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Show 104: THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES · The Uncensored Catholic

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The f a Hey, y'all, welcome to day's show. We'll be great
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up where we left off yesterday. You may remember the questioner was asking a
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lot of the questions of the priests and radio replies about the true religion Judaism.
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Has the world benefited all from Christianity? The person goes on to say,
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and it appears this person somewhat of a communist leaning says, Christian churches
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are everywhere, yet misery and distress gets worse all over the world. And
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the answer the growth of misery distress is not due to the multiplication of churches.
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Many professing Christian churches, of course, do not stand firmly for the
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true principles of Christ, and even the growth of the Catholic Church cannot influence
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much those who will not submit to her loss. As the church grows,
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so does the population, and with the population evil practices. Man is endowed
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with intelligence, and this gives him an uncanny power of inventing new modes of
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iniquity which animals could not suspect. Thus we have a rotten press, the
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propagation of birth control, godless education, and whatnot. The mystery is not
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that we have so many troubles, but that the distress is not greater than
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it is. We can account for it only by God's mercy and by the
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fact the Church does not make some reparation to Him in the name of mankind.
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If mankind got all it really deserves, you would have something to write
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about. Another little matter to remember is that Christianity is not out to rid
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the world of trouble and distress, but to save souls from having to endure
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these things in the next life. Christianity enables people to bear gladly those sufferings
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which are permitted by God for their greater sanctification or as an expiation of their
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past sins. Also, many have been brought to God by the suffering,
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by suffering who have believed, in their self sufficient health and strength that they
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could manage quite well without Him. Consider once more, you know amazing thing
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nineteen thirty one. There they are talking about a rotten press, godless education,
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birth control. Things have only gotten worse since you know. The person
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says, there are millions belonging to other religions, Are we Christians superior to
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them? When they at least Christianity is superior. At least Christianity is the
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superior religion in historical foundation, responsibleness, and the loftiness of teaching and destiny.
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They said. The person says, they think we are wrong, and
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we think they are May not Christians be wrong in some other religion right?
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They answer, there's no possibility of that. There is a chance that a
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man who has not studied the solid evidence for Christianity might become flurried and doubtful
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in the presence of a rival and confidence claims, But his doubts would be
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due to defective information. Again, the fact that a man believes a religion
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to be true does not prove it right. It only proves that he thinks
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it's right. He is right. Who can prove his belief to be solidly
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grounded. A comparative study of religions proves that Christianity alone has demonstrated evidence of
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its divine religion, of its divine origin. However lofty, the doctrines of
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other religions, they prove to be man made doctrines, or else they are
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traced to the influence of primitive or later revelations of God, revelation which legitimately
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ends in the Catholic Church and not in any other religion. The first says,
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the more I learn, the more I wonder, and they answer,
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the more you learn about such diverse opinions, the more you will wonder at
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such diversity. The more you will learn about the foundations of Christianit, the
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more you will wonder that men do not advert to it solidly. And as
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I have mentioned, I studied nearly every single religion on earth and almost all
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Protestant denominations before realizing Catholicism was the true and only church, and I had
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no option but to convert to it. And the more people learn about Catholicism,
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the more people will be led in the same direction. People don't leave
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the Catholic Church because of its illegitimate teachings. They leave it because of its
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legitimate teachings. People who want to practice birth control or abortion, or homosexuality
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or become communists, that's the motivation for leaving the church. Or people that
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were not catechized properly and really don't understand the teachings of the Catholic Church.
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That's probably even a bigger reason, and mainly because going to Protestant church is
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a whole lot more fun and popular, and you can make a lot more
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friends there it's truth. Well anyway, I'm turning to father Sparaga. When
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now get into the divine attributes. We ascribe to God various attributes because the
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unity of the divine perfection is reflected in different ways creatures. The sun is
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sometimes red, sometimes yellow, or a palish white. It is the mists
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around the earth that causes the variety in it as it is seen by us.
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The attributes of God are therefore various manifestations of God's one and indivisible perfection.
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In perfection and essence in God they are in God. They are all
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one and the same. His goodness is the same as his justice, his
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wisdom as his power, and his power as his eternity, etc. The
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divine attributes are also identical with God himself. God is Wisdom, power,
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eternity, etc. God is a being of the most perfect and absolute simplicity.
