COLEGIO DE SANTA CATALINA DE ALEJANDRIA

Bp. Epifanion B. Surban St., Dumaguete City

College of Liberal Arts Education

Course Code THEO 3

Course Title DOGMA/UNDERSTANDING ONE’S FAITH

This course tackles fundamental Christian background, explanation,

and teachings about doctrines and dogmas of the Church. The
Course Description dynamics of this course will not only be limited to informative aspect
of learning; integration of these teachings into one’s life – faith in
practice.

1. Discuss what are the fundamental doctrines and dogmas of

the Church.
2. Understand the fundamental rationale behind the beliefs
and practices of the Church.
3. Discover the biblical and traditional foundation of Christian
Course Objectives
teachings.
4. Reflect on the reason of these teachings’ essentiality to our
life as People of God.
5. Integrate the learnings of this course into the student’s
Christian life.

Portfolio of Activities
Course Requirements
Major Examinations

The total formation of the human person in the quest for

COSCA Philosophy of Education knowledge and truth and search for meaning, enlightened by Faith,
the good of the human family and in view of man’s ultimate end.

We envision COSCA as a Christ-Centered, Premier Diocesan

Catholic Educational Institution, Transformative in Christian
COSCA Vision
Leadership and Service, Enhancing the Family, Church, and Society
in the Midst of a Fast-Changing Word.

We provide and impart a Catholic education that is Christ-centered

and competency-based, holistic and transformative, through
appropriate use of relevant pedagogy and technology.

We equip students with globally-responsive knowledge, attitudes,

and skills that are based on Christian principles and values.
COSCA Mission
We engage in research-based community projects for people
empowerment and nation-building.

We advocate and promote the protection and preservation of

Mother Earth, our common home, through responsible
stewardship.
 1. Fides, Spes, Caritas – We believe, We hope, We love
2. Truth and Wisdom
3. Mission and Evangelization
COSCA Core Values 4. Discipleship
5. Stewardship
6. Empowerment
7. Christian Service

1. You need to read and understand the lessons and its

instructions in the module.
2. A learning management system (LMS) will be used for
Course Policy academic purposes.
3. Ask necessary questions.
4. Be a free but responsible.
5. Follow the Golden Rule taught by our Lord Jesus.
Course Outline
Topics:
1. Dogma, Doctrine, and Theology
Prelim 2. Existence of God
3. The Holy Trinity

Topics:
4. The Incarnation and the Divine Maternity of Mary
Midterm
5. Marian Dogmas
6. The Real Presence in the Eucharist

Topics:
7. The Resurrection of the Dead
Final
8. Life Everlasting: Destination and Judgment
9. Life Everlasting: Heaven, Purgatory, Hell

Class Standing (Activities and other Written Outputs) – 60%

Grading System
Major Exam (Prelim, Midterm, Finals) – 40%

References:
Akin, Jimmy. (Sept. 18, 2012) What Are Dogma, Doctrine, and Theology? National Catholic Registry. Accessed from https://www.ncregister.com/blog/what-
are-dogma-doctrine-and-theology?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIta6QmuaT8gIVxZVLBR1zog3LEAAYASAAEgJTtvD_BwE.
A Question on Faith: What is Dogma? It comes from Authority. The Catholic Telegraph published April 2, 2019.
Retrieved from https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/a-question-of-faith-what-is-dogma-it-comes-from-authority/57035.
Dr. Ott, L (1974). Fundamentals of Dogma. Tan Books and Publishers, Inc. Retrieved from
http://www.catholicfirst.com/thefaith/churchdocuments/dogmas.html.
Fr. Hardon, J. A., S.J. The Real Presence. © 2002. Retrieved from http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/realpres/realpres.htm.
Fr. Northcote, J. S., D.D. (1885). The Incarnation and Divine Maternity of Mary. Retrieved from http://catholicharboroffaithandmorals.com/Incarnation.html.
Fr. Roten, J. G., SM. From the article Marian Dogmas – An Overview by Retrieved from https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/d/dogmas-marian-overview.php#p1.
Just, F. SJ, PhD. The Trinity in the New Testament by. Retrieved from https://catholic-resources.org/Bible/Trinity.htm.
Kreeft, P. (2000) The Everlasting Life: Part One Section 10 of Catholic Christianity. Catholic Information Service, Knights of Columbus Supreme Council: New
Haven, Connecticut. p. 5-22.
Maas, A. (1911). General Resurrection. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved from
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12792a.htm.
Staples, T. (June 20, 2014). Explaining the Trinity: Catholic Answers. Retrieved from https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/explaining-the-
trinity.

