Theological basis and validity of African family for the Church in Africa

JOHN PAUL II, ECCLESIA IN AFRICA, 14TH SEPTEMBER 1995

INTRODUCTION

The synod of bishops on the church in Africa held in Rome acknowledges the pride and place of the family in the society and the church. In his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesial in Africa, (1995), the Holy Father from Familiaris Consortio #75 holds that; “The future of the world and of the Church passes through the family (and that) not only is the Christian family the first cell of the living Ecclesial community, it is also the fundamental cell of the society.”

Central to this document is the African family, which the document cautions that though she tries to adopt positive values of modernity, she must preserve her own essential values. The document thus admits that in trying to build the Church as a family, such is truly proper to the African culture, because such values as care for others, solidarity, warmth in human relationships, acceptance, dialogue, trust and sharing which characterize the family of God are present in the authentic African family. This work therefore, attempts to discuss the theological basis and validity of the use of this image for the Church in Africa.

THE NATURE OF THE AFRICAN FAMILY

The African Family is not equivalent in a strict sense to what the word family means in other cultures especially in Europe and America. The traditional African family is known for its unique nature of being widened beyond the nuclear family. Within this understanding, the African family comprises “the children, parents, grand-parents, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters who may have their own children and other immediate relatives” and indeed all those persons who descend from a common ancestor. This ontological feature of the African family is usually designated in the anthropological parlance as extended family.

THE THEOLOGICAL BASIS AND VALIDITY OF THE IMAGE OF AFRICAN FAMILY FOR THE CHURCH IN AFRICA

It is obvious that when we approach the family model theologically, it is traceable to the Blessed Trinity who shows us the best and perfect communion in the communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit One God. Again, when we consider the concept of family in relation to the church and its members, theologically it encapsulates everyone who has accepted Christ and been received into the family through baptism, including catechumens. A position which implies brotherhood and it is likens to African blood relationship, which gives basis for unity and solidarity, and results to sharing of roles and involvement of everyone in the work of evangelization. These are commendably perceivable in the African family model.

Having considered the family model in relationship to the Church as encapsulating all those born into it through baptism and living everywhere, it is pivotal that we consider the application of this model in relation to the evangelization and governance of the local Church. By local church we mean a diocese or a parish, but we must note that a particular church cannot be dissociated from the universal Church and other local Churches. 

Just like the African family in which everyone has a role to perform towards the harmonious living of every member of the family and the community, a local Church modeled after it must recognize in the spirit of Vatican II that;

“By divine institution holy Church is ordered and governed with a wonderful diversity.”For just as in one body we have many members, yet all the members have not the same function, so we the many, are one body in Christ, but severally members one of another” (Rom. 12:4-5). There is, therefore, one chosen People of God: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4.5); there is a common dignity of members deriving from their rebirth in Christ, a common grace as sons, a common vocation to perfection, one salvation, one hope and undivided charity.”

 It follows that members of a local Church should essentially receive one another as brothers and sisters in the first instance rather than giving a primary consideration to their different status within the family. Consequently, no one would be left and not attended to either by means of evangelization or governance of the local Church. In relation to the African family, there is no way individuals in the family are left out in her administration, because leadership is never by one person, rather by individuals who in the spirit of family work in collaboration and solidarity for the larger family.

However, the very concept of African family when used as a model for the Church could be problematic and demands some level of understanding. The question is, how do we adopt this family model where crisis of homelessness, poverty, which result from war, famine, tribal tension, insurgence, political instability and violation of human rights?

Furthermore, care is to be taken so that our ecclesiology based on the African family model does not end up with a pyramided structure of the Church, emphasizing the authority of her leaders; a kind of paternalism when compared to the nature of the father’s position in the family. This will neither help communion nor help her primary work of evangelization.

Moreover, the idea of blood-tie poses the problem that could lead the family to be exclusive of other families. This particularly poses problem against dialogue within and without the Church. However, while the Church as family should establish interaction among the laity, religious and clergy to promote healthy existence within the Church as family, she should play a leadership role in ecumenism.

Following still from her feature of blood-tie and extended family nature are caring, sharing of problems and blessings, concern and love. These features are good but the negative expression of it often regards the person outside the group as if he or she was a non-person. The identification of outsiders as strangers has been the cause of some of the worst atrocities in Africa and has often led to negativities like tribalism and ethnicity. But we know that the love of Christ is unrestricted and universal, it embraces even the enemy. Hence, we need a vision that will take into account the vision of Christ’s universal reconciliation. It is only this vision that can turn the church in Africa into a family that does not exclude any person from its ambience and even in decision making so that the work of evangelization of Africa becomes easy.

CONCLUSION

From our discussion so far, it is clear that Church’s documents acknowledge the importance of the family to the ecclesial community and the larger society. Such that without it the community whether ecclesial or secular cannot possibly exist. It is rightly so, because, the Creator of all made it her mission. The Church’s documents really acknowledge that it is possible to build the Ecclesia edifice on the family model. This, the CBCN deem necessary when it tries to build her Church with the authentic African family model in Nigeria. 

Fr Lawrence Sdv

​THEOLOGICAL CUM PHILOSOPHICAL BASES OF THE THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES

THEOLOGICAL CUM PHILOSOPHICAL BASES OF THE THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES

Introduction

A careful and critical reading of this introduction immediately offers the reader an idea of the philosophical foundation of the Theological virtues.

In man to man relationships, the life of a good man will be characterized by the practice of the four classical virtues: temperance, courage (or fortitude), justice, and above all wisdom or prudence that refined ability to judge correctly what is right to know and do. This much can be developed by natural and reasonable man, quite apart from revelation and faith. In all this Thomas does little more than reproduce Aristotle. God endows man, through Christian revelation and the church with its sacraments, with the added gift of the three theological virtues, faith, hope and love, which direct man to God Himself, and which therefore crown the four natural virtues.

Aquinas’ moral theory is a relatively unimaginative appropriation of the Aristotelian theory of virtue, with faith, hope, and love spliced somewhat on top. “It is clear that for Aquinas there is an ideal type of man, an ideal of human development and integration, a notion which has been flatly rejected by, for example, existentialists like M. Sartre. And the possession of the natural virtues, moral and intellectual, belongs to this ideal type. But the concrete ideal is not for Aquinas simply the ideal of the fully developed natural man. For under the action of divine grace man can rise to the life of supernatural union of God for which he was created. And for this higher sphere of life he needs the infused virtues of faith, hope, and charity. So while building, therefore, on a largely Aristotelian foundation, which represents what we may call the philosophical background in his ideal for man, Aquinas proceeds to discuss the theological virtues, which are not acquired in the same way as the natural virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.” Copleston, Aquinas (Penguin 1955) p.209

An examination of nature proves especially crucial to understanding the virtues in Aquinas, because it is only through a return to the Thomist conception of nature that one can makes sense of the fact that there are for Aquinas not one, but two sets of virtues. For Aquinas believes that nature itself is capable of habituation, and that an altered nature requires a correspondingly altered set of virtues. Through the acquired virtues, man is perfected in accord with his created nature; the infused virtues perfect man insofar as he partakes in the Divine Nature

In both these ways, says Aquinas, virtue is natural to man inchoatively. This is so in respect of the specific nature, in so far as in man’s reason are to be found instilled by nature certain naturally known principles of both knowledge and action, which are the nurseries of intellectual and moral virtues, and in so far as there is in the will a natural appetite for good in accordance with reason. Again, this is so in respect of the individual nature, in so far as by reason of a disposition in the body, some are disposed either well or ill to certain virtues.  ST. FS Q 63 art. 1
What is Virtue?

