Transcription
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let's take a few minutes again to silence ourselves, avoid the distractions, whatever we've been thinking about as we come to this time, just to let them sink away to leave ourselves open to what the Lord wishes to do with us. We fuse ourselves into his will and we draw all our life and our strength, our breath, our heartbeat, our prayer from his divine life. And we give thanks for this great feast day of Corpus Christi. And of course all the great insights that Jesus gives Louisa about the eukarist. We ask to him to infuse in our tongues and our ears all that we should speak or all that we should hear. We pray for the coming of the kingdom in our hearts and in the world.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Mary, queen of the divine will, pray for us. St. Joseph, guardian, St. Hannibal and little daughter Louisa pray for us.
Okay, there's something come up on the chat and that's quite useful to give an answer to that because it's important. The question asked is there is a lot of things going around the internet. We have people on different sides on the question of aliens. We have father unity and then we have father Daniel O' Con or professor Daniel Okconor. So I would say two things.
One, I think the argument distracts from the more important business of spreading the message of the divine will and learning to live in it. That's the essence. There is of course nothing wrong with informed debate throughout the church on many issues. Even the question of our lady's immaculate conception before it was defined. There have been differences. The church far from what people think is very broad. It allows a variety of opinions. And I decided looking at that question that it would just take too much time and too much effort on something which in the end one way or the other God will reveal in his good time. I can see however why people get interested in the question. have no problem with that. People are interested and it is of course there are strange things that happen. But my personal opinion is if you do find that interested, I would certainly not allow it to absorb too much time to um uh delve into something when you can be learning more about the divine world. That that's it's just an opinion.
Um the other thing is we should avoid and I'm not criticizing anyone involved in this debate. We should just make sure that all debates have charity have Christian um principles behind them.
On another topic, what I would say because I do think from the Pope's encyclical which I haven't I've only just started to read. I do think as regards modern technology and things that we have to be careful in the future of deception. I think that is important. Um three things are coming together. You have artificial intelligence AI. You have the 5G network which allows far quicker spreading in information and you have the growth especially in America of data centers. So I'm a little bit skeptical and what I would say is just bear in mind what scripture says. There will come a time when there will be deceptions. when this is from scripture from the book of revelation when people will be deceived. So that's what I would say above all keep your heads above you about you and anything that contradicts what is coming from Rome the pope um that contradicts uh faith and tradition. we have to be wary of. But in the end, I would just it's my personal opinion is there's better things we can spend time on. And again, people have interests in different things. So I'm not someone's interest in that. It it is to my mind quite an interesting topic. And I know there's different arguments on different sides. And that's always been the way of the church that you can hold opinions provided they do not contradict church teaching until the church itself says something. So I hope that's answered at least a view on all those things.
What I want to focus on firstly is let us link last week's feast of the trinity to the feast today of Corpus Christi. And I'm going to look for my text as a starting point the simple verse that we had in the gospel today from John chapter 6. Because if our ears are attuned, it really contains everything we have been learning about the divine will.
"As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me, he also will live because of me."
I'll say that once again. "As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me, he also will live because of me."
So it might take a couple of classes this but I want to look in the context of tying together three important words life the eukarist and the cross because in John chapter 6 they're all connected that this is a vital text and that sentence contains so much within it. And remember John chapter 6 to this day, our Lord's discourse on the bread of life remains a point of division, a point of difficulty. So I want to start off with theme number one, life. Very simple term life or living comes up throughout John chapter 6. And Jesus clearly tells us that this is important because he repeats his arguments a number of times and he uses that important phrase truly truly I say to you. So when we hear our Lord emphasizing things a number of times and using phrases like truly truly, amen, amen, I say to you, they are a bit like rumble strips. Those in America will know probably better in England what I mean by rumble strips. They're very well designed. If you're driving along the highway or the motorway and you veer onto the hard shoulder, there is this indented path which shakes the car and wakes you up. Very useful. So in scripture there are rumble strips, things which should make us pay attention and when things make us pay attention it means we have to spend time and effort on them. And John 6 is so important. We see towards the end of the chapter the division between those who will not walk with Jesus because his teaching is too hard and his loyal disciples headed by Peter that do even though they might not understand at this stage the fullness of Jesus's teaching they are nevertheless committed to him. He is the word of life.
