Author: Capital Catholic Happenings

Posted on

What does”Incarnation”mean?

Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?

Archdiocese of Washington: Year of Faith series

Written by:

Dominican Brothers of the Province of St. Joseph

When I used to be a math tutor, I helped elementary school students who were struggling with arithmetic.  As a physicist, I was knee deep in very difficult and advanced mathematics and realizing that some children had difficulty with addition and subtraction initially took me aback.   Basic arithmetic had become so familiar to me that it took some time to figure out how to teach and explain it.  I took it so much for granted that I forgot how odd it must seem to a child coming across it for the first time.

In a similar way, we could look at today’s “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader” question: “What does the word ‘Incarnation’ mean?” The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “the Church calls ‘Incarnation’ the fact that the Son of God assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it.”(CCC 461)  While this is not easy language it is something that most Catholics are used to hearing and may not think twice about.  When we realize that most of the disagreements in the first five centuries of the Church revolved around this doctrine, we may be surprised.  What, exactly, is the big deal? In these arguments, the big deal was our salvation.

Since the original sin, mankind had cut itself off from friendship with God.  Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins and restore us to communion with God.  The theological question was this: if Christ came to save us, what did He have to become in the Incarnation?  Jesus Christ saved us by becoming like us in all ways but sin.

The first major Christological heresy, Arianism, claimed that Jesus Christ was not  really God, just a very godlike creature.    Arius didn’t want to admit that God could become man—it might imply that God wasn’t perfect and transcendent.  But St. Athanasius argued fiercely against him.  Only God can bridge the infinite gap between us and Him.  If Jesus wasn’t really and truly God, then Jesus couldn’t save us from our sins.  This is why we say in the Creed that Jesus is “God from God, light from light, true God from true God, consubstantial with the Father.”

The heretic Nestorius split the unity of Christ’s Person.  Can we really say that Mary is the “Mother of God?”  Nestorius thought this was pious nonsense.  How can the eternal and perfect God have a mother, or be born in time?  It seemed safer to say that two persons existed in Christ.   This, of course, is deeply wrong.   The same Person who died on the Cross had to be God, for us to be saved from our sins.  God died on the Cross.  Only as God did He offer something infinitely worthy to God, and only as man could He suffer on our behalf.  By splitting the unity of Christ’s Person, Nestorius would tear asunder the unity of Christ’s saving work.   Thus the Church found itself confessing that Jesus Christ was “True God and True Man.”

When we dive into the details, we find that the mystery of the Incarnation is far from straightforward, and sorting out the details takes a lot more than simple arithmetic. But the mystery of the Incarnation opens up to us the mystery of divinization, “for this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might becomes sons of God.”(CCC 460)

Join us on December 27th for our next “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?” post.

Please don’t forget to follow our questions on the Archdiocese of Washington Facebook page.

Posted on

What is the”Central Mystery”of Our Faith?

Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?

Archdiocese of Washington: Year of Faith series

Written by:

Dominican Brothers of the Province of St. Joseph

Our faith begins with God. We sometimes forget that. For all the discussions and debates that Christians can get lost in, we sometimes forget that our belief is rooted in God.

Blessed Pope John Paul II once proclaimed that our generation engages in a fundamental struggle, which is whether we believe in God or not. Love, as it is said, requires a self-emptying.

A teacher I know once asked this question to a student who wondered out loud whether he believed in God or not: “Do you believe that life is more than meets the eye?” she asked.

People of faith – and even atheists – are captivated by the fact that there is one Being who is the creator and the sustainer of the entire universe.

That same teacher said it this way: the first step to believing in God follows closely the second step, which is realizing that you are not God!

Today’s “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?” question asks: what is the central mystery of the Catholic Faith?

While (A) Grace, (B) the Incarnation, and (C) the Hypostatic Union identify something unique about Christianity and of Jesus Christ, (D) the mystery of the Trinity, is the central mystery of our Faith, which speaks of the very life of God in Himself.

The Trinity is the mystery of one God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We know about the Trinity because God has revealed Himself to us.

The Trinity can only be distinguished according to the Persons. It is false, for instance, to replace the identification “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” with “Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.”

The Trinity reveals how God is in Himself. Our God is a Living God, who exhibits both knowledge and love. His inner essence is dynamic, we might say, in that this knowledge and love exists in His inner Being. God knows Himself in the Son. The Holy Spirit is, we might say, the love that exists between the Father and the Son.

The Incarnate Son of God, who is Jesus Christ, fully manifests God. Jesus says in John’s Gospel, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (Jn 14:9 ff.)

We can know and love God by the grace given to us in Christ Jesus. The grace of faith joins us to God such that we are joined, in heart and mind, to His inner life. Faith accomplishes this in this life, with the goal of heaven – the Beatific Vision – where we may one day see God face to face. To know and to love God now and in heaven fills the human heart with greater happiness than we can ever imagine, which is like unto God Himself.