CCC 1803 “Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions. The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God.

CCC 1804 Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, and habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good. They can be grouped around the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. 

Prudence disposes the practical reason to discern, in every circumstance, our true good and to choose the right means for achieving it. 

Justice consists in the firm and constant will to give God and neighbour their due. 

Fortitude ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. 

Temperance moderates the attraction of the pleasures of the senses and provides balance in the use of created goods. 

The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human being for communion with divine love.
The theological foundations of the theological Virtues

In discussing the theological foundation of the theological virtues, one thing must be clear to us which is the fact that GRACE DOES NOT WORK IN a vacuum, that is, Grace builds on and perfects nature. What this means is that through the acquired (cardinal) virtues, man is perfected in accord with his created nature; the infused (theological) virtues, therefore, perfect man insofar as he partakes in the Divine Nature.

….They “relate directly to God” and “dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity” (CCC 1812).

…. They are “the foundation of Christian moral activity” (CCC 1813).

…. “They have God for their origin, their motive, and their object” (CCC 1840).

…. “They inform all the moral virtues and give life to them” (CCC 1841).
THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES

Faith, according Thomas is a habit of the mind, whereby eternal life is begun in us, making the intellect assent to what is non-apparent. Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for and the evidence of things that appear not.

Whatever other definitions are given of faith, says Thomas Aquinas, are explanations of this one given by the Apostle. For when Augustine says that “faith is a virtue whereby we believe what we do not see,” and when Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iv, 11) that “faith is an assent without research,” and when others say that “faith is that certainty of the mind about absent things which surpasses opinion but falls short of science,” these all amount to the same as the Apostle’s words: “Evidence of things that appear not”; and when Dionysius says (Div. Nom. vii) that “faith is the solid foundation of the believer, establishing him in the truth, and showing forth the truth in him,” comes to the same as “substance of things to be hoped for.”

Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith ‘man freely commits his entire self to God.’ For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God’s will.” –CCC 1814

HOPE

Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the grace of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 1817).

CHARITY

 “Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God” (CCC 1822).
The relationship between the theological and moral virtues

According to the CCC, the moral virtues grow through education, deliberate acts, and perseverance in struggle. Divine grace purifies and elevates them. 1812 The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which adapt man’s faculties for participation in the divine. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.

Fr Lawrence Sdv

African Theology in it’s Cultural Context

AFRICAN THEOLOGY IN ITS CULTURAL CONTEXT

African theology, or what some people call African Christian theology, could be explained as that theology which reflects on the gospel, the Christian tradition, and the total African reality in an African manner and from the particular perspectives of the African world-view. The task of Bujo’s African Theology is to bring together the fundamentals of Christian faith and the African traditions, to make the Africans feel more at home, to do this; he considered the theology of the Ancestors as a starting point for new Christology and Ecclesiology. 

Benezet Bujo is of the view that African theology has to be renewed. His criticisms, in pursuit of a renewed African theology, come along two headings, namely theology and African tradition and inculturation and theology of liberation. According to him, any theologian who wishes to construct an African theology must take the basic elements of the African tradition and interpret them in the light of the Sacred Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church. Bujo argues that what Africa need today is an enlightened catechesis which would enable us to strike the right balance between the ancient African traditions and their current forms. For him, the catechesis is a tool for retrieving those aspects of our African traditions that could be used positively to make Christianity find a deeper root in the African culture. 
Bujo believes that catechumenates, classes of religious instruction, and small Christian communities are the places where such a catechesis can be introduced in the present generation so that it can bear meaningful fruits in their lives. As such, for Bujo, the task for African theology today is a vigorous catechesis that gives the Christian message truly African nuances for the spiritual edification of Africans in their cultural context, put differently; the constructive engagement of Christianity with African traditions must bring together the fundamentals of both the Christian faith and the African tradition. 
According to Bujo, the person of Jesus and the community of the Church are two fundamentals of Christianity that could be brought into dialogue with one veritably fundamental aspect of African tradition, namely Africa’s ancestor-tradition, from which we could derive an African Christology and an African ecclesiology.
Africans cherish the memories of the words and deeds of their forebears considered to be embodiments of their cultural, religious and moral values. According to him, the elders and more particularly our ancestors occupied a central place in Africa, there by projects a deep meaning to the people of Africa. As such he proposed a new messianic name for Jesus that is, “Proto-Ancestor” or Ancestor per Excellence.” He further explained that the title is not referring to any “so called bad ancestors.”  Rather, it refers “only to God fearing ancestors who exercise a good influence on their descendants by showing how the force which is life is to be used as God wishes it to be used.” 

The historical Jesus of Nazareth, for Bujo, epitomizes in the highest degree not just one who lived the African ideals of a good ancestor, but one who brought those ideals to an altogether new fulfillment by healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, and raising the dead to life, to mention but a few.  Jesus lived his mission for his fellow-humans in an altogether matchless way and left his disciples a final commandment, the law of love. The Last Supper which Jesus took with his disciples is like the final moments a father spends with his children before his death. In the African tradition, the final admonitions of a parent to his children before death are much cherished as it is a time the father blesses his children and pronounces his last will. Viewed from this African perspective, Jesus last will was: serve one another, love one another.
The term, ancestor, only applies to Jesus in an analogical or eminent way, for to treat him otherwise would be to make of him only one founding ancestor among many. Accordingly, the term proto-ancestor is exclusively reserved to Jesus. 
Bujo argues that, since it was the same humanity of our African ancestors that Jesus took upon himself, Jesus Christ, therefore, becomes the privileged locus for a full understanding of the ancestors Bujo argues that his proposed title will have much more meaning for Africans than titles such as logos (word) and kyrios (lord) which originated from an extra-African culture. 

Benezet Bujo argues that Jesus manifested all those qualities and virtues which Africans like to attribute to their ancestors and which lead them to invoke ancestors in their day-to-day life (p.74.) As a model of morality, let us bring to realization in our lives the memory of his passion, death and resurrection. He summits: “it is therefore clear that the African concept of Jesus as Proto-Ancestor in no way contradicts the teachings of the New Testament. It is not of course that we are treating Jesus as in any crudely biological sense. When we regard him as the ancestor par excellence, we mean that we find in him the one who begets in us a mystical and supernatural life.” 

Finally, Bujo’s proposal of an African messianic title for Jesus as proto-ancestor borders on the use of language in theology. Precisely, it touches deeply on analogical predications for God. The question is:  how far can our languages go in expressing Christ, God, and other-worldly realities? Particularly, does the title proto-ancestor really capture the being and doing of the God-man, Jesus Christ? 

Masumbuko Mununguri: in his book the closeness of the God of our Ancestors argues that the God of our Ancestors is at the same time transcendent that is far off, and immanent meaning near. (p.15) In His explanation of the place of the God of our Ancestors according to African Man, he states that God is sometimes considered an accomplice of man in some circumstances and certain key moments of life. According to him, this God “remains very powerful, very great, very distant, but in his goodness he does not abandon man to his fate in a hostile and bewildering world.” (p.17) he opines that our Ancestors conceive God to be transcendence in many aspects such as outside and beyond time; in terms of space, distance and inaccessibility; in terms of limitlessness; and in terms of his supreme status as Spirit creator. (pp. 18-25)

The God who is presented as transcendent is also said to be Immanent God; a characteristic of God that emanates from the very projection of God into nothingness of man. He observes that the essential quality of Supreme Being is that of being present to the world precisely because it is he who protects the universe. Therefore the God of our Ancestor is Immanence as beneficent Presence (and his presence at the side of man necessitate some consequences for their ‘mutual relationship’); and Immanence as Ambiguous Presence. 

