In the beginning God created heaven and earth. God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good.
Gen 1.1,31a
A. Personal Existential Expositions
a.1.) Acknowledgement of the Sovereignty of God
I begin this dogma synthesis by submitting to the sovereignty of the Almighty God who created the world and everything on it. It is an inescapable truth that the doctrine of creation is the fact of the sovereignty of God. Creation, inevitably, is rooted in divine sovereignty. This doctrine presupposes mighty creative power, something which St. Paul makes clear to the Romans when he says that "the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead" (Rom. 1:20).
I was born second in the family of three. I thought for the past 13 years that I was the youngest in the family. Being the youngest, I had all the privileges and love. I was so grateful for the love and care my parents had given to me until the day I knew that a new member was to be born. At first, I had a feeling of disappointment knowing the fact that the presence of the new baby would change everything in my life. I had a lot of fears that my parents would not mind me anymore because their attention would all be now to the youngest. The title that I had enjoyed a lot in past 13 years, “the youngest,” would be now stripped from me. I was not prepared to be set aside and I was not used to be neglected by the family.
However, when the baby was born, I had sensed something which I did not expect. Deep in me I was so happy to see a new creation to be a part of our family. My fears and anxieties then, became my joys and excitements. Indeed, instead of being afraid of losing importance in the family, I insisted to care my younger sister, seeing her as a precious gift God ever given to me and to my family. My care to our youngest made me more loved by my parents and made me more important as ever.
Thinking of those experiences, I cannot but reflect on the greatness and sovereignty of the Almighty God. Whoever thought that in the past 13 years we would have a new member in our family? And whoever thought that after the birth of our youngest, my point of view on many things changes everything in my life. Creation is about God ultimate power, it is about God’s overflowing love and out of that love that we are created.
a.2.) Created in the Image and Likeness of God
The creation of mankind acquires special significance in the Biblical Creation Story. It is here where God creates a creature that is higher than the animals — a being which possesses a special likeness to Him, and is created in His very own image. It is this creation — God's final — that is the pinnacle of the Story. The prior six days, and every creation event occurring within, has led up to this profound moment. For in humanity, God has developed a being that is capable of developing a personal, spiritual relationship with Him. In addition, for the first time in the Bible, God directly communicates with mankind. He does this in Genesis 1:28 when, after blessing the first man and woman, He instructed them to "Be fruitful and increase in number . . ."
The personal relationship that spiritually bonds us with God is unique on our world. Plants, though certainly living entities, are incapable of thought. The animal world primarily consists of creatures that act on instinct. Some of the "higher" animals — mammals, such as dogs, apes, or monkeys — appear capable of intelligent thought, but do not form a spiritual relationship with God. In all of creation, we alone have been blessed with this wonderful ability and opportunity.
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.” - (Psalms 8:3-8 NIV)
We have all been made in the image and likeness of God, and because of this, each of us is capable of determining our own destiny. Unlike the plants and animals, God has endowed us with the ability to form a relationship with Him, the ability to increase our knowledge and wisdom, and the responsibility of caring for the world that He has given us.
The fact that we are made in His image and likeness should inspire us with a sense of duty and purpose. As His primary creations, we are obligated to emulate and exhibit His divineness. We may find it complimentary that we have been made in His image, but all too often we have neglected the responsibilities that it entails. Above all of His Earthly creations, God has endowed each of us with a unique soul — making us accountable for all of our actions.
B. Doctrinal Expositions
b.1.) The Doctrine of Creation
The doctrine of creation is that God created everything, both the visible worlds and the invisible, out of nothing. Without the continuing creative activity of God at every moment, the cosmos would not be; it would be naught. Speaking of the Logos-Word of God, holy John the Theologian writes, “Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him.” (Jn 1.3 [NJB])
Creation, as we have seen, is rooted in the divine decrees (cf Ps. 8:3), is a manifestation of divine power (Rev. 4:11), and, was pronounced "very good" on its accomplishment. In addition, it is clear from Scripture that creation was an act of the triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The act of creation provides a clear demonstration of the Trinitarian doctrine.
b.2.) Creation absolutely an Act of God
The work of creation is attributed to the Godhead, the one living and true God, revealed to us in Holy Scripture. This is clear from the Genesis narrative, and also from many other Old Testament passages (cf Deut. 4:32; Ps. 104; Isa. 45:5-19; Mal. 2: 1 0) and also from New Testament passages (cf. Mark 13:19; Acts 17:24; Eph. 3:9; Rev. 10:6). Such references may correctly be taken as referring primarily to the creative activity of God the Father. Specifically, however, we are told that "all things" owe their origin to "God, the Father" (I Cor. 8:6).
b.3.) Creation through God, the Son
While creation is predicated primarily of God in the unity of His being, there are specific instances of this creative work being accomplished through God, the Son (the Lord Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. In His incarnation (John 1:14; Phil. 2:6-7) Jesus took human flesh, without sin (Phil. 2:5). He was "sent" by the Father (John 5:37). But he had existence before His incarnation. This is beautifully brought out in His prayer recorded in John 17: "And now, 0 Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world was" (v.5).
In another place He is recorded as saying: "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). Specifically, the work of creation is attributed to the Son (cf John 1: 1-5). This is most explicitly brought out in the Letter to the Colossians where we read that is was by the Son that all things "were ... created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist" (Col. 1: 16-17). This enlarges on a statement of Paul's elsewhere, that "of him and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory for ever" (Rom. 11:36; cf Heb. 1:2).
b.4.) The Spirit in Creation
The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14), "eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son" (WCF, II, 3; cf John 15:26). He too is active in creation. The first indication of this is given in Genesis chapter 2 where we are told that the 'Spirit of God moved upon [or, hovered over] the waters" (v.1). This is confirmed by such texts as Job 26:13 (cf 33:4) and Psalm 104:30 (cf Ps. 33:6) and Isaiah 40:13.
Moreover, the creation is good because it is created by God, who is the author of good. He is, himself, good and goodness, light and life, and so the work of his hands is innately good for that very reason.
God creates the cosmos out of nothing, and it is very good. That is the essential dogma of creation.
Remain in Love!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Chapter 2: Where is the Lord in the Dogma of the Blessed Trinity?
“Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.”
(Deut 4:35)
But about the Son he says,
"Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,
and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
(Heb.1-8)
“God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
(John. 4:24)
A.) Personal Existential Expositions
a.1.) The Trinity and Creation
Our belief of the doctrine of creation is essentially connected in the dogma of the Trinity. I choose to incorporate creation to this chapter because I find it easy to connect the relation of these realities. In Genesis 1:1 - God created the heaven and the earth in the beginning. The Bible clearly and repeatedly claims that God made the heavens and the earth and everything in nature.
Moreover, my reflections on the Blessed Trinity start by contemplating on the reality of the world where I live. It is evident that when we look at the world around us, we are astounded by its immense diversity, which also is a clear sign of the diversity that exists in the Triune God. The diversity that we experience in shape, color, sex, language, culture, religion and way of life, cannot but be God's plan for the whole world. How monotonous and boring the world would have been if it were devoid of any diversity and variety!
Is it not most fitting and proper then that we acknowledge diversity as God's precious gift and also accept and respect it? It is indeed sad to see that people are very much divided and discriminated against on the basis of language, culture, color, sex and religion. If the white, black or brown people cannot get along with one another; if Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Bhojpuri-speaking people cannot tolerate one another; if Shuddras, Vaishyas, Rajputs and Brahmins cannot see one another; and if Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians cannot respect one another, it would indeed be a sin against the Triune God, from whom all diversity has proceeded.
We are diverse and yet called to be one just as the Holy Trinity is distinctly three and one at the same time. But we can be one only in as far as we accept and appreciate the other who is different from us. Let us remember that it is not uniformity that God wants but unity in diversity.
When I speak of unity in diversity, it means to me that our life has one ultimate purpose. We are all directed toward the one happiness that is in union with our God. However, to achieved such happiness there are varied ways and means on how to get there. The diversity that I mean is on our way of actualizing our desire for happiness that is in union with God.
I have two sisters and every time we are together we often times argue with one other. It just happened that our minds would really not meet in a certain idea and we keep on disagreeing. When my younger sister expresses her contention, my older sister will oppose and express her own. If I will speak about morality, both of them, in chorous, will always judge that the Church teachings are obsolete and no effect at all to the lives of the faithful. And when they will discuss about today’s trend, I will strongly diverge to their point and stress to what I believe is right. Those are samples of the topic that we find difficult to concur to. Nevertheless, when it comes to food or dessert, we are one in saying, “Yes.” We are one in one thing, we love to food.
a. 2.) Blessed Trinity as a Relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
The Blessed trinity in my reflection, although it’s not about conflicting views of the three persons, is something about relationship. It is about the story of the Father fully known in the Son and perpetuated by the presence of the Holy Spirit of Love. They are distinct in persons but one in divinity. My sisters and I we at times distinct in our views about thing but we share deep about food not simply because of food alone but because we have relationship as brothers and sisters, as a family. We might yell and screaming to one another in a certain point but we remain friends because we belong to one family.
The Blessed Trinity can be understood in the same way not in the context of conflict but in the context of relationship.
The story of salvation in Jesus Christ teaches us that it doesn’t do simply to talk about God only in singular terms. God may – indeed must – be One, but there is relationship within God. The “Three Persons” in a dynamic relationship. And what binds them together is Love. There is a dynamic unity of love and will which means that God sends Jesus into the world to be the savior of the world that means dying in the cross. But Jesus is no unwilling sacrificial lamb. In my years of biblical studies, I can attest that the death of Jesus is not because he is a victim of the will of the Father, but with all freedom, he embraced His death for ransom of the many. Jesus was a volunteer, a volunteer victim for our sins.
In the account of the John’s gospel, Jesus’ high priestly prayer establishes that there is a unity of divine will! The love of God for the world is matched by the love of the Son in going to the cross. The loving self-sacrifice of the Son is matched by the love of the Father, who abandons himself to the loss of the Son.
The Spirit is sent in the same way as the Son is sent. In the same John’s gospel, the Spirit is “Another Christ”. However, in the letters of St. Paul, he picks up on this, when he insists that anyone who has the Spirit belongs to Christ because the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (as well as the Spirit of God). The role of the Spirit is to “lead the disciples into all truth” ( Jn. 14:26, 15:26). Jesus makes the Father known to them. He does so as the Word made flesh- the one who has come from the bosom of the Father (Jn. 1:18). As such, the disciples can trust absolutely what they know of God through Jesus. To see Jesus is as good as seeing the Father. It is to see God – but in human form.
Jesus came to make the Father known. However, he was rejected and crucified. The rejection of Jesus was also the rejection of the God whom he called Father. Yet God does not allow the crucifixion to stand as the last word. Unknown to those crucifying him, Jesus is the Lamb of God, whose death takes away the sin of the world (John 1: 29). This means that the disciples preach Jesus. They don’t just repeat his message: now they have a further story to tell – the story of God walking among us in Jesus and saving us though his death and resurrection. They can tell this story because it is God’s story! The Jesus story is not simply the story of God acting through a man: it is the story of God as a man! Jesus is the act of God.
a.3.) The Oneness of God
“Three on one” therefore insists that we have first and always to speak about God in terms of relationality. To be God is to be in relationship. The relationship between God and the world flows out of the relationship of love that exists between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It means that Jesus is not just a man of God, but God as a man! And if Jesus shows us not only what God is like, but what it means to be human, then we come to understand that to be truly, fully and freely human – to have “Life in all its abundance” – is to be related in love to God and to one another.
B.) Doctrinal Expositions
b.1.) The Father
The Church professes her faith in the one God, who is at the same time the Most Holy and ineffable Trinity of Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Church lives by this truth contained in the most ancient symbols of faith.
God is incomprehensible to us. He wished to reveal himself, not only as the one creator and Almighty Father, but also as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This revelation reveals in its essential source the truth about God, who is love: God is love in the interior life itself of the one divinity. This love is revealed as an ineffable communion of persons.
The mystery of the intimate life of God has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ: "He who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (Jn 1:18). The last words with which Christ concluded his earthly mission after the resurrection were addressed to the apostles, according to St. Matthew's Gospel: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28:19).
The Old Testament has not revealed this truth explicitly. It prepared the way for it by showing God's Fatherhood in the covenant with his people, and by manifesting his activity in the world with Wisdom, the Word and the Spirit (e. g., Wis 7:22-30; Prov 8:22-30; Ps 33:4-6; Ps 147:15; Is 55:11; Wis 12:1; Is 11:2; Sir 48:12). The Old Testament has principally consolidated the truth about the one God, the hinge of the monotheistic religion, first of all in Israel and then outside of it. One must then conclude that the New Testament has brought the fullness of revelation about the Blessed Trinity. The Trinitarian truth has been from the beginning at the root of the living faith of the Christian community by means of baptism and the liturgy. The rules of faith, which we meet frequently both in the letters of the apostles and in the testimony of the kerygma, kept pace with the Church's catechesis and prayer.
b.2.) The Son
In the Bible, Jesus is often called the Son of God, which means that He is God made manifest in human form (John 1:1, 14). Jesus is the Son of God because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), who is God. In Jesus' time, the phrase son of man was used to signify a human being. In relation to that, Jesus being the Son of God, means that Jesus is God.
Jesus possesses the same attributes as God and both are honored equally. John 5:21-23 says, "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him."
Both the Father and the Son perform the same works. John 5:24-27 confirm this: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man."
b. 3.) The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For many of us, this is a difficult concept to grasp. Scared Scriptures declare that there is only one living God, yet we learn from scripture that He comprises three separate personages. One way to partially visualize this concept is to examine the nature of water (H2O). Water is a single compound that can exist in three states – liquid, ice and vapor. An egg is another picture. It is comprised of the white, the yoke and the shell, yet it is still one egg. Of course, by no means do these examples paint a complete picture of our God, but they are illustrative of the fact that His three “persons” in no way invalidate His oneness.
