Northern Virginia Catholic Bible Study Northern Virginia Catholic Bible Study house rules/notes… 1. Meetup is https://meetu.ps/c/4mYPW/F6KR3/a, Zoom Meeting Logon information is the same every week: Zoom ID: 861 1782 2081 Password: 406952 2. Questions encouraged. If you have questions about anything, you can email the group via Meetup, or me directly at ron@hallagan.net. 3. The unedited recaps from our meetings will be posted on Meetup immediately after our meeting, and a final edited version will be posted on our Catholic Catacombs Light website https://catholiccatacombs.wixsite.com/website/blog, a week later. You will be notified via Meetup of both. 4. See The Chosen. Knowing Jesus Christ means being able to better relate to God. Check it out: The Chosen at https://thechosen.link/1Y1R7. 5. Respectfulness. We will be discussing differences between religions and even between Christian denominations, but we agree to use respectful words and tones in doing so. Specifically, Protestants are our friends and brothers in Christ, and personally I owe part of my return to the faith to them. 6. No politics. It would be easy for us to self-destruct; however, that’s not our goal. Our goal is to learn the Bible, explain the Catholic faith and help members develop a closer relationship with Jesus Christ in their daily lives. 7. Catholic Prayer, Fellowship, and Spirituality Meetup led by fellow member Jason Goldberg: https://www.meetup.com/online-catholic-prayer-fellowship-and-spirituality/ 8. Prison fellowship – opportunities to volunteer one Sat/month for 2 hours (12-2 or 2-4) serving Catholic prisoners at the Fairfax County Jail. Ask Ron or Gina for details. "I was in prison and you visited me." - Matt 25:36
Upcoming Catholic Holy Days
Easter Sunday – April 17
Ascension – Thursday, May 26 – 40 days after Easter
Pentecost – Sunday, June 5 – 50 days after Easter, 10 days after Ascension
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, June 12
Opening Prayer
Trinity Prayer
Glory be to the Father, Who through His Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence is the “I AM" of existence
And by His love created all things, including free-will beings – us – in His image and likeness.
Glory be to the Son, the Mind, Word, and Logos of God
Who out of love for humans became man
And by his blood pours out the forgiveness of sins
And opens the gates of Heaven.
Glory be to the Holy Spirit,
The Love and Unity of the Trinity
Who inaugurates all life and relationship
Who sanctifies us in Baptism And continues to sanctify us with grace during the remainder of our journey to Heaven
GLORY BE…
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, June 12
Q: What is a Solemnity?
A solemnity is the highest ranking type of feast day. It commemorates major events in the life of Jesus, Mary, or an important Saint, and the Blessed Trinity. After Solemnities come Feast Days and then Memorial Days.
Trinity Context
With the Easter Season closing out with Pentecost last week, the Church now moves back into Ordinary Time and kicks it off with the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, which is this coming Sunday.
The Holy Trinity is the most central belief in Christianity. At the same time, it is the most profound and the most mysterious – some would say the most confusing.
The Dreaded Homily. It has been said that priests around the world dread this Sunday – because whether they talk about the Gospel reading or the meaning of this Solemnity, they are stuck having to explain the Trinity. Perhaps this will be the Sunday they will talk about the Bishop’s Appeal. :) However, this just goes to show you that nobody would invent this stuff. If you are going to invent a religion, you make it easy, attractive, and explainable. Christianity doesn’t score high in any of those.
Spiritual vs Material Mystery. In fact, this gets to the point that it’s a mystery. Remember, a spiritualmystery is different from a worldly mystery. A worldly mystery is being temporarily unable to solve a finite problem because not all the variables are known. In science, this is why we come up with theories – which are assumptions that replace the missing variables. Once we can validate these variables, it can become a fact. Notice how we are guessing at the solution of the mystery until such time as we can verify it. Most theories, btw, turn out to be false and new theories immediately take their place.
