Daily Retreat 05/18/08
2008 May 18 SUN: THE HOLY TRINITY S
Ex 34: 4b-6. 8-9/ Dn 3: 52. 53. 54. 55. 56 (52b)/ 2 Cor 13: 11-13/ Jn 3: 16-18
From today’s readings: “The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.... Glory and praise for ever!... The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.... God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life....”
The Sign of the Trinity
“In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The Sign of the Cross, with which we are accustomed to begin so many prayers, is also the Sign of the Trinity, our customary confession of faith of the very heart of our Faith, the belief in one God, in three divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Every truth of our faith - indeed, every truth the human mind can fathom, every truth in existence, is contingent on it’s bearing to the Blessed Trinity, the source and origin of all truth and being.
In asserting belief in the truth of the Trinity as the starting point of Christian faith, it can even be noted that, a man can paradoxically hold to the mere existence of one God without staking faith in Him. This is what I mean: our unaided human reason (if functioning properly, at least) will reach the conclusion that there is a singular Starting Point, a unique Origin of all existence, which, by definition, can certainly be labeled “God” (with a capital “G”). Now, clearly a man who has merely concluded that the universe has a singular Starting Point is still far from becoming a man of faith, for “faith begins where reason leaves off.”
As an aside, I must warn that this dictum “faith begins where reason ends” can be understood in two ways: for Voltaire and other atheist philosophers, “faith” is a counterfeit currency, a bogus blank check, used to fraudulently purchase whatever is too exorbitant for mere reason. But for John Paul the Great and other rational believers, faith and reason are clearly complementary and both essential: “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the soul of man rises to the contemplation of truth.... Faith asks that its object be understood with the help of reason; and at the summit of its searching, reason acknowledges that it cannot do without what faith presents.”
So if we are to be people of faith in God, we must go beyond the limits of reason alone. But “beyond” is not synonymous with “contrary to” - consider that an astronaut in space is certainly beyond the confines of even the most accurate and detailed map of the earth. Of course, the limits of the map cannot pinpoint and circumscribe the astronaut’s physical location, but that doesn’t mean a contradiction has arisen. Nor does the astronaut’s position “beyond” and “off the chart” invalidate at all the function and accuracy of the land map - in fact, it would be perilous for the astronaut to not care about his position relative to the earth! Thus, in this analogy, “reason” corresponds to the map of the earth, and faith corresponds to the rocket, the astronaut’s means for passing beyond, but not contrary to, the charted limits of the earth.
Faith is, in fact, man’s response to God’s revelation of Himself. Now, a person who affirms the existence of God, but denies divine Revelation, is called a “deist.” Such a person explicitly denies that God wants to tell us anything about Himself, and so the deist only believes what he can figure out on his own about God, such as God’s role as the singular Starting Point of the universe. In contrast to deism, all forms of Christianity explicitly assume that the Creator does want to tell His creatures something about Himself, and whatever He tells is then recognized as divine revelation, His initiatives in human history.
The Book of Exodus recounts how God spoke of Himself as “The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” Already, that is more than any deist can affirm on the basis of reason alone! But the LORD, the LORD, the merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity went on to reveal more and more about Himself, culminating in His definitive self-revelation in the person of Jesus, for “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
And last week’s solemnity of Pentecost commemorated what Jesus taught and did in revealing the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. So the Sign of the Cross is the Sign of the Trinity - God’s own signature, in a sense. Because God is rich in kindness and fidelity, He didn’t leave His children in the dark about who He is, and how we can come to Him. Rather, He clearly revealed His Trinitarian nature and three-fold embrace of His children! And responding with faith in that divine revelation, St. Paul could thus close his letter to the Corinthians with that sublime blessing which I too leave with you: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you!
Ex 34: 4b-6. 8-9/ Dn 3: 52. 53. 54. 55. 56 (52b)/ 2 Cor 13: 11-13/ Jn 3: 16-18
From today’s readings: “The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.... Glory and praise for ever!... The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.... God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life....”
The Sign of the Trinity
“In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The Sign of the Cross, with which we are accustomed to begin so many prayers, is also the Sign of the Trinity, our customary confession of faith of the very heart of our Faith, the belief in one God, in three divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Every truth of our faith - indeed, every truth the human mind can fathom, every truth in existence, is contingent on it’s bearing to the Blessed Trinity, the source and origin of all truth and being.
In asserting belief in the truth of the Trinity as the starting point of Christian faith, it can even be noted that, a man can paradoxically hold to the mere existence of one God without staking faith in Him. This is what I mean: our unaided human reason (if functioning properly, at least) will reach the conclusion that there is a singular Starting Point, a unique Origin of all existence, which, by definition, can certainly be labeled “God” (with a capital “G”). Now, clearly a man who has merely concluded that the universe has a singular Starting Point is still far from becoming a man of faith, for “faith begins where reason leaves off.”
As an aside, I must warn that this dictum “faith begins where reason ends” can be understood in two ways: for Voltaire and other atheist philosophers, “faith” is a counterfeit currency, a bogus blank check, used to fraudulently purchase whatever is too exorbitant for mere reason. But for John Paul the Great and other rational believers, faith and reason are clearly complementary and both essential: “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the soul of man rises to the contemplation of truth.... Faith asks that its object be understood with the help of reason; and at the summit of its searching, reason acknowledges that it cannot do without what faith presents.”
So if we are to be people of faith in God, we must go beyond the limits of reason alone. But “beyond” is not synonymous with “contrary to” - consider that an astronaut in space is certainly beyond the confines of even the most accurate and detailed map of the earth. Of course, the limits of the map cannot pinpoint and circumscribe the astronaut’s physical location, but that doesn’t mean a contradiction has arisen. Nor does the astronaut’s position “beyond” and “off the chart” invalidate at all the function and accuracy of the land map - in fact, it would be perilous for the astronaut to not care about his position relative to the earth! Thus, in this analogy, “reason” corresponds to the map of the earth, and faith corresponds to the rocket, the astronaut’s means for passing beyond, but not contrary to, the charted limits of the earth.
Faith is, in fact, man’s response to God’s revelation of Himself. Now, a person who affirms the existence of God, but denies divine Revelation, is called a “deist.” Such a person explicitly denies that God wants to tell us anything about Himself, and so the deist only believes what he can figure out on his own about God, such as God’s role as the singular Starting Point of the universe. In contrast to deism, all forms of Christianity explicitly assume that the Creator does want to tell His creatures something about Himself, and whatever He tells is then recognized as divine revelation, His initiatives in human history.
The Book of Exodus recounts how God spoke of Himself as “The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” Already, that is more than any deist can affirm on the basis of reason alone! But the LORD, the LORD, the merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity went on to reveal more and more about Himself, culminating in His definitive self-revelation in the person of Jesus, for “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
And last week’s solemnity of Pentecost commemorated what Jesus taught and did in revealing the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. So the Sign of the Cross is the Sign of the Trinity - God’s own signature, in a sense. Because God is rich in kindness and fidelity, He didn’t leave His children in the dark about who He is, and how we can come to Him. Rather, He clearly revealed His Trinitarian nature and three-fold embrace of His children! And responding with faith in that divine revelation, St. Paul could thus close his letter to the Corinthians with that sublime blessing which I too leave with you: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you!
posted by FrPitstick | 5/17/2008
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