The Holy Spirit is the primary presence of God among us today. He Reveals God through Scripture, by making Himself known and by guiding and directing God's people. He enables and empowers believers by giving and sustaining all life, by giving power and gifts to serve God, by bringing forth fruit in believers; and by purifying, teaching and uniting believers. But the Spirit's presence and blessing is dependent upon our response to Him: He brings blessing, but the blessing may be temporarily removed or lessened. Acting with hardened disobience towards the Holy Spirit brings strong judgement, and irrationally rejecting the truth of the Holy Spirit's work in Jesus and then attributing it to Satan cannot be forgiven.
The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Incarnation of God's Son reveals that God is the eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means that, in the Father and with the Father the Son is one and the same God.
The mission of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in the name of the Son (Jn 14:26) and by the Son "from the Father" (Jn 15:26), reveals that, with them, the Spirit is one and the same God. "With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified" (Nicene Creed).
"The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father as the first principle and, by the eternal gift of this to the Son, from the communion of both the Father and the Son" (St. Augustine, De Trin. 15, 26, 47: PL 42, 1095). By the grace of Baptism "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light (cf. Paul VI, CPG # 9).
"Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal" (Athanasian Creed: DS 75; ND 16).
Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
(Deut 4:35)
But about the Son he says,
"Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,
and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
(Heb.1-8)
“God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
(John. 4:24)
A.) Personal Existential Expositions
a.1.) The Trinity and Creation
Our belief of the doctrine of creation is essentially connected in the dogma of the Trinity. I choose to incorporate creation to this chapter because I find it easy to connect the relation of these realities. In Genesis 1:1 - God created the heaven and the earth in the beginning. The Bible clearly and repeatedly claims that God made the heavens and the earth and everything in nature.
Moreover, my reflections on the Blessed Trinity start by contemplating on the reality of the world where I live. It is evident that when we look at the world around us, we are astounded by its immense diversity, which also is a clear sign of the diversity that exists in the Triune God. The diversity that we experience in shape, color, sex, language, culture, religion and way of life, cannot but be God's plan for the whole world. How monotonous and boring the world would have been if it were devoid of any diversity and variety!
Is it not most fitting and proper then that we acknowledge diversity as God's precious gift and also accept and respect it? It is indeed sad to see that people are very much divided and discriminated against on the basis of language, culture, color, sex and religion. If the white, black or brown people cannot get along with one another; if Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Bhojpuri-speaking people cannot tolerate one another; if Shuddras, Vaishyas, Rajputs and Brahmins cannot see one another; and if Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians cannot respect one another, it would indeed be a sin against the Triune God, from whom all diversity has proceeded.
We are diverse and yet called to be one just as the Holy Trinity is distinctly three and one at the same time. But we can be one only in as far as we accept and appreciate the other who is different from us. Let us remember that it is not uniformity that God wants but unity in diversity.
When I speak of unity in diversity, it means to me that our life has one ultimate purpose. We are all directed toward the one happiness that is in union with our God. However, to achieved such happiness there are varied ways and means on how to get there. The diversity that I mean is on our way of actualizing our desire for happiness that is in union with God.
I have two sisters and every time we are together we often times argue with one other. It just happened that our minds would really not meet in a certain idea and we keep on disagreeing. When my younger sister expresses her contention, my older sister will oppose and express her own. If I will speak about morality, both of them, in chorous, will always judge that the Church teachings are obsolete and no effect at all to the lives of the faithful. And when they will discuss about today’s trend, I will strongly diverge to their point and stress to what I believe is right. Those are samples of the topic that we find difficult to concur to. Nevertheless, when it comes to food or dessert, we are one in saying, “Yes.” We are one in one thing, we love to food.
a. 2.) Blessed Trinity as a Relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
The Blessed trinity in my reflection, although it’s not about conflicting views of the three persons, is something about relationship. It is about the story of the Father fully known in the Son and perpetuated by the presence of the Holy Spirit of Love. They are distinct in persons but one in divinity. My sisters and I we at times distinct in our views about thing but we share deep about food not simply because of food alone but because we have relationship as brothers and sisters, as a family. We might yell and screaming to one another in a certain point but we remain friends because we belong to one family.
The Blessed Trinity can be understood in the same way not in the context of conflict but in the context of relationship.
The story of salvation in Jesus Christ teaches us that it doesn’t do simply to talk about God only in singular terms. God may – indeed must – be One, but there is relationship within God. The “Three Persons” in a dynamic relationship. And what binds them together is Love. There is a dynamic unity of love and will which means that God sends Jesus into the world to be the savior of the world that means dying in the cross. But Jesus is no unwilling sacrificial lamb. In my years of biblical studies, I can attest that the death of Jesus is not because he is a victim of the will of the Father, but with all freedom, he embraced His death for ransom of the many. Jesus was a volunteer, a volunteer victim for our sins.
In the account of the John’s gospel, Jesus’ high priestly prayer establishes that there is a unity of divine will! The love of God for the world is matched by the love of the Son in going to the cross. The loving self-sacrifice of the Son is matched by the love of the Father, who abandons himself to the loss of the Son.
The Spirit is sent in the same way as the Son is sent. In the same John’s gospel, the Spirit is “Another Christ”. However, in the letters of St. Paul, he picks up on this, when he insists that anyone who has the Spirit belongs to Christ because the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (as well as the Spirit of God). The role of the Spirit is to “lead the disciples into all truth” ( Jn. 14:26, 15:26). Jesus makes the Father known to them. He does so as the Word made flesh- the one who has come from the bosom of the Father (Jn. 1:18). As such, the disciples can trust absolutely what they know of God through Jesus. To see Jesus is as good as seeing the Father. It is to see God – but in human form.
Jesus came to make the Father known. However, he was rejected and crucified. The rejection of Jesus was also the rejection of the God whom he called Father. Yet God does not allow the crucifixion to stand as the last word. Unknown to those crucifying him, Jesus is the Lamb of God, whose death takes away the sin of the world (John 1: 29). This means that the disciples preach Jesus. They don’t just repeat his message: now they have a further story to tell – the story of God walking among us in Jesus and saving us though his death and resurrection. They can tell this story because it is God’s story! The Jesus story is not simply the story of God acting through a man: it is the story of God as a man! Jesus is the act of God.
a.3.) The Oneness of God
“Three on one” therefore insists that we have first and always to speak about God in terms of relationality. To be God is to be in relationship. The relationship between God and the world flows out of the relationship of love that exists between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It means that Jesus is not just a man of God, but God as a man! And if Jesus shows us not only what God is like, but what it means to be human, then we come to understand that to be truly, fully and freely human – to have “Life in all its abundance” – is to be related in love to God and to one another.
B.) Doctrinal Expositions
b.1.) The Father
The Church professes her faith in the one God, who is at the same time the Most Holy and ineffable Trinity of Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Church lives by this truth contained in the most ancient symbols of faith.
God is incomprehensible to us. He wished to reveal himself, not only as the one creator and Almighty Father, but also as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This revelation reveals in its essential source the truth about God, who is love: God is love in the interior life itself of the one divinity. This love is revealed as an ineffable communion of persons.
The mystery of the intimate life of God has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ: "He who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (Jn 1:18). The last words with which Christ concluded his earthly mission after the resurrection were addressed to the apostles, according to St. Matthew's Gospel: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28:19).
The Old Testament has not revealed this truth explicitly. It prepared the way for it by showing God's Fatherhood in the covenant with his people, and by manifesting his activity in the world with Wisdom, the Word and the Spirit (e. g., Wis 7:22-30; Prov 8:22-30; Ps 33:4-6; Ps 147:15; Is 55:11; Wis 12:1; Is 11:2; Sir 48:12). The Old Testament has principally consolidated the truth about the one God, the hinge of the monotheistic religion, first of all in Israel and then outside of it. One must then conclude that the New Testament has brought the fullness of revelation about the Blessed Trinity. The Trinitarian truth has been from the beginning at the root of the living faith of the Christian community by means of baptism and the liturgy. The rules of faith, which we meet frequently both in the letters of the apostles and in the testimony of the kerygma, kept pace with the Church's catechesis and prayer.
b.2.) The Son
In the Bible, Jesus is often called the Son of God, which means that He is God made manifest in human form (John 1:1, 14). Jesus is the Son of God because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), who is God. In Jesus' time, the phrase son of man was used to signify a human being. In relation to that, Jesus being the Son of God, means that Jesus is God.
Jesus possesses the same attributes as God and both are honored equally. John 5:21-23 says, "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him."
Both the Father and the Son perform the same works. John 5:24-27 confirm this: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man."
b. 3.) The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For many of us, this is a difficult concept to grasp. Scared Scriptures declare that there is only one living God, yet we learn from scripture that He comprises three separate personages. One way to partially visualize this concept is to examine the nature of water (H2O). Water is a single compound that can exist in three states – liquid, ice and vapor. An egg is another picture. It is comprised of the white, the yoke and the shell, yet it is still one egg. Of course, by no means do these examples paint a complete picture of our God, but they are illustrative of the fact that His three “persons” in no way invalidate His oneness.
The Holy Spirit is the primary presence of God among us today. He Reveals God through Scripture, by making Himself known and by guiding and directing God's people. He enables and empowers believers by giving and sustaining all life, by giving power and gifts to serve God, by bringing forth fruit in believers; and by purifying, teaching and uniting believers. But the Spirit's presence and blessing is dependent upon our response to Him: He brings blessing, but the blessing may be temporarily removed or lessened. Acting with hardened disobience towards the Holy Spirit brings strong judgement, and irrationally rejecting the truth of the Holy Spirit's work in Jesus and then attributing it to Satan cannot be forgiven.
The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Incarnation of God's Son reveals that God is the eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means that, in the Father and with the Father the Son is one and the same God.
The mission of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in the name of the Son (Jn 14:26) and by the Son "from the Father" (Jn 15:26), reveals that, with them, the Spirit is one and the same God. "With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified" (Nicene Creed).
"The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father as the first principle and, by the eternal gift of this to the Son, from the communion of both the Father and the Son" (St. Augustine, De Trin. 15, 26, 47: PL 42, 1095). By the grace of Baptism "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light (cf. Paul VI, CPG # 9).
"Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal" (Athanasian Creed: DS 75; ND 16).
Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Chapter 3: Where Is the Lord in the Doctrine of Salvation through Jesus Christ?
“While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.”
( Matthew 27:17-29)
A.) Personal Existential Experiences
a.1.) The Paschal Celebration
For some, if not all, non- Catholics, the celebration of the Holy Week, or the paschal mystery of Jesus, is a human cruelty, an exercise of irrationality and biblically unfounded. They have reached this condemnation to our Catholic practice simply because they found it improper to celebrate the passion of our Lord and to reminisce how he was brutally crucified in the hands of the Roman soldiers. It is, for them, totally unacceptable.
Nevertheless, for those believing Christians and Catholics in particular, this sacred tradition of the church is a perpetuation of Jesus’ command, “Do this in memory of me.,”(Lk. 22:19) referring to the living out of the Eucharist of which he, himself, instituted in the Last Supper. More so, those who continue to protest for the upholding of this tradition do not fully understand the meaning of the incarnation. Jesus was not a savior by chance; he chose to be our savior. He willed the will of the Father (Mt.26:42) and he died because that was the very reason of his birth (Jn.3:16).
The paschal mystery, in my personal perspective, should not be more focused on Jesus hanging on the cross but instead on the empty tomb. It is because the empty tomb which is the best portrayal of Jesus’ resurrection is the foundation of our Catholic faith. Hence, the whole commemoration of these events, the paschal mystery affair, should not end on Good Friday when Jesus was nailed on the cross but on Easter Sunday when Jesus was glorified and overcome the darkness of sin.
a.2.) Jesus’ Resurrection: A Personal Reflection
Jesus’ resurrection is our birth to new life; the foretaste of the life to come and the image of the new city of God. So for those who condemned this tradition as ridiculous remembrance of the dark past of the history of our faith is misguided in their theological understanding. The Catholic Church’s commemoration of the passion of Christ is a manifestation that our Church is not only a Church of the Good Friday but a Church of the Risen Lord. With that, it deserves a celebration for the victory of our faith.
But in a more personal level, I believe that the celebration of the paschal mystery that starts from the day when Jesus’ triumphantly entered into Jerusalem until the day when the disciple found the empty tomb is an experience of the mystery of the Divine. It is an experience of the mystery in a sense that I am in the fullness of the encounter of who God is. I know him as a God who created everything in this world, who sent His Son into the world so that the world may believe on him. I know him as a God who allowed that His only begotten Son be crucified for the remission of all the sin of the world and who on the third day His Son was risen from the dead to tell the whole world of His majesty and power. I know him as a God who despite everything the world has done, still sends His Spirit of love to continue to perform the ministry of His Son through the Church.
The perpetuation of the celebration of the paschal mystery, for me is an experience of the mystery of God. I am indeed fortunate that I, together with the Church, have given a privilege to witness again the event happened in Calvary and made it present through this sacred tradition of the Church. The whole celebration for me is not only a commemoration of our salvation and our victorious entry into his kingdom but also a commemoration of God’s endless love.
We keep on repeating, time and again this celebration of God’s marvelous love for us because, at times, we forget this event in moments we become unfaithful to him. The paschal mystery present in the Eucharist is, far beyond a practice, becoming an important part of our Filipino culture. It is in order for us to be reminded that we are saved by Jesus’ sacrifices and washed our sins through his blood. God wants us to know that salvation does not happen only in Calvary but in every day of our lives. And that this salvation will happen to us everyday if we choose Him over and above the world and if we live in His word and proclaim His word to every corner of the world. Salvation is an everyday event only if we are sensitive to God’s invitation everyday.
Finally, as a believer of the world became flesh (Jn.1:14), I am invited to reflect on the life of Jesus Christ – His sacrifices, His passion and death and more importantly His resurrection and ascension into heaven. More than my obligation, it is the demand of my faith to spread the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection and be part of transforming the world in the love of God.
“God does not destroy the wicked and godless with the fire and sword from heaven. He transforms what is evil, as we know from our own experience and he changes it into love.” – Raymund Schwager
B. Doctrinal Exposition
b.1.) Church Definition of the Paschal Mystery
In the language of the Church, the Paschal Mystery is the death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord into glory. The Paschal Mystery is the central mystery of the Christian Faith, celebrated at the Easter Triduum with a sublime and unique solemnity.