On the other hand, with a spiritual mystery is kind of the opposite. Like reverse engineering, we are oftentimes given the answer and we are trying to back into the explanation. Remember, a spiritual mystery (which is infinite in nature, not finite) is a “revealed truth.” We can’t know what is outside our finite existence so it has to be revealed to us.
Take Glorified Bodies. We would not know anything about this if Jesus hadn’t come back to show us. It was a revealed truth, not something we would have tried to explain otherwise. Now that we know this, we try to explain how such a body would work. Of course, our finite explanations of an infinite thing will always come up short, so we call it a mystery because we don’t have the finite words or brains to understand it fully. The same is true for the Sacraments, the Incarnation, and Ascension, and so on, with probably the toughest of them all being the Trinity.
And, it’s not like we can relegate this to the footnotes of the faith, because it is who God is and we are called to have a relationship with Him!
The origin of Christian creeds. It is also interesting that the Trinity is the reason all our creeds got started – because of having to explain or defend this idea of who God is. That’s how we came up with crazy-sounding words like “consubstantial” and Jesus being eternally begotten of the Father, not made.
We can credit the famous, North African, charismatic priest, Arius, of the third century, who held that there was a hierarchy to the three persons of God, not equals. He was the Luther of the 3rd century.
Fortunately, a saint named Athanasius rose up and made the case against him, and at the Council of Nicaea in 325 he was voted down, St. Nick slapped him, and that was the end of Arianism.
Q: Why isn’t the Trinity explained early on in the Bible?
Actually, each member of the Trinity does show up in the OT in various obscure, not-readily-apparent ways, but not ever directly.
Q: Even in the NT, Jesus only begins to explain how the Triune God works at the very end of his ministry. Why?
Perhaps because it’s the way we go about teaching anything complicated. And what could be more complicated than the Trinity?
Q: What is pedagogy?
Pedagogy is the art of science of teaching, or instructional methods. It has the same root as pediatrics because “pedo” is Greek for child. In education, is implies that you start small and build from there. You learn arithmetic before multiplication and division, which comes before square roots, which comes before algebra and geometry, etc.
Q: How might we apply this to the Trinity?
Humans understand most things in finite, anthropomorphic terms. We love to project human traits on everything because that’s what we know. Consequently, we make kids TV shows that show animals – and even fruits, vegetables, and trees – acting and feeling just as humans do. Although this can get carried away, anthropomorphic analogies can and do work and we use them all the time.
We do the same with God and perhaps God does the same for us.
So, anthropomorphically-speaking, God “the Father” introduces himself to primitive man (OT) as the ideal father figure, which was easy to understand for extremely patriarchal cultures; but then God adds to this understanding the concept of “One God” – which was very important in a world full of thousands of pagan gods; and then God adds to this that He is a God of love and forgiveness, which was unheard of. God then gives to them ten “simple” external laws to follow, such as thou shalt not lie, steal, murder, etc. As it turns out, they can’t execute these laws very well but then that, in itself, was part of God’s message – humans can’t do this by themselves – they need to stay linked to God! The Fall of Man came about precisely because Man decided he did not need God. Humans had to unlearn this.
You can see that this was a lot to learn – and to fail at – before going any further.
Just when it seemed like God had forgotten the Jews, He comes to us “in person” to show us the way, even though it meant he would be put to death in a terrible way. God did not just talk about love; He put his money where his mouth was and came here to prove it. He even forgave his transgressors while they were crucifying him.
Because Jesus is man, justice is served; and because Jesus is God, enough forgiveness is available for all who ask for it. Once again, Heaven is open for business!
Knowing very well that man will fail again and again, God also sends the HS to us, into us, to connect us with Himself, to help us on our journey to heaven.
You can see all this as God’s pedagogical steps to bring us along, and the last part of the Trinity – the Holy Spirit – seems to be playing out at the end of Jesus’ time on earth, which is a part of our Gospel reading today.
It was after the Gospels that we see the HS acting rather independently in Acts of the Apostles, so the idea of “God the Holy Spirit” has just begun to play out with His coming at Pentecost. Of course the theology of the Trinity was not developed yet. The HS had just begun!
