Is God One? Is God Three? Saint Augustine of Hippo was wondering about this question at the beach near Carthage when he saw a little child filling his bucket with water only to go back and fill it more from the sea. When he asked the question to the child, the child answered "It is easier to fill the bucket with the entire sea than for you to comprehend the Trinity" and vanished. Years ago when Fr. Bishoy was the new pastor at Holy Family Coptic Catholic parish in Toronto, he welcomed Fr. Henri Boulad, S.J. and asked him to give an answer to the question of the Creed. Fr. Boulad, in his customary beautiful way of attracting people to hear his message, gave a lecture which I attempted over the years to replicate and refine. Here is why we believe that God cannot be a unicity or a lonely person - In fact the lonely one enclosed upon himself according to Fr. Daniel Callam, CSB and a host of other teachers of theology is in hell. Fr. Boulad's answer is YES. God is a Trinity in One. When the Father loves his Son eternally he abandons his infinite divinity and grants it in a self-sacrificial love to the Son.The Son also returns this divinity with unlimited love to the Father and the Holy Spirit binds them with his outpouring love in the unity of eternal God. Note how each fully abandons himself eternally. More here: http://todayquestions.
Every person in the Triune God shares the same divinity. This eternal love was reflected in two acts of God: Creation out of love; and self denial in redeeming humanity which was fulfilled in the incarnation, passion, and death of Jesus Christ. He had to die to himself in order to rise from the dead and restore wounded humanity in sin to the Father.
Inspired by a homily given by Fr. Boulad on the baptism of Jesus, I spoke about the "naked" God in January this year. See here: http://todayquestions.
Naked means he has nothing - He leaves everything he has in order to complete his mission...
Every person in the Triune God shares the same divinity. This eternal love was reflected in two acts of God: Creation out of love; and self denial in redeeming humanity which was fulfilled in the incarnation, passion, and death of Jesus Christ. He had to die to himself in order to rise from the dead and restore wounded humanity in sin to the Father.
Inspired by a homily given by Fr. Boulad on the baptism of Jesus, I spoke about the "naked" God in January this year. See here: http://todayquestions.
Naked means he has nothing - He leaves everything he has in order to complete his mission...
When I had graduated from engineering in 1976, I thought that "theology" could be expressed in mathematical forms. In this holy season of Christmas I wish to share this idea subject to correction by experts...In mathematics we have numbers but they are not unlimited. Infinity is expressed by the symbol ∞. If you divide ∞ by any number the result is always ∞ or infinity. The same is with 0 or zero. If you divide 0 by any number the result is always 0 (or zero). In differential equations "Limited" is used to express the tendency of any function: Ltd t -> 0 means time tends to zero. It is never zero.
This is only a simple example compared to the huge research in quantum cosmology, Big Data, artificial intelligence in computing technology, neuroscience, the origin of the human mind and other areas.
But to return to the topic, in the incarnation of the Word (Logos) God becomes ZERO. God the Word who is infinite is united to an imperfect humanity (or humanity that is wounded with evil) by becoming the smallest thing to the point of zero. He so much loves his creation that he could not leave humanity far from him. His love, always present in many ideas of philosophers and in some way in other ancient religions, was in the "fullness of time" present at last with the Covenants of God to Israel - the smallest nation broken by the Babylonians, Greeks. Romans and others - as the fulfillment of Israel's prophets and fathers. He was born away in a cave, a manger, in a little town from a little virgin who knew very little but only dared to say Yes to the angel.
ZERO means nothing. For the Divine who is unlimited in every good thing, becoming a little human is like ZERO!
For us, this requires action to unite with each other and with every one in the world in the love of God and for his glory. It means more than buying gifts to my family or yours because it is Christmas. It means unity of Christians against hatred...which translates to helping those in need everywhere we can help. May the Lord have mercy on me sinner...May the Lord be glorified in everyone we know...May the Lord's peace fill every heart in these days of fear, confusion and terrorism that the world is witnessing...It is easy said but it means that we accept and cooperate with the Spirit of God wherever he leads us as did Mary the mother of Christ...
Mary Did You Know? [Click here to listen]
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Mary Did You Know? [Click here to listen]
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