The Term 'paschal' is derived from the word 'pasch', not simply because the events from the Last Super through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ happened to coincide with Passover. The event celebrated by Passover -- the deliverance of Israel from enslavement in Egypt -- is itself the anticipation of the full deliverance won by Christ for the whole human race.
b.2.) On His Resurrection
Jesus himself said that He came to "give his life as redemption for many" (Mt. 20:28) and to "shed his blood" in order to expiate the sins of men (Mt. 20: 28; Mk.lO:45). At the Last Supper, He celebrated the Eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood, poured out "for the remission of sins. (Lk. 22:19; Mt. 26:28). To His disciples on the road to Emmaus, He said His Resurrection was the fruit of His Passion (Lk. 24:25,26). In fact, both the Old and New Testament equally attest that in God's plan, "Christ must vanquish death by means of death" and, by means of death merit resurrection for Himself and for the Mystical Body.
If Christ be not risen, our faith is vain (1 Cor. 15:14). The whole of the New Testament revelation rests on this as an historical fact. On the day of Pentecost, Peter argued the necessity of Christ's resurrection from the prediction in Psalm 16 (Acts 2:24-28). In his own discourses also, our Lord in the gospel clearly prophesied his resurrection. (Matt. 20:19; Mark 9:9; 14:28; Luke 18:33; John 2:19-22).
The resurrection is important because it is a public testimony of Christ's release from his undertaking as surety, and an evidence of the Father's acceptance of his work of redemption. It is a victory over death and the grave for all his followers.
The importance of Christ's resurrection will be seen when we consider that if he rose the gospel is true, and if he rose not it is false. His resurrection from the dead makes it manifests that his sacrifice was accepted and the gospel is true. Our justification was secured by his obedience to the death, and therefore he was raised from the dead (Rom. 4:25).
His resurrection is a proof that he made a full atonement for our sins, that his sacrifice was accepted as a satisfaction to divine justice and his blood a ransom for sinners. It is also a pledge and an earnest of the resurrection of all believers. (Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 6:14; 15:47-49; Phil. 3:21; 1 John 3:2). As he lives, they shall live also.
If Christ did not rise, the whole scheme of redemption is a failure, and all the predictions and anticipations of its glorious results for time and for eternity, for men and for angels of every rank and order, are proved to be chimeras. ‘But now Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.’ Therefore the Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation. The kingdom of darkness has been overthrown, Satan has fallen as lightning from heaven, and the triumph of truth over error, of good over evil, of happiness over misery is for ever secured.”
b.3.) On His Ascension
For forty days after His Resurrection, Jesus remained on earth. Filled with the glory and honor of His Divinity, He appeared to His Disciples at various times and places. By eating and drinking with His followers and conversing with them about the Kingdom of God, Jesus assured them that He was truly alive in His risen and glorified Body.
Ascension falls on the fortieth day after the Resurrection. On this day, Jesus appeared to His Disciples and gave them His last commandment - to preach the Kingdom of God and the repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem. Then He led them out of Jerusalem toward Bethany to the Mount of Olives. He lifted up His hands and blessed them. As His Disciples were looking on, He was lifted up - or "ascended" - and a cloud took Him out of sight. While they were looking up, two angels in white robes appeared and said to them: "Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus, Who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same was as you have seen Him go there."
The Ascension is, therefore, a sign and symbol of the Second Coming. Christ will return to the earth in the same manner as He left it. When the risen Lord returns again in glory, God's will for mankind will be fulfilled.
Jesus completed His earthly mission of bringing salvation to all people and physically was lifted up from this world into heaven. The meaning and the fullness of Christ's Resurrection is given in the Ascension. Having completed His mission in this world as the Savior, He returned to the Father in heaven who sent Him into the world. In ascending to the Father, He raises earth to heaven with Him!
b.4.) About Mary
Her Fiat
The entire salvation account will be incomplete without the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It started with the “YES” of Mary. “Yes” then is both the most painful and the most powerful word. It is painful because Mary suffered a lot in her yes to God. At the age of 14, she risked her life to obey the will of the Father to mother Jesus His Son. The choice of Mary to be the mother of Jesus was not an easy choice. She had suffered societal questioning and perhaps rejection. She had to bear the pain of delivering a child in the early years of her life. She had to be a mother of God – a responsibility that she never know how to fulfill. Despite all these things, Mary continued to say YES.
With this, Mary places an important image in our salvation. She conceived in her womb Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and yet remained a Virgin ever as before. And through that same power of the Holy Spirit made her the Immaculate Mother of God being conceived without the stain of the original sin. Since she had the privilege of “being full of grace” as the favored daughter of God the Father declared by the angel Gabriel, she did not experience death, instead, on the day of her passing she assumed, through the power of God, to heaven both body and soul. Her assumption into heaven was the greatest reward she ever had for unconditionally committing to the will of the Father and obedience to His command. If not for Mary’s “fiat,” there could be a different story of God to tell.
Her Magnificat
Her “Yes” to the will of God is a yes that comes from a joyful heart. She endangered herself to follow the message of the angel Gabriel because deep in her heart she knew that she was with God. To be a mother of the Son of God is a great privilege – a privilege that she kept it humbly and ponderly into her hearts that had led her to say: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”
The magnificat of the Blessed Virgin Mary is rather, for me, a glimpse of her sorrows and exaltation of her greatest griefs and pains to come. Mary was deeply confused upon the message of an angel to be the Mother of God. She was on the state of shock. She could not help but say the words: ‘Be it done to me according to Your will.’ That was her first lash.
The magnificat of Mary is rather, for me, a song of faith. The most distinct character of Mary is that she always believes. Mary believes to the greatest impossibility to happen to her life. And she was right in never stop in believing. She is truly a model of faith and mother of believers. The destiny of Mary as a favored daughter of God was not an easy task and it would never be as accounted in history. To Mother the Son of God is an incredible thing and it needs an incredible faith. So, does Mary.
The magnificat of Mary is rather, for me, a melody of the soul. Mary firmly believed that the right tone of life can only be sung when God sets the music. Mary’s dancing in the music of God is her dependency to Him. Because of this she is raised to be the Queen of Heaven and Earth a title that she deserves very well, thus all generations will, indeed, called her Blessed One. There may be a lot of exegesis and hermeneutical explanation on Mary’s canticle but for me as a devotee of her, it only speaks of her sorrows, of her faith and of her total dependency to God.
Her Stabat
Hanging on the Cross, Jesus sees his mother and John standing at the foot of the Cross … Looking at them, Jesus says: "Woman, behold your son … Behold your mother" (Jn 19:26-27). Thereby Jesus gave Mary his mother to the Church. It was a pure gift and grace of our Lord Jesus to make available to humanity the maternal role of Mary.
The final hour of Jesus and the final fiat of Mary are interlocked at this moment. It is the pure grace of Jesus according to the plan of God. The Church and the world must have a Mother, the valiant Woman, chosen by God in the place of Eve, the Mother of all living.
Jesus uses the word "woman" and not "mother." Jesus has been progressively distancing himself from his mother and other relations, too. It is not the kinship, but the discipleship that will take one to the kingdom of God. One ought to be a believing disciple of Jesus Christ, who suffered and died and was raised. Mary was indeed a believer and disciple par excellence! Like her suffering son, Mary also suffered from the time of Annunciation through a series of fiats which reached the zenith on the Cross.
Though Jesus remains the central figure in all the Marian references in the New Testament, Mary is shown to play her significant role as mother, believer and a perfect disciple.
( Matthew 27:17-29)
A.) Personal Existential Experiences
a.1.) The Paschal Celebration
For some, if not all, non- Catholics, the celebration of the Holy Week, or the paschal mystery of Jesus, is a human cruelty, an exercise of irrationality and biblically unfounded. They have reached this condemnation to our Catholic practice simply because they found it improper to celebrate the passion of our Lord and to reminisce how he was brutally crucified in the hands of the Roman soldiers. It is, for them, totally unacceptable.
Nevertheless, for those believing Christians and Catholics in particular, this sacred tradition of the church is a perpetuation of Jesus’ command, “Do this in memory of me.,”(Lk. 22:19) referring to the living out of the Eucharist of which he, himself, instituted in the Last Supper. More so, those who continue to protest for the upholding of this tradition do not fully understand the meaning of the incarnation. Jesus was not a savior by chance; he chose to be our savior. He willed the will of the Father (Mt.26:42) and he died because that was the very reason of his birth (Jn.3:16).
The paschal mystery, in my personal perspective, should not be more focused on Jesus hanging on the cross but instead on the empty tomb. It is because the empty tomb which is the best portrayal of Jesus’ resurrection is the foundation of our Catholic faith. Hence, the whole commemoration of these events, the paschal mystery affair, should not end on Good Friday when Jesus was nailed on the cross but on Easter Sunday when Jesus was glorified and overcome the darkness of sin.
a.2.) Jesus’ Resurrection: A Personal Reflection
Jesus’ resurrection is our birth to new life; the foretaste of the life to come and the image of the new city of God. So for those who condemned this tradition as ridiculous remembrance of the dark past of the history of our faith is misguided in their theological understanding. The Catholic Church’s commemoration of the passion of Christ is a manifestation that our Church is not only a Church of the Good Friday but a Church of the Risen Lord. With that, it deserves a celebration for the victory of our faith.
But in a more personal level, I believe that the celebration of the paschal mystery that starts from the day when Jesus’ triumphantly entered into Jerusalem until the day when the disciple found the empty tomb is an experience of the mystery of the Divine. It is an experience of the mystery in a sense that I am in the fullness of the encounter of who God is. I know him as a God who created everything in this world, who sent His Son into the world so that the world may believe on him. I know him as a God who allowed that His only begotten Son be crucified for the remission of all the sin of the world and who on the third day His Son was risen from the dead to tell the whole world of His majesty and power. I know him as a God who despite everything the world has done, still sends His Spirit of love to continue to perform the ministry of His Son through the Church.
The perpetuation of the celebration of the paschal mystery, for me is an experience of the mystery of God. I am indeed fortunate that I, together with the Church, have given a privilege to witness again the event happened in Calvary and made it present through this sacred tradition of the Church. The whole celebration for me is not only a commemoration of our salvation and our victorious entry into his kingdom but also a commemoration of God’s endless love.
We keep on repeating, time and again this celebration of God’s marvelous love for us because, at times, we forget this event in moments we become unfaithful to him. The paschal mystery present in the Eucharist is, far beyond a practice, becoming an important part of our Filipino culture. It is in order for us to be reminded that we are saved by Jesus’ sacrifices and washed our sins through his blood. God wants us to know that salvation does not happen only in Calvary but in every day of our lives. And that this salvation will happen to us everyday if we choose Him over and above the world and if we live in His word and proclaim His word to every corner of the world. Salvation is an everyday event only if we are sensitive to God’s invitation everyday.
Finally, as a believer of the world became flesh (Jn.1:14), I am invited to reflect on the life of Jesus Christ – His sacrifices, His passion and death and more importantly His resurrection and ascension into heaven. More than my obligation, it is the demand of my faith to spread the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection and be part of transforming the world in the love of God.
“God does not destroy the wicked and godless with the fire and sword from heaven. He transforms what is evil, as we know from our own experience and he changes it into love.” – Raymund Schwager
B. Doctrinal Exposition
b.1.) Church Definition of the Paschal Mystery
In the language of the Church, the Paschal Mystery is the death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord into glory. The Paschal Mystery is the central mystery of the Christian Faith, celebrated at the Easter Triduum with a sublime and unique solemnity.
The Term 'paschal' is derived from the word 'pasch', not simply because the events from the Last Super through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ happened to coincide with Passover. The event celebrated by Passover -- the deliverance of Israel from enslavement in Egypt -- is itself the anticipation of the full deliverance won by Christ for the whole human race.
b.2.) On His Resurrection
Jesus himself said that He came to "give his life as redemption for many" (Mt. 20:28) and to "shed his blood" in order to expiate the sins of men (Mt. 20: 28; Mk.lO:45). At the Last Supper, He celebrated the Eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood, poured out "for the remission of sins. (Lk. 22:19; Mt. 26:28). To His disciples on the road to Emmaus, He said His Resurrection was the fruit of His Passion (Lk. 24:25,26). In fact, both the Old and New Testament equally attest that in God's plan, "Christ must vanquish death by means of death" and, by means of death merit resurrection for Himself and for the Mystical Body.
If Christ be not risen, our faith is vain (1 Cor. 15:14). The whole of the New Testament revelation rests on this as an historical fact. On the day of Pentecost, Peter argued the necessity of Christ's resurrection from the prediction in Psalm 16 (Acts 2:24-28). In his own discourses also, our Lord in the gospel clearly prophesied his resurrection. (Matt. 20:19; Mark 9:9; 14:28; Luke 18:33; John 2:19-22).
The resurrection is important because it is a public testimony of Christ's release from his undertaking as surety, and an evidence of the Father's acceptance of his work of redemption. It is a victory over death and the grave for all his followers.
The importance of Christ's resurrection will be seen when we consider that if he rose the gospel is true, and if he rose not it is false. His resurrection from the dead makes it manifests that his sacrifice was accepted and the gospel is true. Our justification was secured by his obedience to the death, and therefore he was raised from the dead (Rom. 4:25).
His resurrection is a proof that he made a full atonement for our sins, that his sacrifice was accepted as a satisfaction to divine justice and his blood a ransom for sinners. It is also a pledge and an earnest of the resurrection of all believers. (Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 6:14; 15:47-49; Phil. 3:21; 1 John 3:2). As he lives, they shall live also.
If Christ did not rise, the whole scheme of redemption is a failure, and all the predictions and anticipations of its glorious results for time and for eternity, for men and for angels of every rank and order, are proved to be chimeras. ‘But now Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.’ Therefore the Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation. The kingdom of darkness has been overthrown, Satan has fallen as lightning from heaven, and the triumph of truth over error, of good over evil, of happiness over misery is for ever secured.”
b.3.) On His Ascension
For forty days after His Resurrection, Jesus remained on earth. Filled with the glory and honor of His Divinity, He appeared to His Disciples at various times and places. By eating and drinking with His followers and conversing with them about the Kingdom of God, Jesus assured them that He was truly alive in His risen and glorified Body.
