Posted on 06/07/2009 4:20:54 AM PDT by tcg
It was June of 2005. I was at the bedside of a dear friend, a faithful and inspiring Catholic.
He was dying; just the night before he had received the news that he had less than two weeks to live. The cancer that he fought with such heroic courage had spread throughout his lymph glands. He was preparing for the passing to the Father with the dignity and beauty that authentic Catholic Christian faith can forge in a soul receptive to grace.
Jerry lived a full and fascinating life.
He was always a staunch and courageous defender of the Catholic faith. He reminded me of the great lay evangelist Frank Sheed - at least what I imagine Frank Sheed was like, since I never met him. My friend loved to tell anyone who would listen of the beauty and fullness of truth found in the Catholic Christian faith. In fact, he would engage any issue concerning that faith, with anyone, and at any time.
He especially delighted when Christians of other communities would come home to the full communion of the Catholic Church....
After the completion of the Viaticum Service, during a tender and profound moment of silence, Jerry turned to me, focused his piercing, peaceful, and intensely inquisitive eyes upon my own, and asked a question that was so unusual - and so profound- that I have dwelt upon it since.
I will carry it within me for many years to come.
“Tell me about the Trinity”, my friend asked me, “are they really happy?” ...
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
“The Spirit of the supreme Logos is a kind of ineffable yet intense longing or ‘eros’ experienced by the Begetter for the Logos born ineffably from Him, a longing experienced also by the beloved Logos and Son of the Father for His Begetter; but the Logos possesses this love by virtue of the fact that it comes from the Father in the very act through which He comes from the Father, and it resides co-naturally in Him.
It is from the Logos’s discourse with us through His incarnation that we have learned what is the name of the Spirit’s distinct mode of coming to be from the Father and that the Spirit belongs not only to the Father but also to the Logos. For He says ‘the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father’ (John 15:26), so that we may know that from the Father comes not solely the Logos - who is begotten from the Father - but also the Spirit who proceeds from the Father. Yet the Spirit belongs also to the Son, who receives Him from the Father as the Spirit of Truth, Wisdom and Logos. For Truth and Wisdom constitute a Logos that befits His Begetter, a Logos that rejoices with the Father as the Father rejoices in Him.
This accords with the words that He spoke through Solomon:’I was She who rejoiced together with Him’ (Prov. 8:30). Solomon did not say simply ‘rejoiced’ but ‘rejoiced together with’. This pre-eternal rejoicing of the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit who, as I said, is common to both, which explains why He is sent from both to those who are worthy. Yet the Spirit has His existence from the Father alone, and hence He proceeds as regards His existence only from the Father. Our intellect, because created in God’s image, possesses likewise the image of this sublime Eros or intense longing - an image expressed in the love experienced by the intellect for the spiritual knowledge that originates from it and continually abides in it.” +Gregory Palamas, Topics of Natural and Theological Science XXXVI (Its in vol IV of the Philokalia)
His last 5 words were “tell me about the Trinity”? Lol. Thanx for the belly laugh.
Just a question:
Does that make Protestants second class Christians in Catholic opinion ?
BTW, nice article.
You continue to live up to your pseudonym.
Sorry. I'm still laughing. The last words might have been "have mercy on me" or an some kind of expression of love. But no, "Please explain to me the doctine of the trinity". Double lol.
“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
Hardly funny when someone is dying. Your sense of humor is ill-placed in my opinion.
The Concept of the Most Holy Trinity - The Relationship between the Three Persons in One God
A Brief Catechism for Adults - Lesson 3: God and the Holy Trinity
Sheed on the Trinity (Catholic Caucus)
The Father as the Source of the Whole Trinity - Greek and Latin Traditions About the Filioque
Trinity Facts
The Real Trinity
We believe in one only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Brief Reflections on the Trinity, the Canon of Scripture, and the Protestant idea of Sola Scriptura
Why Do We Believe in the Trinity?
The Holy Trinity
Trinity Sunday (and the Trinity season)
Trinitarian Mystery
HaSheeloosh HaKadosh: The Holy Trinity
MARY’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE TRINITY
The Divine Trinity
God will be the judge of all.
Very true, but what does that have to do with whether or not Protestations are considered second class Christians by Catholics.
I sense on these Catholic thread a subtle condescending attitude toward non-Catholic Christians sort of like we are lost puppies gone astray.
I was wondering if anyone would comment
What is heaven like?
It is a place of total and complete love. It is an overwhelming sense of being part and participant of that Love. It is a storey above the Seven Storey Mountain (Thomas Merton), it is the interior castle beyond the Seventh Mansion (Teresa of Avila). It is a place where you know as you are known. It is a place where there are no regrets, where nothing matters except loving and worshiping God in all His Fullness, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Mystics have touched the hem of the garment of heaven. And occasionally those meditating deeply have also had that momentary glimpse of the perfecting work of the Holy Spirit, for a brief moment dancing the joyful dance of love, ‘perichoresis.’
Homecoming. The very best word I can say.
“I sense on these Catholic thread a subtle condescending attitude toward non-Catholic Christians sort of like we are lost puppies gone astray.”
That’s because they do. According to them unless you’re a Catholic you’re not a Christian. That’s not what the Bible says.
I think very few would be that bold and arrogant to say so plainly; I think most Catholics put their faith in the Church, her teaching and it's priestly hierarchy to be knowledgeable enough to argue from the the Scriptural standpoint believers must belong to the "Catholic" church to be saved.
BTW, I am a Protestant who greatly admires the Catholic Church for it's stand on sanctity of life, sin of homosexuality and many other cultural issues. They are a bulwark against secularism run a muck.
I wish I could say the same thing about our mainline Protestant denominations.
So was the request to hear about the doctrine of the trinity. lol.
Which came first the Bible or the Church?
It was St. Jerome who translated the Bible from Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek into Latin and then was passed on through the ages through the Catholic Church.
You might say, “Thanks for your “KJV” — even though Luther corrupted the text by adding words and taking out words as well as books. Hence many do not know the entire truth.
I’m not trying to criticize — just pointing out the truths of how the Bible got where it is today.
I am not saying that Catholics are better than Christians, I shook my head in dismay as I watched the car of a fellow parishioner leave the parking lot this morning with an “Obama-Biden” sticker.
I am merely saying that through our words and actions, God will judge each one of us individually. Having voted pro-life in the last election — I do not expect to have God judge me in the same way He might judge the Catholic leaving our lot this morning who obviously voted for Obortion Obama.
“It was June of 2005. I was at the bedside of a dear friend, a faithful and inspiring Catholic.
He was dying; just the night before he had received the news that he had less than two weeks to live.”
Hey, ignorant, he who laughs first laughs last. Heh
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