Catholic doctrine series
by Father Rod Keller
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One God Man naturally tends to believe in God. He/she does not naturally tend toward atheism. Early peoples honored a multiplicity of gods: of the harvest, of war, of the sun, etc. Gods were either benign and to be worshipped and prayed to - or - they were to be feared and appeased. Some peoples practiced human sacrifice to their gods, of enemies captured in battle and even of their own children, to appease an angry or threatening god. The Church teaches that God can be known from creation. "God...can be known with certainty by the natural light of reason from created things." (Vatican I) The argument is as follows: (1) whatever exists came into existence (that is it did not make itself) (2) No thing is self-existent. (3) Created things must have a creator who is not himself created. For example our parents were created through the agency of others and they through others still...eventually a higher being had to have begun the process. Another proof is from logic. There can be only one supreme being. That is is in the definition of supreme. Two or more gods would be limited to one another and a contradiction. Two supreme beings would be an oxymoron. It was the Jews who were one of the oldest monotheistic faiths. Note in Deuteronomy 6:4 (The Great Commandment) "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone." Theists argue for creation from chance: given enough time chance alone will create all that is. At best chance can do little. Take the example of 15 pool balls in a bag. The chance of drawing out number one ball is one in 15; of drawing number two ball next is one in 210; of drawing the three ball is one in 2730, of drawing the four ball is one in 32,760, then of 360,360, of over three million to one. etc. And this is with only 15 parts. Think of something as complicated as an eye or even a cell! They have no explanation for life. Chance can not produce life, no matter how long it tries. One does not have to be a religious fanatic to believe in God. Most people do. Judaism and Christianity have gone beyond God as power to God as person. From: "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God"; to: "Philip...Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9) and "God is love." (I John 4:8)
Trinity God is one - and God is three! In the one God there are three separate persons. Not three modalities, not three perspectives. In God there is no beginning and no end. God did not start as one person and then blossom into three persons. God is triune by the very nature of His being. We can conclude to one God by observation of the created world around us. Any creature demands, by definition, a creator. The creator must be uncreated or else he is not supreme. What Jesus taught gradually was that in the one God there are three distinct and equal persons who compliment one another. That there is one God is observable; that there are three persons is a deep mystery which is revealed and which is denied outside of traditional Christianity. Our veneration of Christ as Lord is possible only within the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity - otherwise Jesus is only a teacher (rabbi) and a dishonest one at that since his claim was clearly to equality with the Father. We bow before the Trinity as the greatest mystery of Christianity. One is not a Christian who denies or redefines the Trinity, whatever their motive. The Jews saw God as one. In the New Testament Jesus is Christ the Lord and Messiah; the Father is divine as is the Holy Spirit. Our conclusion is to the Trinity although this word does not appear in the New Testament. The Trinity is a revealed mystery. Jesus calls the first person Father "No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Matthew 11:27) Jesus calls the third person Holy Spirit. Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of "another Paraclete" (advocate), the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will be with and in the disciples to teach and to guide them "into all truth". In other words "The Holy Spirit is revealed as another divine person along with Jesus and the Father" Vatican II quoting the Nicene Creed which goes back to early Christianity. The doctrine of the Trinity is not the problem; it is the answer to the problem of Jesus as Lord. Jesus says to Philip "The Father and I are one...Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9) The Trinity is the great revelation, the most profound teaching of Christianity. No wonder we begin each prayer "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" and end with "Amen"!
The Church The original schema presented to the bishops at Vatican II was traditional. It gave a hierarchical model of the church with the pope on top and the laity at the bottom. It could be illustrated as a triangle. The document that was approved was one that showed the church in a kind of circle. It was a People of God model. Each person is in service to the others. We are a circle facing outward. We are the church - along with the hierarchy. In today's Gospel Jesus refers to "my church". Clearly the church was not to be merely spiritual. Within any group there will be some level of disagreement. At times this can be bitter. So also in the church. We are united in faith and often little else. As one person famously said "My love for you is entirely supernatural". In other words "I can't stand you." Jesus formed a community around himself; he gave it life, his word, his spirit and the Eucharist. The church faces the world to bring Christ to it. It faces the world to bring everyone to Christ. The church is not a ghetto hiding in self-preservation and fear of the world. (As some would have it.) It is not a members-only club. All belong, even those who don't attend. "The powers of hell will not prevail against it." This is a promise of perseverance of the curch for all time, guided by the Holy Spirit. Either the church is the one true church or it is not. We are not one church among many. We are not just another denomination. Jesus did not establish a merely spiritual community. It has flesh and bones just as he did. "You are Peter and upon this rock (you) I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16) The Incarnation Modernism was (and is) the attempt to make Christianity relevant to the modern world. It is a kind of universalism. In its attempt to be relevant it denies the divinity of Christ. It distinguishes between the Jesus of history and the Christ of Faith. The Jesus of history was a mere man and the Christ of faith a divinity: "Whom Christian piety has idealized and exalted to the status of a divine being". Jesus' claim to equality with God was subtle and gradual. For example He speaks of "My Father" when speaking of the relationship to His Heavenly Father. When speaking of the disciples' relationship to the Heavenly Father it was "Your Father". The prayer, the Our Father was for the disciples, not for Himself. In John 10 Jesus says "I and the Father are one". In John 14, speaking to Philip, Jesus says "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father". Clearly Jesus claims equality with the Father. Many will say that Jesus was a great rabbi, a great prophet but no more. The problem here is that He claimed more. In fact He was put to death because of his claim of divinity. Either Jesus is who he said he was or the greatest hoax in history. How could he be merely good if he claimed divinity? The Father reveals his heart through Jesus his son. "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased; hear him." (Matthew 17:5) Theology calls the union of two natures in one person the "hypostatic union". It is a matter of faith (de fide) that "Christ assumed a real body, not an apparent body". The council of Chalcedon in 451 wrote of Jesus Christ as "truly God and truly man". This was not a new formulation but the declaration of a traditional truth that had been received. "The divine and the human natures are united hypostatically, that is, joined to each other in one person." (De fide) In other words the divine person operates in the human nature and through the human nature, as its own, as its organ. Some heresies over the centuries have denied the divinity of Christ, others have denied the humanity. The faith of the Church has affirmed both! The mystery lies in the middle right where the mystery is darkest - "true God and true man" as we recite every Sunday in the creed. How else can Jesus be the redeemer? If not divine there is little or no value in is his death except example. Many hold this. If he is not truly human his death is meaningless for you and for me since he is not (in this view) truly one of us. Another dimension of the Incarnation is often overlooked. (cf Mystici Corporis by Pius XII) As members of the Mystical Body we are raised up and sanctified. In fact humankind itself is elevated by Jesus having been born. Think what it means for us, in our daily lives, that Jesus has become one of us! Everything that is truly human Jesus has sanctified and dignified. Jesus experienced human condition although he did not sin. He is one of us!
Eucharist a doctrinal
perspective (not a devotional or theological one)
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