If you should be asked, for instance:  Why do you not eat flesh-meat on Friday? you should be able to answer:  “Because I am a Christian and wish to keep always before my mind how our Blessed Lord suffered for me in His holy flesh on that day; and anyone who claims to be a Christian, ought, I think, to be glad to do what reminds him so regularly and well of Our Lord’s Passion.”  Such an answer if given kindly and mildly would silence and instruct your adversary; it might make him reflect, and might, in time, bring him to the true religion.  Sometimes a few words make a great impression and bring about conversion.  St. Francis Xavier was a worldly young man, learned and ambitious, and he heard from St. Ignatius these words of Our Lord:  “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?” He went home and kept thinking of them till they impressed him so strongly that he gave up the world, became a priest and by his labors and preaching in India, converted to the true religion many thousand pagans.  In the lives of the saints there are many examples of a few words, by God’s grace, bringing men from a life of sin to a life of great holiness.

322 Q. How do we fail to try to know what God has taught?  A. We fail to try to know what God has taught by neglecting to learn the Christian doctrine.

323 Q. Who are they who do not believe all that God has taught?  A. They who do not believe all that God has taught are the heretics and infidels.

There are many kinds of unbelievers:  atheists, deists, infidels, heretics, apostates, and schismatics.  An atheist is one who denies the existence of God, saying there is no God.  A deist is one who says he believes God exists, but denies that God ever revealed any religion.  These are also called freethinkers.  An infidel properly means one who has never been baptized—­one who is not of the number of the faithful; that is, those believing in Christ.  Sometimes atheists are called infidels.  Heretics are those who were baptized and who claim to be Christians, but do not believe all the truths that Our Lord has taught.  They accept only a portion of the doctrine of Christ and reject the remainder, and hence they become rebellious children of the Church.  They belong to the true Church by being baptized, but do not submit to its teaching and are therefore outcast children, disinherited till they return to the true faith.  A schismatic is one who believes everything the Church teaches, but will not submit to the authority of its head—­the Holy Father.  Such persons do not long remain only schismatics; for once they rise up against the authority of the Church, they soon reject some of its doctrines and thus become heretics; and indeed, since Vatican Council I, all schismatics are heretics.

324 Q. Who are they who neglect to profess their belief in what God has taught?  A. They who neglect to profess their belief in what God has taught are all those who fail to acknowledge the true Church in which they really believe.