So let us look briefly at the word life. Firstly going back to the book of Exodus when Moses early on is in the desert and he sees the burning bush and he goes to approach it as is natural. Here you have a bush that's on fire but is not being consumed. And he's told this is holy ground. Take your shoes off. So he approaches and then God, the God of Isaac, Abraham, and Jacob gives him his commission to go to the people of Israel imprisoned in Egypt. And this little phrase should also remind us that God calls the weak. We think quite rightly of Moses' greatness. But when God called him, he was very unsure of himself like Jeremiah or Isaiah or even Paul who at times laments the difficulty of his speech. But when Moses asks him, who shall I say sent me? We get the famous phrase, the name, "I am who am." Okay, this is the essence. We're getting to the essence now of what life means because, well, I'll come on to it in a minute. This connects in the New Testament when Jesus clearly backs up his arguments in a couple of places. In Matthew 22:32, he tells them, "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." He is not the God of the dead but of the living. Jesus is quoting scripture there. So this is to answer the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection. He shows them quite clearly through the power of scripture that if God says I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and he is the God of the living, it follows therefore that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob have not perished eternal. John 8:58 that famous discourse with the Pharisees when eventually he tells them quite clearly in the short phrase "before Abraham was I am." Such a dramatic phrase "before Abraham was I am." So we can add to that in this discourse Jesus telling us quite clearly that there is a life that he wishes to pass onto it that he calls eternal life. So bear in mind, so far we're just looking at some scripture quotes and looking at how we're establishing the importance in the Old Testament and the New Testament of this whole idea of the life of God. That God we could say is life. I'll explain that in a minute. But the phrase we tend to use now in the church for example in funeral masses is eternal life. Now what does that mean? And bear in mind this will all tie in to the divine will because we're going to look at how this life which is theme number one. Then it's from this that the son d liv lives from the father in the quote we started with.
So, we're going to do a little bit of revision, but we did it a while ago, so it may be new to some of you, and it's a little tricky, but it's worth doing. Firstly, when we're talking about eternal life, that God is existence, we need to remember that we can't use our imagination in this. Some things in life we can use our imagination to help us work through problems. Mathematics is a good example. Mathematics is actually quite tricky. It's the second I won't explain this but it's the second degree of abstraction. But we can in mathematics when we're dealing with some simple concepts like numbers, we can abstract the idea of two or four or six because we can come across those physically. Six apples, six books. We can therefore derive from that the idea of six. Sounds very simple and we do it every day. But the more you start to think about it, it's a remarkable thing what the mind is doing. It's looking at physical things and is able to see into the reality of them and then take from them concepts. But when we get to the concepts we're looking at now, the life of God, imagination cannot help us. It's beyond us because we're touching here on a mystery. But the thing, the only thing that can help us in this because we want to bear in mind that this is the life we want. This is the life Jesus came to give us. This is the life that we will receive from the eukarist. The way to it is this. When we look around us, everything that we have an experience of in creation has both existence. In other words, it exists as the computer or phone in front of you is real. It exists. So very straightforward. Everything we see exists. If it didn't exist, we couldn't perceive it. But here's the tricky part. Everything that exists in this world exists as a particular thing, a pen, an elephant. In other words, when you look at something around you, you see that it is real. You can touch it, feel it. It certainly exists. But it is also something something. And if it helps you, we give that term to it essence, which just means that things exist as a particular thing. So I hope that's okay so far. So if I for example hold up this keychain which is very nice present. It's one of these keychains that can tell you the dates and the days of hundreds of years by just doing it. But this exists has weight has color. So it's definitely real. I can touch it, feel it, but it exists as a keychain. So we, this is the second bit, the tricky bit. We have no experience of existence itself because everything we see exists as something. But what God is telling Moses is I don't exist as a something. I am being itself. I am what it means to be. So if you're struggling a bit, do not worry about this because it is a brain teaser. And because we can't use our imagination, it's extremely difficult. But it is worth pondering. And you can ponder it by looking around you sometime. And just think, oh, this cat exists, I exist, the statue exists, the pen exists. They all have in common that they are but they exist in a certain way and they are dependent. They cannot exist by themselves. Whereas God is pure being and therefore contains his own reason for being. Now again, we're touching on philosophy here, but it's important if only to awaken a wonder and an awe at the world around us. We take it so much for granted. And one of the problems is philosophy is hardly ever taught. And when it's taught, it's normally taught as a study of philosophy or a study of philosophers. Whereas philosophy is actually doing it, which is what we're doing now. We're being philosophers. So all I'm exciting to to you in this theme number one is that this life of God is mysterious because it contains within it the power to be. That is why when Jesus came back from the dead after his resurrection, he did not come back as the same type. He was still human. Of course, his nature was still human. But it now existed in such a way that it was communicating this whole idea that a risen body has this power of life within it so that it can no longer die. It's extraordinary. It It's just extraordinary. And it also ties in with why John Paul II said the first thing we should be grateful for is the fact that we are no it's worth thinking you know when you get up tomorrow you do your prevenient act you place all the acts that are going to happen during the day in God's one eternal will to think I am I'm actually alive. I have being. Sounds very simple, but I promise you the more you think about it, the more you begin to penetrate a mystery. So this life which we've hinted at through this realization that God is not like us. We have existence and we exist as human beings, rational animals. So we have both the fact that we are and that we are human existence and essence whereas God the nature of who he is is to exist. I'll leave it like that.
