The Catechism is where Catholics go to learn about the "central mystery of Christian faith and life."
234 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the "hierarchy of the truths of faith". The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men "and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin". - CCCMany Christians do not accept this teaching, other faiths reject it entirely.
237 The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the "mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God". To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of God's Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit. - CCCIslam rejects and condemns the doctrine entirely, which may explain why many Christians refuse to believe Muslims actually believe in the same God. I don't know about that however.
They say: "(Allah) Most Gracious has begotten a son!" Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous! At it the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin, that they should invoke a son for (Allah) Most Gracious. For it is not consonant with the majesty of (Allah) Most Gracious that He should beget a son. Not one of the beings in the heavens and the earth but must come to (Allah) Most Gracious as a servant. - Qur'anMormons and Jehovah Witnesses reject the Trinity, as do Seventh Day Adventists - these sects are popularly considered to be Christian, though they reject this fundamental teaching.
That's sad.
I like to think about the Blessed Trinity, to ponder the Indwelling - I like to wonder - in awe ...
266 "Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal" (Athanasian Creed: DS 75; ND 16). - CCC
Thanks Terry. There are some Youtube videos that try to explain the ten Dimensions that scientists like to think about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkxieS-6WuA Somehow, I envisage the Trinity toward the end of these explanations... But when you 'wonder in awe' you have hit the nail on the head, so skip it entirely !
ReplyDeleteVP Joe Biden's son has died at age 46. The VP has buried a wife, a daughter, and will now bury the son he raised as a single father. I disagree with his politics, but he's at least as good a son of the Church as some of our cardinals. He, and Beau, need our prayers.
ReplyDeleteI agree - I've been praying.
DeleteThe Trinity as Augustine very briefly noted is hidden in 2 Kings 4. I'll detail it more than he did as to NT passages that are relevant. In that passage a woman's only son is dying and she sends to Eliseus for help.
ReplyDeleteEliseus sends his servant Gehazi with Eliseus' staff to be laid on the now dead boy. Nothing happens. Eliseus comes himself and lay on the boy....matching his eyes, mouth, and hands to the boy. The boy grows warm. Eliseus walks about the house and descends on the boy a second time but no mention of eyes, mouth, hands. The boy sits up and coughs 7 times.
The prophetic level: Eliseus stands for God and the dead boy is mankind. First God sends his law to the Jews through Moses ( Gehazi and the staff) but it does no good. It does not bring sanctifying grace. Man remains dead in sin...the boy is dead still after the staff is laid on him. Galatians says, " For had there been a law that giveth life, salvation would be by the law".
So God must descend on mankind Himself... Eliseus comes Himself to the boy's house and descends on the boy first as Christ symbolized by the eyes, mouth, hands...then as the Holy Spirit ( no body parts and the boy coughs 7 times...the number if the gifts of the Holy Spirit.)
Back to the bofy parts....if a grown man matches his eyes and mouth to that of a boy, he will have to grimace in pain to move his eyes and mouth closer to each other. Try it. That is the pain of Christ on Eliseus' face as he tries to simultaneously match eyes and mouth to a smaller face.
Use this on Jehovah witnesses who deny the Trinity. Eliseus isthe Godhead walking toward the boy's house...he is Christ in the first descent of eyes and mouth and hands....he is the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in the second no hands descent. Word.
What makes us Catholic.
ReplyDeleteCardinal Francesco Marchetti Selvaggiani and Cardinal Richard Cushing changed all that.They were playing God just like Martin Luther or King Henry VIII.
http://eucharistandmission.blogspot.it/2015/06/cardinal-francesco-marchetti.html
The faith at Mostar is not based on the Bible, Tradition and the pre-1949 Magisterium
http://eucharistandmission.blogspot.it/2015/06/the-faith-at-mostar-is-not-based-on.html