God
01-08

The image to the right is called the Athanasius Creed after St. Athanasius who created it. It is a diagram to help us understand the Blessed Trinity with our limited human intellegience. It basically says the

1. The Father is God
2. The Son is God
3. The Holy Spirit is God
4. The Father is not the Son
5. The Father is not the Holy Spirit
6. The Son is not the Father
7. The Son is Not the Holy Spirit
8. The Holy Spirit is not the Father
9. The Holy Spirit is not the Son.

One of the root causes of sin is than many of us adopt consciously or subconsciously what the philosopher Fredric Nietzsche called the “Zero Sum Game.” Nietzsche idea is a very simple one based on the idea that all objects in the universe are limited like material possessions and that material passions decrease when shared. For example if I have 10 apples and I give you five, I am now “loss” five apples” and you have “won” five apples.

There are sometimes though that we can both work out of a situation “winning” if we both leave with something that we wanted. If you look at diagram #1, you can see that sometimes the things that are best for me overlap with things that are best for you and this produces a win-win situation.

Nietzsche believe that God (if he did exist) would have nothing in common with humans see in diagram #2 so if God got His way then we as individuals must somehow be losing. For Nietzsche there was no way for God to be on our side because for Nietzsche everything when shares diminishes and the name of the game is to get as much as you can.

Nietzsche’s mistake though is that spiritual goods do not diminish when they are shared but rather they grow. For example parents don’t love their first child any less when they have a second child. They might not have the same amount of time or money to spend on the first child but their love remains the same because love grows when shared. If you have two friends and you meet a new friend at a party that does not mean you are any less of a friend with your original two friends.

St. John tells us in his Gospel that God is not against us but rather for us: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:16-18)

St. Paul tells us: For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath. Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life. Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11).

God love us and so He wants what is best for us even if it means a sacrifice on His part and thus when God gets His way, everyone wins. God is not a slave master who desires to get the most out of his slaves but rather He is a loving Father who desires to see each of His children succeed. There is no competition between God and human beings. St. Irenaeus of Lyon stated the “glory of God is a person fully alive,” and Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that “we were made for greatness.”

“If we have been pleased with life, we should not be displeased with death, since it comes from the same master artist.” - Michelangelo

Photo by Calvin Craig on Unsplash

Six Attributes of God
And now another random topic, I have always been fascinated in how numbers play a role in church architecture. For example the number eight can symbolize the eight beatitudes but also new creation because there were seven original days in creation and the early Church proclaimed the Resurrection to be on the 8^th day. Many of the things in the Church are designed to have three of something for the Blessed Trinity or four of something for the four Gospel writers. I recently came across something that gave power to the number six and then it pointed out that a lot of chalices are made with a base that has six sides. According to this book the number six represents the six attributes of God and they are the topic of this week’s spiritual ponderings.

1. Power
I think that there are two important things that we must remember when it comes to thinking about God and His power. The first is that God’s power is unmatched and this is scene in the creation story. There is no battle between gods as in other ancient religions. God simply spoke and the whole universe in all its complexity came into being. This is the same power that we rely on in the Sacraments and to safe guard the Church. The second thing is that God never uses His power in a forceful way. We see this most evidently when God invites the Blessed Virgin Mary to become a part of His plan. Many of us when we have power or tempted to use it to get our way even if it means forcing others to do things our way against their will. God though never forces Himself and He demonstrates His power more through restraint and self-control than by displays of wrath.

2. Majesty
The most important thing to remember when reflecting on God’s majesty is that He exercise His leadership for the good of those who follow Him. It also show us how much God’s love us when we like St. Paul ponder all that Jesus gave up in order to become one of us and save us. “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those 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 (Philippians 2:5-11).”

3. Wisdom
When speaking of God’s wisdom, I feel that it is important to remind myself that God has a plan. God’s creation of the world was not like a toddler dumping a box of Lego’s on the floor hoping that it would form a castle. God created the world out of a love and a desire for us to participate in His divine life. This helps me to understand suffering in the world for there would be no suffering in the world if there was no free will but if there was no free will there could be no love and life would not be worth living without love. I also believe that God can bring good out of any evil and that He has complete picture in mind where I only have a piece of the jigsaw puzzle.

