Posted on 05/24/2016 6:49:46 AM PDT by Salvation
Many of you know that I write the Question and Answer column for Our Sunday Visitor. Given the celebration of Trinity Sunday this past Sunday, I thought I might reproduce here on the blog a question/answer regarding the Trinity. It is a fairly common question; perhaps you have it, too. Remember that my answers in the column are required to be brief.
We read in a recent Sunday Gospel (May 1, 2016) that Jesus says that the Father is greater than He (Jn 14:28). Since we are all taught that each Divine Person of the Blessed Trinity fully possesses the nature of God, equally to be adored and glorified, what did Jesus mean by such a statement?” – Dick Smith, Carrolton, TX.
Theologically, Jesus means that the Father is the eternal source in the Trinity. All three persons of the Trinity are co-eternal, co-equal, and equally divine. But the Father is the Principium Deitatis (the Source in the Deity).
Hence, Jesus proceeds from the Father from all eternity. He is eternally begotten of the Father. In effect, Jesus is saying, “I delight that the Father is the eternal principle or source of my being, even though I have no origin in time.”
Devotionally, Jesus is saying that He always does what pleases His Father. Jesus loves His Father; He’s crazy about Him. He is always talking about Him and pointing to Him. By calling the Father greater, He says (in effect), “I look to my Father for everything. I do what I see Him doing (Jn 5:19) and what I know pleases Him (Jn 5:30). His will and mine are one. What I will to do proceeds from Him. I do what I know accords with His will.”
So although the members of the Trinity are all equal in dignity, there are processions in the Trinity, such that the Father is the source, the Son eternally proceeds from Him (Jn 8:42), and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one principal (Jn 15:26).
St Thomas speaks poetically of the Trinity as follows:
Genitori, Genitoque … Procedenti ab utroque … compar sit laudautio
(To the One Who Begets, and to the Begotton One, and to the One who proceeds from them both, be equal praise.)
The Athanasian Creed says the following regarding these processions:
The Father is made by none, neither created nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone, neither made nor created, but begotten.
The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, not made, nor created, nor begotten, but he proceeds from them.
So although equal, processions do have an order. The Father is “greater” (as source), but is equal in dignity to Son and Holy Spirit.
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I have found that there is GREAT difference in opinion among theologians about the timing, amount, method and any wording pronounced at the event of DHMO application to the human body.
Many even debate the effects of such for YEARS!
I smell a Class Action about to break!!
I've read (but no long can find the data) that a couple managed to lose their raft/kayak/boat whatever, while boating from Moab on down stream to a remote pickup point.
Not hurt; made it to shore and waited; waving bye-bye to all their gear and supplies heading towards Vegas at a pretty good rate; for jetboats and such that would be going through their location within a few days.
They got VERY thirsty, but were afraid of the giardia lurking in the water.
The woman finally drank from the river; the man refused to do so and caused his own death.
Read and heed!
Giardiasis has an incubation period of seven to twenty-one days and must be diagnosed by a physician analyzing the victim’s stool for giardia’s microscopic cysts. Some of the symptoms for giardiasis include bloating, diarrhea, headache, vomiting, flatulence, cramping, low-grade fever, and loss of appetite.
Beavers (along with humans and other animals—domestic and wild) are known carriers of the disease, and believe it or not, Grand Canyon has beavers. My filter clogged up and I needed water, so not having a way to purify water, I drank right out of the stream. One thing to remember if you are in the same situation; always drink the water. You can be treated for giardia later; DEATH from dehydration is harder to treat! Because of this situation, I now carry purification tablets as well as a filter. The additional ounce in weight is well worth the safety net it provides.
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I am blessed as a Son of God.
Funny about that.
It figures you would promote von Balthasar: the heretic who defended Martin Luther’s description of the Catholic Church as a “prostitute”.
>>The figure of the prostitute [forma meretricis] is so appropriate for the Church .... that it .... defines the Church of the New Covenant in her most splendid mystery of salvation. The fact that the Synagogue left the Holy Land to go and be among the pagans was an infidelity of Jerusalem, the fact that ‘she opened her legs in every road in the world.’<<
>>But this same movement, which brings her to all the peoples, is the mission of the Church. She must unite and merge herself with every people, and this new apostolic form of union cannot be avoided.<<
>>(Hans Urs von Balthasar, Casta Meretrix, in Sponsa Verbi, Brescia: Morceliana, 1969, p. 267).<<
The joy of it is that the buoyance of the fluid removes the weight factor, so you only have mass to move about, and if the acceleration is kept to a minimum, the force needed is small, that is, F = ma.
Oh that you could see yourself as others do.
Thank you for admitting verga's harassment.
I do?
Tell ya what.
As soon as I clear all the straw away; to see what I REALLY said; I'll get back to you.
Any of it UNTRUE?
Elsie:
Fair enough, still I recognize and appreciate you disclosing your Wesleyan Tradition.
As for quotes from Scriptures, well anyone can quote a scripture, but everyone interprets it through some lens, that be a particular theological tradition they were raised in (some more in line with the early Church than others). Thus someone who discloses I am Reformed, Wesleyan, Lutheran etc does provide a framework for a discussion to take place and to understand where one is coming from.
For a Catholic, the more recent American entrepreneur types (Joseph Smith, for example) and individuals who make theological arguments through their own lens (the individuals who interpret it through their own view) makes it very difficult for me at least to have a meaningful discussion (please note “discussion”, I have no interest in arguing with anyone here.
Two stupid comments; yet you just HAD to respond anyway.
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