it is preferable to simply accept it on faith and leave
it alone as if, using a deistic perspective, reason can have no bearing on it. But both
 theology and religion are based on reason; they never start out without it and they
never abandon it.
 To adore God is to want to truly understand him. Who among lovers would ignore the
Lover's knowledge? What does it say about us if we wilfully ignore the study of the
Trinity when it is God who has revealed himself to us? It's similar to approaching the
door to a rare, hidden, treasure-filled room that God himself has unlocked for our
benefit, but instead of opening the door, we shrug and apathetically continue on. The
Trinity is, of course, a mystery that transcends reason—not in defiance of it—and
continues to elude complete human grasp due to the limitations of man's intelligence.
This lovely secret about God's inner existence of fellowship and boundless love,
however, should not be disregarded for that reason alone. It is vastly preferable to
shed even a little light on the Trinity's mystery than to just reject it.