Prepared by:

Bernard John T. Garcia

Noted:

Dr. Ma. Lina R. Eparwa Dr. Consolacion C. Unabia

VP – Academic Affairs Dean
 LESSON 1

Learning Objectives:

✓ To know the definition and identify the difference of the terms “dogma,” “doctrine,” and “theology.”
✓ To familiarize the important elements and the process of declaring and ascertaining a doctrine or dogma.
✓ To be aware of present challenges not only on criticisms raced by secular society, but also the tedious
process necessary prior to the ascertaining and promulgation of a dogma.

Article: DOGMA, DOCTRINE, THEOLOGY AND CHALLENGES1

A dogma is a belief handed down as true by an authority. We frequently think of dogmas in matters of faith,
but dogma can also be philosophical or political. Various religions, including Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam,
emphasize correct belief or understanding, proposing a form of dogma.

But more so than any other religious tradition, Christianity is connected with dogma (and the related concept
of doctrine). In the context of Catholicism, a dogma is divinely-revealed teaching that is proclaimed by the Church’s
teaching authority (often called the magisterium, from the Latin word for teacher). Dogmas are the essential
teachings of the Church and are often proclaimed by a council of the Church or by a pope when he explicitly states
his pronouncement is dogmatic (as opposed to other kinds of papal teachings).

For Catholics, dogmas must be believed since they are of divine revelation, which is to say they are found in
sacred Scripture or tradition (or both). These teachings are considered infallible and binding on all believers now
and in the future; this is to say that the church’s dogmatic teachings are true and cannot change. Through the
pronouncement of dogmas, the church witnesses to divinely revealed truths, but does not create these truths.
Dogmas are always drawn from God’s revelation, and additional dogmas can be declared as the Church deepens its
understanding of revealed truth.

Many ask if there is a particular list of dogmas. Some theologians have numbered the dogmas of the Church
at more than 200. They include foundational beliefs such as Jesus’ two natures (God and man), Jesus’ resurrection
from the dead, the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus at Mass, and the bodily
assumption of Mary (a relatively recently declared dogma). These truths taken together are foundational for
Christian belief, but an emphasis on particular dogmas should not lead us away from proclaiming the entirety of the
faith lest a focus on the parts obscures the whole.

Dogma is frequently confused with other levels of Church teaching. Not all Church teachings are dogmatic.
Though they are sometimes used interchangeably, doctrine is a more general term use to describe a wider breadth
of Church teachings, not just those dogmatically defined which must be believed by all the faithful. Not all doctrines
are infallible or unchangeable. Put more simply: all dogmas are doctrinal; not all doctrines are dogmatic. Other
Church “teachings” are not teachings, but disciplines or practices (such as fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good
Friday), which are neither dogma nor doctrine.

In our relativistic culture, holding to any irreformable ideas, especially religious truths, has come under
criticism.

In separate cases in 2017 and 2018, Catholic judicial nominees were criticized for firmly holding and
adhering to the dogmas of the Catholic faith. In these cases, Catholic belief was considered – at least by some –
evidence of “extremism.”