God is considered transcendentally Immanent in as much as he is a God who, without identifying himself in history, governs and acts in the universe by his act of creation and of order. He further posits that there is a consensus in Africa that God is inaccessible because he is invisible. But he also holds that all African people expect to feel him in the Ancestors who reside with him as creator and provider, or the living God who gives life and death. Hence Africans turns their gaze, “demanding” and “confident”, towards God as Providence and creator and as Father, author and support of life. 

Mununiguri claims that the God of our Ancestors reveal to us his Incarnate Son and in spite of everything, the incarnation of the Son of God remains a mystery for the Africans who cannot accept that God could become man. According to Mununguri, the incarnate Son is “The eldest Son” and the revealer of the Father. Incarnation then finds its significance in the ultimate mission of the Incarnate Word to tell the World about the God of our Ancestors. 

Fr Lawrence Sdv

The Kerygma

OUTLINE

Introduction

What is Kerygma

The composition of the writing gospels

The relationship between the oral tradition and the composition of the written gospel

The circumstances that led to the composition and circulation of the synoptic

Conclusion
INTRODUCTION

The Gospels first existed in the oral tradition. The person of Jesus Christ, His life- words and deeds constitute the Gospel. After the ascension of Jesus the people started talking about him and of the events relating to his death and resurrection. These became the first “good news” to be announced. During this time, the Kerygma was on the fact that Jesus Came, lived, suffered, died, resurrected for our sake and that he will come again. What then led to the composition of the writing gospel is there any relationship between the writing gospel and the oral teaching? Why some are referred to as synoptic what led to this? 
KERYGMA

The word Kerygma is from a Greek word, “Khrigma” meaning proclamation (khrigma from verb khrusw). Khrigma means the proclamation or preaching done by someone sent by God.

In the New Testament it refers to the apostolic preaching and its development and its development in the early church. It also refers to the earliest form of the missionary preaching of the good News. A kerygma generally has an outline which can be detected in the New Testament. Acts 2: 14-38, 3:12-26, 4:3-12, 10: 36-43. In these passages there are six main parts that form the outline of the kerygma they could be called the six basic truths. 1. Announcement that a new age is dawned, a prophecy fulfilled. 2. This new age that has dawned is made possible in the suffering and death of Jesus. 3. By the virtures of the resurrection of Jesus, God exalted him to his right hand as head and savior (the word kurios explains this) 4. Christ has given the Holy Spirit as sign of power and victory in the church. 5. Messainic age reaches its consummation in the return of Christ. 6. Closes with an appeal for repentance, invitation to baptism and forgiveness of sins.
THE COMPOSITION OF THE WRITING GOSPELS

Formation of the New Testament did not cover a long period of history as did the formation of the Old Testament. The gospel accounts existed first in the oral form as we have said before. The teachings and miracles of Jesus were transmitted in oral form by those who had witnessed it, especially the apostles, who made it a focal point of their preaching. Due to the fact that the prevalent thought at the time was of the imminence of Christ’s return, no one was keen about writing down. Of course they had not been instructed to do so by the master who also did not write anything about himself or his mission. But when death through persecution began to threaten the oral form of transmitting the teaching of the master they began to write. By AD 65-70 Mark’s gospel had been written as the first gospel narration. Matthew and Luke must have writing their gospel account between the years AD 80-90 John around Ad 90-100.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ORAL TRADITION AND THE COMPOSITION OF THE WRITTEN GOSPEL

When we call the gospel a kerygma we mean that the gospel is a gathering of the various proclamations done by the apostles. C.H. Dodd, looking at the Gosple according to Mark opines that we have a solid impression that it is an extended form of historical Kerygma. This could be said of all the gospels.

The relationship between the oral tradition and the Gospel could be best expressed from the document of the church on divine revelation no 9 thus: 

There exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. For sacred Scripture is the Word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while sacred tradition takes the Word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this Word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known. Consequently it is not from sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence.
THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT LED TO THE COMPOSITION AND CIRCULATION OF THE SYNOPTIC

Out of the four canonical gospels, three are called synoptic gospels and they include Matthew, Mark and Luke. They are called synoptic because they can be placed side by side and viewed as it were at a glance. They are closely related to one another that one can notice that they all have something in common among themselves. However, they had different reasons for writing but generally; they wanted to preserve the word of God in a distinct way. The following circumstances led the composition and circulation of the synoptic:

The eye witnesses were dying one after the other and the source of the oral history may become depleted.

The rapid growth of Christianity as it expanded through the efforts of the apostles and their disciples.

To encourage Christians to become better people as they followed Christ.

There was the need to become independent of Judaism. The gospels help to establish Christian practices.

To encourage the persecuted church to endure suffering like their master.

To keep alive the teaching of Christ as received from the apostles.

To keep the authentic message of Christ from counterfeit and fake versions of the same message which were being taught and propagated by heretics.
CONCLUSION

Sacred tradition and sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the Word of God, committed to the Church. Holding fast to this deposit the entire holy people united with their shepherds remain always steadfast in the teaching of the Apostles.
Fr Ogundipe O Lawrence sdv

 

A summary on evangelii nuntiandi

https://frlawrenceogundipe.blogspot.com.ng/2017/10/a-summary-on-evangelii-nuntiandi-1975.html?m=1

Common Mistakes of Catholics

Common Mistakes Catholics make @ Holy Mass:
1. Being oblivious of the penitential rite; 

the short pause by the priest after asking that we all make ourselves worthy to partake of the Holy sacrifice of the Mass,  is for us to call to mind our venial sins and be sincerely sorry for them. This act cleanses us of the venial sins. We must note that no amount of prayer is able to absolve us of mortal sins. Such absolution can only be gained at a sacramental confession.
2. Lack of attention during the liturgy of words. A simple litmus test to know the level of your concentration during the readings and Gospel is to wait as soon as the Gospel proclamation is over, try remembring what was read during the first and second readings.

Again if you are prone to sleeping, avoid the fan and by all means make yourself a little uncomfortable during the homily. It is actually very embarrassing to be caught sleeping, snoring or even salivating during the Homily 
3. Indiscriminate tracing of the cross on various areas of the face and torso during the Gospel proclamation.

Crosses are traced on the fore head, the lips and the heart, while saying at the same time; Glory be to you Lord. 
4. Unnecessary and deliberate delay to proceed for offering. 

Most persons for reasons best known to them will not rise from their seats for offertory, this is more obvious during weekday Masses, where the normal pew by pew movement supervised by the church wardens is not practiced.  Some persons prefer to run up at dying minutes to throw in their offertory, while all along they’ve been stuck on their seats. This is very wrong. As soon as offertory hymn is intoned,  those with their offertory gifts should proceed to the nearest box and drop off their piece.
5. Taking the attention away from the Chief celebrant.

The choir most often falls into this bit. The transition period between the liturgy of the word and liturgy of the Eucharist, marked usually by offertory processions and blessing of the oblata, the hysteria carried over from music tunes and gyrations tends to keep the chief celebrant waiting. 

The chief celebrant is the centre point during the celebration of the Holy Mass. He is to lead all steps of the Mass. As soon as he returns to the Altar of sacrifice, all songs MUST cease to enable him progress the Mass. It is wrong to keep on singing while the chief celebrant waits on the congregation.
6. Sitting during the period of consecration.  Notice has been taken of persons whishing to preserve their clothing from getting soiled and so rather sits through consecration. 

