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Show 108: THE BLESSED TRINITY · The Uncensored Catholic

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The f A. Hey, welcome to today's show. I hope you all
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had a wonderful Christmas and it was just exactly what you wanted it to be.
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And you made it a mass both days. You know. That was
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kind of the odd thing about this year. You may notice I'm a bit
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horse. I actually was not able to go to MASS. I'll try to
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use the cough button as much as possible, but yeah, something set in,
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you know, I guess probably about last Thursday. Yeah, so I'm
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a little froggy. But we'll get right into it, you know. I
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guess I do need to mention one thing. You know. I had a
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wonderful Christmas. It was nice, it was peaceful. I wish I could
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have gone to MASS. I ate very well. I'm down at my mother's
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place, and I mean, she makes the best Southern country style steak with
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gravy, and she puts the mushrooms with the gravy, and the mashed potatoes
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and collar greens and turnips and mustard greens were greens eaters here in the South,
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you know, and all the good Southern vegetables had So I mean,
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I had just a very nice, peaceful time. Ate too much drank too
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much. Uh watched a Christmas story like eight times in a row. You
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know how it goes. But I got a reminder today. You know,
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Saint Irenaeus said the I guess this was in his fragmentary writings, not one
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of his like you know, on hereses this. There's a little bits and
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pieces, And if I remember correctly, I'm probably going to quote him forbade
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him. The entire focus of a Christian's life should be to prepare for death.
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That sounds, you know, a little harsh right after Christmas, doesn't
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it. But this is also the feast of Saint Saint Stephen Martyr, and
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Thursday will be the feasts of the Holy Innocence all all the children that were
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killed by hair. You know, when you go up for your ashes on
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ash Wednesday, the priest may say your remember your death, old man.
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If if you have a more traditional priest, you may say memento maury.
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Others say different variations. That's more that really hit me today because I went
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to the grocery store, you know, I haven't been the store in a
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few days. Had a stock up on a few things, and there was
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a sweet little old lady And I've known her. I mean, I've been
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coming in and out of this area for years, and she's always remembered me,
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been so nice to me, wants me to come to her check out
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line and we chat about food and different things. And I don't know,
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I don't know exactly how old she was. Maybe honestly, she could have
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been younger than seventy. I mean maybe sixty five, because she had really
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bad lung issues and she's looked like, you know, it was a very
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frail, very small framed person. I doubt she was ninety pounds and you
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know, maybe five foot four, just a really and you know, premature
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aging from all the lung problems. And she was a heavy smoker. And
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see I understand that being asthmatic myself. You know, a lot of people
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don't understand this. They say, well, why would someone who has lung
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issues smoke cigarettes? Well, sometimes you have to just be able to breathe.
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And well, she was a pretty heavy smoker. And they had a
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little memorial up for and I asked and said, yeah, she was in
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here working Friday evening and she started feeling sick and she had pneumonia and Christmas
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morning, like six am on Monday morning, she passed away, and I
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mean I was shocked. I was literally just in there last week, laughing
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and joking with her. You know, I'd like maybe three weeks before that,
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she let me know they were going to put Christmas trees on sale.
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I was actually able to get a Christmas tree for twenty bucks. You know.
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You can't beat that, you know. And she said, do you
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need help carrying out of the car, And I'm like, no, I'm
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not going to put you to work today. You know, She's just a
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little frail thing. And I just you know, picked the tree up,
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grab it tossed in the back of my truck. You know, that's how
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helpful and sweet and nice she was. And she's gonna be really missed a
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lot of people. So I always remember here, I am sitting there on
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Monday morning, opening a few Christmas presents, drinking my coffee, Christmas Story,
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getting you know, on the television, eating some chococ covered cherries with
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my coffee, and you know, she had just passed away and I didn't
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even know it. So anyway, say a prayer for her. I don't
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even know her last name. Her name was Pam, So Pam who worked
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at the Food lion in Pinehurst, North Carolina for probably thirty years. Who
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knew everybody say a prayer for Pam. So we'll get back to radio replies.
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The questioner asked the priest and references Ingersoll. Now, if you've listened
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to this series before, you know Ingersoll was a very prominent Well, he's
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a freemason. I believe he had something to do a Salvation army as well,
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but I have not looked that up. That's just in my memory.