4. Love
St. John says it best in his letter: “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love (1 John 4:8).” So what does that mean? Let us look at St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians: “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” So therefore it means God is impatient, hostile, jealous, etc.

5. Mercy
Because God is love, His first inclination is not to punish but to save and restore. St. John in his Gospel says it best: “For God so loved the world that he gave^* his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (John 3:16-18). Once again notice the invitation to believe and not any hint of force.

6. Justice
Ultimately God is justice and when I think about how God’s justice and mercy comes together I am drawn to this quote from a Msgr. Pope of the diocese of Washington D.C. “Respect.” God has made us free and respects our freedom to chose his Kingdom or not. Now the Kingdom of God is not a mere abstraction. It has some very specific values and these values are realized and experienced perfectly in heaven. The values of the Kingdom of God include: Love, kindness, forgiveness, justice to the poor, generosity, humility, mercy, chastity, love of Scripture, love of the truth, worship of God, God at the center and so forth. Now the fact is that there are many people in our world who do not want a thing to do with chastity, or forgiveness, or being generous and so forth. And God will not force them to adopt and live these values. While it is true that everyone may want to go to heaven, heaven is not merely what we want, it is what it is, as God has set it forth. Heaven is the Kingdom of God and the values thereof in all their fullness. Hence there are some (many?) who live in such a way that they consistently demonstrate that they are not interested in heaven, since they are not interested in one or many of the Kingdom values. Hell “has to be” since God respects their freedom to live in this way. Since they demonstrate they do not want heaven, God respects their freedom to choose “other arrangements.”

Heresies About God
Into our third week of Spiritual Randomness and the topic today is different heresies (or bad thinking and beliefs) when it comes to creation and God. These six heresies are addressed in the Catechism paragraph 285. I would like to expound on them a little bit more.

1. Pantheism
The easiest way to define pantheism is to simply put in a mathematical formula god=the universe/creation. People who believe in Pantheism believe that God is not just intimately connected to the universe but is the universe as the world grows so does God. As Catholics we believe that the Holy Trinity holds the universe in being but the Holy Trinity is not the universe. The Blessed Trinity existed before the world began and will exist after the world ends. This is important because it shows us that creation was a free loving act of the will of God and not something that God was forced to do in order to grow. God is so totally self-sufficient that He does not need creation. He chooses however to love us and that is awesome.

2. Emanation from God and returns to God
I am not sure if I exactly know what this heresy is but it sounds like creation is a sort of divine waste product like sweat from an athlete and the further the sweat gets from the source the less pure it becomes. The Church rejects this for at least three reasons. The first is that the world is not created out of love, the second is negates God’s free will saying that God had to create the world as an athlete creates sweat, and finally it could lead to the creation of castes and discriminations based on race and social statutes.

3. Dualism and Manichaeism
Dualists and Manichaests believe that God and another entity are in battle for control of the universe. The earth is like a chest board and we are the pieces. The Church has always rejected this idea of explaining evil and instead evil is the result of free will when someone chooses the lesser of two goods.

4. Gnosticism
People who practice Gnosticism see the world because it is made up of matter to be bad and thus it must be escape. Often the way to escape this world is to possess some sort of secret knowledge. If you know this secret knowledge then you will to heaven a place with no matter. The Church has always rejected this because we do not believe matter is bad. In fact John Paul II praises matter because it alone is capable of making the invisible visible and the Church has never believed that having a secret knowledge was the key to heaven but rather God’s grace and living a good life was.

5. Deism
Deists believe that God created the world like a clockmaker makes a clock. The clockmaker can then wind the clock up and set in motion and not worry about the clock anymore. This belief basically declares that God does not care for us and therefore we are on our own. As Catholics we refute this idea because we declare that God so loved the world that He sent His Son to save us (~John 3:16)

6. Materialism
The last of these heresies is materialism and that is the world has no beginning and has existed from all eternity. Even most scientists do not believe this because they are searching for the origin of the universe. The Church once again rejects this belief because we believe God has a loving plan and that plan involved a moment of creation and a moment of re-creation. So this means there was a time when the world did not exist.

