catholicism 101 -- part 12

Catholicism 101

(The outline of this series is taken from Father Vernon Staley’s book The Catholic Religion.)

Church of the Holy Cross

May 18, 2008

Part 12

Christian Duty: Christian Belief: The Three Great Creeds: Concerning God: The Mystery of the Holy Trinity

- We believe in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

• The Church’s teaching about the Holy Trinity is summarized in the words of the Athanasian Creed: “The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; and yet they are not three gods, but one God.”

• Our teaching about the Holy Trinity is revealed in Scripture, and has been taught by the Christian Church, and believed by Christians, from the first.

• It is a mystery which transcends human reason, but is not contrary to human reason.

• For example: it is reasonable to assume that human religion should contain mysteries. And it is most reasonable to assume that if there is a God, that his being should be mysterious (and more than that: a mystery).

• Imagine sitting in a chair with a dog staring at you. The dog might understand certain things about you (that you are friendly towards him, that you are the source of his food and comfort, etc.). But the dog would certainly not understand human nature fully.

• Human persons are higher than dogs in the order of creation. But humans at least share with dogs their situatedness WITHIN the order of creation. Whereas humans are much “higher” than dogs, God is INFINITELY “higher” than humans. At least humans and dogs share the status of creature. God is literally off the charts. He is not even in the scale of comparison, because he is the creator. If you made a list of everything in the universe, God would not be on it .

• In the last session we discussed the suitability of Christianity’s lofty teachings, as words must necessarily cease with respect to God: they all fall short, and thus may serve to lead us to silent adoration. So it is with the Holy Trinity. At a certain point, explanation must come to an end, and one must proceed toward God in silence and in faith.

• Father Staley says: “Though a philosopher cannot explain the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, a child can believe it.”

• Note what the Athanasian Creed says: “And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.” Note it says that the catholic faith is WORSHIP – not necessarily understanding.

- “We believe in one God, the Father the Almighty…”

• God is the eternal Father.

• He is eternal Father because he eternally begets his only Son.

• In the Nicene Creed we say “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ; the only Son of God; ETERNALLY BEGOTTEN of the Father…”

• The Rite I language is more helpful here: “…And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds…” This is in a sense a better rendition of the Latin original: “Et in unum Dominum Iesum Christum, Filium Dei Unigenitum, et ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula…” And of the Greek: “Καὶ εἰς ἕνα Κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ, τὸν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων”. In both cases: “…begotten from the Father before all ages…”

• In other words, before creation, when all there was was God, “then” the Son was begotten – i.e. “eternally”, beyond the domain of the temporal.

• So God has always been, and is eternally Father and Son. There was never a time when he was not Father of the eternal and only Son.

• Annoying but important answer to feminist critique: God reveals himself as Father (and reveals himself as ETERNALLY Father). So it is not the case that God is in the same way Mother. He does describe himself with feminine metaphors in Scripture.

• In Matthew 23.37, Jesus quotes 2 Esdras when he says: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”

• 4 Ezra 1.28-30: “Thus says the Lord Almighty: Have I not entreated you as a father entreats his sons or a mother her daughters or a nurse her children, that you should be my people and I should be your God, and that you should be my sons and I should be your father? I gathered you as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.”

• Both of these passages describe God’s activity as being like that of a mother, or a hen. This is different from God’s self revelation AS Father.

• It is also true that, as we have said, all language ultimately fails when faced with the reality of God, and so therefore the language of fatherhood likewise proves equivocal. However:

• 1) certain language concerning God is revealed by God himself (as for example the whole of Scripture), and is thus in a sense sanctioned and hallowed by being “the Word of the Lord” and not merely “the words of various loquacious people ABOUT the Lord”.

• 2) The analogy runs in the opposite direction from that we would naturally be predisposed to think. With respect to this discussion, it is not merely the case that the Christian conception of God (and hence Christian language about God) is the product of patriarchal society(s), and thus that the Christian God is a social construction in the image and likeness of human patriarchs. The opposite is in fact the case: human fatherhood is the shadow, constructed by God as a properly inadequate mystical cognate of God’s paternity.

• This is what St. Paul is driving at in Ephesians 3.14-15: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” The Greek word here translated “family” is “patria” = “fatherhood” – which in Greek had the connotation “kindred” or “family”. But the broader, more literal point germane to our discussion is that human fatherhood is derivative (and fallen and defective), not the other way around. This is the teaching of Scripture and of the Church.

• I don’t want to belabor this point, but it is an important one in our contemporary cultural milieu, and we will see much later that it has theological ramifications (with respect to the “analogiam creationis” – or the sacramental iconography of creation).

• God is the Father of the eternal Son. He is also in a sense the Father of ALL, because he has made all. And as human beings are the apex of his creative work, he is the Father of all humanity.

• Yet he is the Father of Christians in a more excellent way, because through faith and baptism, we have now have Jesus Christ, the only and eternal Son, as our BROTHER. Thus we gain God as our Father in a new and important way. This is deeper significance behind the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father…” and it is why “we are BOLD to say” it. Because as prodigal sons and daughters, we were “no longer worthy to be called your son” (Luke 15.21). Yet God wills that despite our unworthiness, he grants us kinship with himself – a new and more excellent sonship, because it comes from the only and eternal Son.

• Galatians 4.4ff: “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.”

• Father Staley: “The Son of God was made Son of Man, in order that the sons of men may become sons of God. In Holy Baptism we are made members of Christ, and the children of God – children of God, because members of Christ the only-begotten Son of God.”