The%20Trinity%20and%20Incarnation

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The Trinity and Incarnation

• The Twin Mysteries of Faith

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References to Add

• 234
• Matthew 1127
• John 1030
• Matthew 2819
• John 11

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Jesus Reveals the Trinity

• Youre hoping to spend eternity with the Blessed
  Trinity and expect it to be a wholly blissful
  experience
• Because of the gap between us and God, the
  Trinity will always be a mystery (like an ant to
  a human), and yet, we can have some insight via
  analogy and should therefore pursue this
  knowledge.
• P. 114 in Fundamentals

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Mysterious Trinity

• Why dive into something so mysterious?
• For Love love of God, love of others, love of
  yourself
• We must often remember what Christ said, that
  not he who begins, but he that perseveres to the
  end, shall be saved.
• One of the most excellent means of obtaining
  perseverance is discretion we must not wish to
  do everything at once, or become a saint in four
  days. (or understand the Trinity in 16-18 years
  of life)
• -St. Philip Neri

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Trinity

• 234 The mystery of the most Holy Trinity is the
  central mystery of Christian faith and lifethe
  source of all the other mysteries of faith.
• Our job, today and whenever discussing mysteries
  of faith (alone) is to show how they are not
  irrational even if we can not get to them through
  reason alone.

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Analogy

• The way we talk about God is through analogy.
• While analogies can provide us with some insight
  and truth they will all necessarily fall short.
• Anything we ever say about God will always be
  more dissimilar than similar, that is, analogies
  will always be less true than true.

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Life

• Involves movement or activity
• Immanence comes from within
• Transitive (transcendence) from without
• The greater the immanent activity the higher the
  life.

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Human Powers

• Humans generative power of the mind (thinking)
  to beget thoughts, ideas, words
• The fruit of our mind stays in our mind. It is
  distinct from the mind but it is not separate
  from the mind.
• Power to love that which we think about (truth)
• Our love is not something outside of ourselves.

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Gods Powers

• God thinks a perfect thought, one word (John
  11), which is distinct from his mind but not
  separate from his mind. (Father and Son)
• The other power is to love (Holy Spirit) which is
  a mysterious bond uniting the Father and Son.
• Love is distinct from the thought (SON) but
  proceeds from it and from the thinker. (FATHER)
• God loves perfection his thought/son/word
• God expresses his love through a sigh (breath of
  the Spirit)

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The Doctrine Outlined

• Reminder this doctrine is a mystery which we
  could not know at all unless it had been
  revealed.
• But it cannot be wholly dark. God would not mock
  us by revealing something of which we could make
  nothing at all.
• One divine nature, three persons Father, Son,
  and Holy Spirit
• No one of the persons is either of the others,
  each is wholly himself.
• The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy
  Spirit is God.
• They are not three Gods but one God.

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The Doctrine Outlined

• There is no mathematical contradiction because
  its not simply 1 and 3.
• Nature is what a thing is (1)
• Person is who a thing is (3)
• Person possesses nature, not vice versa. (my
  nature)
• What actions are possible depends on the
  __________
• The ___________ does the actions.
• Can all 3 persons of the Trinity create? (Is it
  in their nature?)
• Who creates?
• Can all 3 persons become incarnate?
• Who became incarnate?

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Mystery not Contradiction

• Who else is a mystery? Each and everyone of us.
• We know that we have a self but have a hard time
  grasping it.
• Though our experience of ourselves is one nature
  with one person, whos to say that this is the
  only possible relationship, especially since we
  even struggle understanding our own natures and
  persons.
• God reveals his Trinitarian nature. We have no
  experience with this kind of nature therefore we
  have to trust him and do our best to grasp what
  he is saying.

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Final Confusion (for today)

• 3 different men (persons) cannot know with
  anothers intellect or love with anothers will.
  Though one nature, each person has their own
  share/part of that nature.
• In God the 3 persons know with the same intellect
  and love with the same will. Gods nature is
  simple and cannot be divided and thus must be
  used by all at once.

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If this was all

• If the only thing we knew about the Trinity was
  that it was not a logical contradiction and that
  it was 3 persons in 1 nature it seems that we
  have not achieved more knowledge but only
  confusion.
• Therefore, it is in learning about the
  personalities of the persons that we begin to
  find ourselves growing in the light.
• God the Father Creator
• God the Son Redeemer (Incarnation/Resurrection)
• God the Holy Spirit Advocate/Paraclete

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Incarnation

• Humans are 1P possessing 1N
• Who are you? 1 answer.
• What are you? 1 answer.
• Trinity is 3P possessing 1N
• Who are you? 3 answers.
• What are you? 1 answer.
• Incarnation is 1P possessing 2N Jesus
• Who are you? 1 answer.
• What are you? 2 answers.

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• In order to properly understand Scripture, it is
  important to always keep the 1 person/2 natures
  of the Incarnation in mind.
• There are things that Jesus could do because he
  was human and there are things that he could do
  because he was God.
• But, there was only 1 person who performed either
  the human or divine actions.