It must be seen as an obligation and significantly so to kneel all through the period of consecration and to stand to recite the Lord’s prayer. 

We must see joy in unison. 
7. Continuing with the sign of peace while the Lamb of God is being recited. 

It is not proper to combine two different actions during the Holy Mass. 

As soon as the Lamb of God is intoned, all kiss/sign of peace gesture must stop.

Again, the choir and or the congregation must not commence the recitation of the Lamb of God until the Chief celebrant is back to the Altar of sacrifice. Even if he choses to spread the sign of peace to all members of the congregation, the recitation of the Lamb of God must wait till he returns to the Altar of sacrifice. 
8. Making the sign of the Cross at the Communion rail. One is expected to recite all necessary prayers before Holy Communion at the seat before proceeding to the Altar. Most often the Communion plate has been knocked off by persons who religiously carry out the sign of the Cross before and or after reception of the Holy Eucharist. 

We are to desist from such acts. Before Holy Communion, say all ypur prayers at your seat and carry out as many signs of the Cross as you deem fit. Same applies after reception of the Holy Eucharist, proceed quietly to your seat and commence prayers after Holy Communion adding as many signs of the Cross as desired. 
9. Making conscious effort to receive Holy Communion from a particular person. 

This usually happens when Deacons and extraordinary Eucharistic ministers are involved in the distribution of the Holy Eucharist. One must know that Jesus Christ who is fully present body, soul and divinity in the Holy Eucharist is never diminished or made inactive by mode of distribution. As long the rite of consecration is rightly completed, Holy Communion remains what it is irrespective of who distributes it. He remains same Jesus Christ at the hands of a Pope as He is in the hands of extraordinary ministers of the Holy Eucharist. 

Most often such persons are seen contesting with ministers of hospitality.

This selective action only portrays a misconception of the very essence of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. What must be paramount is our state of preparation, both in body and spirit. This is critically important.

 

10. Making effort to resume singing soon after the reception the Holy Eucharist. The danger here is that particles of the Communion could fly out with the saliva causing desecration. 

It is proper to observe some minutes of silence after reception of the Holy Eucharist to at least have some quiet moments with God.

Best practice requires that the mouth be kept shut till Communion is completely dissolved in the mouth. 
Remember that a moderate opening of the mouth and sticking of the tongue is very necessary to allow ease of placement of the Holy Communion.

Opening the mouth too wide or too little does no much good. Same also with sticking of the tongue so long and too fast that one would be seen as attempting to lick the hands of Holy Communion distributors.
It is also advisable to lick the mouth dry before sticking out the tongue. There have been cases of people with so moist a tongue that saliva was deposited on the Communion plate during distribution of the Holy Eucharist. One could imagine the difficulty this will pose to the priest.
11. Non communicants attempting to receive the Holy Eucharist. 

Diligent effort by the priest and watchful eyes of the church wardens are very crucial in detecting such persons. Delay in normal response or silence from the communicant is all that is needed by the priest to identify such persons. 
12. Recitation of the Holy Rosary and perhaps other prayers during the Holy Mass. 

Holy Mass is already the highest form of prayer, why the deliberate distraction. All that is needed is attention and concentration through the various stages of the Holy Mass to be fulfilled.
14. Deliberate attempt not to participate in the Holy Mass. 

Most persons neither sing to the hymns nor respond to the priest during the Holy Mass. The only time you hear them mutter a word is to either answer a phone during the Mass or exchange pleasantries. 

Such persons surely do not savour the benefits of the Holy Eucharist. 

In fact the only way to memorize the hymns and other Mass responses is by being a partaker! 

More so our active participation during the Mass encourages the Priests! Let’s do more.

 

15. Attempt to sum up Holy Masses. 

Some persons are in the habit of adding two Masses to make up one. An example is when a person attends his first Mass late, meeting the Mass during second reading. He then decides to stay for the second Mass and wait till the same second reading before calling it quits. In his calculation, all he missed before the second reading at the first Mass has now been accounted for during his wait at the second Mass.

Holy Mass is not mathematics, the various liturgy and rites form an indivisible part of one sacrifice called the Holy Mass. 

If one feels late at a Mass, and finds it necessary to stay for the next Mass, he must stay all through the Mass from the sign of the Cross at the beginning to go in peace Mass is ended.
16. Leaving the Mass after post communion prayer. 

This act is very wrong and perhaps derogatory, post Communion prayer marks the end of the liturgy of the Holy Eucharist and not the end of the Holy Mass! 

Why the hurry! 
Please let us all be mindful of these and make corrections where necessary.

God bless us all!

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Solemnity of the body and blood of Christ

SOLEMNITY OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

CORPUS CHRISTI 

Today’s Solemnity is a celebration of the gift of the Eucharist “the source and summit of the Christian life.” “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.” The traditional day for this celebration is the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.  The reason Thursday is chosen is because Jesus celebrated the Last Supper on the Thursday before he died when, according to the Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke), he shared the gift of himself with his disciples during the Passover meal.  Many local churches have moved the celebration to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday. 

The Passover meal or Seder meal is the meal celebrating the Jewish exodus from slavery in Egypt. This meal has great and profound religious meaning in the Jewish community. It recalls their exodus from slavery of Egypt. Hence this meal expressed the heart of the faith of Israel. However, in the midst of the meal Jesus changes its meaning. The bread was no longer the bread of exodus; rather Jesus said this is my body. And the wine will no longer recall the old covenant but now a new covenant would be formed with God and Jesus would be its mediator.

The Eucharist is a reality that one cannot adequately explain in a single aspect: it is Sacrifice, just as much as it is a meal, and also a Covenant and Memorial.  The controversy of this change and the mystery around the Eucharist evokes intellectual feisty. Meanwhile, the Eucharist is not the problem it is only the human being who constitutes a problem to it. Scholars over the years have attempted to unravel this mystery, but because it is a mystery every explanation requires further explanations.

The controversy over the doctrine of the real presence, that is, that Christ is present corporeally in the Eucharist has a long history in the Western Church. As such the council of Trent was convoked by Pope Paul III and it took place in Trent and Bologna between the years of 1545 and 1563. This council was basically one of the most paramount cum crucial ecumenical councils. It could be said that the immediate cause of the calling of the Council of Trent was as a result of Luther and the Protestant Revolution of 1517 that engulfed half of Europe. Three years after, Luther nailed the 95 theses to the wooden door of the Church of Wittenburg, on June 15, 1520, Martin was condemned by the papal bull “Exsurge Domine” of Pope Leo X. He was given 60 days to recount his heretical teachings and summit to the Pope. But Luther with the protection of the prince of Saxony attacked the Pope in two pamphlets calling him the anti-christ. Therefore, a General Council is the solution to this. The Council of Trent issued condemnations of what it defined to be heresies committed by Protestantism and there were basic clarifications made concerning the Church’s doctrines and teachings. The Council adjudicated that the Lord is truly present in the most Hoy Eucharist after the consecration of bread and wine. That we are to do this in remembrance of his wonderful works and Christ asked that we do it in his memory. It stressed also on the Excellency of the most holy Eucharist over the rest of the sacraments.  The sacred Council talked on Transubstantiation when it stated that:

 “… because our Lord and redeemer said that it was truly his body and blood that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moments of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist. Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.”

 Perhaps we need to pay more attention to the communal dimension of the Eucharist and how it affect human in his/her day-to-day activity, so that the fellowship of the people of God will improve. CCC asserts:

 “The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God’s action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.” 