Um I will just go on a bit further. If people want questions on that please in a few minutes I'll take questions. Now why is this important? Because we want to have wonder and be in awe that this life that is so mysterious so above our grasp is what he has come to pass on. Hence last week in the trinity we considered God as God. That that internal life that they have, the father giving to the son, generating the son, the son returning everything he receives to the father. And that movement of love is a person, the holy spirit. This life he wants to communicate to us and Jesus emphasizes in this quote "I live because of my of the father as the living father sent me and I live because of the father." Now remember that can be taken in two ways one as the eternal word who derives everything from the father and secondly in his human nature when he took flesh that he lives in his human nature too because of the father.
So I think this is what we could call theme two that the son lives from the father. John chapter 5 verse 19 Jesus told them "Truly I tell you so truly I tell all of you emphatically the son can do nothing on his own accord but only what he sees the father doing. What the father does, the son does likewise." And this comes up in the volumes. March the 10th, 1909, volume 9. March the 10th, 1909, volume 9. Continuing in my usual state, I found myself outside of myself with baby Jesus in my arms. And I said to him, "Tell me, my little pretty one." Because remember, she's holding the baby Jesus. What does the father do? So Louisa, I think one of the amazing things of her character, we have a biography, son of my life, son of my will, sorry. But one of the amazing thing of Louisa's character is although she had a low education, she had that great ability which is a sign of true wisdom of asking the right questions. Often in life it's asking the question that's important. So tell me what does the father do? And Jesus says, "The father forms one single thing with me." Therefore, whatever the father does, I do. So again, those that criticize the book of heaven, when you start to read it, there is so much of scripture in it. So the father forms one single thing with Jesus. So remember there's this profound unity. It is why in the Old Testament before God could reveal the trinity he had to emphasize unity. So God spends the Old Testament emphasizing God is one constantly. God is one. I'm the one true God. And if they had read scripture carefully, they would have realized that when Jesus makes himself equal to the father, far from contradicting scripture, he is simply drawing out what was hidden in the Old Testament. I can't remember St. Augustine said that what is hidden in the old testament is revealed in the new. So remember Jesus emphasizes this. The father forms one single thing with me. Now, of course, what we have to remember when we read everything, we always read it in the light of other parts of scripture and of church teaching. So that one single thing does not imply they are one person. That would be a heresy. What forms the one single thing? We could ask therefore that Jesus is telling Louisa the one single thing comes from the fact that everything the father is apart as we said last week from being father he gives to the son and everything the son is apart from being son every single thing apart from that relationship he receives from the father and therefore as we've said in God there is only one will so Jesus can say we s we we form one single thing because such is the unity between them that they are one God and then Jesus goes on to say as we've just seen in John. Therefore, whatever the father does, I do. So that's very important. Whatever the father does, I do. Remember this is 10th of March 1909. And he says that again what as we had those readings from the gospel of St. John in Lent, the constant interaction with the Pharisees trying to get them to understand that he doesn't do anything of his own. Therefore, he reveals to them the father and therefore he is credible because there is more than one witness here.