Photo by Tungsten Rising on Unsplash

We are now in the midst of our fourth week of Spiritual Randomness and this week’s topic is the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Where exactly do we get the list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that Confirmation students must memorize? The list that we as Catholics use actually comes from Isaiah the prophet: “The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, A spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD (Isaiah 11:2-3).” As we are able to tell that an apple tree is an apple tree because it produces apples so we should be able to tell someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit because he or she will manifests these gifts of the Holy Spirit.

1. Wisdom
Wisdom is the ability to overcome the wounds of original sin and to be able to love spiritual things over material things. It is to see the divine will and to align oneself with it because you know that God wants what is best for you.

2. Understanding
Understanding is all about comprehending how we need to live as a follower of Christ. A person with understanding is not confused by the conflicting messages our world gives us. The gift of understanding also perfects a person’s ability to reason to and apprehend the Truth in all matters.

3. Counsel
Counsel or right judgment allows a person to know the difference between a moral wrong and a moral right. A person who has the gift of right judgment avoids sin and does what is right. For me, to be a person with the gift of counsel means always finding the best way to treat another person and oneself with dignity. It also means always knowing what the selfish choice is and what the selfless choice is. How can I live my life with the values of Christ?

4. Fortitude
Fortitude or courage is the gift of the Holy Spirit to overcome fear. Fortitude allows us to overcome our fears and to take the risks necessary to follow Jesus. It allows me to overcome rejection, verbal abuse, and physical harm to do what is morally right.

5. Knowledge
The gift of knowledge is more than just accumulating facts and it more about getting to know God for who He is. It is about studying God’s masterpiece (creation) and also learning about the artist Himself. Since God created the universe, every little part of the universe tells us something about Him just as everyone of Van Gogh’s paintings tell us a little bit about Van Gogh.

6. Piety
Piety or reverence is the gift of being able to develop a deep sense of respect for God and His Church. A person with reverence recognizes our total reliance on God and comes before God with humility, trust, and love. Piety is also seen as the gift of the Holy Spirit that encourages to do our duty to God as our Father.

7. Fear of the Lord
The last of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is called Fear of the Lord or wonder & awe. This does not mean we are terrified of God because He will harm us but rather we are in awe of God for we have become of His great glory. The Psalms and Proverbs each tell us that Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because it helps us realize that we are finite creatures and God is infinite. We are limited and God is all-powerful.

St. Irenaeus wrote, “It was for this end that the Word of God was made man, and He who was the Son of God became the Son of man, that man, having been taken into the Word, and receiving adoption, might become the son of God.

In 318 A.D, St. Athanasius put it most succinctly: “He became man so that we might be made God; and He manifested Himself in the flesh, so that we might grasp the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men, so that we might receive the inheritance of immortality.”

Hahn, Scott: First Comes Love: Finding Your Family in the Church and the Trinity (New York: Doubleday, 2002)

One of the great things about our Catholic faith is the tension between variety and sameness found in our liturgies. While there is one Mass each faith community (and even different parts of each faith communities) celebrate the Mass in their own way. One reason for this is the distinction the Church makes in Christology (the study of everything in revelation dealing with Jesus Christ). The distinction is what theologians refer as “high Christology” and “low Christology”. First, one must remove from one’s mind the idea that high is better than low for in the Church’s view both of these views are equal. They simply represent different starting points of tackling the great mystery of the Incarnation. Remember that God is so much more than we can ever imagine (we can’t put God in a box) but we do have the ability to learn about God and to relate to Him. “High and Low Christology” refers to whether or not we focus more on Jesus being God (high Christology) or on Jesus being man (low Christology). Remember that the true teaching of the Church that Jesus is True God and True Man equally, High and Low Christology simply refer to our preference because of our inability to grasp the entire ministry. A person with a high Christology is more likely to appreciate the solemnity of a celebration like incense and Gregorian chant and a person with a low Christology is more likely to appreciate the community building aspect of the celebration. I think this is so important for us because it allows us to understand better people who have different liturgical preferences then us. Lately, this idea has been important to me when dealing with people who love the Latin Mass and people who hate the Latin Mass. I have challenged myself to simply try to accept the person with their preferences as a part of the Body of Christ and realizing that they come from a different point of view on the great mystery that is beyond our comprehension helps.