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But he was a very outspoken agnostic or atheist in the late eighteen hund early
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nineteen hundreds. He was an attorney, and he's really one of the main
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ones who sowed the seeds of progressive liberalism agnostic atheism in America. Person says,
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Ingersoll says, it is monstrous that future happiness should depend upon belief?
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Is that so? They answer, Then, even if you prove to demonstrate
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that God has said a thing, you need not believe it. You may
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call God a liar, and if you're doing so interferes with your happiness,
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it is monstrous. Ingersoll was not a wise man. Person goes on.
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He says that the notion of faith in Christ being rewarded while dependence upon reason,
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observation, experience merits eternal punishment is too absurd to need reflection, is
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too absurd to need refutation. Well, they answer, no one ever said
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had dependence upon reason, observation, experience merits eternal punishment. Such an assertion
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proofs that Ingersol did not use reason, observation, or experience to find out
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the exact teachings of Christianity. He just wrote on his prejudice, supplying for
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reason, his prejudice supplying for reason in the construction of his nonsensical arguments.
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They're ask if a man does not accept the Bible, can you convince him
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of your supernatural doctrines by reason alone? And the answer we can prove historically
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that God certainly gave Christian revelation, and right reason cannot refute the evidence.
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It has to admit the value of the Gospels as documentary sources. But reason
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alone cannot make a man accept the contents of that revelation as having binding value.
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Only the grace of God can do that. And the preparation best suited
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to the reception of the gift of faith is a good moral life, an
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earnest prayer for the help of God, and they say, then, without
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the grace of God, one cannot have faith and the answer. By reason
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alone. Any ordinary man can know that God exists, that he has given
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a revelation to man, and any ordinary man is capable of learning the fundamental
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teachings of Christianity. Yet the perception of the vital force and the sheer reality
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of the truth that God has revealed, with consequent belief in them, requires
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the grace from God. But one who has the good will to submit to
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God's authority and to pray earnestly for the light to know God's will can be
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certain that the necessary supernatural help will be offered him. Now the person says,
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I do not see that I am responsible from my position. I applied
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my reason to the Bible, just as I would anything else, and I
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doubt Christianity the answer. You have ignored the element of grace and have not
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implored the help of God. Merely human reasoning is not enough. Brains cannot
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be the condition of salvation. You must look around for an If so,
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the intellectual would have a better chance of salvation than the less intelligent. You
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must look around from another method of approach to the religious problem. Whilst no
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one asks you to go against right reason, yet you must be prepared to
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rise above it. Saint Paul rightly says that the natural man does not perceive
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those things which are of the Spirit of God. And we'll pick back up
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on that tomorrow. Let's go ahead with Father Spirago writing about one of the
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great mysteries of the Christian faith, one that certainly cannot be understood through reason
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alone. It's one of the hardest teachings of Christianity whatsoever, and that is
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the Blessed Trinity, Fellow's Varaga writes, and the Baptism of Jesus Christ.
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All three persons of the Blessed Trinity manifested themselves, the Father by a voice
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from Heaven, the Son through his baptism, and the Holy Ghost and the
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form of a dove. That's from the Gospel of Matthew point number one.
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In the Blessed Trinity. The Blessed Trinity is one God in three persons.
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The three persons are called Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The number
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three is often found both in nature and religion. There are three persons in
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the Holy Family, three parts in the sacraments, in tension, matter and
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form. Our Lord hung for three hours on the cross and remained three days
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in the grave. He taught on earth for three years and has the triple
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office of prophet, priest and king. So in time there are past,
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present in future, three kingdoms in creation, the material, the vegetable,
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and the animal worlds. The number four is also frequent occurrence. There are
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four gospels from the Fall to the incarnations. There are four gospels, four
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cardial virtues, four seasons of the year, four thousand years from the fall
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to the incarnation, etc. The number seven is also common. Days of
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the week, seven sacraments, seven works of mercy, seven gifts of the
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Holy ghosts, and seven orders ending in the priesthood, et cetera. Three
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is sometimes called the number of God for the number of the world by reason
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of the four continents, and seven represents the combination of the two nineteen thirties.
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They only recognize four continents. By the way. That may confuse you
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a little bit. I'm sorry. This is eighteen nights, eighteen nineties.