So, we've looked at theme one, life. We pondered that a little. And now we're seeing theme two that the son lives from the father and that he can do nothing on his own accord but only what he sees the father does. So we see the tightness of Jesus's argument in John 6 in this single verse that he's teaching us. If we expand it for a minute before I take questions, he is saying look the only thing that matters in life is to have the life of God that is eternal life in us. Every other thing is not true life. And even our physical life, our physiology, our breathing, our blood, our heart comes from the divine life. That's why and it's quite a hard thing to say but it's why TS Elliott who was an Anglican practicing Christian in his amazing poem um the wasteland when he is observing people he is saying to them they're living corpses it's a very strong word but what he's saying there is true if someone does not have the divine life within them. They may physically be alive but materially sorry spiritually they are dead which is why hence through our acts we want to impact all souls.
So I will take a pause there and see if there is any questions on that section and I can also get a drink. So again if you got a comment, question, testimony, please just go forward. Otherwise we will push on. Okay, everyone's quiet. Everyone's either asleep, at least not those people I can see, but Oh, John's not asleep. He's given his thumbs up. So glad you're awake, John. That's excellent news. So everybody then is that a question? Linda, you just need to unmute yourself. Okay, we seem to have lost Linda. Um, there she is. No. Okay, we'll we'll leave it there. There should be a button on your screen where you push it. You say ask to unmute. If you hold your thing over your picture, it will say ask to unmute. Okay. Well, if you come back later to that, right? Let's move on then to >> Sorry. >> I just had a quick question. >> Sure. >> If we're if we're talking about the one act between the father and the son, correct? Uh, it's not when we talk about God's one eternal act, we're talking about the Trinity. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. >> I just want to make sure I was >> No, that's important. We will get on to that. We will get on to that. >> So, >> thank you. >> Look at this in a bit more detail. I want us to turn to October the 6th, 1924, volume 17. October the 6th, 1924, volume 17. Now, we've done this quote before and it's a popular one, but remember we're you looking at it now to understand because Jesus wants us to understand this and it's why throughout the volumes he keeps coming back to this and uses different images because he wants to understand that this gift is the greatest thing that can be given. It is the final gift and it encompasses everything that has gone before. And the reason for that, hopefully we begin to see, is because this gift not only enables us to have the life of God within us, which we receive a baptism, but that that unity of God, that one divine will, the one eternal act can now animate us with the result that we have. If someone can remind me if I don't get on to it tonight, with the result that we have a new presence, a new um what's the word? Uh um yeah, I'll use presence. I'll try and refine it later. We have a new presence of Jesus through this. Okay, which is above and beyond the real presence in the eukarist. So you can see how things are going to tie together. Life theme one theme two Jesus lives because of the father does whatever the father says. and that therefore what he wishes to pass on to us is the divine life of God which everybody could have. Um but now in addition to that we can receive the gift whereby that one eternal act of God the very which contains the life of Christ can operate in us. So we're going to look at this quote in relation to this unity to this fact that everything derives from the father and that our whole life is doing everything that Jesus shows us because everything he shows us comes from the father.
"I was fusing myself in the holy divine will." So again, we get in these little comments insights into what Louisa does during her time. She was fusing herself in the divine world. Okay? She's becoming one with everything that's around her. And my sweet Jesus moving in my interior told me, "My daughter, how beautiful it is to see a soul fusing herself in my will. As she fuses in it, the created heartbeat takes its place and life in the unccreated heartbeat and forms a single one. Remember how the last quote Jesus told Louisa, 'The father and I form a single one.' Here he is telling us forms a single one running and beating together with the unccreated heartbeat. This is the greatest happiness of the human heart to palpitate in the eternal heartbeat of its creator. My will makes it fly and the human heartbeat flings itself into the center of its creator."