The dogmas of the Church testify to the faith of Catholics and witness to the constancy of the Church’s
teaching. The culture may judge a dogma on the basis of what it says, but the Church has long judged dogma on the

1
From the articles A Question on Faith: What is Dogma? It comes from Authority from The Catholic Telegraph published April 2,
2019; and, Jimmy Akin. What Are Dogma, Doctrine, and Theology? from the National Catholic Registry published Sept. 18, 2012,
respectively
basis of its source. For that reason, dogmas need not align neatly with cultural, social, or political attitudes or
positions since they rest on a higher authority as truths that God has revealed.

What Is Theology?

The broadest of the three categories is theology. The name "theology" is derived from a couple of Greek
words (theos and logos) which combine to mean "the study of God."

You could study God in different ways, though. You might study him based on what he has revealed in his
word, which is found in sacred Scripture and sacred Tradition. Or you could study him in other ways, such as using
philosophical reasoning without divine revelation--the way that Plato and Aristotle did.

To keep the philosophical study of God separate from theology, it is customary to add a qualifier and say that
theology is the study of God based on divine revelation. That's the standard, brief definition of what theology is (see,
for example, the glossary at the back of an English edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church).

You'll note that it does not say anything about who is studying God. You don't, for example, have to be the
pope or even a bishop to do theology. Some people--theologians--do it professionally, and others do it informally.

In the broadest sense, any person who is reasoning about God based on divine revelation is doing theology –
though that's very far from saying that they are doing it well, as the enormous amount of theological confusion that
is out there illustrates.

Precisely because of that theological confusion, God has given the Church a teaching authority – the
Magisterium (from the Latin, magister = teacher).

What Is Doctrine?

The term "doctrine" comes from the Latin word doctrina, which simply means "teaching." As used today, though, the
word means a bit more than that. Ideas developed by a faithful Catholic theologian may represent Catholic theology
but that do not make them Catholic doctrine. For that the intervention of the Magisterium is needed, so a basic
definition of the term is that a doctrine is a proposition (or set of propositions) taught by the Magisterium of the
Church.

In some cases the term "doctrine" may be used to refer to things that have been infallibly taught by the
Magisterium. It may even be used as a synonym for "dogma," but it is easy to show that this is not always the case.

For example, the Code of Canon Law provides that:

Can. 749 §3. No doctrine is understood as defined infallibly unless this is manifestly evident.

All dogmas are infallibly defined, as we will see, so this reveals that there can be doctrines that are not
infallible and thus that are not dogmas.

What Is Dogma?

The Greek word dogma originally meant "opinion," but it has come to mean something much more specific.
The current understanding of "dogma" arose in the 1700s (so be warned that earlier documents, such as the writings
of the Fathers or Medievals like St. Thomas Aquinas tend to use the term in the broader sense of just a theological
opinion).

Cardinal Avery Dulles explains the present meaning of the term:

 In current Catholic usage, the term “dogma” means a divinely revealed truth, proclaimed as such by the
infallible teaching authority of the Church, and hence binding on all the faithful without exception, now
and forever. [The Survival of Dogma, 153].

There are two essential elements here:

First, a dogma must be divinely revealed. That is to say, it must be found explicitly or implicitly in the
deposit of faith that Christ gave the Church. This is found in sacred Scripture and sacred Tradition. If something is to
be a dogma, it must be in one of those two places--or in both of them.

Second, a dogma must be infallibly taught by the Magisterium as divinely revealed. This is an important
qualifier, because the Magisterium is capable of infallibly defining certain things that aren't divinely revealed.
According to Church teaching, the Magisterium is able to infallibly teach both things that have been divinely revealed
and truths that have a certain kind of connection with them, so that they may be properly explained and defended.

Dogmatic Facts?

For example, suppose a particular pope or ecumenical council tried to infallibly define a particular teaching
but that later a question arose about whether he was really a valid pope or whether it was really an ecumenical
council.

If the Magisterium did not have the ability to infallibly settle that question, then the status of the previous
definition would be uncertain, which would defeat the point of infallibly defining it.

To resolve this kind of situation, God gave the Church the ability not only to define dogmas but also the fact
that a particular man was a valid pope or that a particular council was ecumenical.