Jesus has provided us with the Eucharist as a place where we can go in to bathe our aching feet and to be refreshed in body and soul for the journey that is still ahead. When we give communion to a sick person we call it viaticum which means “provisions for a journey.” My beloved in Christ you have as obligation under Christian charity to call the priest to administer the sacrament to the sick according to the code of canon law 

Can. 911

§1 The duty and right to bring the blessed Eucharist to the sick as Viaticum belongs to the parish priest, to assistant priests, to chaplains and, in respect of all who are in the house, to the community Superior in clerical religious institutes or societies of apostolic life.

§2 In a case of necessity, or with the permission at least presumed of the parish priest, chaplain or Superior, who must subsequently be notified, any priest or other minister of holy communion must do this.

 The Eucharist is always a viaticum: in the Eucharist we derive strength to continue our upward journey toward God.

Church Fathers on the Eucharist

St Ignatius of Antioch says it is the one bread that provides the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that make us live forever in Jesus Christ, sin came into the world through the eating of a meal ‘The Apple’ so also in the new covenant, salvation came onto the world through a meal ‘The Eucharist’. According to Cyril there is a transformation in the Bread and the Wine at the prayer of epiclesis, he said; “we beseech the merciful God to send forth his Holy Spirit upon the gifts lying before him; that he may make the Bread the Body of Christ, and the Wine the Blood of Christ; for whatsoever the Holy Spirit has touched, is surely sanctified and changed.” According to him the Eucharist is a typology of Christ. He said; “Trust not the judgment to your bodily palate no, but to faith unfaltering; for they who taste are bidden to taste, not bread and wine, but the anti-typical Body and Blood of Christ.”  As such it must be received with great reverence;

“In approaching therefore, come not with your wrists extended, or your fingers spread; but make your left hand a throne for the right, as for that which is to receive a King. And having hollowed your palm, receive the Body of Christ, saying over it, Amen. So then after having carefully hollowed your eyes by the touch of the Holy Body, partake of it; giving heed in case you lose any portion thereof; for whatever you losest, is evidently a loss to you so to speak from one of your own members. For tell me, if anyone gave you grains of gold, would you not hold them with all carefulness, being on your guard against losing any of them, and suffering loss? Will you not then much more carefully keep watch, that not a crumb fall from you of what is more precious than gold and precious stones?”

 St Cyprian of Carthage opines that the Church must continue to offer the blood of Christ and to celebrate the sacrifice of the Lord, which is a reply, so to speak, to the passion. He narrates that on the eve of the passion Jesus took the blood and gave to his disciples saying this is the blood of the New Testament offered for the remission of the sin of many. We see here the cup which the lord offer is mixed and that which he called blood was wine, it follows that the blood of Christ is not offered if there is no wine in the cup. And that the sacrifice of the lord is not legitimately celebrated if our oblation and sacrifice does not relate to the passion. It is the people who are united with Christ. This mingling, this union of wine and water in the lord’s cup is indissoluble. Hence the Church cannot be separated from Christ.  St John Chrysostom teaches that He who is offered in many places is one sole Body and not many Bodies, so the sacrifice is one. We do it in memory of what has been done; we do not offer another sacrifice, rather it is a commemoration of the sacrifice of the Cross. St Ambrose of Milan in De sacramentis says ; recalling, therefore, His most glorious passion, His resurrection from the dead and His Ascension into heaven, we offer thee the unblemished host, this spiritual host, this unbloody host, this sacred bread and cup of eternal life, and we ask thee to accept this offering from the hands of thy Angels around thy alter in heaven as thou deigned to accept the gift of thy servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham our father and which was offered by thy High priest Melchizedek. Having looked at how the church fathers explained this reality that is, the Holy Mass is the same sacrifice offered on the Calvary starting from the last supper.
CHURCH DOCUMENTS 

Pope John Paul II shares the same opinion with the Church Fathers in his encyclical Ecclesia De Eucharistia when he says;

“The Mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice nor does it multiply it.16 What is repeated is its memorial celebration, its “commemorative representation” (memorialis demonstratio),17 which makes Christ’s one, definitive redemptive sacrifice always present in time. The sacrificial nature of the Eucharistic mystery cannot therefore be understood as something separate, independent of the Cross or only indirectly referring to the sacrifice of Calvary.” 

It is obvious that the origin of the Eucharist cannot be separated from the passion of Jesus and his glorious resurrection. When we partake in this solemn sacrament we as his followers are individually united with Christ, we are equally united with one another in the deepest and most intimate manner possible. According to the Vatican Council in the Constitution on the sacred liturgy, “Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass… “the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross,” but especially in the Eucharistic species.” The holy mother Church,

“From that time onward the Church has never failed to come together to celebrate the paschal mystery, reading those things “which were in all the scriptures concerning him” (Lk. 24:27), celebrating the Eucharist in which “the victory and triumph of his death are again made present,” and at the same time “giving thanks to God for his inexpressible gift” (2 Cor. 9:15) in Christ Jesus,” in praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:12) through the power of the Holy Spirit.”  

Hence the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church decrees;

“As often as the sacrifice of the cross by which “Christ our Pasch is sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7) is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out. Likewise, in the sacrament of the Eucharistic bread, the unity of believers, who from one body in Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 10:17), is both expressed and brought about. All people are called to this union with Christ, who is the light of the world, from whom we go forth, through whom we live, and towards whom our whole life is directed.”

Finally, Vicesimus Quintus Annus demonstrated that by this principle of the Re-enactment of the paschal mystery, the Constitution on the sacred liturgy tends to recall the Church to the fact that it was from the side of Christ, as he died on the cross, that the sublime sacrament of the whole Church come forth, Hence it is in the liturgy and especially in the Eucharistic sacrifices and other sacraments that the church draws up the living springs of redemption.

My fear after reflecting on the Eucharist

OH Lord! Have mercy on me! I am now afraid of your greatness, you oh lord has seduced me and yes I allowed myself to be seduced. You called me to walk on a path the Angels dread, to bring life to man through death. Should I continue or return to my father’s house

The call to priest hood is a call to die! No one told me before now. My God have called me to lay down my life for others. Should I answer or run away? I remember seeing a dead snake in the bush and the amazing story told by my father of a particular female snake that lays eggs, during the hatch period she swallows the egg and quietly goes to stay in a place till the eggs are hatched in her stomach, the younger snakes feeds on her till they will eventually eat her up to find their way out. In turn every female among them will die for their specie to continue.  Oh mother snake you die for your off spring to live, what a sacrifice? This is what our lord Jesus did at the Calvary, the bread that I will give you is my flesh, and the wine is my blood! He said. What love is greater than this? But my fear lies in his injunctions “do these in memory of me”! I remembered what happened and trembling took over me. He took the bread, gave thanks to his father, he broke the bread and gave it to his apostles. The same way I was taken from my tribe, from my home, I was consecrated in thanks giving; set aside to be slaughtered, yes! I must be broken just as he was broken ,each I time I celebrates the sacrament, I am broken,  my life a constant sacrifice , every Christian carries cross to follow him but alas! My will be a cross of fire. As a religious as a priest whenever I am called to obey the superior I am broken, when I love to do my private things but must be in the community activity I am broken, I must die so that the world will live.

Ogundipe  O Lawrence Sdv

The Solemnity of Trinity

A PAPER PRESENTATION ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY 

BY LAWRENCE OGUNDIPE SDV ON May 30TH 2015
INTRODUCTION

According to the revelation, and within the infallible teaching of the chatholic church our faith requires ut unum Deum in Trinitate et Trinitatem in Unitate Veneremur, neque confundentes personas, neque Substantiam separantes (That we venerate the Unity of God in the Trinity and the Trinity in the Unity, without confusing the persons and without separating the substance) cf Justin Rusollilo Sdv. Heavens Heavens part II p. 18 Paragraph II.