So, a beautiful passage. It's one of those passages that's worth learning and knowing uh the date and the reference because it can be helped. It really gives us Jesus gives us an image to help people with. So, let's break this down again. Louisa is joining her will to the divine will. And we use the word fusing as you would take two metals and weld them together, fuse them together. And to explain this, Jesus uses an image. And remember the reason we Jesus and all of us have to use images and symbols is because our language cannot capture the full depth and mystery. St. Thomas explained it this way that everything in the intellect has to come through the senses. It's a beautiful phrase that we learn everything through the senses. So Jesus begins to use the image of an eternal heartbeat. So he's imagining God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have an eternal heartbeat. One that keeps going, that keeps pumping as it were, their will into everything. So just as the heartbeat is the life of our body and were our heart to stop for any length of time. Now I know medicine can do some incredible things with the heartbeat. But were our heartbeat to stop too long we would die. So Jesus is trying to imagine the whole of creation, its life, its existence, its being, how it is, how each thing has its own characteristics. That life and the ability to do anything is coming through the blood which is the sun pumped by the heart of the father. So again, Jesus is trying to use something we know, the heart, and how the heart works and how it beats and how it pumps the blood. And the blood of course carries the oxygen around the body. So you have the father in the heart, the son in the blood, and the holy spirit in the oxygen. So for creation a way of understanding it which gives us a truth even if it's limited is to imagine therefore this divine will is an eternal heartbeat pumping giving life to everything keeping everything in being. And Jesus therefore says the greatest happiness of the human heart. And remember by heart we are using again the biblical image of heart. That the heart is the center of everything. Not just emotions but our whole being, our intellect, our will. The heart is as it were we could say loosely the person. So the greatest happiness of the human heart is to beat in the eternal heartbeat of its creator. And just before that he said when we fuse our will in gods the created heartbeat takes its place and life in the unccreated heartbeat and forms a single one running and beating together with the unccreated heartbeat. So what Jesus is saying then is that when we join our will to God when we say to him look I only want to operate what you show me my will I'm only going to say use to say yes to yours and to allow yours to be the principle of life of everything, everything I am, everything I do. So Jesus then uses the comparison so we can understand what it looks like in a symbol is that our heartbeat then as it were jumps and is absorbed into the eternal heartbeat. So they beat as one. It's a bit like if we take another comparison when you have an orchestra and when an orchestra is about to play they have to make sure all the instruments are in tune and so the obo gives a note and all the other instruments tune themselves to it. So you could see as it were an orchestra is another good comparison to that. If we use the conductor who brings all the different instruments so that their melodies become one work that gives you another image of what Jesus is saying here that we whether we're a violin or horn cello double bass timony whatever Our melody becomes part of the big picture. It becomes part of God's design so that the instrument is in tune with the conductor and the piece that is written. Tolken, by the way, uses this image in his book, The Sylmerelion, at the beginning when he narrates creation for his world. He uses this image of melody. So that evil enters when, and I can't remember the name of the character in the Sylmerelion that is the evil one. He starts playing a different melody. He doesn't want to play what God had written down. So that's an image of the human will. When the human will acts on its own, it is saying to God, I want to play my own melody. I don't want to be part of the piece you wrote because that would make me a slave. I'm going to do my own thing. And of course, when we do our own thing, the piece becomes discordant. And no one would go to hear an orchestra, which each of the players simply decides they're going to do their own thing. It would be chaos. So we're getting close to realizing then that this attuning of our of receiving this eternal life, the life of God brings with it. Therefore, as Jesus says, he derives his life from the father. So we our job is to be part of that through the son. So that our particular melody, our heartbeat forms a single one with this eternal heartbeat which is giving the drama, which is giving the music, which is telling us what our little part must be. and far because at first that would seem to make us robots. That is not the case because being God, he designs each part for the person he created. So that the part the person has to do is completely one with how that person was created with its particular character, skills, virtues. So you get this beautiful image then of the whole of creation therefore beating with one heartbeat and the only thing that doesn't is the human being who does not listen and obey God's will. Only only we can separate ourselves from God's will. Everything else carries it out as God wishes just to go on a little further.
"Tell me my love," Louisa says to Jesus, "How many times does your will go through all creatures?" So Louisa is then thinking about what Jesus has told her and is saying right this image of a heartbeat then how often does that happen you know how often is the heart beating? "My daughter, in each heartbeat of creature my will forms its complete round through all of creation. And just as the heartbeat in the creature is continuous. And if the heartbeat ceases, life ceases. In order to give divine life to all creatures, my will more than heartbeat goes around and forms the heartbeat of my will in every heart. See then how my will is in every creature as primary heartbeat because her own is secondary. And if I feel any heartbeat of creature, it is by virtue of the heartbeat of my will. Even more my will forms in her two heartbeats. One for the human heart as life of the body and one for the soul as heartbeat and life of the soul."