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There is no sort of multiplicity or obscurity in him. There is no
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sort of division between his attributes. It is from our understanding that the distinctions
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between them arise in created things. It is quite different. They possess attributes
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which really are distinct from each other. The attributes of God may be divided
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into those which belong to God's essence, those which belong to his understanding,
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and those that belong to his will. The attributes attributes of the divine Essence
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are his omnipresence, eternity, immutability. Those belong to his understanding are omniscience,
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perfect wisdom. Those belong to his will or omnipotence, goodness, holiness,
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justice, truth, and faithfulness. God is eternal. I E,
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always was, is, and ever will be. God's words toposes I am
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who am express his eternity. There was never a time that God did not
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exist. He never began to exist. He existed before the world, as
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a builder must exist before the house that he builds, and the watchmaker of
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for the watch that he fashions. God can never cease to live as men
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do. Hence he is called the Living God and immortal. He existed before
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all time, and he will exist to all eternity. With him. There
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is no past or future, always present with him, Always present with him.
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The whole history of the world is and has ever been in his sight.
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There is for him, no succession of events. For him, there
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is no time. One day is with the Lord is a thousand years and
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a thousand years is one day, As it says in Second Peter, millions
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of ages are as nothing compared with eternity. If a bird were to carry
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away from the ocean one drop of water every thousand years, the time would
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come when the ocean would be dry. But that immense period of time,
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which seems to us inexhaustible, is less than the shortest moment compared to the
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eternity of God's existence. Dost thou desire eternal joy, says Saint Augustine,
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Thou must be faithful to Him who is eternal. Point two. God is
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omnipresent. He is in every place. After Jacob had seen the open country
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the latter, reaching up to Heaven, he exclaimed, God is in his
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place, and I knew it not. The same words are true every place.
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God is not only present everywhere with his power, but He himself feels
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and penetrates all space. Do I not feel Heaven and earth? Saith the
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Lord in Jeremiah. God is present everywhere because all created things exist in God.
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All creatures exist in God, as thought exists in our minds. As
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the mind is more extent than thought, so God is of more extent than
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the world. In all it contains. His mind penetrates thought, so that
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God penetrates the world, it says, in acts in him we live and
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move and exist. God is at the same time quite distinct from creatures and
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from the whole world. God is not circumscribed by any place, nor by
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the whole of creation, because He has no limits, either actual or possible.
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In his prayer the dedication of the Temple, Solomon said, if heaven
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and the earth of heavens cannot contain thee how much less this house that I
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have built the infinite cannot be contained in measurable space. Our bodies are contained
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in space. Spirits, indeed are not contained in space, but they cannot
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be in more than one place. At the same time. God is everywhere,
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says Saint Bernard. And yet nowhere he is near us, and yet
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is far away. All creation is in him, and yet as if he
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were not in it. Yet God is of more extent than space, and
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therefore can be in every place at the same time. Though God is of
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more extent than all space, and his presence extends from Earth to Heaven and
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far beyond, he is not scattered over the whole universe. Partly partly on
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earth and partly in heaven. But he is wholly everywhere, and wholly in
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each separate space. Holy in heaven and holy on earth. He fills heaven
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and earth. So the soul of a man fills his entire body. But
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yet it is holy in every separate portion of his body. God is present
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in a special manner in heaven and the blessed Sacrament, and in the souls
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of the just. God is present in heaven to the gays of the angels
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and saints. He is present as the God Man in the blessed Sacrament.
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That's the Eucharist with three non Catholics listening. That's what you may call holy
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communion. It's the bread and blood, the bread and wine that Jesus promises.
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It's the bread and wine that Jesus promised would become his body and blood.
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And it is Holy Jesus that's present in a form that we can't understand
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with our minds or see with our eyes, but we believe it because he's
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God, and whatever God says is it's by definition true. He is present
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in the souls of men through the Holy Ghost, who is given to them
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a king, is present in the whole palace, but is specially present in
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them, where he sits on his front and gives audiences to his subjects.
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There is no place where God is not the eyes of the Lord in every
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place. Behold the good and evil. We sometimes see in church as a
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large eye painted over the altar to remind us that God is present everywhere.