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Transubstantiation

• Catholics refer to the Eucharist as the Real
  Presence, that is, that Christ is really truly
  present in the Eucharist and not just
  symbolically, figuratively, or in any other way.
• How does it work?
• Trans
• Substantia
• Tion
• John 6 Bread of Life Discourse
• Luke 2219 Last Supper This is my body

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Literal vs. Figurative

• Where in the Bible do we turn? (3 places)
• John 6 Bread of Life Discourse
• Luke 2219 Then he took bread, said the
  blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying,
  This is my body, which will be given for you do
  this in memory of me.
• 1 Corinthians 10/11

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Is the Eucharist Cannibalism?

• If it were truly immoral in any sense for Christ
  to give us his flesh and blood to eat, it would
  be contrary to his holiness to command anyone to
  eat his body and bloodeven symbolically.
  Symbolically performing an immoral act would be
  of its nature immoral. Tim Staples

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Do this in memory of me

• 1362 Anamnesis what type of memory,
  remembrance, remembering are we talking about?

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Jesus Reveals the Trinity

• Youre hoping to spend eternity with the Blessed
  Trinity and expect it to be a wholly blissful
  experience
• Because of the gap between us and God, the
  Trinity will always be a __________________ (like
  an ant to a human), and yet, we can have some
  insight via __________________and should
  therefore pursue this knowledge.

24
Mysterious Trinity

• Why dive into something so mysterious?
• For ______________
• We must often remember what Christ said, that
  not he who begins, but he that _________________to
  the end, shall be saved.
• One of the most excellent means of obtaining
  perseverance is discretion we must not wish to
  do everything at once, or become a saint in four
  days. (or understand the Trinity in 16-18 years
  of life)
• -St. Philip Neri

25
Trinity

• 234 The mystery of the most Holy Trinity is the
  ___________________mystery of Christian faith and
  lifethe source of all the other mysteries of
  faith.
• Our job, today, and whenever discussing mysteries
  of faith (alone), is to show how they are not
  ___________________even if we can not get to them
  through ___________________alone.

26
Analogy

• The way we talk about God is through analogy.
• While analogies can provide us with some insight
  and truth they will all necessarily fall short.
• Anything we ever say about God will always be
  more dissimilar than ________________, that is,
  analogies will always be less true than true.

27
Life

• Involves __________________ or activity
• Immanence comes from _____________
• Transitive (transcendence) from without
• The greater the immanent activity the
  _________________ the life.

28
Human Powers

• Humans generative power of the mind
  (____________________) to beget thoughts, ideas,
  words
• The fruit of our mind stays in our mind. It is
  distinct from the mind but it is not separate
  from the mind.
• Power to _______________ that which we think
  about (truth)
• Our love is not something outside of ourselves.

29
Gods Powers

• God thinks a thought, __________________
  __________, which is distinct from his mind but
  not separate from his mind. (Father and Son)
• The other power is to _____________(Holy Spirit)
  which is a mysterious bond ______________ the
  Father and Son.
• Love is distinct from the thought but proceeds
  from it and from the thinker.
• God loves _______________ his thought/son
• God expresses his love through a
  _______________(breath of the Spirit)

30
The Doctrine Outlined

• Reminder this doctrine is a mystery which we
  could not know at all unless it had been
  revealed.
• But it cannot be wholly dark. God would not mock
  us by revealing something of which we could make
  nothing at all.
• _______divine nature, ____________ persons
  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
• No one of the persons is either of the others,
  each is ___________ himself.
• The Father is ______, the Son is ______, the Holy
  Spirit is _______.
• They are ______ three Gods but one God.

31
The Doctrine Outlined

• There is no mathematical ___________________
  because its not simply 1 and 3.
• Nature is ____________ a thing is (1)
• Person is _________ a thing is (3)
• Person possesses nature, not vice versa.
  (______nature)
• What actions are possible depends on the
  __________
• The ___________ does the actions.
• Can all 3 persons of the Trinity create? (Is it
  in their nature?)
• Who creates? _____________________
• Can all 3 persons become incarnate?
• Who became incarnate? _____________________

32
Mystery not Contradiction

• Who else is a mystery? Each and everyone of us.
• We know that we have a self but have a hard time
  grasping it.
• Though our experience of ourselves is one nature
  with one person, who says that this is the only
  possible relationship, especially since we even
  struggle understanding our own natures and
  persons.
• God reveals his ____________________ nature. We
  have no experience with this kind of nature
  therefore we have to trust him and do our best to
  grasp what he is saying.

33
Final Confusion (for today)

• 3 different men (persons) _____________ know with
  anothers intellect or love with anothers will.
  Though one nature, each person has their own
  share/part of that nature.
• In God the 3 persons know with the same intellect
  and love with the same will. Gods nature is
  simple and cannot be divided and thus must be
  used by all at once.

34
If this was all

• If the only thing we knew about the Trinity was
  that it was not a logical contradiction and that
  it was 3 persons in 1 nature it seems that we
  have not achieved more knowledge but only
  confusion.
• Therefore, it is in learning about the
  personalities of the persons that we begin to
  find ourselves growing in the light.
• God the Father ___________________
• God the Son ___________________
  (Incarnation/Resurrection)
• God the Holy Spirit __________________________