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 read post 160 and that is not Catholic doctrine. I guess everyone wants to keep arguing for the sake of arguing but that is not correct.
God has always been. Christ has always been. The Holy Spirit has always been. The Apostles Creed that we recite at every Mass we say Christ was begotten not made, one in being with the Father and through Him all things were made. It says by the power of the Holy Spirit HE CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, AND BECAME MAN.
He is I Am. None of the person’s of the Trinity were created, they have always been and will always be and that is what the Church teaches.
You still haven’t answered my question about the “lots” of things that the Bible does not describe. Name them.
Does your priest change the wine into blood, orrecite an incantation to invo9ke God to change the wine into blood? Of course the bread and wine remain just what they are, bread and wine, so if you believe your priest has commanded this change it is in fact a magic act, a slight of hand that you desire for your ego’s sake as you ‘strive for salvation’ following the sacramental trail the magicsteeringthem has fabricated to hold you in their power.
Amen
310 AD Prayers for the dead
325 AD The 'veneration of saints to pray to for their aid on earth
394 the Mass is adopted as church dogma
432 AD The 'veneration' (worship by any other name) of Mary as an intercessor for praying catholics
573 AD the doctrine of purgatory is made church dogma
607 AD Boniface is declared the first Pope
998 AD Fasting on Fridays and Lent adopted
1074 Celibacy of the priesthood is declared/instituted
1140 AD Doctrine of the Seven Sacraments is made dogma
there are many I will skip over
1184 AD The Inquisition declared and begun officially
1190 AD The sale of Indulgences is begun, to pay for the construction projects in Rome
1215 AD Transubstantiation and confession are decreed
1220 AD Adoration of 'the wafer' is established
1228 AD the Bible is forbidden for laymen
1439 AD The doctrine of purgatory officially decreed
1854 the doctrine of immaculate conception issued from Rome
1950 AD the assumption of Mary is decreed
1966AD JPII dismissed the 'idea one can obtain forgiveness directly from God'
Catholicism is a made up religion designed to hold adherents in the Papacy's and Magisterium powers. It is not Christianity, but in 1076 AD it declared Papal infallibility, to give it the ultimate power over of method for worship for men and women seeking a relationship with God. The Pharisees accomplished something similar in Judaism thousands of years ago ... in 1545 AD 'Tradition' was given equal authority with the Bible by the magicsteeringthem gaggle, but has since become superior to The Bible, in catholiciism.
BTW....the office responsible for the Inquisition is still open under another name. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Didn’t know that! Very Interesting, kind of like the Vatican cannot admit anything they did was in error ...
They won't let me boil any oil; so what else can I do?
You ask 20 different folks and you'll get 25 different answers.
You'll pop your cork!
Talking to yourself here?
The Bible does NOT describe why it took so long for Catholics to add chapters and verses to it.
Odin, Frigga, and Thor. Your basic family unit.
I wonder why you pick on Elsie while your fellow Catholics are doing plenty of “bashing” of us non-Catholic Christians? And most of us have been right along side of y’all defending the truth of the Trinity.
Is someone holding a gun to your head forcing you to read OPEN Religion Forum threads???
My...what an angry and hateful thing to say about a whole group of Christians! Sounds quite disdainful.
Keep reading.
The only reason it remained an argument was because the person who posted that refused to name the source and would not recant the part about the Father coming into existence.
But thank you for spelling out the doctrine correctly. You won't get an argument from me about it.
Suffers somewhat from a lack of proof reading, but thank God for the Truth.
Another cogent offering worth bookmarking. Thanks for posting, taking the time to expose and refute error.
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