The Church teaches that… “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit. God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba!, Father!” This knowledge of the faith is possible only in the Holy Spirit who comes to meet us and kindles faith in us. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, p 179: 683)
God, the cause of all that is, therefore “Our Father”, is known as a Threesome.
The Good; The Renewal of humanity by the Good; and the continuous knowledge of the presence of the Good in our “hearts” by way of a channel called grace. This tripartite reality is called the “Holy Trinity”, the One True God.
This is known by us because of the wonders of the natural order; the reasoning capability of our human mind; prophesy; the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth; and the witness of Scripture, reinforced by the Sacraments of his Church. This can generate faith which “sanctifies” individually and communally. In practice, it is to love the Good and all the Good has made; in particular other human beings as brothers and sisters, all children of the Good. This is what is known as worshiping “in spirit and in truth.” With the freedom of reason, the way we are made in the image of God, we may entirely reject this prospect at our own “free will.” A will always remaining free by the power of choice.
For those whom the Word of God is not known, they have come to their own reasoned conclusions which may bear a vague resemblance to the Judeo-Christian beliefs, i. e. a good but transient worldly life and an eternity in the Good. Yet, however, they do not have belief in the reality of God with us, in Jesus Christ.
The necessity of mission was prescribed by Our Lord when he said:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of time.” (Matthew 28: 19-20)
The question has always been asked: “Why, even in a good life, is there sickness, disease, suffering and death?”
Right from the very beginning, in the act of creation by the Word of God, there has been a sustained flow of energy, including a dissipation of that energy striking a balance by changing the structure of nature and matter, as well as fluctuations in the cognizance of transcendence. This may be known as “evolution”. The trajectory of the “arrow of time” is forward to an ultimate finality, to a reality beyond the observable universe which we presently inhabit.
For Duns Scotus, an Augustinian oriented theologian, even God uses his will in a very rational and ordered way. This was clearly demonstrated by Jesus’ cross and resurrection. It is how we are precisely renewed by him, with him and in him. It is through him and his appearances to the apostles after he rose from the dead that our renewal is accomplished.
“This Is my body which will be given up for you.”
In his “glorified state” he sent the apostles as he was sent by the Father. Guided by the “Spirit of Truth,” they carried out their mission to the world, and through their followers, continue to do it to this day, through the grace of God. (Jn. 20: 21)
The perfect gift Jesus left with us was his command allowing his anointed ministers to repeat the Lord’s Supper in real time. With the “Bread of Heaven”, in “the order of Melchizedek,” we act in “memory” of him. By invoking the Spirit on our altars he remains with us, soul and divinity, (Corpus Christi). The Lords’s Supper is celebrated throughout the world every day of the year sustaining us with the grace of the Good, in the Spirit of the Lord.
In the body and blood of Christ we have The Good, Our Renewal, and Our Constant
Advocate, and indeed, our “salvation”.
“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also I will give for the life of the world Is My flesh”
(John 6:51)
As a result many of his disciples left him and were not walking with him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6: 66-68)
Corpus Christi, 2010