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No one can hide himself from God, says in Jeremiah, Hents. No
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one can escape from God. From Psalms, Jonas made the attempt, but
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with very poor success, hints learned to avoid every sent see what is see
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with what unspeakable shame A man is filled if he is detected by one of
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his fellow men in a despicable action. Yet we are not ashamed to practice
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the most disgraceful vices in the presence of God. We ought, therefore continually
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to bear in mind that God is always present with us. Think wherever we
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are that God is near you. As there is no moment of time when
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we are not enjoying some benefit from the hand of God. So there ought
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to be no moment of time when we have not God in our thoughts.
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He who always has God in his thoughts, says Saint Ephraim. Ephraim will
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become like an angel on earth. The continual remembrance of the presence of God
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is very profitable to us. It has great power to deter us from sin
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and to keep us in the grace of God. It incites us to do
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good works and makes us intrepid in His service. The remembrance of the presence
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of God gives strength and time of mutation, and holds us back from sin.
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Look at Joseph in Egypt, a soldier frights more bravely in the presence
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of his king. The remembrance of the presence of God is also the best
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means of remaining in the grace of God. It is like oh, it
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is like Ariadne's clue, by means of which we like theseus can find the
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way through the labrinth of our life on earth and remain unscathed by the menotaur
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of Hell. The As always, things come to me slowly, I just
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realized why Agatha Christie's characters was named airy Adney. I knew that story from
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school, would have totally forgotten about it. Anyway, the remembrance of the
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presence of God increases our zeal in God's service and leads us to the practice
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of all virtues. It makes us more careful in the performance of our duties.
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The nearer the water is to the spring, the purer it is.
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The nearer one is to fire. The greater the warmth. The closer we
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keep to God, the greater our perfection. When the tree is closely united
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to the root, it brings forth plentiest fruit. The Christian brings forth good
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fruit to eternal life if he closely is closely united to God. The thought
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of God also renders us fearless. When Empress Eudoxia threatened Saint John Christostom with
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banishment, he said, you will not frighten me unless you are able to
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send me to some place where God is not. David says to God,
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though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear
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no evil, for thou art with me. If a timid man has a
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companion with him, his fear disappears. So we should not fear. If
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God, the all powerful God, is with us. Point number three.
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God is immutable. He ever remains the same. God never changes, He
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never becomes better or worse. He never breaks his word. That's a reference
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to the Book of numbers twenty three nineteen. Creation made no change in God
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from all eternity he had decreed the creation of the universe. God changes his
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works, but not his eternal decrees. By the incarnation, humanity was changed,
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but the God had underwent no change. Just as the sun is in
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no way change when it hides itself behind a cloud, our thoughts are not
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changed when they clothed themselves in words, so the Divinity was not changed when
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it clothed itself. In the nature of man. God does not change when
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he punishes the sinner. When the heart of man is in friendship with God,
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God shows himself to him as a God of infinite love and mercy.
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When the heart is strange from him, the sinner sees the unchangeable God,
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and angry and avenging judge. When the eye is sound, the light is
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pleasant to it, but if it is diseased, light causes it pain.
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It is not the light that is changed, but the eye that looks upon
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it. When an angry man looks in the glass, he sees a different
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reflection from that which he saw when he was cheerful and in good humor.
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It is not the glass that has changed, but the man When the sun
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shines through colored glass, its rays take on the color of the glass.
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The sun does not change, but the light is changed by the medium through
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which it passes. So when God rewards, it is not God who changes,
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but man who performs different and better actions, thereby meriting the grace of
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God. When in scripture we read that God repented of having made man,
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that God is angry with the wicked, the phrases are used to accommodate our
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imperfection imperfected comprehension zo point four. God is omniscient. He knows all things,
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the past, the present, in the future, and our inmost thoughts.
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God knew that Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit our Lord for
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news, Saint Peter's denial, the destruction of Jerusalem, etc. Et cetera.
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He knew the thoughts of Simon the Pharisee, and that he was angry
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at Our Lord showing such kindness to Magdalen. In the center, God sees
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as in a glass, all men and their every action. That's from Psalms
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thirty two thirteen. I believe he that planted the ear, shall he not
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hear? He that made the eye, shall he not see also from Psalms.
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God also foresees evil, but man is not thereby constrained to do evil.
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Very important point. It is just as if we see from a distance
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a man who's committing some crime. God sees the deed because the man does
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it. The man does not do it because God sees it. When some
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past action is present to our thoughts, it did not happen because it is
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in our thought. So when God for so, when God foresees some future
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action, it did not happen because God foresees it. But he has foreseen
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it because man is going to commit it. The man is not compelled to
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commit it because God has foreseen it. When God foresees that some man will
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be lost forever, God's foreknowledge is not the cause of a man's damnation.
