Street of First Doctrine
1. Why Did God Make You?
Street of First Doctrine: first Catholic doctrine for souls learning how to believe, pray, and live.
"The Lord hath made all things for himself." - Proverbs 16:4
The first catechism question concerns the purpose of life. Before a person can understand prayer, commandments, , sin, , heaven, or hell, he must know why he exists. Man is not an accident. He is not made for comfort only, work only, pleasure only, family only, country only, or self-expression only. Man is made by God and for God.
The traditional catechism answer is simple and full: God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven. This answer gives the whole shape of human life. It tells the soul where it came from, what it must do, and where it is meant to go.
The question is not first, "What do I want?" It is not first, "What career will I choose?" It is not first, "What will make me comfortable?" The first question is deeper: "Why did God make me?"
This question places man in the right order. If God made man, then man's life has a purpose before man chooses anything for himself. A child does not invent the meaning of his own existence. A grown man does not become his own creator by growing older. Every person receives life from God and must answer to God.
This is why the question is merciful. It rescues the soul from wandering. Many people suffer because they try to build a life without knowing its end. They seek happiness in what cannot satisfy. The catechism begins by pointing the soul toward the only end that can fulfill it.
God made man to know Him. This means that religion is not a private hobby or a secondary interest taken up after more important things are settled. Knowledge of God belongs to the purpose of man.
To know God does not mean that the mind fully comprehends Him. God is infinite, and the human mind is limited. But God truly reveals Himself. He can be known from creation as Creator, and more fully by revelation, Scripture, the teaching of , and above all by Jesus Christ.[1]
The beginner should learn that ignorance of God is not a small matter. A man may know many earthly things and still miss the purpose of life. He may know business, politics, entertainment, machines, or arguments, yet remain poor in the highest knowledge if he does not know God.
God made man to love Him. Love is more than emotion. It is the movement of the soul toward the good. To love God is to prefer Him above all things, to seek His will, to His commandments, and to give Him the heart.
This love begins because God first loves us.[2] Man does not climb to God by his own greatness. God creates, calls, teaches, forgives, sanctifies, and draws the soul. The soul answers by faith, hope, , repentance, prayer, and .
The beginner must learn that love of God cannot be separated from truth. A man does not love God by inventing a god who agrees with his desires. He loves the true God by receiving what God has revealed and giving himself to Him.
God made man to serve Him in this world. Service does not mean that God needs man's labor as though He lacked something. God is perfectly blessed in Himself. Service means that man lives under God's and offers his life according to God's will.
To serve God includes worship, , prayer, work done honestly, duties of family and state of life, toward neighbor, resistance to sin, and fidelity in trial. Every ordinary part of life can be placed under God.
This corrects a false idea of freedom. Many think freedom means doing whatever one wants. Catholic truth teaches that freedom is ordered to the good. A man is not free when he becomes a slave of passion, , , anger, fear, or . He is free when he can serve God rightly.
God made man to be happy with Him forever in heaven. This is the final end. Earthly life is real and serious, but it is not final. Man is made for eternal life with God.
Heaven is not merely a pleasant continuation of earthly comforts. It is the vision and possession of God, the fulfillment of the soul, the communion of the blessed, and the end of all faithful longing. No created thing can replace it.
This truth gives proportion to everything else. Health, money, work, reputation, suffering, friendship, and loss must all be judged in light of eternity. A man may gain many earthly things and still lose himself. He may suffer greatly and still be blessed if he reaches God.
Earthly goods are not evil when received according to God. Family, food, work, beauty, learning, friendship, and rest are gifts. But they are not the final end of man.
The heart becomes disordered when it asks creatures to do what only God can do. Pleasure fades. Praise passes. Possessions can be lost. Health fails. Human approval changes. Even the best earthly loves are wounded by death unless they are held in God.
This does not make life gloomy. It makes life truthful. The soul can love created goods rightly only when it loves God first. Then earthly things become gifts on the road, not idols in place of the destination.
The catechism answer gives the order of a Christian life. First, know God. The mind must be taught. Faith must receive what God has revealed.
Then love God. The heart must turn toward Him and prefer Him above sin and self.
Then serve God. The will must . Religion must become life, not mere thought.
Then seek heaven. The soul must remember its end and live as one who will die, be judged, and either possess God or lose Him forever.
This order is simple, but it is not shallow. It can guide a child, a parent, a priest, a laborer, a scholar, the suffering, and the dying. Every state of life must return to the same truth: man was made for God.
The soul must learn that life has a purpose given by God. Man does not invent his own final end.
The soul must learn that knowing God is necessary. Religious ignorance is dangerous because man was made for divine truth.
The soul must learn that love of God requires . Sentiment without conversion is not enough.
The soul must learn that service to God is freedom. Sin promises liberty and gives bondage.
The soul must also learn to desire heaven. If heaven is forgotten, earthly life becomes confused, anxious, and disordered.
God made man to know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven. This is the first answer because it gives the whole direction of life.
A beginner should memorize it, but not only memorize it. He should measure his life by it. Does he seek to know God? Does he love God above sin? Does he serve God in daily duties? Does he live for heaven? These questions are not harsh. They are merciful, because they return the soul to the reason it was made.