Ascension falls on the fortieth day after the Resurrection. On this day, Jesus appeared to His Disciples and gave them His last commandment - to preach the Kingdom of God and the repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem. Then He led them out of Jerusalem toward Bethany to the Mount of Olives. He lifted up His hands and blessed them. As His Disciples were looking on, He was lifted up - or "ascended" - and a cloud took Him out of sight. While they were looking up, two angels in white robes appeared and said to them: "Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus, Who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same was as you have seen Him go there."
The Ascension is, therefore, a sign and symbol of the Second Coming. Christ will return to the earth in the same manner as He left it. When the risen Lord returns again in glory, God's will for mankind will be fulfilled.
Jesus completed His earthly mission of bringing salvation to all people and physically was lifted up from this world into heaven. The meaning and the fullness of Christ's Resurrection is given in the Ascension. Having completed His mission in this world as the Savior, He returned to the Father in heaven who sent Him into the world. In ascending to the Father, He raises earth to heaven with Him!
b.4.) About Mary
Her Fiat
The entire salvation account will be incomplete without the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It started with the “YES” of Mary. “Yes” then is both the most painful and the most powerful word. It is painful because Mary suffered a lot in her yes to God. At the age of 14, she risked her life to obey the will of the Father to mother Jesus His Son. The choice of Mary to be the mother of Jesus was not an easy choice. She had suffered societal questioning and perhaps rejection. She had to bear the pain of delivering a child in the early years of her life. She had to be a mother of God – a responsibility that she never know how to fulfill. Despite all these things, Mary continued to say YES.
With this, Mary places an important image in our salvation. She conceived in her womb Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and yet remained a Virgin ever as before. And through that same power of the Holy Spirit made her the Immaculate Mother of God being conceived without the stain of the original sin. Since she had the privilege of “being full of grace” as the favored daughter of God the Father declared by the angel Gabriel, she did not experience death, instead, on the day of her passing she assumed, through the power of God, to heaven both body and soul. Her assumption into heaven was the greatest reward she ever had for unconditionally committing to the will of the Father and obedience to His command. If not for Mary’s “fiat,” there could be a different story of God to tell.
Her Magnificat
Her “Yes” to the will of God is a yes that comes from a joyful heart. She endangered herself to follow the message of the angel Gabriel because deep in her heart she knew that she was with God. To be a mother of the Son of God is a great privilege – a privilege that she kept it humbly and ponderly into her hearts that had led her to say: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”
The magnificat of the Blessed Virgin Mary is rather, for me, a glimpse of her sorrows and exaltation of her greatest griefs and pains to come. Mary was deeply confused upon the message of an angel to be the Mother of God. She was on the state of shock. She could not help but say the words: ‘Be it done to me according to Your will.’ That was her first lash.
The magnificat of Mary is rather, for me, a song of faith. The most distinct character of Mary is that she always believes. Mary believes to the greatest impossibility to happen to her life. And she was right in never stop in believing. She is truly a model of faith and mother of believers. The destiny of Mary as a favored daughter of God was not an easy task and it would never be as accounted in history. To Mother the Son of God is an incredible thing and it needs an incredible faith. So, does Mary.
The magnificat of Mary is rather, for me, a melody of the soul. Mary firmly believed that the right tone of life can only be sung when God sets the music. Mary’s dancing in the music of God is her dependency to Him. Because of this she is raised to be the Queen of Heaven and Earth a title that she deserves very well, thus all generations will, indeed, called her Blessed One. There may be a lot of exegesis and hermeneutical explanation on Mary’s canticle but for me as a devotee of her, it only speaks of her sorrows, of her faith and of her total dependency to God.
Her Stabat
Hanging on the Cross, Jesus sees his mother and John standing at the foot of the Cross … Looking at them, Jesus says: "Woman, behold your son … Behold your mother" (Jn 19:26-27). Thereby Jesus gave Mary his mother to the Church. It was a pure gift and grace of our Lord Jesus to make available to humanity the maternal role of Mary.
The final hour of Jesus and the final fiat of Mary are interlocked at this moment. It is the pure grace of Jesus according to the plan of God. The Church and the world must have a Mother, the valiant Woman, chosen by God in the place of Eve, the Mother of all living.
Jesus uses the word "woman" and not "mother." Jesus has been progressively distancing himself from his mother and other relations, too. It is not the kinship, but the discipleship that will take one to the kingdom of God. One ought to be a believing disciple of Jesus Christ, who suffered and died and was raised. Mary was indeed a believer and disciple par excellence! Like her suffering son, Mary also suffered from the time of Annunciation through a series of fiats which reached the zenith on the Cross.
Though Jesus remains the central figure in all the Marian references in the New Testament, Mary is shown to play her significant role as mother, believer and a perfect disciple.
Chapter 4: Where is the Lord in the Dogma on Grace?
“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.”
2 Corinthians 12:7-9
A.) Personal Existential Experiences
a.1.) The Mystery of Grace
I would like to connect my reflection on grace to the topic I mentioned in Chapter 2. When I speak of grace it has something to do with the Paschal Mystery- the passion, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The paschal mystery has brought a new reality and meaning of grace as described in scripture. The Fathers of the Church and the contemporary writers has defined grace as a “call to intimate friendship that God extends to everyone. This involves the capacity of all of us to be lifted up through the influence of grace to be related with God here and now in a relationship of love where God is the one that takes the initiative.”
This contemporary understanding of grace for me is the encompassing fact about grace. God, from the very beginning of his creation of the world, has given the grace unto us. This grace is not designed for Him to prove His being omnipotent and almighty before us, but simply because He wanted us to be his friends in love. This willingness of God to extend His divine friendship to man, despite the fact of man’s unworthiness, is an expression of, and in fact, grace in itself. Indeed, everything in this universe is grace and there is no instance in our life that grace is nowhere.
a.2.) Grace as a Call to Friendship with God
Nevertheless, I would say that God’s call to friendship is not the only ultimate purpose of grace. Grace is present because it is connected with love. Love is the will and the essence of God that motivates Him in his action towards man. Since time immemorial until today, God has actively engaged in the activity of man. Such engagement of God is not simply superficial but essential – it was the offering of the blood of His only begotten Son Jesus. That was the greatest grace that humanity has ever received. Certainly, grace has found its existence in God’s act of love. Without love, grace is impossible.
God’s deep desire then was to establish a profound relationship of love in men and women. Love had been the underlying reason for grace to be perfected in the world. Therefore, it would be proper not only to say that God yearned friendship to all person but also for the person to become a part and a member of His family in love. The call to be in God under the one banner of love was and is the purpose of grace. Grace continues to be present everywhere because God remains to be with us and love us. As long as God’s love is everywhere, grace is everywhere.
B.) Doctrinal Exposition
b.1.) Water and Blood
St. Chrysostom(347-407 AD) of the early fifth century tells us that the early Christians viewed the water and blood as pointing to the Sacraments of the Eucharist and baptism. Again, this resonates the importance of baptism to the early believers.
From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit”, and from the holy Eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam More so, Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.
To connect the meaning of grace as related to the water and blood that flowed at the side of Jesus, I could say that in the New Testament grace means God’s love in action towards men who merited the opposite of love. Grace means God moving heaven and earth to save sinners who could not lift a finger to save themselves. Grace means God sending His only Son to descend into hell on the cross so that we, the guilty ones, might be reconciled to God and received into heaven. ‘God has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.’(2 Cor. 5:21)
In this sense, through the Holy Spirit, symbolized in the water and blood at the side of Jesus on the cross, grace had been given to the humanity. Through the death of Jesus on the cross, the world has given a new life and this new life is a life of grace.
b.2.) Divine Indwelling
When many theologians define grace as “God's unmerited favor towards us in Christ,” though not incorrect, this definition is incomplete. I always believe that divine grace also includes the divine gifts which flow from this favor, such as our new life in Christ, God's indwelling Presence and the ability to bear spiritual fruit.
Sacred Scripture says that grace is Jesus' Incarnation (2 Corinthians 8:9), by which He took on our poor human nature in order to fill us with the "riches" of grace (Ephesians 1:6). Grace is more than mere divine favor, it is sufficient power in our weakness (2 Co 12:8), it strengthens us (Hebrews 13:9; 2 Timothy 2:1), enables us to stand firm (Romans 5:2; 1 Peter 5:12), and helps us in time of need (He 4:16).
The Bible also states that grace is manifold (1 Pt 4:10), that God lavishes "grace upon grace" on us in Jesus Christ (Jn 1:16; Eph 1:7), and that we can "grow in grace" (2 Pt 3:18). It even says that our words can give grace to those who hear them (Eph 4:29), for our edifying words can draw others to God. Finally, grace is the Beatific Vision of the Trinity which we will enjoy for eternity when Our Lord returns (I Pt 1:13; Eph 2:7).
These different Scriptural passages present grace as something beyond mere "unmerited favor". It is a reality which embraces and permeates every aspect of our life in Christ. Therefore it means, grace above all is the attitude of God toward His people. It is the quality of God’s relationship with His chosen people through condescending love, conciliatory compassion and fidelity. Grace is the faithfulness of God to His plans and promises. Nothing at all even man’s sinfulness, weaknesses and infidelity can hinder God’s plan and promises. He will see to it that it gets realized.
b.3.) Divine Sonship and Filiation
Divine filiation is the condition of being a child of God, and thus a sharer in the life and role of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God and Redeemer of all human beings, according to Christian doctrine. Divine Sonship, said John Paul II, constitutes the essence of the Good News. This is the purpose of Christ's redemption and through baptism, each Christian's fundamental state is being a child of God. Furthermore, this doctrine implies divinization: "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God," "sharers in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), other "Christs"[3].
Again John Paul II said, Christians are supposed to "be always aware of the dignity of the divine adoption," so as to give meaning to what they do. Thus, the Christian relates to God as a Father who is loving and provident, and becomes confident and daring as a Christian and apostle. Each Christian, whether a priest or a layperson, is called to a life of holiness, consistent with his membership to the family of God. The ordinary Christians are fully responsible for continuing the redeeming mission of Christ in the ordinary circumstances of their life.
Divine filiation is the centerpiece of the Gospel, the good news: it is the reason why man was saved. And is also the purpose behind baptism. John Paul II reiterated that divine filiation is "the deepest mystery of the Christian vocation" and "the culminating point of the mystery of our Christian life...we share in salvation, which is not only the deliverance from evil, but is first of all the fullness of good: of the supreme good of the sonship of God."
In a very deep sense, the call of being sons and daughters of God is always be a grace from God. One cannot be son and daughter unless God willed it and at the same time we, on our part also desire to be a member of the Divine Family.
2 Corinthians 12:7-9
A.) Personal Existential Experiences
a.1.) The Mystery of Grace
I would like to connect my reflection on grace to the topic I mentioned in Chapter 2. When I speak of grace it has something to do with the Paschal Mystery- the passion, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The paschal mystery has brought a new reality and meaning of grace as described in scripture. The Fathers of the Church and the contemporary writers has defined grace as a “call to intimate friendship that God extends to everyone. This involves the capacity of all of us to be lifted up through the influence of grace to be related with God here and now in a relationship of love where God is the one that takes the initiative.”
This contemporary understanding of grace for me is the encompassing fact about grace. God, from the very beginning of his creation of the world, has given the grace unto us. This grace is not designed for Him to prove His being omnipotent and almighty before us, but simply because He wanted us to be his friends in love. This willingness of God to extend His divine friendship to man, despite the fact of man’s unworthiness, is an expression of, and in fact, grace in itself. Indeed, everything in this universe is grace and there is no instance in our life that grace is nowhere.
a.2.) Grace as a Call to Friendship with God
Nevertheless, I would say that God’s call to friendship is not the only ultimate purpose of grace. Grace is present because it is connected with love. Love is the will and the essence of God that motivates Him in his action towards man. Since time immemorial until today, God has actively engaged in the activity of man. Such engagement of God is not simply superficial but essential – it was the offering of the blood of His only begotten Son Jesus. That was the greatest grace that humanity has ever received. Certainly, grace has found its existence in God’s act of love. Without love, grace is impossible.
God’s deep desire then was to establish a profound relationship of love in men and women. Love had been the underlying reason for grace to be perfected in the world. Therefore, it would be proper not only to say that God yearned friendship to all person but also for the person to become a part and a member of His family in love. The call to be in God under the one banner of love was and is the purpose of grace. Grace continues to be present everywhere because God remains to be with us and love us. As long as God’s love is everywhere, grace is everywhere.
B.) Doctrinal Exposition
b.1.) Water and Blood
St. Chrysostom(347-407 AD) of the early fifth century tells us that the early Christians viewed the water and blood as pointing to the Sacraments of the Eucharist and baptism. Again, this resonates the importance of baptism to the early believers.
From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit”, and from the holy Eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam More so, Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.
To connect the meaning of grace as related to the water and blood that flowed at the side of Jesus, I could say that in the New Testament grace means God’s love in action towards men who merited the opposite of love. Grace means God moving heaven and earth to save sinners who could not lift a finger to save themselves. Grace means God sending His only Son to descend into hell on the cross so that we, the guilty ones, might be reconciled to God and received into heaven. ‘God has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.’(2 Cor. 5:21)
In this sense, through the Holy Spirit, symbolized in the water and blood at the side of Jesus on the cross, grace had been given to the humanity. Through the death of Jesus on the cross, the world has given a new life and this new life is a life of grace.
b.2.) Divine Indwelling
When many theologians define grace as “God's unmerited favor towards us in Christ,” though not incorrect, this definition is incomplete. I always believe that divine grace also includes the divine gifts which flow from this favor, such as our new life in Christ, God's indwelling Presence and the ability to bear spiritual fruit.
Sacred Scripture says that grace is Jesus' Incarnation (2 Corinthians 8:9), by which He took on our poor human nature in order to fill us with the "riches" of grace (Ephesians 1:6). Grace is more than mere divine favor, it is sufficient power in our weakness (2 Co 12:8), it strengthens us (Hebrews 13:9; 2 Timothy 2:1), enables us to stand firm (Romans 5:2; 1 Peter 5:12), and helps us in time of need (He 4:16).