What Jesus has explained to Louisa there in simple terms is what St. Thomas was teaching in his great philosophy that even our physical heart depends upon the divine will. So again I was in my sermon today to my parish was saying this truth this truth of the divine life that Jesus is talking in chapter six of St. John requires a fundamental change to the way we live our life. We either live our life in our own way going to God for help when we need it. We may even use the sacraments. We may do fasting, the rosary. But God's is therefore kind of an adjunct, someone who serves a purpose of helping us. Whereas what Jesus is saying is no this divine will is the center of everything. Our heartbeat our heart cannot beat without it. Nothing can remain in being without it. And so Jesus is saying that just as our human heartbeat if it stopped we would die. So his eternal heartbeat, his will has to go around and constantly form. And now he extends the comparison and form the heartbeat of his will in every heart. So he's using again this idea that the divine will use the image of a heart. He's going around all of creation around all souls and this eternal heartbeat the heartbeat of the will he is then forming in every heart and he has to do this continuously. But that in human beings as opposed to animals or inanimate objects he has to give two heartbeats because he has to keep our heart the physical heart going and then also the life of the soul. So you can begin to see through the divine will teaching the depth of that little phrase we started with. "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me, he also will live because of me." So you could say the class tonight has just been a commentary on that one verse and to expound it, see greater depths and see how it ties in and makes complete sense what Jesus teaches Louisa. So again remember the volumes of Louisa her works are private revelation which means great as they are they are to show us more depth to the public revelation scripture and tradition. But it also should give us, if you go through again what we're learning tonight, a good way of introducing people to the divine will without at first mentioning it because you can introduce the idea to them. Did you not realize that, and this is just traditional teaching, did you not realize that God keeps you in being at every moment? that that that is as great a miracle as creation. And once they begin to see that, then you begin to point out and that which keeps us in being. The life of God is his will and it operates in us like a heartbeat. So you can see you can without having to mention at first the purpose of the gift, what the gift is, you're preparing them by showing them how God is acting anyway. And that eventually all the gift gives to us is that now this divine will can operate in all our acts. Whereas before the saints could only join their will, see God's will, do what God's will was, receive the divine will on loan to carry out their acts. So that was quite a lot to cover.
Um, before I take any questions, there's one on the chat from Mary. How do we explain to someone who believes in God but doesn't think the son is equal? Well, Mary, that's a good question because that was one of the original heresies of the church, Aryanism. So it took the church many centuries although the truth was always known and believed but at sometimes only by a few until it is defined that the son is equal to the father. So we can use that for someone who believes in God but doesn't think the son is equal. We can use it by using these passages of scripture where the passage of scripture and this is what after all people like Augustine and Irenaeus do. They use scripture to show that you cannot interpret scripture but by the sun being equal. For example, the beginning of John's gospel "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God." And then when you go on to prove then that when the word took flesh, the human nature and the divine nature joined without mixing or losing one to the other became what we call the hyperstatic union. Any other questions or comments? I think that's everything that was in the chat.
>> Good. Well, I hope >> Yeah, sorry. >> I was wondering this is Martha in USA. I just um was wondering about begotten since we have it in the creed. Begotten not made. Can you help me understand that a little bit better? >> So when the church has to define truths and the truth we are saying there is that the sun always was okay. There was never a time when there was just the father and not the son. They completely go together. So that as John says in the opening of his gospel, the word was not made. So we then have to get and use a word which can give us this truth. So the church used the word begotten because we then have the connotation of human birth. The father gives birth to the son. So what the creed is saying then the father gives birth to the son but the son is not made. It is always with the father. It comes from the father but always was. And therefore there is no time of course in God. So begott by using the human meaning you know when parents beget children as we have in the old testament so and so begott so and so begott so and so. But the creed makes it clear that that begetting, the father generating the son is not something to do with being made. In other words, the father did not begget the son in the same way a parent begot a child. Because in the human thing, being a parent means you come first. But in God there's no difference in time. >> But does there not? The father still seems to have um the authority. >> Right. That is that's what's so interesting again and it's perhaps one of the best demonstrations of equality and unity. You see, we look at things in human terms. So we tend to think that the person that gives orders is superior to the person that receives. There is of course a difference. So as the