Join us on December 20th for our next “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?” post.

Please don’t forget to follow our questions on the Archdiocese of Washington Facebook page.

Posted on

Beyond Creation

Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?

Archdiocese of Washington: Year of Faith series

Written by:

Dominican Brothers of the Province of St. Joseph

No sooner had God led Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt and slavery, did they forsake Him and pursue idols.  Moses told the people to prepare themselves to worship the Lord, and he himself went up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments.  Meanwhile, the people pestered Aaron the high priest and had him melt down their gold and form it into a golden calf.

Aaron proclaimed to the people, “Tomorrow is a feast of the Lord!” (Ex 32:5).  And they proclaimed, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” (Ex 32:4).

The God who created them and liberated them was hardly enough for them.  They also wanted a God they could control.  They rejected Him, and refashioned Him in their own image and likeness.

Today’s “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?” question points to the fact that God is “transcendent.”  To say that God is transcendent is to say He is beyond creation – that means He exists and acts in a way far above, and far superior to earthly, and creaturely existence.

St. Paul preached this to the Greeks– notorious worshipers of idols– in the Areopagus.  “We ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination,” he says (Acts 17:29).

“The God who made the world and all that is in it,” St. Paul says, “does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything” (Acts 17:24-25).  “Rather,” St. Paul says, “it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25).

We do not relate to God as equals.  We depend completely on Him.  He doesn’t depend at all on us.  The Greek gods are just like us, but bigger and stronger.  God is not on a scale of comparison with us.

If God is truly beyond creation, does this make Him too distant from us?  St. Paul didn’t think so.  He continues to say that, “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 1:28). St. Paul thinks that God is very close to us.  And this can only be because God and creation aren’t equals. God existed apart from creation. God isn’t part of creation. God doesn’t depend on it. But the reverse is true.  Creation depends on God.  It exists because it receives being from Him at every moment.  And it receives being and existence from Him in the inmost and deepest part of itself. St. Augustine says that God “is higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self” (CCC 300).

It is also why this Creator God can become the Incarnate God.    The eternal Word of God became man from the Virgin Mary almost two thousand years ago. He has a complete human nature, both body and soul. This is the God whom we await this Advent.

Join us on December 13th for our next “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?” post.

Please don’t forget to follow our questions on the Archdiocese of Washington Facebook page.

Posted on

To know, to love, to serve

Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?

Archdiocese of Washington: Year of Faith series

Written by:

Dominican Brothers of the Province of St. Joseph

 

Some animals seem to have a pretty clear purpose in life.  Bees are at their best constructing hives and making honey, eagles are most majestic soaring high above the trees and a cheetah is at its peak racing across the Serengeti for its prey.  So what exactly is the purpose of the human being?  Clearly everyone truly wants to be happy in life, but we see people seeking out that happiness in so many different ways.

The true purpose of human life was hinted at in the answer to our last question, where we learned that human beings have a natural desire for God. If we truly understand this desire for God as something natural, it is clear that it is central to our purpose in life as well. This desire for and attraction to God is not something artificial, something forced upon us contrary to our inclinations. In fact, today’s “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?” question shows that it is a reflection of our reason for being here at all.

There is a certain beauty in the animal kingdom and in creation as a whole, with each piece doing its part for a greater order.  Still, most of the wonders of creation are oblivious to their own beauty, and oblivious to their creator.  The busy bee, the majestic eagle and the sleek cheetah give glory to God purely by instinct.  As the only creature that has been given the gift of reason, the role of the human being in this great order is to come to know and love God’s gift, and through it come to know and love God himself.  “[Man] alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life.  It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity.” (CCC 356)

So if we were created to know love and serve God, why did God choose to create us?  Some of the answers seem to suggest that God was lonely, or wanted to show off what He could do.  We know for certain that God did not need to create anything.  As St. Thomas Aquinas says “Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened his hand” (CCC 293).  God is all good and all perfect on his own and He lacks nothing and has nothing to prove. His creation is pure benevolence, pure love.

Since God’s creative act is rooted in love, not in some need, the fact that we were created to know love and serve Him is not for His benefit, but for ours.  Our natural desire for God, and the living out of that desire by coming to know Him, truly loving Him, and dedicating our lives to Him is the way to finally acquire that happiness  we are all seeking.  This is man truly at his best.

Join us on December 6th for our next “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?” post.

Please don’t forget to follow our questions on the Archdiocese of Washington Facebook page.

Posted on

Is It Natural to Desire God?

Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?

