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To: logos
"You're not him, are you?" Really.

LOL. I reckon not, but there've been a few FR moments when I thought I was meeting the Holy Spirit, or at least his spokesman.

I have no theological training, so I have no answer for those like you, who've been baptised in the Trinity the same as I, but do not share the same Food. Ultimately, my belief in one flock and one shepherd relies on a belief in the perfect unity of the Trinity, a life to which Christians are called. God is one. The statement is so simple that it's almost always overlooked in its implications, but not the least of these are obedience, purity, love, and solidarity. The sacrament of baptism is one of rebirth, but it's also one of community, as are pennance, the Eucharist, and marriage. Jesus, the light of the world, is the light not of random, disordered chaos, but of beauty and of ordered, reasoned creation -- "Fos kosmou" . The peace of Christ is not that of this world because it's the true peace (there is no other) that consists in perfect conformity and accord -- unity -- with God. I am more and more convinced that ecclesiastical unity is important not for doctrinal or juridical reasons, nor for reasons of power and control, but because as the pure and perfect spouse of Christ the Church must conform to the unity of her divine spouse. The unity of the Church is therefore not practical but mystical, and is the means by which man is drawn to theosis.

Where this places you in the Church, or me, is not for me to judge. All I know is that unity is an either/or thing, and that if the Savior taught through commonplace and visible examples, the visible structure he left behind him is surely a symbol and beacon of that perfect, Trinitarian unity.

183 posted on 12/01/2001 6:47:24 PM PST by Romulus
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To: Romulus
Where this places you in the Church, or me, is not for me to judge. All I know is that unity is an either/or thing, and that if the Savior taught through commonplace and visible examples, the visible structure he left behind him is surely a symbol and beacon of that perfect, Trinitarian unity.

I'm glad that you brought up the Trinity, because not only is it something about which we can all agree, I have come to believe that pretty much across the board, we've not paid nearly enough attention to the workings of the Holy Spirit in the world. For example, have you ever considered the possibility that many, if not all, of the schisms across the centuries from Catholic/Orthodox to the Reformation to the splintering of the Protestant movement were/are the workings of the Holy Spirit? I'm not raising that possibility as fact, simply a consideration, as I wonder if Christianity would have spread around the world nearly so fast without the various ecclesial break-ups which caused one faction or the other to venture farther out into the "frontier".

Something to think about, at the least. Perhaps we needed to be torn asunder before the day can come when we are all sewn back together again... I suspect that when that final day arrives the Church of Jesus Christ will have no other name than that.

184 posted on 12/02/2001 2:51:08 AM PST by logos
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