pope can give orders to the cardinals to the bishops the bishops can give order to the priests there is a hierarchy of authority but that doesn't mean inequality. So it is a mystery that we cannot yet quite comprehend how the father is the father. That's clearly why the church refuses to budge on vocabulary. And the people that want to even though one can perhaps understand their motives. The reason the church sticks with vocabulary is it conveys a truth that the father does in a sense give and the son receives. Just as therefore it is stamped in men and women that the man in the marital act gives and the woman receives. But how that is with the father and the son being equal in majesty is a mystery. It's something we have to ponder. Remember the image I can't remember if I used it last week that St. Augustine had a dream. He wrote perhaps more than anyone else on the Trinity when he sees a little child digging a hole in the sand and he gets a bucket to get water from the sea to poke in the hole. And they say, "What are you doing?" He says, "I want to put the sea in the hole." And Augustine realizes God is telling us that some things you can't do that. We can definitely learn things and improve our knowledge of the Trinity, but we can't comprehend it because if we could, we'd be God. Liz W, it looks like you've got a hand up. Yes, father. What would be the difference um in the creed where it says he became man or if you were to say he became a man? >> Right. Good question. Um what happened before the sun took flesh? There was no problem in psychology because every person was body and soul. That the thing that governed that which we call personhood to be a person. The person which means the thing that completely cements body and soul together as one being. That now ran into a problem because in Jesus there are now two natures. his human nature and divine nature but he is one person with two natures. So that means that is why you cannot say Jesus was a human being or a man because that in language is implying that he's a human person. He's not. He has everything that we have apart from sin. But the equivalent of what it means to be a person for us for him that comes from the son. That is why his human nature is one with the divine will by that very fact. Whereas for us it's not. So when he became man, it means he took everything in our human nature. He's truly man, but he's not a human person because what binds the human and the divine nature together is the person of the son. And you hear people loosely mentioning things like that. They will say, "Well, Jesus was a human being or he was a human person." Now, we understand they're not consciously wanting to commit heresy. But you can see why it is a little dangerous because it's it starts to forget that everything is tied together by the sun. But likewise, just as the Trinity is a mystery, we cannot get our head around, so we cannot totally get our head around what we call the hypothatic union. The term given to the two natures, human and divine, coming under one person. Because Jesus is fully human, but he's not a human person. That creates for us a difficulty of comprehension. Because we experience our souls, our personhood, our body and our soul all tied together as one thing. Whereas in Jesus's human nature, there is no human person. The person comes from the son. Hence you can see now why Jesus's in deep connection of his human will with the divine will became one thing and he wants to give us that as a gift whereas he had it by nature. Yeah. And you're quite right, Joan mentions, yeah, there's different analogies Jesus uses. He uses the sun. That's another one. And throughout his writings, he uses different images, different stories. We've looked at ages ago, we looked at that whole question of machines and that whole image he used as a machine. So it's amazing these writings, these volumes because you can see how whilst Jesus is talking simply to Louisa, he is nevertheless teaching us the greatest mysteries there are. And that also tells us what Frank Sheided brilliantly wrote in his book theology for beginners that we should do theology. Doesn't mean we all in that sense we have to be theologians. That's different from being academics. Theologian is someone that is studying God and he's teaching Louisa so that she knows these truths. Therefore, we must know them too. Okay, I think that's the chat satisfied. Um, again, you have to make you have to make these truths your own. Don't be surprised if at one moment you get it and in the next moment it seems to have slipped through your fingers. That's going to be the nature. And even think about this, we are going to have eternal life. Again, we don't know what that means because all we think that means is well, it will be life like here below, but there won't be time or it'll go on forever. No, it's a whole different type of life. So, again, these things are profound mysteries, but mysteries that should excite us to probe deeper.
Okay, we will finish with uh a prayer and a blessing.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we give you thanks for the teaching you give us Lord through your scripture through the tradition and the teaching of the church. We pledge our loyalty to the magisterium to what is taught in tradition and to what is taught in scripture. And so even in our study of the divine will, we lay all our thoughts, ideas, opinions before your holy church so that when with God's grace she rules on all these things. And so we thank you though because we have received the opportunity to listen to you teaching Louisa. We thank that you have given through this a new presence of yourself in us through the eukarist and our divine acts of your real life. And so we ask you to grant us a quiet night and a peaceful end. And may his blessing come upon you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Amen. And take