A Catholic school teacher once posed this question to me: “Protestants always have signs, t-shirts, and the like with John 3:16, so it seems that for them that is the one definitive verse of the Bible. If you had to sum up the Catholic faith in one Bible verse or passage, what would it be?”

Obviously our faith isn’t reducible to individual verses or passages or “sound bites,” but I still thought this was--and is--a most interesting question.

I began by acknowledging that Protestants and Catholics alike rightly emphasize John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

It’s a beautiful verse that succinctly captures much of the Gospel message or, in more technical terms, the Gospel kerygma.  It shows God’s love for the world, the shared divinity of Father and Son, Our Lord’s saving mission, the necessity of faith, and the goal of eternal life—not bad for just one verse!  Catholics do well to proclaim that verse in season and out.

Nonetheless, I came up with five other verses or passages that I think are especially significant for Catholics and indeed for all who believe in Christ:

(1a) 1 John 3:1—See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

(1b) Galatians 4:4-7—But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.

Okay, I cheated by pairing up those two passages. What has always struck me about these passages and others like them are the fact that the “eternal life” spoken of in John 3:16 is to be experienced as truly sons and daughters of God, as what St. Peter describes as being “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). Our “sonship” is a present reality, which among other things makes us “heirs” of the fullness of eternal life in heaven. I think these verses also help us to understand the problem with a “once saved, always saved” theology that implicitly denies the freedom we have as children of God to turn away from Him through mortal sin.

(2) Acts 2:42—And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

These four activities are described as the pillars of the first Christians, and they continue to be the pillars of the Christian life today and in fact are expressed in the four pillars of the Catechism, which is the basic structure of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Namely, “apostles’ teaching” refers to the Creed; “breaking of the bread” refers specifically to the Eucharist and more generally to the Sacraments; “fellowship” refers to Christian morality and a Christian understanding of the Ten Commandments; and “the prayers” refers to Prayer, typically summarized by the Our Father.

(3) Philippians 2:5-11—Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I have always been especially moved by this passage. Also, scholars generally believe that this passage from St. Paul was quoting an ancient Christian hymn, which also demonstrates the role of Tradition and the function of the liturgy as the Church’s “memory” of what God has done for us through His Son.

(4) Matthew 5-7—Christ’s Sermon on the Mount

This is a little longer (okay, a lot longer!), but it is truly the “Magna Charta” of the life Christ calls us to lead. Here we see Christ as the New Moses giving us a New Law. While Moses brought the Old Law down to us from Mt. Sinai, Our Lord takes the crowd (and us) up on the mountain to give us His blueprint for our eternal happiness or “beatitude.”

(5) Matthew 28:18-20—And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

These are the instructions of Christ to His Church before His Ascension. He instructs His Church to go out and make disciples–baptizing and teaching with His authority, and also promising His continual presence in His Church.

Obviously many other passages or verses can be cited. Perhaps John 1:14 and Matthew 16:18 deserve "honorable mention." Let me know if you think of any others that should have cracked my top five!