Archdiocese of Washington: Year of Faith series

Written by:

Dominican Brothers of the Province of St. Joseph

To outsiders, religious people can seem like entirely different kinds of people – a bit strange sometimes, fanatics to some, archaic at times, and a bit superstitious.

This is all to say that, to some people, religious beliefs are thought to work like emotions.  That is, sometimes you get sad, and sometimes you don’t.  Some days you feel this way, and some days you feel that way.  Some people are happy, and others aren’t.  They conclude: some people believe in God – this god or that god – and others don’t.  There are all sorts of opinions and all sorts of people.

However, the answer to today’s “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?” question clarifies the true nature of the desire that human beings have for God.

The reality is that all human beings have a natural desire for God.  The desire in our hearts for God does not come from any mere or passing conversation we might have with our friends, nor does this desire for God well up in our hearts principally from an inspiring book we’ve just read, or from a movie.  The desire that human beings can and do have for God is not like an emotion – it’s not a fleeting sensibility that some have and others don’t.  The desire for God is written into our very nature as human beings.  Every single person has it.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say: “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for”(CCC 27).

If we are honest with ourselves, we recognize that there is a hunger for the Truth deep in our hearts.  It is not just in some of us; it is deep in the heart of every human being.  It is our desire for the infinite, the perfect, and for Love itself.  We desire to experience the fullness to which we are called, but this fullness can only be fulfilled in God.

The Second Vatican Council said it this way: “The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.” (Gaudium et Spes, no. 19)

Love allows us to reach from the confines of our own limitations and connects us to its very source, who is God Himself.

Saint Augustine said it best: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, O Lord.”

Join us on November 29th for our next “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?” post.

Please don’t forget to follow our questions on the Archdiocese of Washington Facebook page.

Posted on

Image and Likeness

Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?

Archdiocese of Washington: Year of Faith series

Written by:

Dominican Brothers of the Province of St. Joseph

Once, when I was a fifth-grader, a friend’s mother was giving me a ride home after his birthday party.  During that half hour ride home, I talked and joked with both of them.  When we finally arrived at my house, my dad was there it took less than a minute for her to light up and say,  “You are your father’s son!” It’s true; I am just like my father, who always has had a particular way of joking around with others.

I think this is a good starting point for our next question in the, “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-grader?” series, which is about our being created in the image and likeness of God.  Now, we all know what it means to say that someone is “a striking image” of his father.  Beyond physical similarities, there are many likenesses in personality and temperament which we see in parents and children.

But how can we be in God’s “image?”  What sort of “likeness” or similarity can we have to God?

It’s easy to start with what it can’t be.  We don’t have the same chin or smile as God does.  If we’re going to find out how we’re like God we’re going to have to look higher.

The book of Genesis is a fruitful place to start our reflection.  It recounts God’s creation of man in two stages.  It says that, “then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).  This account portrays man as having two essential principles.  He is formed from “the dust of the ground,” made of stuff like all animals are.  But there’s more– he also has the breath of life blown into his nostrils.  There is something higher in man than mere matter.  Man also has a soul.

It is finally here that we see our likeness to God.  Because of our soul we have the power to know and to love.  Rocks and stones, trees and plants are only things. But because of our soul, “the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something but someone” (CCC 357).    For, “of all visible creatures only man is “able to know and love his creator”” (CCC 356).    This grounds all of the awesome abilities which human beings have– of entering into communion with other persons, of responding to God in grace, and responding to God in faith and love (CCC 357).  No other animal tells jokes, prays, gets married or writes poems.  No other animal searches for happiness and meaning in life.

God’s creation of man is indeed very special.  The Psalmist asks God about this and wonders, saying:

Yet you have made him little less than a god,

crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him rule over the works of your hands,

put all things at his feet (Psalm 8: 6-7)

God created all of the visible creation for us.  But He also gave us an additional gift: the ability to give all of it back to Him in love.

Join us on November 15th for our next “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?” post.

Please don’t forget to follow our questions on the Archdiocese of Washington Facebook page.

Posted on

Halloween and the Communion of Saints?

Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?

Archdiocese of Washington: Year of Faith series

Written by:

Dominican Brothers of the Province of St. Joseph

 

Halloween is one night of the year when adults and children alike seem to be full of imagination for the realm of the dead.  Maybe it is a fascination with ghosts and goblins, or maybe it is more sinister than that, but there is a profoundly Christian explanation for Halloween, and it has to do with today’s “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?” question, and the Communion of Saints.

There is no coincidence that the world is fascinated with the realm of the dead on the evening of October 31st, which is the night before All Saints Day – that day when the Church celebrates the lives of those whom we know have made it to heaven.

The first thing the doctrine of the Communion of Saints should teach us – whether we’ve graduated from the fifth grade yet or not – is that there is a bridge between this life and the next – between the land of the living and the land of the dead.  Jesus Christ is that bridge, and He makes heaven possible.