The Bible also states that grace is manifold (1 Pt 4:10), that God lavishes "grace upon grace" on us in Jesus Christ (Jn 1:16; Eph 1:7), and that we can "grow in grace" (2 Pt 3:18). It even says that our words can give grace to those who hear them (Eph 4:29), for our edifying words can draw others to God. Finally, grace is the Beatific Vision of the Trinity which we will enjoy for eternity when Our Lord returns (I Pt 1:13; Eph 2:7).
These different Scriptural passages present grace as something beyond mere "unmerited favor". It is a reality which embraces and permeates every aspect of our life in Christ. Therefore it means, grace above all is the attitude of God toward His people. It is the quality of God’s relationship with His chosen people through condescending love, conciliatory compassion and fidelity. Grace is the faithfulness of God to His plans and promises. Nothing at all even man’s sinfulness, weaknesses and infidelity can hinder God’s plan and promises. He will see to it that it gets realized.
b.3.) Divine Sonship and Filiation
Divine filiation is the condition of being a child of God, and thus a sharer in the life and role of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God and Redeemer of all human beings, according to Christian doctrine. Divine Sonship, said John Paul II, constitutes the essence of the Good News. This is the purpose of Christ's redemption and through baptism, each Christian's fundamental state is being a child of God. Furthermore, this doctrine implies divinization: "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God," "sharers in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), other "Christs"[3].
Again John Paul II said, Christians are supposed to "be always aware of the dignity of the divine adoption," so as to give meaning to what they do. Thus, the Christian relates to God as a Father who is loving and provident, and becomes confident and daring as a Christian and apostle. Each Christian, whether a priest or a layperson, is called to a life of holiness, consistent with his membership to the family of God. The ordinary Christians are fully responsible for continuing the redeeming mission of Christ in the ordinary circumstances of their life.
Divine filiation is the centerpiece of the Gospel, the good news: it is the reason why man was saved. And is also the purpose behind baptism. John Paul II reiterated that divine filiation is "the deepest mystery of the Christian vocation" and "the culminating point of the mystery of our Christian life...we share in salvation, which is not only the deliverance from evil, but is first of all the fullness of good: of the supreme good of the sonship of God."
In a very deep sense, the call of being sons and daughters of God is always be a grace from God. One cannot be son and daughter unless God willed it and at the same time we, on our part also desire to be a member of the Divine Family.
Chapter 5: Where Is the Lord in the Sacraments of the Church?
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Matt. 28:18-20
A.)Personal Understanding
a.1.) My Understanding of Sacraments
Men typically gain information in one of three ways: Empiricism is the means that appeals to man's senses, rationalism is the means that appeals to his logic, and faith involves the trusting in the information provided by another.
In matters of the sacrament, my knowledge about it is something that is beyond empiricism or even rationalism. Most of the time, I understand sacrament in faith. Sacraments of the Church are manifestations of Jesus continuous presence in our world. He instituted the sacraments as sign of God’s loving presence in us. That presence of God means something great in faith. And in my faith, I am assured of God’s guidance and protection and I know that this journey of mine is not just a lone journey but a pilgrimage with Him.
The presence of the Sacraments gives me the assurance that our call to holiness and sanctification are indeed present because the sacraments help us to strengthen our faith and to make sure that Jesus is here. The main purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify people, build the Body of Christ, and to give worship to God (CCC 1123). For me, there is no other purpose of the sacraments, it is but gearing towards the fullness of my life to God.
a.2.) The Sacraments and Their Value in my Life
The seven sacraments are ceremonies that point to what is sacred, significant and important for Christians. They are special occasions for experiencing God's saving presence. That's what theologians mean when they say that sacraments are at the same time signs and instruments of God's
What is the relevance of these sacraments in our life's journey? The sacraments are there to accompany us as we travel in this world, remember that the first sacrament is Baptism and the last sacrament is the anointing of the sick. Baptism is the start of our Christian life and the Anointing of the Sick is the end. Majority of those who are being anointed are old and are near to the next life. But strictly speaking the Anointing of the sick is not only given when somebody is old and dying. Anybody regardless of age who is gravely sick or set to undergo a major operation is eligible to this sacrament.
The sacraments are important for me because as a believer that is the visible proof of God’s loving presence. Every time I go to mass, it’s just that I cannot explain a different feeling of relief from burden. Even before I entered the seminary, I had always this feeling. And now that I am a seminarian and someone who studies theology in preparation for the priesthood, it has a different impact to me. I now understand, if not fully, about what is going on in the celebration of that Eucharistic mystery. Now I can sense that those different feelings I felt before were exactly effects of being with God. I know in faith that every time am participating in any sacramental celebration, God is there. The Sacraments are mystery in its truest sense; however, they can be felt and experienced, visible and real.
B.)Doctrinal Exposition
b.1.) New Covenant
In my previous theological studies, I was taught that the word “sacrament” is used almost universally among Christians to describe the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s supper. The term, which is not found in our English Bible, comes from the Latin word sacramentum. The post apostolic church employed the term to signify any sacred rite or mysterious doctrine. “Hence everywhere in the Church fathers you will find the sacrament of the Trinity, of the incarnation, and of faith, and in the general whole Christian religion comes under this name.” In the Latin Vulgate the word is used to translate the word “mystery” (Gk. mysterion) in a number of passages (e.g., Eph. 1:9; 3:9; 5:32; Col. 1:27; 1 Tim. 3:16; Rev. 1:20; 17:7) even though the word mystery is never used to describe baptism or the Lord’s supper. This research was taken from my previous notes on the course sacraments.
Perhaps the best New Testament definition of a sacrament is found in Romans 4:11 where Paul describes the Old Covenant sacrament of circumcision. He writes: “And he (Abraham) received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised.” Contemporary theology affirms that “sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ in his Church, to signify, seal, and exhibit unto those that are within the covenant of grace, the benefits of his mediation; to strengthen and increase their faith, and all other graces; to oblige them to obedience; to testify and cherish their love and communion one with another; and to distinguish them from those that are without….The parts of a sacrament are two; the one an outward and sensible sign, used according to Christ's own appointment; the other an inward and spiritual grace thereby signified” (A. 162 and 163). Moreover, Berkhof’s brief definition is helpful. He writes: “A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, in which by sensible signs the grace of God in Christ, and the benefits of the covenant of grace, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers, and these in turn, give expression to their faith and allegiance to God.”
b.2.) The Seven Sacraments
b.2.1) Baptism - this sacrament is the door of the Church of Christ and the entrance into a new life. Baptism is where we are clothed back and declared to be Sons and Daughters of God once again. In our family, when one member is set to be married, the courting party must first undergo a series of process of evaluations and assessments before that party could get the approval of the rest members of the clan and be married to one from our own. For me that processes in the context of Christian belief is what we called baptism.
In baptism, we are reborn from the state of slaves of sin into the freedom of the Sons of God. Baptism incorporates us with “Christ's mystical body and makes us partakers of all the privileges flowing from the redemptive act of the Church's Divine Founder.” Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration by water in the word (per aquam in verbo). St. Thomas Aquinas (III:66:1) gives this definition: "Baptism is the external ablution of the body, performed with the prescribed form of words."
b.2.2.) Confirmation – We read in the Acts of the Apostles (8:14-17) that after the Samaritan converts had been baptized by Philip the deacon, the Apostles "sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost; for he was not yet come upon any of them, but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus; then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost".
It is the sacrament in which the Holy Ghost is given to those already baptized in order to make them strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ. It is in this sacrament that we are sealed through the presence of the Holy Spirit that we are truly part of the Christian family. Our baptism makes us a citizen of God, or a member of our certain clan or family, but in the sacrament of confirmation, one is being confirmed as citizen of God or as member of a certain clan/family. In confirmation, one is considered a registered voter in the perspective of civil citizenship.
b.2.3.) Penance - is a sacrament of “the New Law instituted by Christ in which forgiveness of sins committed after baptism is granted through the priest's absolution to those who with true sorrow confess their sins and promise to satisfy for the same.” It is called a "sacrament" not simply a function or ceremony, because it is an outward sign instituted by Christ to impart grace to the soul. As an outward sign it comprises the actions of the penitent in presenting himself to the priest and accusing himself of his sins, and the actions of the priest in pronouncing absolution and imposing satisfaction.
This sacrament in the Church, is for me, provides an opportunity to members of the faithful to constantly mindful of the forgiving love of God. Human as we are, we have the capability to commit sin. But of course our being human should not be always an excuse in committing sinfulness. But this vulnerability of human person leads many of us to sin and through the ministry of the Church, and because God wants all of us to be always in communion with Him, this sacrament of penance is the offering of reconciliation that binds us back whole and entire to God.
b.2.4.) The Eucharist - since Christ is present under the appearances of bread and wine in a sacramental way, “the Blessed Eucharist is unquestionably a sacrament of the Church.” Indeed, in the Eucharist the definition of a Christian sacrament as "an outward sign of an inward grace instituted by Christ" is verified. The first and principal effect of the Holy Eucharist is union with Christ by love which union as such does not consist in the sacramental reception of the Host, but in the spiritual and mystical union with Jesus by the theological virtue of love. Christ Himself designated the idea of Communion as a union love: "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh blood, abideth in me, and I in him" (John 6:57).
The immediate result of this union with Christ by love is the bond of charity existing between the faithful themselves as St. Paul says: "For we being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread" (1 Corinthians 10:17). And so the Communion of Saints is not merely an ideal union by faith and grace, but an eminently real union, mysteriously constituted, maintained, and guaranteed by partaking in common of one and the same Christ.
b.2.5.) Marriage – it is the sacrament of love relation between the spouses. God made a covenant with his people in like manner. In the Old Testament, the relationship between God and his people is symbolized in the image of marriage wherein what is asked between two parties is their faithfulness. God is a true example of faithfulness although His chosen people often break the covenant. The sacrament of marriage begins when a man and a woman stand before God accepting each other. That is why in every marriage ceremony the consent of each other is important. It is presumed that whenever they enter into sacramental marriage, their love with each other does not start only during that time but they have been in love with each other for quite sometime already.
“The intimate union in marriage, as mutual giving of two persons, and the good of the children demand total fidelity from the spouses and require an unbreakable unity between them (GS 48).” This, therefore, picture the relationship of Christ to His Church through their love and generosity. Each family then is called to be evangelizer to other family than there own. Thus, they manifest to all the abiding presence of Christ in the world.
b.2.6.) Holy Orders - The Sacrament of Holy Orders is the continuation of Christ's priesthood, which He bestowed upon His Apostles; thus, the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the Sacrament of Holy Orders as "the sacrament of apostolic ministry."
The priesthood was established by God among the Israelites during their exodus from Egypt. God chose the tribe of Levi as priests for the nation. Their primary duties were the offering of sacrifice and prayer for the people.
Christ, in offering Himself up for the sins of all mankind, fulfilled the duties of the Old Testament priesthood once and for all. But just as the Eucharist makes that sacrifice present to us today, so the New Testament priesthood is a sharing in the eternal priesthood of Christ. While all believers are, in some sense, priests, some are set aside to serve the Church as Christ Himself did.
b.2.7.) Anointing of the Sick - Traditionally referred to as Extreme Unction or Last Rites, the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick was previously most commonly administered to the dying, for the remission of sins and the provision of spiritual strength and health. In modern times, however, its use has been expanded to all who are gravely ill or are about to undergo a serious operation, and the Church stresses a secondary effect of the sacrament: to help a person recover his health. Like Confession and Holy Communion, to which it is closely linked, the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick can be repeated as often as is necessary.
Received in faith and in a state of grace, the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick provides the recipient with a number of graces, including the fortitude to resist temptation in the face of death, when he is weakest; a union with the Passion of Christ, which makes his suffering holy; and the grace to prepare for death, so that he may meet God in hope rather than in fear. If the recipient was not able to receive the Sacrament of Confession, Anointing also provides forgiveness of sins. And, if it will aid in the salvation of his soul, Anointing may restore the recipient's health.
Matt. 28:18-20
A.)Personal Understanding
a.1.) My Understanding of Sacraments
Men typically gain information in one of three ways: Empiricism is the means that appeals to man's senses, rationalism is the means that appeals to his logic, and faith involves the trusting in the information provided by another.
In matters of the sacrament, my knowledge about it is something that is beyond empiricism or even rationalism. Most of the time, I understand sacrament in faith. Sacraments of the Church are manifestations of Jesus continuous presence in our world. He instituted the sacraments as sign of God’s loving presence in us. That presence of God means something great in faith. And in my faith, I am assured of God’s guidance and protection and I know that this journey of mine is not just a lone journey but a pilgrimage with Him.
The presence of the Sacraments gives me the assurance that our call to holiness and sanctification are indeed present because the sacraments help us to strengthen our faith and to make sure that Jesus is here. The main purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify people, build the Body of Christ, and to give worship to God (CCC 1123). For me, there is no other purpose of the sacraments, it is but gearing towards the fullness of my life to God.
a.2.) The Sacraments and Their Value in my Life
The seven sacraments are ceremonies that point to what is sacred, significant and important for Christians. They are special occasions for experiencing God's saving presence. That's what theologians mean when they say that sacraments are at the same time signs and instruments of God's
What is the relevance of these sacraments in our life's journey? The sacraments are there to accompany us as we travel in this world, remember that the first sacrament is Baptism and the last sacrament is the anointing of the sick. Baptism is the start of our Christian life and the Anointing of the Sick is the end. Majority of those who are being anointed are old and are near to the next life. But strictly speaking the Anointing of the sick is not only given when somebody is old and dying. Anybody regardless of age who is gravely sick or set to undergo a major operation is eligible to this sacrament.
The sacraments are important for me because as a believer that is the visible proof of God’s loving presence. Every time I go to mass, it’s just that I cannot explain a different feeling of relief from burden. Even before I entered the seminary, I had always this feeling. And now that I am a seminarian and someone who studies theology in preparation for the priesthood, it has a different impact to me. I now understand, if not fully, about what is going on in the celebration of that Eucharistic mystery. Now I can sense that those different feelings I felt before were exactly effects of being with God. I know in faith that every time am participating in any sacramental celebration, God is there. The Sacraments are mystery in its truest sense; however, they can be felt and experienced, visible and real.