These facts were not revealed by God as part of the deposit of faith that Christ gave the Church, though.
They're facts that deals with later history, after the close of public revelation.

Still, they are facts that are necessary to properly defend a dogma, and so they are called "dogmatic facts"
(facts connected with dogmas).

This is just one kind of example of non-revealed things that the Church can infallibly define. There are others.
The point, though, is that the Church can infallibly define certain things that are not divinely revealed and thus things
other than dogmas.

Thus, for the Church to define a dogma, it must not only infallibly teach that a particular point is true but that
it is a divinely revealed truth.

From Theology to Dogma

The Church is not in the habit of leaping straight to the dogma stage. It tends to define dogmas only rarely,
and usually only when there is a controversy about them that needs to be settled.

Most of the time it leaves particular matters at the level of non-infallible doctrine. Or it leaves it as a matter
freely discussed by theologians but not taught by the Church—i.e., at the level of a theological opinion.

Historically, the progression often works like this:

1. A theologian or theological school proposes a way of understanding the revelation God has given the Church.
2. If it deems this a valuable and important contribution to the understanding of divine revelation, the
Magisterium may begin to teach this authoritatively, raising it to the level of non-infallible doctrine.
3. Particularly if a controversy over the teaching arises at some point in Church history, the Magisterium may
choose to settle the matter infallibly by defining the matter.
 4. The Magisterium may infallibly define the matter with or without defining that it is a divinely revealed truth,
but if it does the latter then then it elevates the matter to the level of dogma.

Activity for Lesson 1 – Guide Questions:

Instructions: Answer the following questions in your own words coming from you have learned from the lessons,
in sentence form.

1. What is the difference between a dogma and a doctrine?

2. What is the role of theology in the proclamation of a dogma or in teaching a doctrine?

3. What is the process of promulgating a dogma?

4. What is considered to be a challenge with regards to teaching religious truth such as doctrines and
dogmas?

5. What is the source or basis of a dogma or doctrine taught and stood by the Church?
 LESSON 2

Learning Objectives:

✓ To know the capacity and limitations as well as the attributes a person can refer to God.
✓ To highlight the qualities attributed to God present in prayers or songs found in the various facets of
Christian faith.
✓ To become more sincere and mindful whenever talking about God, the maker of the universe.

Article: EXISTENCE OF GOD2

The Natural Knowability of the Existence of God

1. God, our Creator and Lord, can be known with certainty, by the natural light of reason from created things.
(De fide.)
2. The Existence of God can be proved by means of causality. (Sent. fidei proxima.)

The Supernatural Knowability of the Existence of God

1. God's existence is not merely an object of natural rational knowledge, but also an object of supernatural
faith. (De fide.)

The Nature of God

The Knowledge of the Nature of God

2. Our natural knowledge of God in this world is not as immediate, intuitive cognition, but a mediate,
abstractive knowledge, because it is attained through the knowledge of creatures. (Sent. certa.)
3. Our knowledge of God here below is not proper (cognitio propia) but analogical (cognitio analoga or
analogica). (Sent. certa.)
4. God's Nature is incomprehensible to men. (De fide.)
5. The blessed in Heaven possess an immediate intuitive knowledge of the Divine Essence. (De fide.)
6. The Immediate Vision of God transcends the natural power of cognition of the human soul, and is therefore
supernatural. (De fide.)
7. The soul, for the Immediate Vision of God, requires the light of glory. (De fide. D 475.)
8. God's Essence is also incomprehensible to the blessed in Heaven. (De fide.)

The Attributes or Qualities of God

The Attributes of God in General

1. The Divine Attributes are really identical among themselves and with the Divine Essence. (De fide.)

The Attributes of the Divine Being

1. God is absolutely perfect. (De fide.)

2. God is actually infinite in every perfection. (De fide.)
3. God is absolutely simple. (De fide.)
4. There is only One God. (De fide.)
5. The One God is, in the ontological sense, The True God. (De fide.)
6. God possesses an infinite power of cognition. (De fide.)
7. God is absolute Veracity. (De fide.)
8. God is absolutely faithful. (De fide.)
9. God is absolute ontological Goodness in Himself and in relation to others. (De fide.)

