The Four Pillars of Faith Lesson One: The Dogma of All Dogmas

Hey everyone! Thanks for dropping by. I am blessed by the excitement that is in the classes that meet in Oshkosh entitled, "The Four Pillars of Faith."

To review, Lesson I covers Chapter I and V in the USCCA which describe humankind's universal need and desire for God. It is built into our genes. The desire to meet the One who left His fingerprints in our life, and in all of creation is natural to us a creatures, and is founded on God's desire for us. He reaches out to us in so many different ways...in some ways, He literally surprises us!

Secondly, Chapter V deals with the "We Believe in God" section of the creed. In fact, the bulk of the Thursday night segment dealt with God as Trinity and emphasized how this doctrine is the center hub of all the mysteries of God, of the Catholic faith. If you remember anything, please remember... the Trinity is the focal mystery of all mysteries. Let me list them and then feel free to enter comment or questions.

A. The Trinity is God in three distinct Persons, with One divine substance, and is One God, not three Gods. It is a Trinity, NOT a triad of Gods.

B. These three Persons love each other infinitely and form the template of what the Christian life is all about. It can be explained as best by the following (even this is very limited):

1. The Father expresses himself and thinks of himself as any of us think of ourselves...only different! When the Father thinks of himself, he doesn't have a thought bubble like we do, He thinks and expresses himself as another Person, the Logos, the Word, Jesus Christ the Son!
2. The Son, who is the expressed likeness of the Father completely, and is distinct from the Father, and in the same divine substance, loves the Father in return. A love so complete, so loving, so infinite, so powerful, that the love between the Father and the Son becomes yet another Person, The Holy Spirit!
3. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, a unity of three Persons, one God, enjoy complete and infinite joy, glory, peace, the good, the True, the Beautiful. It is an existence that is infinitely above and beyond our comprehension.
4. The Holy Trinity desires to share this family unity of the Trinity with us, with people of every ethnicity and tongue. There is more than enough Trinity to go around! This sharing of the divine nature of the Trinity is an idea created by the Trinity, put into place by the Trinity, which forms the pattern of discipleship that Jesus expressed in His preaching on earth. God desires our unconditional love and acceptance of Him. Our discipleship, our total giving of self to Christ and the Gospel, is in truth, the way in which the members of the Trinity are with each other...total self-giving.
5. Our entry into this unity with the Trinity is through Jesus Christ. He is the Prototype, the Door into the Life of the Trinity. So our life as Christians is a participation in the life of Jesus as He is in complete unity with the Trinity. This is NOT something we engineer on our own, but ONLY as we participate in Jesus, in HIS life, in HIS mission, as we follow HIS leadership as set in place by the college of bishops HE chose for us. There are no mavericks in the Kingdom of God. The life we live as Christians is HIS life as expressed uniquely in our state of life.

So the terms of discipleship that Christ lays out is not just an arbitrary set of rules to make us miserable. Since we are being fitted for eternity in union with the Holy Trinity, we must begin to prepare NOW for a Trinitarian lifestyle. We must begin NOW, in our relationships with our family, neighbors and strangers, to live out the example and life of the Trinity. And to do this, the Trinity allows us the supernatural, sanctifying grace to carry it out. Hence, we have the Creed, the Sacraments, the Moral Guidance and prayer to exercise our calling as fellow Trinity lovers and livers.

Now, this is heavy stuff. I've asked you to think through this and begin to ponder the greatness of the calling that God gives us. Read again, paragraph 260 in the CCC:

The ultimate end in the whole divine economy is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity. "If a man loves me," says the Lord, "he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him." John 14:23

For your meditation on this, read the prayer of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity that follows this paragraph:

O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.

May God bless you in your meditations, and open your eyes to the glory, that not only awaits in eternity, but is your to experience now as you journey through life.

Again, please comment or put in any questions you may have. PAX!!!