B.)Doctrinal Exposition
b.1.) New Covenant
In my previous theological studies, I was taught that the word “sacrament” is used almost universally among Christians to describe the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s supper. The term, which is not found in our English Bible, comes from the Latin word sacramentum. The post apostolic church employed the term to signify any sacred rite or mysterious doctrine. “Hence everywhere in the Church fathers you will find the sacrament of the Trinity, of the incarnation, and of faith, and in the general whole Christian religion comes under this name.” In the Latin Vulgate the word is used to translate the word “mystery” (Gk. mysterion) in a number of passages (e.g., Eph. 1:9; 3:9; 5:32; Col. 1:27; 1 Tim. 3:16; Rev. 1:20; 17:7) even though the word mystery is never used to describe baptism or the Lord’s supper. This research was taken from my previous notes on the course sacraments.
Perhaps the best New Testament definition of a sacrament is found in Romans 4:11 where Paul describes the Old Covenant sacrament of circumcision. He writes: “And he (Abraham) received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised.” Contemporary theology affirms that “sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ in his Church, to signify, seal, and exhibit unto those that are within the covenant of grace, the benefits of his mediation; to strengthen and increase their faith, and all other graces; to oblige them to obedience; to testify and cherish their love and communion one with another; and to distinguish them from those that are without….The parts of a sacrament are two; the one an outward and sensible sign, used according to Christ's own appointment; the other an inward and spiritual grace thereby signified” (A. 162 and 163). Moreover, Berkhof’s brief definition is helpful. He writes: “A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, in which by sensible signs the grace of God in Christ, and the benefits of the covenant of grace, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers, and these in turn, give expression to their faith and allegiance to God.”
b.2.) The Seven Sacraments
b.2.1) Baptism - this sacrament is the door of the Church of Christ and the entrance into a new life. Baptism is where we are clothed back and declared to be Sons and Daughters of God once again. In our family, when one member is set to be married, the courting party must first undergo a series of process of evaluations and assessments before that party could get the approval of the rest members of the clan and be married to one from our own. For me that processes in the context of Christian belief is what we called baptism.
In baptism, we are reborn from the state of slaves of sin into the freedom of the Sons of God. Baptism incorporates us with “Christ's mystical body and makes us partakers of all the privileges flowing from the redemptive act of the Church's Divine Founder.” Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration by water in the word (per aquam in verbo). St. Thomas Aquinas (III:66:1) gives this definition: "Baptism is the external ablution of the body, performed with the prescribed form of words."
b.2.2.) Confirmation – We read in the Acts of the Apostles (8:14-17) that after the Samaritan converts had been baptized by Philip the deacon, the Apostles "sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost; for he was not yet come upon any of them, but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus; then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost".
It is the sacrament in which the Holy Ghost is given to those already baptized in order to make them strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ. It is in this sacrament that we are sealed through the presence of the Holy Spirit that we are truly part of the Christian family. Our baptism makes us a citizen of God, or a member of our certain clan or family, but in the sacrament of confirmation, one is being confirmed as citizen of God or as member of a certain clan/family. In confirmation, one is considered a registered voter in the perspective of civil citizenship.
b.2.3.) Penance - is a sacrament of “the New Law instituted by Christ in which forgiveness of sins committed after baptism is granted through the priest's absolution to those who with true sorrow confess their sins and promise to satisfy for the same.” It is called a "sacrament" not simply a function or ceremony, because it is an outward sign instituted by Christ to impart grace to the soul. As an outward sign it comprises the actions of the penitent in presenting himself to the priest and accusing himself of his sins, and the actions of the priest in pronouncing absolution and imposing satisfaction.
This sacrament in the Church, is for me, provides an opportunity to members of the faithful to constantly mindful of the forgiving love of God. Human as we are, we have the capability to commit sin. But of course our being human should not be always an excuse in committing sinfulness. But this vulnerability of human person leads many of us to sin and through the ministry of the Church, and because God wants all of us to be always in communion with Him, this sacrament of penance is the offering of reconciliation that binds us back whole and entire to God.
b.2.4.) The Eucharist - since Christ is present under the appearances of bread and wine in a sacramental way, “the Blessed Eucharist is unquestionably a sacrament of the Church.” Indeed, in the Eucharist the definition of a Christian sacrament as "an outward sign of an inward grace instituted by Christ" is verified. The first and principal effect of the Holy Eucharist is union with Christ by love which union as such does not consist in the sacramental reception of the Host, but in the spiritual and mystical union with Jesus by the theological virtue of love. Christ Himself designated the idea of Communion as a union love: "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh blood, abideth in me, and I in him" (John 6:57).
The immediate result of this union with Christ by love is the bond of charity existing between the faithful themselves as St. Paul says: "For we being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread" (1 Corinthians 10:17). And so the Communion of Saints is not merely an ideal union by faith and grace, but an eminently real union, mysteriously constituted, maintained, and guaranteed by partaking in common of one and the same Christ.
b.2.5.) Marriage – it is the sacrament of love relation between the spouses. God made a covenant with his people in like manner. In the Old Testament, the relationship between God and his people is symbolized in the image of marriage wherein what is asked between two parties is their faithfulness. God is a true example of faithfulness although His chosen people often break the covenant. The sacrament of marriage begins when a man and a woman stand before God accepting each other. That is why in every marriage ceremony the consent of each other is important. It is presumed that whenever they enter into sacramental marriage, their love with each other does not start only during that time but they have been in love with each other for quite sometime already.
“The intimate union in marriage, as mutual giving of two persons, and the good of the children demand total fidelity from the spouses and require an unbreakable unity between them (GS 48).” This, therefore, picture the relationship of Christ to His Church through their love and generosity. Each family then is called to be evangelizer to other family than there own. Thus, they manifest to all the abiding presence of Christ in the world.
b.2.6.) Holy Orders - The Sacrament of Holy Orders is the continuation of Christ's priesthood, which He bestowed upon His Apostles; thus, the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the Sacrament of Holy Orders as "the sacrament of apostolic ministry."
The priesthood was established by God among the Israelites during their exodus from Egypt. God chose the tribe of Levi as priests for the nation. Their primary duties were the offering of sacrifice and prayer for the people.
Christ, in offering Himself up for the sins of all mankind, fulfilled the duties of the Old Testament priesthood once and for all. But just as the Eucharist makes that sacrifice present to us today, so the New Testament priesthood is a sharing in the eternal priesthood of Christ. While all believers are, in some sense, priests, some are set aside to serve the Church as Christ Himself did.
b.2.7.) Anointing of the Sick - Traditionally referred to as Extreme Unction or Last Rites, the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick was previously most commonly administered to the dying, for the remission of sins and the provision of spiritual strength and health. In modern times, however, its use has been expanded to all who are gravely ill or are about to undergo a serious operation, and the Church stresses a secondary effect of the sacrament: to help a person recover his health. Like Confession and Holy Communion, to which it is closely linked, the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick can be repeated as often as is necessary.
Received in faith and in a state of grace, the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick provides the recipient with a number of graces, including the fortitude to resist temptation in the face of death, when he is weakest; a union with the Passion of Christ, which makes his suffering holy; and the grace to prepare for death, so that he may meet God in hope rather than in fear. If the recipient was not able to receive the Sacrament of Confession, Anointing also provides forgiveness of sins. And, if it will aid in the salvation of his soul, Anointing may restore the recipient's health.
Chapter 6: Where Is the Lord in the End of Time?
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the
door to keep watch.”
Mark 13:32-37
A.) Personal Existential Experiences
a.1.) Death: The End of Life
As originally planned upon my arrival in Bohol last semestral break, I was supposed to visit the wake of my former classmate’s father. A week before that, I was texting some of my friends to join me in my visit. It was already organized and a good number of my batch had confirmed their attendance.
This father of my classmate was so dear to our hearts because before, most of our class outings were spent in their house and they were so good and generous to us. I was saddened by his death and I could not resist not having a glance of his remain and in the same time also extend my profound sympathy to the bereaved family.
However, on that very day of my coming, I changed plan. I contacted my college classmates that I could not go with them because I felt the urgency to be with another friend after I knew the heart breaking news of the passing of his mother. I had chosen to give up my previous commitment for I believed that something was more imperative that was to accompany someone who at that very moment suffered a very painful surprise. With that, I went with him to their home that very day.
As we entered their house, the people around were in total silence. Perhaps they were expecting something dramatic to happen. But as my friend paid respect to his mother, I saw how teary the eyes of his father upon seeing his eldest son. But he didn’t cry. He didn’t cry at least during that moment of my witness.
We had a good lunch together with his family and I sensed they were apt to accept the fate of their beloved mother. They shared how painful it was to lose an important figure in the family, nonetheless, the nice thing was that they were able to see and realize that it was part of God’s ultimate plan.
In many human experiences, death could be the most painful to accept. It is the sure possibility that will come to all of us, but in many instances we do not think about it. Most of us never prepare for our death. This is the very reason that most of us, death is unacceptable fact.
a.2.) We are Born to Die
In view of death, I could sense the difference between those who have faith from those who simply believe. In my experience with the father of my friend, I could say that he was a man of God. In his sharing with me he said it would be a difficult life to live ahead without a loving wife, but what is more difficult is to live life without God. I felt that he is in total pain, but he is not suffering that much. I wonder why so many people today who are not in pain but yet they suffered so much. Perhaps this is the difference between those who have faith from those people who simply believe.
I spent most of my semestral vacation to funeral visits. I pursued my visit to the wake of my former classmate’s father the day after and another wake visit to a close friend’s relative the following day. The next day, I visited another friend who was suffering from a stage 3 cancer of the lungs and I only knew that he passed away that night then.
Reflecting these realities, I conceded that human person has nothing to be proud of in this lifetime; even if how rich the person is for death knows no one. Truly, human person is born to die.
a.3.) Death and the Hope of Resurrection
In the logical rule of contradiction, many have equated death as contradiction to life. As if white is life and black is death. Death, as negative, is seen as the opposite of life as positive. There is a clear commotion in the understanding of death that has led many not to think about death for it is something fearful and evil.
However, contemporary theology has refuted this notion saying that death is not something negative and apart /opposite of life. In the eschatological perceptive, death is always part of life. It is the concluding part of life wherein life is fully understood. Death in eschatology is realizing our purpose of which we were created. In my own view, I believe that I am created in order to be in union with God. This unity of God can only be achieved through death with the hope of the resurrection. As a believer, I cannot separate my theological view of death to the realities of the incoming resurrection.
Therefore, in my different funeral visits, I realize one important thing: life is not fulfilled unless death has arrived. The fullness of living is in dying. St. Francis of Assisi in his prayer was right in saying that “in death we are born to eternal life.” Death is switching off the light because the dawn has come. The mystery of death is something very deep and only in deep faith we could see how beautiful to die. And the beauty of death is only understood in the hope of resurrection.
B.) Doctrinal Exposition
b.1.) Christ’ Resurrection
Our eschatology is deeply founded in the ideal of the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Christ is the apex of the Christian faith, the stronghold of our belief -- the historical event upon which Christian doctrine stands or falls. St. Paul makes this clear in his first letter to the Corinthians: But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and your faith is empty. … For if only in this life we have hope in Christ, we should be pitied more than anyone (1 Cor. 15:13-14, 19).
In the New Testament, I am convinced that belief in the bodily resurrection of Christ is a necessary condition of the Christian faith -- no one can be saved apart from it. Those who reject Jesus resurrection may not share His resurrection in the future. This insistence is found in St. Paul letters to the Romans 10:9: Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
“The importance of the resurrection of Christ, therefore, is further demonstrated in the frequency and enthusiasm with which it is preached as the early church grows (e.g., Acts 2:31; 4:33; 17:18; 26:23). Nearly every public witness to the Gospel points to the resurrection of Christ as the hope for all who desire salvation and the hope after death.”
b.2.) The Heaven
My elementary catechecism taught me then that "Heaven" is the place of eternal life, in that “it is a shared plane to be attained by all the elect (rather than an abstract experience related to individual concepts of the ideal).” The essential joy of heaven is called the “beatific vision,” of which one sees God “face to face.” The soul rests perfectly in God, and does not, or cannot desire anything else than God.
The Cathecism of the Catholic Church teaches us that after the Last Judgment, when the soul is reunited with its body, the body participates in the happiness of the soul. It becomes incorruptible, glorious and perfect. Any physical defects the body may have labored under are erased. Heaven is also known as paradise in some cases.
Furthermore, the Catechism of the Catholic Church describes heaven as wherein "Those who die (generally understood as physical death as opposed to "body level," ego identity) in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified, live forever (defined as immortality of the body as opposed to eternal aliveness in the psychological sense). This perfect life with God is called heaven. It is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness, full aliveness. The Catholic Church teaches that only those baptized by water (symbol of purification/internal cleansing), blood (symbol of martyrdom), or desire (explicit or implicit desire for purification) may enter heaven and those who have died in a state of grace.
b.3.) The State of Purification
In my own understanding, Purgatory is the condition or process of purification in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven. According to Catholic doctrine, “some souls are not sufficiently free from sin and its consequences to enter the state of heaven immediately, nor are they so sinful as to be destined for hell either.” Such souls, ultimately destined to be united with God in heaven, must first endure purgatory—a state of purification. It is a state wherein souls "achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven."
The Compendium of the Catechesism of the Catholic Church describe purgatory as “the state of those who die in God’s friendship, assured of their eternal salvation, but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven.” And because of the communion of saints, the faithful who are still pilgrims on earth are able to help the souls in purgatory by offering prayers in suffrage for them, especially the Eucharistic sacrifice. “They also help them by almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance. Pardon of sins and purification can occur during life—for example, in the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of Penance. However, if this purification is not achieved in life, venial sins can still be purified after death. The specific name given to this purification of sin after death is "purgatory.”
b.4.) Hell: The State of Condemnation
Yes, there is a hell. This is what the Church teaches me and this is what I believe. For me, hell is where all those who die in personal mortal sin, as enemies of God, and unworthy of eternal life, will be severely punished by God after death. Those who absolutely refuse to be with God, believe in Him and desire for Him have no place in God’s Kingdom. God respects our freedom, if we choose to separate from Him, then we choose hell.
