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Catholicism Week 6The Mystery of God Part 2

Catholic theology declares to the whole world that God and God alone created all things…but it doesn’t stop there. We further declare that God created all things from nothing. At first glance that seems simple enough, but compare that to Greek mythology.

Greek Mythology "Myths of origin" or "creation myths" represent an attempt to explain the beginnings of the universe in human language. The most widely accepted version at the time, although a philosophical account of the beginning of things, is reported by Hesiod, in his Theogony. He begins with Chaos, a yawning nothingness. Out of the void emerged Gaia (the Earth) and some other primary divine beings: Eros (Love), the Abyss (the Tartarus), and the Erebus. Without male assistance, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the Sky) who then fertilized her. From that union were born first the Titans—six males: Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus; and six females: Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis, and Tethys. After Cronus was born, Gaia and Uranus decreed no more Titans were to be born. They were followed by the one-eyed Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires or Hundred-Handed Ones, who were both thrown into Tartarus by Uranus. This made Gaia furious. Cronus ("the wily, youngest and most terrible of Gaia's children"), was convinced by Gaia to castrate his father. He did this, and became the ruler of the Titans with his sister-wife Rhea as his consort, and the other Titans became his court. (Greek Mythology, Wikipedia 2019) Is it any wonder that 98% of Greeks today are members of the Greek Orthodox Church.

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Our creed says, “We believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” We believe that God is love, and love only seeks the good of others, that is the opposite of imposing the selfish desires of titans and super human beings on creation and all the weaker creatures of this earth. Life for us as Christians is an effervescent overflow of God’s divine life celebrating the boundless love and life that He is. Greek gods created out

of their own selfish needs, our Father and creator did not need us, He did not lack anything…instead He created out of a desire to love His creation, and all the creatures that He had brought into existence.

But make no mistake, we are not deists either, believing that God remotely created all of creation, set it in motion, and then left it to fend for itself. Thomas Aquinas speaks of God as a perpetual creator, one who is creating all the time and involved in all of life…He is the great “I am”. As Christians and Catholics, we do not see this journey of life as the climbing a great tall mountain up to a distant God, but instead discovering God’s presence all around us, and within us, seeing His powerful arms embracing us as we journey in this life together. God told Moses to climb the mountain in ancient times, but Jesus said this, Matthew 11:28–30 (RSV2CE) 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

We think of our parents as our creators, and certainly they were, but God said this to the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1:5 (RSV2CE) 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Our Catholic theology would say that God continued to create Jeremiah his entire life…and the same goes for each one of us. Every one of us here this morning is a work in

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progress, and that creative process will continue for the rest of our lives. He is the potter and we are the clay, we need to embrace that truth and yield all of your life to God…then and only then we will know true freedom. Where do you think all the creative power of human

beings comes from? Listen to this incredible passage from the Book of Wisdom speaking about the wisdom that God is, Wisdom of Solomon 7:25–30 (RSV2CE) 25 For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. 26 For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. 27 Though she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets; 28 for God loves nothing so much as the man who lives with wisdom. 29 For she is more beautiful than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is found to be superior, 30 for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail.

The genius and wisdom that God is, is not finished with you. You and I are still being created. I am reminded of that great painting of George Washington that was never finished. I loved that picture that hung in my elementary school. The incredible workmanship of the artist is clearly seen in what he was able to complete. Ephesians 2:10 (RSV2CE) 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Here is the meaning of the word “workmanship”, the degree of skill evident in something, in the process of making it. We are handiwork of God, his

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artistry oozes from everyone of you here this morning. Some are oozing a little more than others. God loves each one of us right where we are at in this life, but He also loves us too much to leave us there. I have probably said that dozens of times here at OFC University, Jackie always reminds me of things I say over and over. But I am going to keep on telling you that, till you begin to believe it…it is so important. You cannot move on in your journey into God until you believe that He loves you right where you are at, right here and right now, just as you are.

Now we turn to a very difficult discussion intertwined with the mystery of God, a very important question that we all have to deal with in this life on earth…why is there evil in the world? Bishop gives us two arguments that question the very

existence of a loving God. The first is a 19th century British philosopher by the name of John Stuart Mill. His logic stated that if God is omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful), and omnibenevolent (all goodness), then evil should not exist. His omniscience says He must know everything about evil, His omnipotence tells us that He has the power to do something about it, and His omnibenevolence says He would want to do something about evil. But evil still exists in this world…therefore…there is no God that is infinite goodness, infinite power, and infinite knowledge. Aquinas proposed something like that, if one of two

opposites are infinite, infinite good or infinite evil, one should cancel out the other. Either infinite goodness should wipe out all evil, or infinite evil should wipe out all goodness. Since both good and evil obviously still exist, God cannot be infinite good, or He would have wiped out all evil. Both of those are strong arguments, and this mystery of evil is the very reason a whole lot of people believe that there is no God. What would you say to those people?

Bishop takes us to a center of pure evil that existed during WWII, the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Poland. I cannot imagine what Bishop Barron felt as he visited that horrible place. You can almost feel the evil just watching the video. Bishop’s explanation of why there is evil in the world, seems inadequate at the very least. To try and explain evil as nothing in and of itself, but instead an absence of good is very hard for me to grasp. I catch of glimpse of that understanding when I

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consider darkness and light. The idea is that darkness does not exist in and of itself, but instead should be seen as simply an absence of light. After all, lighting the smallest candle in the darkest place, overcomes the darkness as if it was not there at all. That helps a little. To be honest, St. Augustine’s explanation, along with Aquinas and a host of others makes it even more difficult to understand at first glance. God allows evil to bring about a greater good… How does that sit with you?