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The physician foresees the approaching death of his patient, but his knowledge is not
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the cause of the man's death. The learning Franciscan dun Scotus once heard a
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man, a farmer, uttering terrible curses and begged him not to damn his
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soul so thoughtlessly. The farmer answered, God knows everything. He knows whether
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I shall go to heaven or to hell. If he knows I should go
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to heaven. Why should to heaven I shall go? If he knows I
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shall go to hell, then I shall go to hell. What then is
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the matter what I do or say? The priest answer, In that case,
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why apply your fields? God knows whether they will bear a crop or
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not. If he knows that they will bear a good harvest, then the
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harvest will be good, whether you plow the land or not. If he
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knows that they will be unfruitful, why unfruitful they will be? Why then
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should you waste your time in plowing? Then the farmer understood that it is
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not the omniscience of God, but the free action of man that determines both
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our temporal and our eternal happiness or misery. God also knows what would have
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happened under certain given circumstances. This is the reason why he sends his trials
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in order to prevent greater evils that otherwise would have happened to us. Thus,
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our Lord knew that the inhabitants of Tire and Sidon would have done penance
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if such wonders have been worked among them, as worked in chorus, aining,
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I think as he pronounce it, and best saida god foresees that some
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of the just will be led astray by the seductions of the world, and
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sometimes, in his mercy, takes them at an early age to himself.
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He foresees that some will be ruined by riches or prosperity, and therefore brings
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them to poverty, into earthly misfortune. This ought to ma make us spare
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our troubles with patience. The trials of the just are and opportunity offered to
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them to advance in virtue. God, who knows all things, when one
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day bring all hidden things to light, our Lord says, there is nothing
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hidden that shall not be made manifest, or secret that shall not be known
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and come abroad. It's from the Gospel of Luke. God will in the
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last day his close and make known our whole life. As the morning sun
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shows all things in their true light. So Christ, the Son of Justice,
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will it the day of judgment reveal all our actions in their true light.
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All prayers, alms, fasts, penances that are done according to His
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will would be made manifest to the whole world. Nothing is so small as
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to escape the notice at the last day. We should think of God's omniscience,
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especially when we were tempted, so that we may pass through our temptations
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unscathed. A little boy who was a stranger in a house, so there
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was a basketfull of beautiful apples. As he could see no one in the
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room, he was much tempted to help himself to some, but the thought
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came to him of God somegniience. No, he said, I must not
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take them for God, for God sees me. At that moment, a
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man who was hidden from him by a curtain called out to him and said,
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you may take as many apples as you like. What a blessing it
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was for him to know that he had not taken them without permission. If
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we know that someone is watching us, we are very careful what we do.
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If we remember that God sees us, we shall be still more careful.
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Job took refuge in God's knowledge of his innocence when he was mocked by
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his friends. So did Suzannah when falsely accused. God is supremely wise.
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He knows how to direct everything for the best in order to carry out his
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designs. The designs of which God aims is nothing else than his own glory
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and the good of his creatures. If the farmer wishes for a good harvest.
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He plows his fields, manures it, sows good seed, etc.
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Would that they still manured fields instead of using chemical fertilizers, But that's a
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conversation for a different day. I actually discussed that a lot on my other
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show, my herbal podcast. Yeah, chemical fertilizers are not good for human
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health or the health of the soil in which we depend. We may be
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getting larger yields, but we're getting less nutritious food, and it's wearing the
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soil out, so that our yields and future we're robbing from the future.
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Anyway, God intended horse and kalmanu are to be used, not chemical fertilizers.
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Anyway, He shows good seed, et cetera. Such a farmer is
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a wise man because he chooses the means best qualified to attain the end.
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His end. God acts in an exactly similar way. He prepared the world
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for the coming of the Redeemer by the call of Abraham, the sinning of
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the prophets, etc. The wisdom of God shows itself in the life of
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the individuals e. G. Joseph of Egypt, Moses, Saint Paul,
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and the history of nations. And kingdoms. The wisdom of God showed itself,
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especially in the way he brings good out of evil. The life of
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the patriarch Joseph is an excellent example of this. God's ways are not as
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our ways, or his thoughts as our thoughts. Man proposes and God disposes.
