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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Catholicism was, and still is the only true and complete form of Christianity on Earth....all of the "johnny come lately" protestant versions of Christianity are either incomplete or in error.
LOL, that’s why your magicsteeringthem has added so many ‘traditions’ and dogmas, hundreds and thousand years AFTER the death of the Last Apostle, John. Your religion has much in common with Mormonism. Did you know that?
Then how do you respond to this? Is this catholic teaching? It was posted by a fellow catholic of yours.
>>When God came into existence there was nothing else all was void. His first thought must have been self awareness. The only possible outcome of an omnipotent being becoming self aware would be for that awareness to be a mirrored reflection or that omnipotent perfection.
>>When the second being instantly became sentient there was no longer the void, There was only the "Father." The "Father" loved the "Son" with a perfect all powerful love and the "Son" loved the "Father" with an identical love. The love that proceeded from both the "Father" and the "Son" was also Omnipotent and perfect. As the "Father" and "Son" are both sentient there love must be sentient as well. This sentience is the Holy Spirit.
you, of all people making a statement like this......amazing!.
No you can't.
Why?
I’m not an agnostic nor ever claimed to be.
Sorry Elsie.
Mormonism sprang up l,800 years after Catholicism and 200 or so years after Protestantism and they don't like either.
Catholics are protected from error by Christ's promise to them, what you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven and what you loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven......do you think that He would have made that promise and then allowed errors to be promulgated????
do you really propose that I believe that everything that any Catholic says is infallible.....sheesh.
da number
:)
prayer for the dead, worship of saints, a pagan magic act called Mass, worship of Mary (that one was put in your religion about 432AD), the doctrine of purgatory, the service mandated to be in Latin, celibacy of the 'priesthood' (that one came a thou8sand years after the fact, 1074), etc. Yes, you are in a religion created by men over centuries, to empower the org you call Mother Church (seen described in Revelation 17).
I don't see that you have any other option.
After all, you just got done telling us in the post immediately before that "Catholics are protected from error by Christ's promise to them, what you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven and what you loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven......do you think that He would have made that promise and then allowed errors to be promulgated????"
So which is it? Protected from error or not?
You can't have it both ways. Either it's protected from error, infallible, or it's not.
Honestly, the mental gymnastics Catholics engage in to rationalize the contradictory teachings and beliefs they claim about their church is absolutely staggering in its proportions.
because you, like the agnostic, make unusual claims, VERY unusual criticisms of Catholicism, demand answers to non-existant situations and imaginative facts.
You had the truth in your hands and decided that you were far more able to interpret Christianity than was the 2,000 year old church which Christ PERSONALLY founded. You decided, somehow, that you could leave the church and determine, on your own, what was and was not true Christianity. You have the right to do so, of course, but that road has been traveled by many others, Luther, Zwingley, Calvin, Wesley, Smith, Eddy, Henty VIII, etc ALL of which lead to nowhere.
The Catholic church, as an institution is protected from error....individual Catholics, you for example, are OBVIOUSLY not protected from error...
Are you saying verga is in error in his #160 post?
See post 160.
Wait a minute Cool dude. I thought I heard a rumor, that Jesus said that if a man wasn't born again, he would never see the kingdom of God? What will he see then? Correct me if I am wrong bro. 😄😀😆
I disagree bro. I prefer the Navigators. That way I don't have to try and bluff my way into Heaven. 👍
I disagree bro, because it appears you are implying that MM is a Catholic. I do not think that is true. I know I am not. That way, I know I don't have to bluff my way into Heaven. I don't think MM does either.
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