Currently there is a good deal of discussion among Christians about the morality of hell: it is said that a good God would not condemn people to an eternity of torture. However, that has been the belief of most Christians through most of Christian history. It seems to be supported by the Biblical account. The alternative seems about as bad: that God will force himself on people who do not want him.
Note that it is not necessary to say that God imposes hell as punishment. It may be the automatic (indeed logically unavoidable) consequence of rejecting God. It is not clear that God makes it intentionally unpleasant. It may be the nature of the people who are there, and the fact that they are finally given what they want: freedom from God.
We must not consider the eternal punishment of hell as a series of separate of distinct terms of punishment, as if God were forever again and again pronouncing a new sentence and inflicting new penalties, and as if He could never satisfy His desire of vengeance. Hell is, especially in the eyes of God, one and indivisible in its entirety; it is but one sentence and one penalty, according to one theologian. And I agree. Hell is understood as, not really punishment, but a consequence of a wrong choice. Furthermore, “we may represent to ourselves a punishment of indescribable intensity as in a certain sense the equivalent of an eternal punishment; this may help us to see better how God permits the sinner to fall into hell — how a man who sets at naught all Divine warnings, who fails to profit by all the patient forbearance God has shown him, and who in wanton disobedience is absolutely bent on rushing into eternal punishment, can be finally permitted by God's just indignation to fall into hell.”
b.5.) The New Heaven and the New Earth
In some commentary it states that “new heaven and the new earth is that the world of the blessed that is “the new world,” or “the new heavens and earth,” or “the next world that is to succeed this as the habitation of the church,” “is heaven and is the same world that is now the habitation of the angels.” For heaven, or the world of the angels, is called the world that is to come. St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians says. 1:20-22, “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and has put all things under his feet.”
Heaven, the habitation of principalities and powers, is that which is here called the world to come, as being the world that was to succeed this, as the habitation of the church. It cannot be understood in any other sense, or merely that Christ was to be at the head of things in the new world when it did exist. But it speaks of what is already done and was done at Christ’s ascension, a past effect of God’s mighty power, according to the working of the exceeding greatness of his power which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
The new heaven and the new earth is a state of our being where we are transformed into totally holiness. It is the achievement par excellence of a believer. The experience of perfection is fully realized when we choose to be with God and do His will for us. This choice of God and this doing His will is not something that can be attained only in the life to come but as St. Therese of the Child Jesus said “spending her heaven doing good on earth.” The new heaven and the new earth will happen if we desire to it to happen now.
b.6.) Realized Eschatology
In line with what I discussed above, realized eschatology, a Christian eschatological theory popularized by C. H. Dodd (1884–1973) holds that the eschatological passages in the New Testament do not refer to the future, but instead refer to the ministry of Jesus and his lasting legacy. Eschatology is therefore, not the end of the world but its rebirth instituted by Jesus and continued by his disciples, a historical phenomenon. Those holding this view generally dismiss "end times" theories, believing them to be irrelevant. They hold that what Jesus said and did, and told his disciples to do likewise, are of greater significance than any messianic expectations.
This view is attractive to many people, especially liberal Christians, since it reverses the notion of Jesus' coming as an apocalyptic event, something which they interpret as being hardly in keeping with the overall theme of Jesus' teachings in the canonical gospels, and are troubled by its firm association with evangelicalism and conservative politics. Instead, eschatology should be about being engaged in the process of becoming, rather than waiting for external and unknown forces to bring about destruction.
In my own view, although I concede that there is truth of that new concept of eschatology but I remain to consider that eschatology is realizing our purpose as creatures. And the end of time is not the time of our death but the time when Jesus Christ will come again and transform the world into something new. I am waiting for that Second Coming and I hope I will be counted as one of those God’ chosen to be part of His heavenly banquet.
door to keep watch.”
Mark 13:32-37
A.) Personal Existential Experiences
a.1.) Death: The End of Life
As originally planned upon my arrival in Bohol last semestral break, I was supposed to visit the wake of my former classmate’s father. A week before that, I was texting some of my friends to join me in my visit. It was already organized and a good number of my batch had confirmed their attendance.
This father of my classmate was so dear to our hearts because before, most of our class outings were spent in their house and they were so good and generous to us. I was saddened by his death and I could not resist not having a glance of his remain and in the same time also extend my profound sympathy to the bereaved family.
However, on that very day of my coming, I changed plan. I contacted my college classmates that I could not go with them because I felt the urgency to be with another friend after I knew the heart breaking news of the passing of his mother. I had chosen to give up my previous commitment for I believed that something was more imperative that was to accompany someone who at that very moment suffered a very painful surprise. With that, I went with him to their home that very day.
As we entered their house, the people around were in total silence. Perhaps they were expecting something dramatic to happen. But as my friend paid respect to his mother, I saw how teary the eyes of his father upon seeing his eldest son. But he didn’t cry. He didn’t cry at least during that moment of my witness.
We had a good lunch together with his family and I sensed they were apt to accept the fate of their beloved mother. They shared how painful it was to lose an important figure in the family, nonetheless, the nice thing was that they were able to see and realize that it was part of God’s ultimate plan.
In many human experiences, death could be the most painful to accept. It is the sure possibility that will come to all of us, but in many instances we do not think about it. Most of us never prepare for our death. This is the very reason that most of us, death is unacceptable fact.
a.2.) We are Born to Die
In view of death, I could sense the difference between those who have faith from those who simply believe. In my experience with the father of my friend, I could say that he was a man of God. In his sharing with me he said it would be a difficult life to live ahead without a loving wife, but what is more difficult is to live life without God. I felt that he is in total pain, but he is not suffering that much. I wonder why so many people today who are not in pain but yet they suffered so much. Perhaps this is the difference between those who have faith from those people who simply believe.
I spent most of my semestral vacation to funeral visits. I pursued my visit to the wake of my former classmate’s father the day after and another wake visit to a close friend’s relative the following day. The next day, I visited another friend who was suffering from a stage 3 cancer of the lungs and I only knew that he passed away that night then.
Reflecting these realities, I conceded that human person has nothing to be proud of in this lifetime; even if how rich the person is for death knows no one. Truly, human person is born to die.
a.3.) Death and the Hope of Resurrection
In the logical rule of contradiction, many have equated death as contradiction to life. As if white is life and black is death. Death, as negative, is seen as the opposite of life as positive. There is a clear commotion in the understanding of death that has led many not to think about death for it is something fearful and evil.
However, contemporary theology has refuted this notion saying that death is not something negative and apart /opposite of life. In the eschatological perceptive, death is always part of life. It is the concluding part of life wherein life is fully understood. Death in eschatology is realizing our purpose of which we were created. In my own view, I believe that I am created in order to be in union with God. This unity of God can only be achieved through death with the hope of the resurrection. As a believer, I cannot separate my theological view of death to the realities of the incoming resurrection.
Therefore, in my different funeral visits, I realize one important thing: life is not fulfilled unless death has arrived. The fullness of living is in dying. St. Francis of Assisi in his prayer was right in saying that “in death we are born to eternal life.” Death is switching off the light because the dawn has come. The mystery of death is something very deep and only in deep faith we could see how beautiful to die. And the beauty of death is only understood in the hope of resurrection.
B.) Doctrinal Exposition
b.1.) Christ’ Resurrection
Our eschatology is deeply founded in the ideal of the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Christ is the apex of the Christian faith, the stronghold of our belief -- the historical event upon which Christian doctrine stands or falls. St. Paul makes this clear in his first letter to the Corinthians: But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and your faith is empty. … For if only in this life we have hope in Christ, we should be pitied more than anyone (1 Cor. 15:13-14, 19).
In the New Testament, I am convinced that belief in the bodily resurrection of Christ is a necessary condition of the Christian faith -- no one can be saved apart from it. Those who reject Jesus resurrection may not share His resurrection in the future. This insistence is found in St. Paul letters to the Romans 10:9: Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
“The importance of the resurrection of Christ, therefore, is further demonstrated in the frequency and enthusiasm with which it is preached as the early church grows (e.g., Acts 2:31; 4:33; 17:18; 26:23). Nearly every public witness to the Gospel points to the resurrection of Christ as the hope for all who desire salvation and the hope after death.”
b.2.) The Heaven
My elementary catechecism taught me then that "Heaven" is the place of eternal life, in that “it is a shared plane to be attained by all the elect (rather than an abstract experience related to individual concepts of the ideal).” The essential joy of heaven is called the “beatific vision,” of which one sees God “face to face.” The soul rests perfectly in God, and does not, or cannot desire anything else than God.
The Cathecism of the Catholic Church teaches us that after the Last Judgment, when the soul is reunited with its body, the body participates in the happiness of the soul. It becomes incorruptible, glorious and perfect. Any physical defects the body may have labored under are erased. Heaven is also known as paradise in some cases.
Furthermore, the Catechism of the Catholic Church describes heaven as wherein "Those who die (generally understood as physical death as opposed to "body level," ego identity) in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified, live forever (defined as immortality of the body as opposed to eternal aliveness in the psychological sense). This perfect life with God is called heaven. It is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness, full aliveness. The Catholic Church teaches that only those baptized by water (symbol of purification/internal cleansing), blood (symbol of martyrdom), or desire (explicit or implicit desire for purification) may enter heaven and those who have died in a state of grace.
b.3.) The State of Purification
In my own understanding, Purgatory is the condition or process of purification in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven. According to Catholic doctrine, “some souls are not sufficiently free from sin and its consequences to enter the state of heaven immediately, nor are they so sinful as to be destined for hell either.” Such souls, ultimately destined to be united with God in heaven, must first endure purgatory—a state of purification. It is a state wherein souls "achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven."
The Compendium of the Catechesism of the Catholic Church describe purgatory as “the state of those who die in God’s friendship, assured of their eternal salvation, but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven.” And because of the communion of saints, the faithful who are still pilgrims on earth are able to help the souls in purgatory by offering prayers in suffrage for them, especially the Eucharistic sacrifice. “They also help them by almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance. Pardon of sins and purification can occur during life—for example, in the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of Penance. However, if this purification is not achieved in life, venial sins can still be purified after death. The specific name given to this purification of sin after death is "purgatory.”
b.4.) Hell: The State of Condemnation
Yes, there is a hell. This is what the Church teaches me and this is what I believe. For me, hell is where all those who die in personal mortal sin, as enemies of God, and unworthy of eternal life, will be severely punished by God after death. Those who absolutely refuse to be with God, believe in Him and desire for Him have no place in God’s Kingdom. God respects our freedom, if we choose to separate from Him, then we choose hell.
Currently there is a good deal of discussion among Christians about the morality of hell: it is said that a good God would not condemn people to an eternity of torture. However, that has been the belief of most Christians through most of Christian history. It seems to be supported by the Biblical account. The alternative seems about as bad: that God will force himself on people who do not want him.
Note that it is not necessary to say that God imposes hell as punishment. It may be the automatic (indeed logically unavoidable) consequence of rejecting God. It is not clear that God makes it intentionally unpleasant. It may be the nature of the people who are there, and the fact that they are finally given what they want: freedom from God.
We must not consider the eternal punishment of hell as a series of separate of distinct terms of punishment, as if God were forever again and again pronouncing a new sentence and inflicting new penalties, and as if He could never satisfy His desire of vengeance. Hell is, especially in the eyes of God, one and indivisible in its entirety; it is but one sentence and one penalty, according to one theologian. And I agree. Hell is understood as, not really punishment, but a consequence of a wrong choice. Furthermore, “we may represent to ourselves a punishment of indescribable intensity as in a certain sense the equivalent of an eternal punishment; this may help us to see better how God permits the sinner to fall into hell — how a man who sets at naught all Divine warnings, who fails to profit by all the patient forbearance God has shown him, and who in wanton disobedience is absolutely bent on rushing into eternal punishment, can be finally permitted by God's just indignation to fall into hell.”
b.5.) The New Heaven and the New Earth
In some commentary it states that “new heaven and the new earth is that the world of the blessed that is “the new world,” or “the new heavens and earth,” or “the next world that is to succeed this as the habitation of the church,” “is heaven and is the same world that is now the habitation of the angels.” For heaven, or the world of the angels, is called the world that is to come. St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians says. 1:20-22, “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and has put all things under his feet.”
Heaven, the habitation of principalities and powers, is that which is here called the world to come, as being the world that was to succeed this, as the habitation of the church. It cannot be understood in any other sense, or merely that Christ was to be at the head of things in the new world when it did exist. But it speaks of what is already done and was done at Christ’s ascension, a past effect of God’s mighty power, according to the working of the exceeding greatness of his power which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
The new heaven and the new earth is a state of our being where we are transformed into totally holiness. It is the achievement par excellence of a believer. The experience of perfection is fully realized when we choose to be with God and do His will for us. This choice of God and this doing His will is not something that can be attained only in the life to come but as St. Therese of the Child Jesus said “spending her heaven doing good on earth.” The new heaven and the new earth will happen if we desire to it to happen now.
b.6.) Realized Eschatology
In line with what I discussed above, realized eschatology, a Christian eschatological theory popularized by C. H. Dodd (1884–1973) holds that the eschatological passages in the New Testament do not refer to the future, but instead refer to the ministry of Jesus and his lasting legacy. Eschatology is therefore, not the end of the world but its rebirth instituted by Jesus and continued by his disciples, a historical phenomenon. Those holding this view generally dismiss "end times" theories, believing them to be irrelevant. They hold that what Jesus said and did, and told his disciples to do likewise, are of greater significance than any messianic expectations.
This view is attractive to many people, especially liberal Christians, since it reverses the notion of Jesus' coming as an apocalyptic event, something which they interpret as being hardly in keeping with the overall theme of Jesus' teachings in the canonical gospels, and are troubled by its firm association with evangelicalism and conservative politics. Instead, eschatology should be about being engaged in the process of becoming, rather than waiting for external and unknown forces to bring about destruction.
In my own view, although I concede that there is truth of that new concept of eschatology but I remain to consider that eschatology is realizing our purpose as creatures. And the end of time is not the time of our death but the time when Jesus Christ will come again and transform the world into something new. I am waiting for that Second Coming and I hope I will be counted as one of those God’ chosen to be part of His heavenly banquet.