2
From Dr. Ludwig Ott’s The Fundamentals of Dogma (published by Tan Books and Publisher, Inc. ©1974).
 10. God is absolute Moral Goodness or Holiness. (De fide.) D 1782.
11. God is absolute Benignity. (De fide.) D1782.
12. God is absolute Beauty. D1782.
13. God is absolutely immutable. (De fide.)
14. God is eternal. (De fide.)
15. God is immense or absolutely immeasurable. (De fide.)
16. God is everywhere present in created space. (De fide.)

The Attributes of the Divine Life

1. God's knowledge is infinite. (De fide.)

2. God's knowledge is purely and simply actual.
3. God's knowledge is subsistent
4. God's knowledge is comprehensive
5. God's knowledge is independent of extra-divine things
6. The primary and formal object of the Divine Cognition is God Himself. (Scientia contemplationis)
7. God knows all that is merely possible by the knowledge of simple intelligence (scientia simplicis
intelligentiae). (De fide.)
8. God knows all real things in the past, the present and the future (Scientia visionis). (De fide.)
9. By knowledge of vision (scientia visionis) God also foresees the free acts of the rational creatures with
infallible certainty. (De fide.)
10. God also knows the conditioned future free actions with infallible certainty (Scientia futuribilium). (Sent.
communis.)
11. God's Divine will is infinite. (De fide.)
12. God loves Himself of necessity, but loves and wills the creation of extra-Divine things, on the other hand,
with freedom. (De fide.)
13. God is almighty. (De fide.)
14. God is the Lord of the heavens and of the earth. (De fide.) D 1782.
15. God is infinitely just. (De fide.)
16. God is infinitely merciful. (De fide.)
Activity for Lesson 2 – Analysis:

Instructions: There are two items presented in this activity: a song and a prayer. This is activity, you will highlight
the phrases or sentences that indicate the qualities or attributes of God as presented in the lesson. Do this in a
separate paper where you will write the phrases or sentences and give its corresponding attribute of the Diving
Being and the Divine Life.

Said my son's come home again

Lifted my face He said son
Wiped the tears from my eyes He called me son
With forgiveness in his voice ge He said son do you know I still
said love you

When God Ran
Phillips, Craig and Dean
https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=Nf2MZRenJMU
Almighty God the great I am
Immovable rock omnipotent
powerful
Awesome lord
Victorious warrior commanding
king of kings
Mighty conqueror and the only
time
The only time I ever saw him run
Was when
He ran to me
He took me in his arms
Held my head to his chest
Said my son's come home again
Lifted my face
Wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in his voice ge
said
Son do you know I still love you
Son do you know I still love You He ran to me (When God ran)
(I saw him run to me)
He caught me by surprise And then I ran to him
And he brought me to my knees (When God ran)
When God ran
When God ran I saw him run to
me Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Hester Benny Ray /
I was so ashamed all alone and so Parenti John William
far away When God Ran lyrics © Word Music
But now I know that he's been Llc, Word Music, Llc
waiting for this day
I saw him run to me
He took me in his arms
Held my head to his chest
Said my son's come home again
Lifted my face
Wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in his voice
I felt his love for me again
He ran to me
He took me in his arms
Held my head to his chest
Said my son's come home again
Lifted my face
Wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in his voice

He caught me by surprise when

God ran

The day I left home

I knew I'd broken his heart
And I wondered then if things
could ever be the same
Then one night
I remembered his love for me
And down that dusty road ahead
I could see
It was the only time
It was the only time I ever saw
him run
And then

He ran to me
He took me in his arms
Held my head to his chest
 LESSON 3

Learning Objectives:

✓ To assess your own situation or life in the family in comparison to the descriptions of the life and
interrelatedness of the three Persons of God in the Holy Trinity.
✓ To write a reflection paper or essay about the Trinity as the vivid expression of the love within the family.

