Comparing God with Ourselves

I'm reading Summa Theologica, again.  I'm still in Part 1 and will probably be there for the rest of my life.  I'm particularly focusing on what AQ says about the Trinity.  (Yes, I'm still working on that Formation Module.)  I got a little sidetracked (And you thought web surfing was bad.)  and got involved in reading about the relationship between God and ourselves.  And you know what?  We ain't so hot.

God                                                       Humans

Free                                              All kinds of hang ups

Complete                                      Still growing and learning

Omnipotent                                   Have various degrees of helplessness

Omnipresent                                  Live moment to moment

Omniscent                                     Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest

Infinite                                           Finite

Lives in perfect love                       Only occasionally

That’s enough.  The list is depressing/awesome/amazing/fearsome/ and in the least, impressive.  The only thing I can add is that I’m omnivorous, and God’s not. ;-)

Well, I come to the same conclusion as AQ, thinking about God tells me more about me, than about God.  But I am a “chip off the old block,” or “an apple off the same tree.”  God must love us very much to even bother with us, never mind send His Son to save us.   

God in Prison

Another inmate committed suicide in a Mass Correctional Institution.  And this one was in a maximum security facility--inmates are watched 24/7.  This one was also in the treatment facility.  "Suicides in Massachusetts state prisons are occurring at a rate more than four times the national average this year, prompting advocates and inmates’ relatives to call for an urgent response from state officials — and spurring the Patrick administration yesterday to hire a suicide prevention specialist." Link to Boston.com

Listening to the night bell.
I hear some cry and think the end--
this place so cold, and damp, my cell.
A wretch cast into so deep a well--
no love, no hope, no family, no friend.
My lips to heaven plea to send
help of any kind for one who fell
so far down into the jaws of hell.
They call it prayer and I feel it mend
my fear, my loneliness, guilt driven.
Is it true I can be forgiven?
There is a God of mercy and love.
He feels my fear and hears my plea
and responds with absolution and
mercy undreamed of.  He calms my
trembling heart with hope.

Justitia, www.lulu.com, 2006, page 28.

Blessing

My first grandchild!  May I introduce you to Baby Lucy.  She arrived this morning, July 14, 2010, weighing in at 7 lbs. 12 oz, 21 inches long.  She has so much hair you can part it.  Daddy quipped, "Instead of bringing a bonnet, we should have brought a hair scrungie."  

All is well.  My daughter, the Mommy is well, but tired.  The baby is eating and disposing very heartily.  She is thriving.  

Deo Gratias.

It is very humbling to be a part of God's plan.  I helped create the Mom, who continued the process.  God is great.  Just to look upon a new born, new life, proof of love, is meditative.  Does God love us this much?

Where does "Trinity" Come From?

The term, “Trinity” was used by St. Theophilius of Antioch, in the year A.D. 180.  He wrote in his epistle to Autolycus, a pagan critic of the Catholic Church, that God, His word, and wisdom are a trinity (Greek:triados).

Some year later,  Tertullian, (A.D. 160—circa 250) a Latin theologian, coined the Latin term for trinity (trinitas), in his work “On Modesty.”  He wrote about the trinity of the One Divinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  In addition, he explained more specifically that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were of “One in essence—not one in Person.”  (Ante-Nicene Fathers 3.621; circa 213 A.D.)

The early church writers drew upon many biblical references to God’s unity and transcendence as well as old testament episodes, known as “Theophanies”—mysterious appearances of one or more persons of the Trinity.[i] 

Examples of theophanies and mysterious appearances, and sometimes implicit references to the three persons in the Trinity are Genesis 1:26, (where God speaks of Himself in the plural form), Genesis 3:22, 11:27, Psalms 2:7, 109: 1-3; Isaiah 7:14 (Emmanuel is the name prophesied for the miraculously-conceived child of a virgin.  It means “God is with us”): Isaiah 9:6, 11:2, and 8:22-31, Wisdom 7: 22-28, 8: 3-8, Ezkiel 11:5, 36:27, Joel 2:28, and Malachi 3:1.

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Gifts

My son-in-law celebrated his birthday today.  He was happy with his gifts.  But it set me to wondering.  Gifts are suppose to be pleasurable for the giver as well as the receiver.  Luckily, today fell into that category.

But I remember one time when my friends and I use to swap Christmas gifts.  We'd put a limit on our gifts--no more than $ 10.  To me that meant giving junk.  But they insisted; so I went along with it.  Otherwise you'd be considered a Scrooge.   I turned out to be worse than a Scrooge.  I was complaining about this to another friend and she listened politely.  When I was finished she handed me a gift and said, "Well, here's another piece of junk."

Ouch.

I did learn that lesson.  I learned to keep my mouth shut and just be happy.  I try to look at it as giving pleasure to someone.  But really.  I'm trying to simplify my life.  I don't need anything.  But I'll accept the giver's gifts graciously because I learned that the giver is trying to please me.  And it's not all about me.  The giver wants acknowledgement of their generosity and thoughtfulness.  I do appreciate that; I really do.

So, I Love You

I just saw the most touching scene at Mass, tonight.  A few rows up from me was a family.  After Communion, while we were waiting for everyone to finish, a little girl, too young to receive was leaning against her Daddy.

We were singing, We Have Been Told.   When we came to the words,  "As the Father has loved me," the Daddy looked down at his daughter and sang to her, "So, I have loved you."

Indeed.  He does.

Fool Proof Plan

My Spiritual Director and I have thought of a way to beat the system.  We're talking about getting into heaven.

Yup.  It's fool proof because it's so quick.  I wonder why others haven't thought of it, before.  Maybe they have but can't tell us, anymore. What am I talking about?  Well, my S.D. will kill me right after confession.

See?  Fool proof!

You see, we always begin spiritual direction with confession.  That's just the way it is.  It is what it is!  So one day, unbeknown to me, he'll shoot me.  There--I'm golden.

Then his spiritual director will do him the favor.....ad infinitum.

What do you think?