The confession of God as Trinity is a great mystery of the Christian Faith. It is the most essential distinguishing factor between Christianity and other world religions. Hence, to be a Christian is to believe in a Trinitarian way.

But what actually does it mean to say that God is Trinity? How did Christians in the first instance come to express belief in a triune God and how and why was this belief developed into a dogma? Moreover, why should we as Christians today still believe what we do about the Trinity?

The above questions are pertinent and demand urgent answers especially in our time when many believe that Christianity will suffer no noticeable loss coherence, but would rather become more intelligible and accessible to the contemporary rational mind, if it were to discard the doctrine of the Trinity. The late Karl Rahner accessing the situation of the Trinitarian doctrine in contemporary Christian life did not hesitate to point out that one might almost dare to affirm that if the doctrine of the Trinity were to be erased as false, most religious literature could be preserved almost unchanged throughout the process.

The doctrine of the Trinity is both a dogma of the Church and a mystery which we live with, but absolutely we cannot understand it because it is beyond our human knowledge. St. Augustine had tried to grasp it but was made to realize his own foolishness and he had to accept it without query. It is the centre of our Christian faith which any genuine Christian must accept.

This Christian conviction of trinity raises a major problem for the theology, if God is one, how why did sacred scripture and the Churchs creeds affirm a pluralism within God, that in God there is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? If God is one, how can Christ also be God? Similarly if the Holy Spirit is God, how can the three be God without violating the unity of God?

What will be Christs relationship with God the creator, what is the position of the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit divine or the Church only ascribed divinity to Him? What relationship has the spirit with the Father and the Son?

This work is an attempt to revive the consciousness of this mystery in the Christian mind. Thus this work is aimed at representing the doctrine of the trinity not as a polemical discourse but at bringing out the essentials. It is put in simple language understandable for the common man and comprehensible to reason. Hence, it will not have fallen short of its objective if it reawakens a more positive mind-frame towards this mystery as well as a simple understanding of the mystery for the living tradition of the faith of the Church is a constant invitation to reflection.

Though as Augustine has it, the how of the trinity cannot be comprehended, and Barth believes that we must be content to leave the how of Gods Trinity Shrouded in mystery, nonetheless, reason can offer some clarifications of it, though the basic mystery will remain with us while we are pilgrims on the earth. By this we hope to overcome what Rahner calls the anti-Trinitarian Trinity as well as salvage the mystery from the neglect, evasion and division to which it is often subjected to. We thus hope that Christians, through this work, will come to a better appreciation and subsequent living out their faith in the one God who has revealed Himself as Trinity.
THE MYSTERY OF THE HOLY TRINITY 

Each year Trinity Sunday calls us to reflect on the life of God.  All religions recognise that God is beyond every other name, is beyond the reach of all description.  We can never say the final word about God.  There is always more to discover, there is always more to experience. 

In the Christian New Testament especially it has been revealed to us that (1) there are three persons in one God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; (2) that each person of the Trinity is fully God, and (3) that each person of the Trinity is a separate and distinct person. The holy mother church profess: We believe in one God, the Father almighty. We believe in Jesus Christ His only- begotten Son, our Lord.  We believe in the Holy Spirit.
SCHOLARS VIEW   

Over the years scholars have attempt to explain this sublime mystery which raised a great dust since the period of Arius.

Arius was an ascetic Christian presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt, born in Libya, between 250-256 He taught that only God the father was eternal and too pure and infinite to appear on the earth, as such he produced Christ the Son out of nothing as the first and greatest creation, after which the Son created the universe. He further said the sons relationship of the son to the father is not one of nature it is therefore adoptive, the implication of this is that God adopted Christ as the son, though Christ was a creation but because of his great position and authority he was to be worshiped and even looked upon as God. At Jesus incarnation He said that the divine quality of the son, the logos, took the place human and spiritual aspect of Jesus, thereby denying the full and complete incarnation of God the Son the second person of the Trinity.

 Emperor Constantine in 325 convoked the council of Nicaea in response to Arians heresy. Nicaea was a city in the East of the old Roman Empire close to Constantinople, the council of Nicaea refuted Arians doctrine by professing the Nicene Creed that states; the Son was begotten, not made Christ was of the same substance as the Father. Whoever that will henceforth not profess this will be anathematized. The Greek word homoousios (of the same nature) and homoiousios (of similar nature) became controversial but were at last resolved. Being the first council on doctrinal matters, the fathers relied on what Jesus said about himself, what the apostles said about him, the scripture, the sacred tradition and the Doctors of the church, at the end of this great council, Arius was condemned and sent to exile, peace and calmness returned to the church, and at last orthodoxy was restored.
THOMAS AQUINAS ON THE UNITY OF GOD

“It can be shown from these three sources that God is one. First from His simplicity. For it is clear that the reason why any singular thing is “this particular thing” is because it cannot be communicated to many: since that whereby Socrates is a man, can be communicated to many; whereas, what makes him this particular man, is only communicable to one. Therefore, if Socrates were a man by what makes him to be this particular man, as there cannot be many Socrates, so there could not in that way be many men. Now this belongs to God alone; for God Himself is His own nature, as was shown above (Question 3, Article 3). Therefore, in the very same way God is God, and He is this God. Impossible is it therefore that many Gods should exist.

Secondly, this is proved from the infinity of His perfection. For it was shown above (Question 4, Article 2) that God comprehends in Himself the whole perfection of being. If then many gods existed, they would necessarily differ from each other. Something therefore would belong to one which did not belong to another. And if this were a privation, one of them would not be absolutely perfect; but if a perfection, one of them would be without it. So it is impossible for many gods to exist. Hence also the ancient philosophers, constrained as it were by truth, when they asserted an infinite principle, asserted likewise that there was only one such principle.

Thirdly, this is shown from the unity of the world. For all things that exist are seen to be ordered to each other since some serve others. But things that are diverse do not harmonize in the same order, unless they are ordered thereto by one. For many are reduced into one order by one better than by many: because one is the “per se” cause of one, and many are only the accidental cause of one, inasmuch as they are in some way one. Since therefore what is first is most perfect, and is so “per se” and not accidentally, it must be that the first which reduces all into one order should be only one. And this one is God.”
In the first part of his treatise, Millard laid a logical foundation of the sense of the Trinity by way of scriptural argument. It was therefore, established that there is one God in three persons. Hence, it makes sense to talk about this doctrine via the scripture because; the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity cannot be properly explained only by human logic.

He by examining whether it makes sense to talk about this doctrine. He used analogous method of Augustine that is, using image to explain the reality of the trinity. He observed that of all the created objects, only man was made in the image of God. This being the case, if God is triune, the best reflection or analogy to his triune nature would be found in the creature that bears his image.

The concept, perichoresis is applied in order to understand the relation of the triune God. This concept means that there is an internal relationship between the Trinity, that is, what one does is connected to the other.
Rahner, holds that the treatise on the trinity must be connected to man, for him the basic thesis that establish that the Trinity is a mystery of salvation and not simply a doctrine is that the economic trinity is the immanent trinity; and the immanent trinity is the economic trinity. This entails that no adequate distinction can be made between the Trinity and the history of salvation.
 FEMINISTS TRINITARIAN THOUGHT

Feminist theologians are of the opinion that the teachings of classical theologians on the doctrine of the Trinity did not take into account womens religious experiences.  This doctrine of the Trinity according to them is used to sustain the patriarchal subordination of women.  It does this by the use of male image and gender in the explanation of this doctrine.