Every human person will continue to exist after death, as every one of us is created by God with an immortal soul.  This is not to say that all of us will go straight to heaven when we die.  The ghoulish character of Halloween should remind us that not all of us are saints.  Someone recently reminded me that you have to be made perfect to go to heaven.  For all of us who are yet far from perfect, this gives us pause to reflect and to pray about what we merit in this life – and to consider what happens after death.

But, the Communion of Saints is not just about the souls in heaven; neither does this phrase simply refer to the canonized saints.  In fact, the Communion of Saints refers to (D) all the faithful living and dead. As the Second Vatican Council reminded us, there is a universal call to holiness.  That is, we are all, in fact, called to become saints by God’s grace.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us the context, “After confessing ‘the holy catholic Church,’ the Apostles’ Creed adds ‘the communion of saints.’ In a certain sense this article is a further explanation of the preceding: ‘What is the Church if not the assembly of all the saints?’ The communion of saints is the Church.” (CCC 946)

All of the faithful – both living and dead – make up the Communion of Saints, and this Communion makes up the Church.  This is the way that we are joined together as believers. The love that unites us in Jesus Christ unites us even beyond the grave.  As The Catechism says, it is a “communion in holy things (sancta)’ and ‘among holy persons (sancti).” (CCC 948)

The goal is heaven, as my grandmother liked to say.  However, few of us have an imagination for heaven these days, it seems to me.  While some may argue for Halloween’s merits, it seems it would benefit all of us to know of this night’s real meaning of the great splendor of the Communion of Saints, who are present to us from beyond the grave.

In this Year of Faith, it is well to remember that faith joins us in a real way with all the faithful souls living and dead.  Faith makes this possible by joining us to God Himself.

Join us on November 8th for our next “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?” post.

Please don’t forget to follow our questions on the Archdiocese of Washington Facebook page.

Posted on

The immeasurable riches of His grace

Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?

Archdiocese of Washington: Year of Faith series

Written by:Dominican Brothers of the Province of St. Joseph

As frustrating and humiliating as our own bad decisions in life can be, watching a loved one make a drastic mistake is often much worse. How are we supposed to help someone to see how wrong the choice he is making is when he utterly refuses to listen to us and see the error of his ways?  This problem is the one St. Monica faced with her son, Augustine.  Though she tried to instill the Christian faith in her son, it did not take root. She fell back to the only resource she had left: fervent prayer.

For his part, Augustine felt he had given Christianity a fair shake but found it lacking.  He was very intellectual, and so he sought the truth in many philosophies and religions, but none of them satisfied him.  His restless heart eventually led him back to the Catholic Church.  Augustine became one of the foremost defenders and preachers of the Catholic faith.  How did Augustine become a staunch Catholic after being a critical despiser of the faith?

The virtue of faith, that confidence to trust in God and cleave to the truths he has revealed (cf. CCC 154), is a gift.  It’s not irrational to trust and believe in God, but we cannot simply convince ourselves to do so without His grace.  We see this quite clearly in Augustine’s conversion.  Initially, he found Christianity’s arguments unconvincing, and he felt the Bible was simplistic and unsophisticated. It took a good preacher – St. Ambrose – to open Augustine’s mind to understand the spirit and meaning of the Scriptures.  Augustine began to love the Scriptures, not in spite of, but because of the lowliness and humility of the truths they presented.  After years of thoughtful searching he overcame his critical objections to the Christian faith, but he still could not truly believe it.  Our merely human efforts are not enough to bring about true faith.  We can only do so if our will is “moved by God through grace.” (CCC 155).  Augustine’s conversion shows the power of God’s action in a truly remarkable way.

Some friends brought Augustine the story of the first monks of Egypt who left everything to follow Jesus Christ.  He considered his own weakness and was distraught.  Why did he keep delaying?  Why not commit now? As he became more upset and more distraught, he withdrew into the garden.  Then he heard a child’s voice call out “take up and read.”   Taking it to be a command from God, he picked up a nearby book of the letters of Paul.  One verse pierced through his heart.  In that moment of profound grace He says, “[a]ll the shadows of doubt were dispelled.”

St. Augustine’s is a profound case that sheds light on the truth that faith is a gift.  Who does Augustine have to thanks for his faith?  There is himself, in part, for his honest searching, St. Ambrose, for his preaching and teaching, and his mother for her consistent prayer, to name only a few.  Of course, first and foremost, he has God to thank, as is made clear in his final conversion, for the grace necessary to assent freely to the truth, as well as for the countless graces offered in preparing him to accept that gift.  When considering friends or family that seem far from God, we should not despair of our efforts to lead them to Jesus Christ, most especially through our prayers, for it is only His grace that will lead them to believe.