Power of Amen

I’m in the process of doing Fr. Mike Schmidt’s Catechism in a year podcast. What a gift it is to have support in reading such a rich but dense book about our Catholic Christian faith. Recently on Day 144 we read 1062-1065. It was enlightening to learn about the power of “Amen:”

In Hebrew, amen comes from the same root as the word “believe.” This root expresses solidity, trustworthiness, faithfulness. And so we can understand why “Amen” may express both God’s faithfulness towards us and our trust in him.

In the book of the prophet Isaiah, we find the expression “God of truth” (literally “God of the Amen”), that is, the God who is faithful to his promises: “He who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth [amen].” Our Lord often used the word “Amen,” sometimes repeated, to emphasize the trustworthiness of his teaching, his authority founded on God’s truth.

Jesus Christ himself is the “Amen.” He is the definitive “Amen” of the Father’s love for us. He takes up and completes our “Amen” to the Father:

“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God”: Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever.

AMEN!