The exclusive use of male imagery is the first difficulty to surface when the Trinity is addressed from a feminist perspective.  At least two male figures, a Father who generates a Son, breathe fort a third more amorphous figure who is nevertheless referred to as He.  Trinitarian theology focuses on the pattern of relationship between these male envisioned persons, as does liturgy and catechesis.  The evocative power of the deeply masculinized symbol of the Trinity points implicitly to an essential divine maleness, inimical to womens being imago Dei precisely as female.  Giving rise to the uncritically held assumption that maleness is of the essence of the triune God.

According to the feminist theologians it is misleading to think of God as fraternity of male beings who are begetting, spirating and proceeding from one another.  They are asking that this expression be dropped and we start using both male and female gender or imagery, using personal imagery without gender (friend, redeemer), using non person symbols.  They also see the structure of this doctrine as being structured in a hierarchical pattern rather than according to the equality of mutual relations.  Theology has been highly selective in its focus on the Father- Son-Spirit pattern. Feminist theologians are of the view that other options are also realizable; they gave example of Lukan passage where the Father was not the one sending but the Spirit who sent Jesus to bring good news to the poor and proclaim liberty to the oppressed.  The feminist theologians argue that the order in which the Father is seen as the principle from which the other persons of the Trinity proceed from is hierarchical and does not show equality in the persons of the Trinity.

 THE FEMINIST PROPOSAL

The issue at stake in Elizabeth Johnsons argument is how we speak about God; the right way of speaking about God in an experience of woman.  Her intention is to have a reconstructive work into the doctrine of the Trinity and how it is applied; and reshapes the churchs theology and worship.

In her feminist Trinitarian reflection, Johnson proceeds on the assumption that the three persons of the Trinity each transcend the categories of gender since they each cannot be bound by the designations of male and female. According to Johnson each hypostasis may in fact be spoken of in female terminology as equally as male.  As a result of the social ills caused by the oppression of women and the quasi deification of men which has been supported by masculine God-language, however, Johnson asserts that it is necessary to use female terminology for the hypostases of the Trinity.  She therefore uses the designations of mother-Sophia, Jesus-Sophia, and Spirit-Sophia, and Spirit Sophia to speak of the three persons of the Trinity.  While reversing the usual order such that the first person is spoken of last and the last as first: Spirit-Sophia, Jesus-Sophia and mother-Sophia. Thus, her emphasis is on the Spirit, she took the Spirit as the first with the basis of experience.  

Secondly, Elizabeth offers and defends the use of her popular title for Godhead, SHE WHO IS, which she says is a feminist gloss. The root of it coins from Exodus 3:14, where God reveals his name to Moses as I AM WHO I AM. 

The warrants for Johnsons use of SHE WHO IS instead of HE WHO IS, itself which is derived from the divine self-naming in Exodus 3:14, are designated to be linguistic, theological, existential, spiritual, and political. SHE WHO IS: linguistically this is possible; theologically it is legitimate; existentially and religiously it is necessary if speech about God is to shake off the shackles of idolatry and be a blessing for women.Spiritually SHE WHO IS, spoken as the symbol of ultimate reality of the highest beauty and truth and goodness, of the mystery of life in the midst of death, affirms women in their struggle toward dignity, power, and value. It discloses womens human native as Imago Dei, and reveals divine nature to be the relational mystery of life who desires the liberated human existence of all women made in her image. In promoting the flourishing of women SHE WHO IS attends to essential elements for the well-being of all creation, human beings and the earth inclusively. Politically, this symbol challenges every structure and attitude that assigns superiority to ruling men on the basis of their supposed greater God likeness.

Furthermore, Elizabeth proposed language which she claims that will generate new content or new experience.  She says, If we do not construct language which will generate new content, Christianity may wither and fade as a result: if the idea of God does not keep pace with developing reality, power of experience pulls people on and the god dies, fading from memory.  Feminist theology is thus the savior of Christianity for the contemporary moment. This salvation requires that we construct new religious language that will meditate the same pre-linguistic experience that is mediated in the traditional but patriarchal and this ultimately defeating religious language.

Pope Francis on the Trinity

Every year, the light of Easter renews in us the joy and wonder of faith.  We recognise that God is not something vague.  Our God is not smoke.  He is concrete; not an abstraction but having a name: God is Love.  Not some sentimental or affective love, but the love of the Father who is the origin of all life; the love of the Son who dies upon the cross and rises again; the love of the Spirit, who renews humanity and the world.    Understanding that God is love does us much good, because it teaches us to love, to give ourselves to others as Jesus gave himself to us and walks with us.

The Most Holy Trinity is not a product of human reasoning. It is the face with which God revealed himself, not from a cathedra on high, but walking with humanity.  It is Jesus who revealed the Father to us and who promises us the Holy Spirit who teaches us everything we dont know, who guides us from within, who gives us good ideas and good inspiration. 
WHAT I THINK

We refer to this revelation as the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. A mystery is a truth which God has made known to us and which we would not otherwise have discovered.  What it means to have three Persons in one ‘Being’ is something we do not even try to understand, just as it is difficult to understand how Jesus can be both God and human (the Mystery of the Incarnation).  But we get some inkling if we confine ourselves to reflecting on what each of the Persons in the Trinity DOES as a clue to what they are.

FATHER: When traditionally Scripture speaks of God as Father, we know that in God there can be no gender differences and we call God Father in the sense of the parent who gives us life and nurture. God as Father is the originator, the source, the conserver of all life, of all that exists.

We see God as Father, a loving and compassionate Father.  Not a daunting patriarchal figure operating in the clouds, but one that is easily approached and who can be addressed by the familiar and intimate term Abba. He is the creator and giver of life.   Everything good that can be discerned in the world around us comes from him and through him.  He is the one who cares, the one who waits for the Prodigal to return and forgives completely and immediately.  He is the Father of truth, the Father of love and compassion, the Father of justice.  The whole of this beautiful world in which we live is a testimony and, at the same time, only a faint indication of what he really is.

SON: We know the Son, of course best through Jesus, born of Mary in Bethlehem.  In him there was the mysterious combination the divine and human on one Person, a truth as far beyond our comprehension as the Trinity itself.  We see the Son as God, who in an extraordinary way came to live among us and whom, in a paradox beyond all understanding, we humans killed. Despite all its injustice and brutality, the gift of Jesus in the Passion was a glorious revelation of love. Jesus is the unveiling of our God in human form.  In Jesus, the Son of God, as a human being, we can see, hear and touch God.  We see something of the nature of the Father as Jesus identifies with the weak, heals the physically and mentally sick and socialises with the sinful; in his compassion for the social outcast, the needy, the sinner; in forgiving the sinner and his enemies, in his unconditional acceptance of all, irrespective of class, religion or gender.  We also see him challenge the dehumanising values that form the fabric of most of our lives.  Though he is God, he empties himself of all human dignity that he might open to us the way to true and unending life.

SPIRIT: We see God as indwelling Spirit becoming, as it were the soul of Gods people. All our evangelising work, our works of social development and social welfare, our care of the sick, the weak, the oppressed and the outcast – all the good that we do; every act of truth and integrity, every act of human empathy, every act of solidarity, forgiveness, acceptance, justice in people all are the work of the Gods Spirit working in and through us.  Wherever there is genuine loving, there is the Spirit of God at work.