My Conclusion: Where Is the Lord after All?
I first formulated this question when I had my thirty day Ignatian retreat in Cebu. The profound desire to meet the Lord had in many instances became my motivation to pray and to get into the different prayer and reflection periods. I did really desire to see the Lord like that of the experience of Thomas and of Mary Magdalene. Thus I persistently asked in my prayers: Where Is the Lord?
After a long period of searching the Lord, I have found the answer. The answer is not so much accidental but spiritual. The Lord is in the Church, I believe! The Risen Lord is alive in the Church, in the teaching of the Church, in the hierarchy of the Church and in the people of the Church in general. Although, the Lord can be present anywhere and everywhere by His power, he is ever present in the Church. As I write this dogmatic synthesis I am challenged, as man of the Church, to love the Church all the more.
This dogmatic synthesis does not only enrich me academically, but more importantly it enhances my spiritual being as person responding to the love of God in the priesthood. In the process of writing this dogmatic synthesis, my faith is deepened and my vocation is strengthened more than ever. This dogmatic synthesis has convinced me that the priesthood I have chosen to live is not about societal appreciation, power and wealth but a humble service to the Lord Jesus who suffered, died and was risen. It is a life of total dedication to the cross of Jesus and a life of modest submission to the Divine will.
The Dogmas that I have studied in the past five years of theological formation is better understood now in the light of faith and love; instead of just memorizing it as a matter of academic requirements. I come to appreciate how lovely God is in the teachings of the Church and that I am more motivated to go deep in my knowledge of theology not so much because I need to pass and have high grades but because I need to impart this to people and for them to have salvation too. It is only through undergoing this writing of my dogmatic synthesis that I realize how important theology is in the life of the priesthood.
It is through theology that I dare to ask: Where is the Lord? Thus it is also through theology that I could answer this question of faith. In my thirty day retreat, my only desire is to see the Lord, so to speak. And the first step in seeing the Lord is not praying but questioning where he is. And in the process of questioning I need to consider my personal self. Through deep prayer and reflection I realize that it is not easy to find the Lord. It is not easy to find the Lord when there are a lot of things that hinder us to find him. More importantly, it is not easy to find the Lord when we, ourselves, are the first to hamper our quest for Him.
In my search to find the Lord in my 30-day retreat, I faced my own battle. As I went on board in my spiritual journey, I realized that the great enemy I had in this battle was my self. While I had the ambition to conquer myself, I believed, unless it was done with determination, this ambition was an exercise of futility. The words of Alexander the Great that goes, ‘I come, I see, I conquer’ seemed to be an impossible dream to apply it to my own. Conquering was far remotely possible if I had not yet come to my senses. Conquering was an ambition of the blind if I had no courage to see.
Purified by prayers and contemplations, I come to know that the first step of achieving victory over the self is listening. Thus, I learn to value the virtue of listening. Yes, listening is a virtue! To try to listen is the hardest battle I have ever fought. I do not want to listen; I hate listening especially when it is the self who does the talking. I do not want to listen to myself because listening to myself disturbs my being. I hate being disturbed for I am already at peace… Everything is okay as far as my consciousness is concern. Nevertheless deep prayers lead me to realize that I am in deep sleep. It is not true that I am really alright. Thus, I come to the most difficult part of all, the admission that there is something wrong with me.
‘To hear is to obey’ was the constant answer and the most courteous response of the dwarfs in Narnia every time a command was handed on to them. ‘To hear is to obey’ were words that imply immediate following of orders coming from the Kings and Queens that palce. But do I have the same passion to obey every time I hear a command from God or just I let his commands passed like other commands. Isn’t that I didn’t obey because I don’t hear, or I hear but still ignore what I hear?
The whole of my retreat is all about battles. God has given me battles and I am convinced that they are worth fighting for. It is a battle between the many unnamed creatures within me. It is a battle between the thirsts of my human instincts against the thirst of my soul. It is a battle between the feeding of my flesh and the feeding of my spirit. Nevertheless, it is sad to note and I admit that in those battles my spirit hardly wins. Although the spirit is willing to fight, it is always outdone by the strength of my human instincts. Now I move to think that in the many years of my existence it is as if I am governed by my instincts. It is indeed unfortunate to imagine!
The whole of my quest for the Lord is all about battles. It is battles of discovering self-mastery, understanding self-discipline and imposing self-control. The first step to sanctity is not prayer but the Socratesian’s method of “knowing myself.” The great warriors in East did not eat the day before their battles. They never entertained any disturbances external or internal one; they were so focused to their training and so determined to impose discipline in their lifestyle. Thus, no wonder that in every bloody battle against the invaders they always won. And when I speak of sanctity it is always coupled with knowing one self, i.e. self mastery. There is none in our history a saint who just happened to be a saint by chance, sainthood is always a product of free choice – it is done through hard work. The first step, so to speak, is to ‘know thy self.’ However, to know is to listen.
The talking mice and squirrels in the book “The Chronicles of Narnia” were the most sensitive and keen listeners among the all creatures. They observed well because they listened well, and because they listened a lot, they saw a lot. The point of listening then, is seeing. When I listen to the inner voice that calls within, there I see myself. When I listen to the inner craving of my humanity, there I see my strength. When I listen to the deepest desire of my heart, there I see God. Through my experiences of prayer, I am deeply convinced that in listening there lays a great mystery. And if one listens intently, one can see more clearly!
It is through listening intently that the workings of God into my life become clear and vivid. When I speak of seeing the Lord, it didn’t mean of meeting Him eye ball contact, or shaking His hands or seeing Him from a distance and waving my hand like a desperate fan of a celebrity. Seeing God is realizing His presence in the many experiences in good times or in bad times and in high tides or in low tides of my destiny. I attest, God never leave me in my many battles. Even those battles that I was not victorious, still there He was sharing my pains. In no instance that God put me aside, He was always there for me. Unfortunately, it is I who distanced to Him. It is I who tried to cut the ties that bound us together; it is I who refused to be helped by Him. It is not God’s character to be unfaithful. It is always a human temptation to distance one self to Him and the reason is obvious – human selfishness. And even in those moments, God respects our freedom to separate from Him. God never force anybody to love Him!
As I end this reflection, I could only say that my quest for God doesn’t end here. The desire to meet God has been the constant desire of my heart until the day I will die. But in the level of relation to the Lord, I could say I have found Him. In the 30-day retreat I am proud to claim that I was with the presence of God. In the silence of my longing heart, I see the Lord and that seeing Him means one thing, which is following Him. As I prepare myself to the ministry of the priesthood, I am quiet sure that the life I will be taking will never be an easy life. Nevertheless, I have the courage to pursue and even die for it because God is there with me. I have courage to live this priesthood because God wants me to be this. I have courage to defend and protect the Church because God set the example of defending and protecting the chosen people of God.
This dogmatic synthesis presents an overview on how I will live my priesthood. I am thankful more than ever for having this opportunity to put into writing the faith that I believe. This will also serve as the foundation of my faith and a good source of inspiration if time will come that my priesthood is tested and defied in the future.
Where is the Lord? I have found Him. He has been my Good Shepherd, the Loving Father, Loyal Friend and the Source of My Joy. I have found Him and he is residing in my heart. As I found the Lord, He is challenging me to “Remain in my Love… and your joy may complete” (Jn.9:11).
After a long period of searching the Lord, I have found the answer. The answer is not so much accidental but spiritual. The Lord is in the Church, I believe! The Risen Lord is alive in the Church, in the teaching of the Church, in the hierarchy of the Church and in the people of the Church in general. Although, the Lord can be present anywhere and everywhere by His power, he is ever present in the Church. As I write this dogmatic synthesis I am challenged, as man of the Church, to love the Church all the more.
This dogmatic synthesis does not only enrich me academically, but more importantly it enhances my spiritual being as person responding to the love of God in the priesthood. In the process of writing this dogmatic synthesis, my faith is deepened and my vocation is strengthened more than ever. This dogmatic synthesis has convinced me that the priesthood I have chosen to live is not about societal appreciation, power and wealth but a humble service to the Lord Jesus who suffered, died and was risen. It is a life of total dedication to the cross of Jesus and a life of modest submission to the Divine will.
The Dogmas that I have studied in the past five years of theological formation is better understood now in the light of faith and love; instead of just memorizing it as a matter of academic requirements. I come to appreciate how lovely God is in the teachings of the Church and that I am more motivated to go deep in my knowledge of theology not so much because I need to pass and have high grades but because I need to impart this to people and for them to have salvation too. It is only through undergoing this writing of my dogmatic synthesis that I realize how important theology is in the life of the priesthood.
It is through theology that I dare to ask: Where is the Lord? Thus it is also through theology that I could answer this question of faith. In my thirty day retreat, my only desire is to see the Lord, so to speak. And the first step in seeing the Lord is not praying but questioning where he is. And in the process of questioning I need to consider my personal self. Through deep prayer and reflection I realize that it is not easy to find the Lord. It is not easy to find the Lord when there are a lot of things that hinder us to find him. More importantly, it is not easy to find the Lord when we, ourselves, are the first to hamper our quest for Him.
In my search to find the Lord in my 30-day retreat, I faced my own battle. As I went on board in my spiritual journey, I realized that the great enemy I had in this battle was my self. While I had the ambition to conquer myself, I believed, unless it was done with determination, this ambition was an exercise of futility. The words of Alexander the Great that goes, ‘I come, I see, I conquer’ seemed to be an impossible dream to apply it to my own. Conquering was far remotely possible if I had not yet come to my senses. Conquering was an ambition of the blind if I had no courage to see.
Purified by prayers and contemplations, I come to know that the first step of achieving victory over the self is listening. Thus, I learn to value the virtue of listening. Yes, listening is a virtue! To try to listen is the hardest battle I have ever fought. I do not want to listen; I hate listening especially when it is the self who does the talking. I do not want to listen to myself because listening to myself disturbs my being. I hate being disturbed for I am already at peace… Everything is okay as far as my consciousness is concern. Nevertheless deep prayers lead me to realize that I am in deep sleep. It is not true that I am really alright. Thus, I come to the most difficult part of all, the admission that there is something wrong with me.
‘To hear is to obey’ was the constant answer and the most courteous response of the dwarfs in Narnia every time a command was handed on to them. ‘To hear is to obey’ were words that imply immediate following of orders coming from the Kings and Queens that palce. But do I have the same passion to obey every time I hear a command from God or just I let his commands passed like other commands. Isn’t that I didn’t obey because I don’t hear, or I hear but still ignore what I hear?
The whole of my retreat is all about battles. God has given me battles and I am convinced that they are worth fighting for. It is a battle between the many unnamed creatures within me. It is a battle between the thirsts of my human instincts against the thirst of my soul. It is a battle between the feeding of my flesh and the feeding of my spirit. Nevertheless, it is sad to note and I admit that in those battles my spirit hardly wins. Although the spirit is willing to fight, it is always outdone by the strength of my human instincts. Now I move to think that in the many years of my existence it is as if I am governed by my instincts. It is indeed unfortunate to imagine!
The whole of my quest for the Lord is all about battles. It is battles of discovering self-mastery, understanding self-discipline and imposing self-control. The first step to sanctity is not prayer but the Socratesian’s method of “knowing myself.” The great warriors in East did not eat the day before their battles. They never entertained any disturbances external or internal one; they were so focused to their training and so determined to impose discipline in their lifestyle. Thus, no wonder that in every bloody battle against the invaders they always won. And when I speak of sanctity it is always coupled with knowing one self, i.e. self mastery. There is none in our history a saint who just happened to be a saint by chance, sainthood is always a product of free choice – it is done through hard work. The first step, so to speak, is to ‘know thy self.’ However, to know is to listen.
The talking mice and squirrels in the book “The Chronicles of Narnia” were the most sensitive and keen listeners among the all creatures. They observed well because they listened well, and because they listened a lot, they saw a lot. The point of listening then, is seeing. When I listen to the inner voice that calls within, there I see myself. When I listen to the inner craving of my humanity, there I see my strength. When I listen to the deepest desire of my heart, there I see God. Through my experiences of prayer, I am deeply convinced that in listening there lays a great mystery. And if one listens intently, one can see more clearly!
It is through listening intently that the workings of God into my life become clear and vivid. When I speak of seeing the Lord, it didn’t mean of meeting Him eye ball contact, or shaking His hands or seeing Him from a distance and waving my hand like a desperate fan of a celebrity. Seeing God is realizing His presence in the many experiences in good times or in bad times and in high tides or in low tides of my destiny. I attest, God never leave me in my many battles. Even those battles that I was not victorious, still there He was sharing my pains. In no instance that God put me aside, He was always there for me. Unfortunately, it is I who distanced to Him. It is I who tried to cut the ties that bound us together; it is I who refused to be helped by Him. It is not God’s character to be unfaithful. It is always a human temptation to distance one self to Him and the reason is obvious – human selfishness. And even in those moments, God respects our freedom to separate from Him. God never force anybody to love Him!
As I end this reflection, I could only say that my quest for God doesn’t end here. The desire to meet God has been the constant desire of my heart until the day I will die. But in the level of relation to the Lord, I could say I have found Him. In the 30-day retreat I am proud to claim that I was with the presence of God. In the silence of my longing heart, I see the Lord and that seeing Him means one thing, which is following Him. As I prepare myself to the ministry of the priesthood, I am quiet sure that the life I will be taking will never be an easy life. Nevertheless, I have the courage to pursue and even die for it because God is there with me. I have courage to live this priesthood because God wants me to be this. I have courage to defend and protect the Church because God set the example of defending and protecting the chosen people of God.
This dogmatic synthesis presents an overview on how I will live my priesthood. I am thankful more than ever for having this opportunity to put into writing the faith that I believe. This will also serve as the foundation of my faith and a good source of inspiration if time will come that my priesthood is tested and defied in the future.
Where is the Lord? I have found Him. He has been my Good Shepherd, the Loving Father, Loyal Friend and the Source of My Joy. I have found Him and he is residing in my heart. As I found the Lord, He is challenging me to “Remain in my Love… and your joy may complete” (Jn.9:11).
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