Article: EXPLANING THE TRINITY3

Recently, I had an extensive discussion with a Muslim about the Trinity. His problem with the Trinity was
not so much with biblical texts, and obviously so, because he did not accept the Bible in the form it is in today as the
word of God. Though I must say that he was remarkably interested in looking at what the New Testament had to say
about the topic.

His main problem was conceptual. And I find this to be generally the case with folks who reject the Trinity.
They either think Christians are claiming there are three Gods (which is what my Muslim friend actually believed to
be so), or that we are teaching something that is a logical contradiction, e.g., 3=1, and 1=3.

Neither is true, of course. But if we are going to help these people to understand, I find, a little background
information is essential in order to establish a conceptual foundation for discussion.

Processions and Relations in God

In Catholic theology, we understand the persons of the Blessed Trinity subsisting within the inner life of God
to be truly distinct relationally, but not as a matter of essence, or nature. Each of the three persons in the godhead
possesses the same eternal and infinite divine nature; thus, they are the one, true God in essence or nature, not “three
Gods.” Yet, they are truly distinct in their relations to each other.

In order to understand the concept of person in God, we have to understand its foundation in the processions
and relations within the inner life of God. And the Council of Florence, AD 1338-1445, can help us in this regard.

The Council’s definitions concerning the Trinity are really as easy as one, two, three… four. It taught there is
one nature in God, and that there are two processions, three persons, and four relations that constitute the Blessed
Trinity. The Son “proceeds” from the Father, and the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.” These are
the two processions in God. And these are foundational to the four relations that constitute the three persons in God.
These are those four eternal relations in God:

1. The Father actively and eternally generates the Son, constituting the person of God, the Father.
2. The Son is passively generated of the Father, which constitutes the person of the Son.
3. The Father and the Son actively spirate4 the Holy Spirit in the one relation within the inner life of God that
does not constitute a person. It does not do so because the Father and Son are already constituted as persons
in relation to each other in the first two relations. This is why CCC 240 teaches, “[The Second Person of the
Blessed Trinity] is Son only in relation to his Father.”
4. The Holy Spirit is passively spirated of the Father and the Son, constituting the person of the Holy Spirit.

We should take note of the distinction between the “generative” procession that constitutes the Son, and the
“spirative” procession that constitutes the Holy Spirit. As St. Thomas Aquinas explains, and Scripture reveals, the Son
is uniquely “begotten” of the Father (cf. John 3:16; 1:18). He is also said to proceed from the Father as “the Word” in
John 1:1. This “generative” procession is one of “begetting,” but not in the same way a dog “begets” a dog, or a human
being “begets” a human being. This is an intellectual “begetting,” and fittingly so, as a “word” proceeds from the
knower while, at the same time remaining in the knower. Thus, this procession or begetting of the Son occurs within

3
From an article by Tim Staples in Catholic Answers published June 20, 2014.
4
Spirate means “the action of breathing as a creative or life-giving function of the Deity,” or “the act by or manner in which the Holy
Spirit proceeds from the Father or from the Father and the Son” (Merriam Webster Dictionary).
10 | P a g e
the inner life of God. There are not “two beings” involved; rather, two persons relationally distinct, while ever-
remaining one in being.

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, but not in a generative sense; rather, in a spiration.
“Spiration” comes from the Latin word for “spirit” or “breath.” Jesus “breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive
the Holy Spirit…” (John 20:22). Scripture reveals the Holy Spirit as pertaining to “God’s love [that] has been poured
into our hearts” in Romans 5:5, and as flowing out of and identified with the reciprocating love of the Father for the
Son and the Son for the Father (John 15:26; Rev. 22:1-2). Thus, the Holy Spirit’s procession is not intellectual and
generative, but has its origin in God’s will and in the ultimate act of the will, which is love.

As an infinite act of love between the Father and Son, this “act” is so perfect and infinite that “it” becomes
(not in time, of course, but eternally) a “He” in the third person of the Blessed Trinity. This revelation of God’s love
personified is the foundation from which Scripture could reveal to us that “God is love” (I John 4:8).