And yet, being aware of all this, we still cannot say that we know our God.  But there is enough here if we pray and reflect on it  that is already overpowering in its significance. In the Trinity, our minds are brought into contact with the complexity and wonder of God.   Maybe to be sceptical or incredulous is to be grudging in the presence of greatness.  After all, we shield our eyes from the sun, not to deny but to acknowledge!!  Those who presume to simplify God pay him no compliment.

All beings cast a shadow and the greater the being the greater the shadow.

A God without mystery would be a God without claim to our reverence.  (Father McNabb)

To try to explain this mystery of Christian faith, St Ignatius of Loyola used the image of three separate musical notes when played together produce a single chord or harmony pleasing to the ears.   These three notes are all different; each has a different wavelength, yet each is equal within the chord.  The three notes work together in joyful combination. You cannot quite determine where one ends and another begins within the wash of sound.  The notes are three expressions of the one energy. Others have used the image of water in three different forms i.e. solid (ice) liquid (rain) and gas (steam) to reflect the uniqueness and yet the relatedness of each person of the Trinity.

The three persons of the Trinity were involved in the Baptism of the Lord  the Father voicing approval of the Son; the Son himself about to be baptised; the Spirit, symbolised by the dove.

Christ made it clear: The Father and I are one (John 10:30).  Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9), and of the Spirit he would say: When the Paraclete comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who issues from the Father, he will be my witness. (John 15:26).  And it is in the name of the three distinct persons that the apostles are ordered to baptise: … baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  (Matthew 28:19)

Think of how often in our prayer we call on the Trinity.  We usually begin by making the sign of the cross.  Our Mass begins, our babies and our adults are baptised and our blessings are imparted in the name of the Holy Trinity. The decades of the rosary end with Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.  Every official prayer of the Church ends by making our petitions to the Father, through the Son, ‘in the Holy Spirit’. Do you think we should begin all our enterprises in our own name only? 

What if God concealed the Trinity from us, he would not have admitted us to his inner life, made us his intimate friends. By revealing it, God was not out to confuse; he meant to confide, to reveal his startling nature to us.

In the beginning there was ‘the original community’ of the Trinity, three persons at home in one God. This community is marked by equality, by familiarity, by closeness, by diversity and by loving unity. Wouldnt it be great if the human community could be recognised by these qualities?

Pause frequently when making the Sign of the Cross, thinking of the love of God poured into your heart.  
CONCLUSION

The mystery of the Triune God is the most sublime and greatest mystery of the Christian faith. It is the foundation on which Christianity stands and without which it falls. We can never have come to the knowledge of this mystery without Gods gratuitous revelation of it, a fact which culminated in the paschal mystery of the God-man Jesus.

Gods intent for this revelation was borne out of His desire that we share in the divine life but contrary to the divine intent the attitude of most Christians, theologies alike, to this mystery can best be described as indifferent and for some the mystery should be jettisoned. It is against this backdrop that this essay sought to affirm the churchs teaching on this mystery, especially the import of the Trinitarian community in todays world bedeviled by dissension, disunity and rancor. The example of the Trinity shines out and teaches us that despite our differences in language, color, religion, etc, we can still be united just like the Trinitarian persons, who while being distinct are yet one.

Fr Lawrence Sdv.

My convocation day

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St Michael The Consoler of poor Souls

ST. MICHAEL THE CONSOLER OF SOULS
In order to properly analyze and present the role of Archangel Michael as the consoler of souls, one must first understand angels, their nature, and their office.

ANGELS
The word ‘angel’ is derived from the Greek word ‘angelos’ which is the translation of the Hebrew word ‘mal’kah’ and in Latin ‘angelus’ all of which mean “messenger from God or Legate”. They were viewed at first as the personification of the will of God, then as members of a Heavenly Host, that is, army of the court of God the King.

THE NATURE OF ANGELS
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, angels are purely spiritual creatures who have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness.

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS
Ministry is defined as the work of a minister, and a minister is a person who cares for somebody.
Scott Hahn in his work “angels” presents the ministry of angels as to announce the divine will; to rebuke, encourage, assist, punish, teach and to execute judgment. They serve as key mediators between God and man. For instance, angels were sent by God to assist a number of individuals: Hagar(Gen. 16:7, 21:17), Abraham (Gen. 18, 22:11), Jacob( Gen. 28:12) and so on.

HIERARCHY OF ANGELS
Here is a fascinating and interesting area about angels. Indeed there are hierarchies and orders among angels. In fact, scriptures list various types of angels, and not all angels are equal.
St. Thomas Aquinas, a great master of the system refined the list and divided angels based on how near they are to God this way;
The Supreme Hierarchy
Seraphim – Cherubim – Thrones
Middle Hierarchy
Dominations – Virtues – Powers
Lower Hierarchy
Principalities – Archangels – Angels

The first three levels see and adore God directly
The Seraphim is the highest choir, comprehend God with maximum clarity, and their love flames the hottest (Seraphim means the burning ones). Lucifer, the light bearer belongs to this and he was powerful and is still powerful.
The Cherubim contemplate God too, function as attendants of God. (Cherubim means fullness of wisdom and with admirable knowledge)
The Thrones contemplate God’s power and Judgment. Thrones mean juridical power.
The next three choirs fulfill God’s providential plans for the universe
The dominions command the lesser angels below them.
The virtues receive their orders from the dominions and run the universe, especially the heavenly bodies.
The Powers serve the virtues by fighting against evil influences that oppose the Virtue’s providential plan.
The last three choirs directly order human affairs, they are like warriors
The Principalities care for the earthly cities, nations and kingdoms.
The Archangels carry out God’s important messages to man.
Angels are ordinarily guardians. One for each individual.

PURGATORY
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines Purgatory as a “purification so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven”, which is experienced by those” who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified” (CCC1030). It notes that “this final purification of the elect…is entirely different from the punishment of the damned” (CCC 1031).
The purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches, nothing unclean will enter the presence of God in heaven (Rev. 21:27) and, while we may die with our mortal sins forgiven, there can still be many impurities in us, specifically venial sins and the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven.
CONSOLER OF THE POOR SOULS
“The prince of the heavenly Militia,” says St. Anselm, “is all-powerful in purgatory and he can assist the poor souls whom the justice and sanctity of the almighty retain in this place of punishment”. “It is incontestably recognized since the foundation of Christianity,” declares St. Robert Belarmine, “that the souls of the faithful departed are delivered from purgatory through the intercession of St. Michael the Archangel.” Let us add to these authorities the words of St. Alphonsus Ligouri: “St. Michael has received the care of consoling and helping the souls in purgatory.”
In her beautiful prayers in the mass for the dead, the church places the souls of the departed in the hands of St. Michael, that he may lead them into the kingdom of everlasting light. Since St. Michael is so solicitous for the welfare of souls during their lifetime as at the hour of death, we may be certain that he will also befriend them during their stay in purgatory and will hasten to bring them consolation.
A Cistern monk appeared to his priest friend shortly after his death and told him he would be delivered from purgatory if during Holy Mass the priest would recommend his soul to St. Michael. The priest complied with his request, and he, together with others present gad the consolation of seeing the soul of his friend taken to heaven by the Archangel.
It is told that a certain priest one day while offering the holy sacrifice for the dead recommended some souls I a particular manner when pronouncing the words ; “may the prince of the Angels, St. Michael, lead them into the glory of heaven”. At the same time he saw the glorious Archangel descend from heaven into purgatory to deliver those souls and to conduct them into paradise.
Let us be encouraged by these examples to invoke St. Michael frequently on behalf of our departed loved ones, and in particular to recommend them to his powerful intercession during the celebration of the Holy Mass.