I hope you can now see why the “Trinity” was a learning process for us. But the facts on the ground are unchanged and were always there.
As difficult as this is to understand the Trinity in finite terms, we can understand that the Trinity is a “Community of One.” The Trinity is all about the union of diversity – even within the Godhead. Humans – who inherit our spirits from God – follow suit in spades!
Q: What are some examples where humans seek to emulate the Trinity’s “Community of One”?
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Families – aren’t the best family experiences when everyone is of one mind and heart? Conversely, aren’t the most dysfunctional families the ones who are not one/unified?
Teams – regardless of the sport, the team that operates as one (“the team is more important than any one member”) has the most fun and is the most successful.
Work – the best places to work are when everyone looks out for one another/helps each other, and where no one is better than anyone else, regardless of position.
Church – the Body of Christ. We are “one” and that oneness is rooted in the love of God.
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The point is that we are spiritual children of God and therefore it makes sense that we share this intrinsic desire for the Community of One.
Gospel John 16:12-15
Jesus said to his disciples: "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you."
Even now, we can see difficulties in understanding this passage. Jesus knows it!
"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
Then Jesus tells them that everything that the Father has is his. He is not even done explaining who HE is!
Q: What does the Father have?
Everything. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, and eternal. Everything the Father has, the Son has.
Q: What is yet to come that they can’t handle now?
First, there is yet more to learn about him (Jesus), but they cannot understand until he comes back after the cross.
Second, there is the role of the Holy Spirit’s, which Jesus only alludes to, “I have to go so that I can send the Holy Spirit to you.”
Third, the apostles actually need to receive the HS on Pentecost before they understand more fully.
I hope everyone can see why this idea of the Trinity was something that had to evolve.
Trinitarian Analogies
Many have drawn up many analogies to try and better understand the three Persons in one God, and I will share some with you. But keep in mind that these are finite attempts to explain the infinite, so they will all come up short.
If the analogy is going to achieve accuracy, then they need to satisfy the three Trinitarian conditions of being distinct, deity, and unity, as follows:
1. God is Three Distinct Persons (distinct)
2. Each Person is Fully God (deity)
3. There is One God (unity)
A. The Trinity is like water. Water has three states: solid, liquid, and gas, just like the Trinity.
B.
C.
Good, but water cannot be a solid, liquid, and gas at the same time. It has to change from one to the other. The three Persons of the Trinity do not change into three different states.
B. The Trinity is like a three-leaf clover. There are three different cloves that represent the three different persons of the trinity.
Good effort by St. Patrick in the 5th century. Although the three cloves have the stem in common, the Trinity has their entire being in common.
C.
C. The Trinity is like an egg. In one egg you have the white, the yoke, and the shell; together they compose one full egg.
D.
E.
Notice that not any one of these three is considered “the egg.” With the Trinity, each member is considered fully God.
D. Some will ask, “How is it that 1+1+1 = 1?”
F.
G.
Arithmetic is a method of describing finite quantities, not infinite. However, if they insist, it should be “1x1x1 = 1” instead.
E. Spinning Color Wheel (three colors juxtaposed). Spin a color wheel with three colors and one blended color will become visible.
The analogy is not perfect in the sense that the Father, Son, and Spirit do not “blend” to make God. However, if we think of all three colors maintaining their color identity, then it is a good analogy.
Closing Prayer
O Father Almighty, we thank you wholeheartedly
For all the blessings and graces You have so generously give to us in time.
Dear Jesus, wipe away our tears and pardon us for our sinfulness.
Be with us, O Lord, until our dying day that we may be worthy of your mercy and granted the glory of Heaven.
O Holy Spirit, lead us to the right path
And if, on our way, we encounter difficulties and trials, do not allow us to fall or lose hope.
Grant us the graces we need daily that we may also share our blessings with our neighbors everywhere.
And when the time comes, O Holy Spirit, lead us to the place that is full of joy, grandeur, and eternal peace. Amen.
Glory Be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be
World without end. Amen.
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