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They only recognized four continents, by the way, So if you find out
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a little confusing, I just extrapolated out point two. We cannot, with
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our feeble understanding, grasp the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity. Therefore it is
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called a mystery. We are unable to comprehend that there are three persons in
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God, yet only one God. He who gazes at the sun is dazzled
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by it. If he continues to gaze at he loses his sight. So
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it is with the Blessed Trinity. He who inquires into it is dazzled.
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He who refuses to believe in it because he does not understand it is like
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a blind man who will not believe the existence of the sun because he cannot
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see it. How many things are in nature that we cannot understand. We
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cannot understand the growth of plants, trees, and animals. We cannot understand
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the nature of electricity and magnetism. We cannot understand how the color red is
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formed by the vibration of the ether of the ether at a rate of one
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hundred and thirty million of vibrations one hundred and thirty millions of vibrations in a
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second, or violet by double that number. To count the vibrations of either
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that takes place in one second and the forming of the color of violet,
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we should have to go on counting for much more than ten thousand years without
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ceasing either day or night. Much less can we understand what belongs to God.
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Jeremiah says, great art thou o Lord and Council, and incomprehensible in
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thought. No one understands what thou art o God, except that thou thyself.
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We can, however, understand something of the nature of the Blessed Trinity
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by comparing it with certain facts of nature, which in some ways correspond to
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and illustrate it. The flames of three candles placed together form but one flame.
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The white light can be divided into red, yellow, and blue rays,
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which, however, together form but one light. The orb of the
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sun is its light and its heat are three different things, which are at
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the same time really one. The soul of man contains memory, understanding,
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and will, which are but different manifestations of the same spiritual substance. Yet
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all of these are but imperfect analogies, and cannot carry us very far.
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In attempting to understand something of the incomprehensible mystery of the Blessed Trinity, unbelievers
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sometimes say, how is it possible that three can be one? Or one
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three? They show that they do not know the teachings of the Church.
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What the teachings of the church really are? They blaspheme those things they know
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not. It's a quote from Jude Church does not say there are three persons
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and one person, but there are three persons and one nature or essence point
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number three. The nature and astributes and works of the three persons of the
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Blessed Trinity are common to all of them. There are therefore not three gods,
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but one God. The Father is therefore different from the Son because he
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is a different person, but he is not a different being because he has
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the same nature. For this reason, each of the three persons is in
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exactly the same sense omniscient, omnipotent, eternal, and absolutely perfect, as
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are the other two. When our Lord spoke of his return to the Father,
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he said, my Father is greater than I. Here he was speaking
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of himself as a man. Else he could not have spoken of his return
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to the Father. Hence, the creation of the world, the redemption,
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and the sanctification of men is wrought by all three divine persons together. Yet
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we are accustomed to say the Father made the world, the Son redeemed it,
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and the Holy Ghost sanctifies it. Point number four. The divine person
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are divided only in their origin. In a tree, the trunk comes forth
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from the root, and from both comes the fruit. Such as the relation
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between the divine persons God. The Father has no origin and proceeds from no
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other person God. The Son proceeds from the Father God. The Holy Ghost
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proceeds from both the Father and from the Sun. In order to mark the
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order of procession, we name the Father first, the Son second, and
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the holy ghosts third. But there is no succession in time. The Son
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proceeds from the Father from all eternity, as so does the Holy Ghost from
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the Father and the Sun. The Sun has begotten of the Father. Before
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all creation, the Father had produced the Father produced by an act of divine
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knowledge. The Son was an image like to himself in all things, just
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as we may think, just as we when we think, produce an intellectual
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image in our minds. We may illustrate this by the relationship existing between fire
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and light. Light proceeds from the fire, but is contemporaneous with it.
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If there were an eternal fire, there would also be eternal light. The
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Son is the brightness of God's glory, the unspotted image of his majesty.
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Just as one torch is kindled from another without the first losing any of its
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light, so the Son has begotten to the Father without taking anything away from
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him. The Son is called the Word of the Father, just as the
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Word was formed in our minds. The thought is made manifest by the external
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spoken word. So the Word of God, dwelling in the bosom of the
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Father, was made manifest to the world when the Word was mainflesh and dwelt
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among us. As the Son has his origin and the knowledge of God,
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so the Holy Ghost has his origin and the love of God. The Holy
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Ghost is none other than the mutual love of the Father and the Son.