Bishop finally comes to my rescue when he begins to explain that evil has to be seen in a larger context…a much larger context…it has to be seen from God’s point of view. Here’s the problem with that right out of the box, the only person in the universe that can look at things from God’s point of view…is God. At least I think I can see the possibility of what Bishop is trying to say. Still, when evil comes at you personally, it is a hard thing to put into context. Most of us can only truly see it from our point of view. Losing the mother of my young kids at 38 years old did not make any sense to me…still doesn’t. But I am the first to admit I am not able to see things as God sees them. And as I am listening to Bishop Barron explain all of this, I could almost guess where in the Bible he was going to end up…good old Job. I even knew what chapter he was going to quote from. This whole afib thing that I am going through right now is forcing me to look at all of this in a much bigger context. But it isn’t easy for me…I am still right in the middle of this mess. Job lost everything, his family, his livelihood, his health, and his dignity was hanging on by a thread. He sat for a whole week on top of a heap of ash totally silent along with three of his friends. They finally started accusing Job of sinning in some way to explain what brought all of this upon himself…but Job knew better. He finally runs all of his friends off…who needs friends like that anyway.

Job cries out to God, and he demands an explanation. Don’t you know that most of us can remember a time in our lives where we wanted to demand some

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answers from God. I doubt that most of us could claim to have lost all that Job had lost…and Auschwitz imprisoned thousands upon thousands of Jobs, all of whom had lost everything. Job 38:1–21 (RSV2CE) 1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: 2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall

declare to me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7 when

the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth from the womb; 9 when I made clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; 10 and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, 11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’? 12 “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, 13 that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? 14 It is changed like clay under the seal, and it is dyed like a garment. 15 From the wicked their light is withheld, and their uplifted arm is broken. 16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? 18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this. 19 “Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness, 20 that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? 21 You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!

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I know better than to question God, but there are times in my life when I still do. To further make his point, Bishop shows us a painting by a famous “pointillist” artist from 19th century France. This artist painted using only tiny points of paint that close up look like smudges painted in random, no images are discernable. But step back several feet and everything comes into focus. Bishop compares all of us as the ones with our noses right up close to the canvas…but God is the one that see things from several feet away. His “dog in the library” example also helped a bit to understand all that we can see as human beings, and how much of what we see…we cannot possibly understand. But I have to say, all of what Bishop is saying still leaves me wanting…wanting more understanding. Then Bishop turned to the cross, and the mystery of God and the mystery of evil began to come into focus. On that Roman cross the darkest evil on the planet crashed into the limitless love that God is. It is as if God was saying to all of mankind, “I know you don’t understand why evil exists, but can you at least understand that all darkness, and all evil…cannot win, will not win, and did not win on that Roman cross where they murdered my Son.” The Father allowed His only Son to sacrifice Himself, taking into Himself all the darkness of all our sin, into His own body…and praise God, death died that day. Death, hell, and the grave…the greatest evils of all were obliterated by the limitless love of God. Name all the horrific evils of this world and realize Jesus took all of them into Himself, He died on that cross, only to rise again three days later. The cross is our hope over whatever evil we must face in this lifetime. And don’t ever forget, all that Job lost was returned to him twice over…evil cannot and will not win.

Last, but not least by any means, is the mystery of the Trinity. Christianity is unique among all the world religions, and we acknowledge that every time we

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cross ourselves with the sign of the cross. Yes, God is one, but there is communion going on in His oneness between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Even though the Old Testament hints at the Trinity, it was Jesus’ life and his teaching that opened up the

flood gates of Trinitarian revelation. First, He declared to the world that His Father sent Him. But that just put Him in the same class as Abraham, and Moses, and David…sent and empowered by God. But Jesus went much further than just proclaiming that He had been sent by the Father, He shocked the world by declaring that He was the divine Son of God. He told his followers, “if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” In those days that kind of talk could get you killed…and it did. All of that is amazing enough, but Jesus was not done yet. He then promised at the end of His ministry to send the disciples the God the Holy Spirit that was just like Him…in fact it was Him…in Spirit form. Of course, his disciples did not understand any of this at the time. It would take a good long time to put all the pieces of the Trinity puzzle together, and begin to make sense of it. It took the Fathers of the Church centuries to just begin to talk about God as Trinity. All the first believers were Jews, they grew up declaring that God was “one”. But here comes Jesus and He boldly claims to be the Son of God, and that God was His Father. And shortly after He ascended into heaven, here comes God the Holy Spirit…entering into them and empowering them to live as sons and daughters of God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Bishop went through an elaborate discussion of St. Augustine’s example of seeing the Trinity as the mind and how we think about ourselves. It is easier for me to think about ourselves as body, soul, and spirit. You cannot separate one from the other two, or we are no longer a person. Yet I know the person I am lives in a body, and I am aware that I have a will, emotions and a mind that I recognize as my soul allowing me to live out a life aware of my being, I know…therefore I am. And…I am spirit, filled with the essence of God…made in His image. Take my body away, no Tim Oglesby. Take my soul away, Tim has disappeared. No spirit…Tim has left the building. I am three in one…body, soul, and spirit. God is three in one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Can someone say Amen!