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You mean, remember Joseph was kid sold into slaverybody's brothers taken to Egypt,
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ends up saving the entire Hebrew people. You know, So that's what
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he's referring to. Then a man inexperienced in war would be puzzled by the
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orders issued by the general and would not be able to understand how they could
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all tend to ensure victory. We shall understand God's ways in heaven, but
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we cannot understand them. Here. A child saw how the thorns tore away
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little pieces from the fleece of a sheep, and he wanted to remove the
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thorns. Presently, the child saw how the seeing birds collected the bits of
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wool to make their nests, and he no longer wished to remove the thorns.
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Many men are like this child. The wisdom of God is also displayed
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in this that God makes us makes use of the most unlikely means for his
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own honor. Saint Paul's says, the weak things of this world God has
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chosen to confound the strong Corinthians so very true. If you don't believe that,
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just get to know a child with down syndrome. God chose a small
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and despised land of Palestine as the cradle of Christianity. He chose a poor
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maiden to be the mother of God, and a poor carpenter to be his
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foster father. It's a hard word and say. He chose poor ignorant fishermen
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to preach the gospel and spread it all over the earth. He often used
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the most improbable means in helping his friends. Saint Felix of Nola, when
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flying from his persecutors, took refuge in a hole in a rock. A
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spider came and spun its web at the mouth of the cave, and his
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pursuers, on seeing this, concluded that he could not be inside. A
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poor woman was summoned by to pay money which had already been paid by her
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husband, who was dead. She searched everywhere for the receipt, but in
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vain. The very morning when she had to appear before a court, a
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cockchafer in at the window and behind a press. One of the children wanted
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to get it, so the mother moved the press a little to reach it.
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To reach it, and from behind the press, the long sought after
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receipt fell to the ground. This was God's answer to the poor widow's prayers.
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It is God's law that all works done for God should meet with difficulty
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and hindrances. A work that begins with brilliant promise, Saint Philip Nery used
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to say, has not God for its author and protector. Lastly, the
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wisdom of God shows itself in directing the course of the world to carry out
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his purposes. All things in the world have a mutual relationship to one another.
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If a man removes or displaces a single wheel and a watch, the
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watch stops. So if anything were altered in the arrangement the world, all
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things would be confused. E g. Without the birds, the insects would
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soon destroy the all the vegetables, all vegetation. Glad that this was about
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to wrap up. My tongue is getting tied. The insects would soon destroy
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all vegetation. So the animals that service for food increase rapidly, while the
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beasts of prey breed, but slowly. Nothing in the world is useless.
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The alterations of sunshine and rain, summer and winter, day and night all
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serve some useful end. How useful? How useful is the uneven distribution of
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wealth, of the talents of men, etc. The smallest insect has its
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usefulness in the world. The butterfly, going from flower to flower carries with
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it the fertilizing pollen. Even the destructive agencies in the world, storms,
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earthquakes, and floods serve God's purpose and are intended by Him to help men
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to save their souls. How wonderful, too is the orderly course of the
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heavenly bodies. The movements of the Earth around the Sun and the Moon around
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the Earth serve to make the world a pleasant habitation for men. The beautiful
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arrangement of the universe compels us to recognize the wisdom and prudence of Him who
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created it. How great are thy work? So Lord now has made all
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things in wisdom. The earth is filled with thy riches. All right,
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y'all, I think we'll call it quits here for the day, and I'll
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pick up on the same chapter next time. You know, we're still working
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through the Apostles Creed, and in this sub section we're on the attributes of
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God. And I only just covered about what five of the dozen or so
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that he rattled off at the beginning of the chapter. But I mean,
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how rich are these you know, these words? I mean, you can
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really ponder on each of these aspects, and this, you know, This
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is why I love Father Sparago's book. I mean, not only was he
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we would have gotten along really well politically, I know that, and he
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had a good sense of humor, but he also had a beautiful way of
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writing about very complex subjects in a simple way that most anyone can understand.
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I find it very useful to reflect upon the exhaustive explanation of the Catechism by
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Father Spiaga, written in the late eighteen hundreds. So, y'all, I
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don't normally do a Friday show. In fact, I put off my travel
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for the week so I could get a couple more shows done, so I
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won't be doing a show again to a Monday, and I will talk with
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you again. Have a great weekend. Getting close to Christmas, be sure
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to take some time to go to Mass and enjoy the meaning of the season