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He is the spirit of Love, who engenders in our hearts the love of
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God and of each other. The word spirit is well chosen because by it
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we express the attractiveness of the force of love. The Holy Ghost proceeds from
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the Father and the Son, as warmth receeds from the sun and its light.
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On account of the difference in their origins, we appropriate to the Father
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of the works of omnipotence, to the Son the works of wisdom, and
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to the Holy ghosts the works of love. These various works have a certain
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correspondence with the attributes of the person. They are connected with their origin.
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The Father begets the Son. For this reason there is appropriated to him that
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bringing of perishable things, also out of nothing i e. Of creation.
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He is therefore called the Almighty Father. He is also called the God of
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compassion, because he's ever ready to receive the sinner who comes back to him,
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and the spirit of true spirit of penance. The Son is the eternal
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wisdom of the Father. To him. Therefore it is appropriated the beautiful arrangement
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of the world. As an artist, through the working of the reflective mind,
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desides the plan of his work. So the Father to the Son produced
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order in the world. To the Son, too has ascribed the restoration of
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order, as for this end he took upon himself in an ature sure of
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man. To the Holy Ghost, as the mutual love of Father and Son
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are ascribed all benefits of God to man, especially the bestow upon him of
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his natural life and creation, the spirit of God moved upon the face of
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the waters, and of his spiritual life by the sanctification through grace to him
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as the finger of God's right hand, are ascribed all miracles and above all
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the work of incarnation, as being of all miracles, the greatest the love
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of God has ever occupied itself with men. But the incarnation of the Son
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of God, by the operation of the Holy ghosts, surpassed all their benefit
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wrought by him. It brought mercy to sinners, truth to the erring life
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to those who were dead, and in hope and faith to the whole world.
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Zero point five. We are taught the mystery of the Blessed Trinity by
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Christ himself, but it was partly known in the time of the Old Testament.
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We know from the fact of creation the infinite power, wisdom, and
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goodness of God, but it does not reveal to us the mystery of the
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Blessed Trinity. Nor is there any proof of this doctrine be found in nature,
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though we may find certain analogies to it, some of which we have
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given. But the mystery itself can only be made known by revelation the Father.
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No man knoweth but the Son, and he whom to whom the Son
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shall reveal him. From the Gospel of Matthew, our Lord revealed this mystery
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to his church when he said to his apostles before his ascension, go and
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teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
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Son and of the Holy Ghost. Also from Matthew. In the time of
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the Old Testament, the Jewish priests when they blessed people had to repeat the
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name of God three times. That's from numbers. Isaiah tells us that the
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seraphim in heaven cry Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Hosts.
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From Isaiah, before the creation, God said, let us make man this.
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In Genesis, David says, the Lord said, to my Lord,
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sit on my right hand. But before the incarnation, the mystery of the
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Blessed Trinity was veiled in a cloud, which was only dispelled under the New
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Law. The church says, Saint Hilary knows this mystery. The Synagogue believe
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it, believed it not. The Synagogue believed it not. Philosophy understood it
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not. Point number six and the final point. The belief in the Blessed
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Trinity is expressed in the apostles, creed, in baptism, and in other
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sacraments, in all consecration and blessings, and the feasts of the Most Holy
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Trinity. The mystery of the Blessed Trinity is the foundation of our religion.
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Without a knowledge of this truth, we can understand our redemption by the Son
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of God, who ought frequently to make an act of We ought frequently to
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make an act of faith in this mystery, especially by repetition of the Gloria
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Patrey. We should repeat it whenever we say any We should repeat it whenever
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we receive any benefit from God, and also when he sends us any cross
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or trial. So Gloria patry is Latin for Gloria to the Father. So
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Gloria to be the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit, as it
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was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be the world. With
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that end I'm in he says, repeat that whenever we receive any benefit from
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God, or whenever he sends us any cross or trial. See all I'm
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gonna I'm gonna wrap it up there, and I hope my voice will be
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straightened out by tomorrow's show. It's rather uncomfortable, but we've just covered it
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very briefly. One of the greatest mysteries of Christianity. So think about this
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one, meditate on it, pray about it, and you know, I
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hope it deepens your faith in understanding in the Blessed Trinity. Y'all have a
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good one. In the words of Saint Padre Pio, pray, hope and
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don't worry, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.