God is not revealed to “be” love in any other religion in the world other than Christianity because in order for
there to be love, there must be a beloved. From all eternity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have poured themselves
out into each other in an infinite act of love, which we, as Christians, are called to experience through faith and the
sacraments by which we are lifted up into that very love of God itself (Romans 5:1-5).

It is the love of God that binds us, heals us, and makes us children of God (I John 4:7; Matt. 5:44-45). Thus,
how fitting it is that the Holy Spirit is depicted in Revelation 22:1-2, as a river of life flowing out from the Father and
the Son and bringing life to all by way of bringing life to the very “tree of life” that is the source of eternal life in the
the Book of Revelation (Rev. 22:19).

Back to the Relations in God

Biblically speaking, we see each of the persons in God revealed as relationally distinct and yet absolutely one
in nature in manifold texts. For example, consider John 17:5, where our Lord prays on Holy Thursday:

… and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world
was made.

Notice, before the creation, the Son was “with” the Father. Also, the Son addressing the Father and himself in
an “I/thou” relationship is unmistakable. We have distinct persons here. “Father” and “Son” reveal a generative
relationship as well. Yet, this relationship between two persons clearly has no beginning in time because it existed
before the creation, from all eternity. Thus, the relational distinction is real, and personal, but as far as nature is
concerned, Jesus’ words from John 10:30 come to mind: “I and the Father are one,” in that they each possess the
same infinite nature.

The Holy Spirit is also seen to be relationally distinct from both the Father and the Son in Scripture inasmuch
as both the Father and the Son are seen as “sending” “him.”

But when the Counselor comes (the Holy Spirit), whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit
of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness of me… (John 15:26).

… he will guide you into all truth (John 16:13).

Thus, the relational distinction is real, and personal, but the Holy Spirit, like the eternal Son, is revealed to be
God inasmuch as he is revealed to be omniscient. “He will guide you into all truth.” In fact, I Cor. 2:10 also reveals the
Holy Spirit to be omniscient when it says, “… no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” He
speaks as God in texts of Scripture like Hebrews 3:7-11: 10:15-18. Thus, the Holy Spirit is revealed in Scripture to
possess the same infinite and divine nature as does the Father and the Son.

The Anthropological Analogy

Analogy is the theologian’s best friend in explaining the mysteries of the Faith. And when it comes to the
Trinity, there are many analogies to choose from. We will explore just two of them here that I have found helpful. In

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fact, it was these very two analogies that helped my Muslim friend to say the idea of the Trinity “made sense” to him,
even though he wasn’t ready to leave his Muslim faith… at least, not yet.

From his famous and classic Confessions, Bk. 13, Ch. 11, St. Augustine writes:

I speak of these three: to be, to know, and to will. For I am, and I know, and I will: I am a knowing and a
willing being, and I know that I am and that I will, and I will to be and to know. Therefore, in these three,
let him who can do so perceive how inseparable a life there is, one life and one mind and one essence,
and finally how inseparable a distinction there is, and yet there is a distinction. Surely a man stands face
to face with himself. Let him take heed of himself, and look there, and tell me. But when he has discovered
any of these and is ready to speak, let him not think that he has found that immutable being which is
above all these, which is immutably, and knows immutably, and wills immutably.

In order to appreciate Augustine’s words, we must begin with three essential and foundational truths that
undergird them. Without these, his words will fall on deaf ears.

We believe in one, true God, YAHWEH, who is absolute being, absolute perfection, and absolutely simple. Our
belief in the Trinity does not mean God is three, or any other number of Gods.

Humankind is created “in [God’s] image and likeness” (cf. Gen. 1:26). From the context of Genesis 1, we know
this “image and likeness” does not pertain to the body of man because God has no body. Indeed the divine nature
cannot be bodily or material because there can be no potency in God as there is inherent in bodies, so this “image
and likeness” must be referring to our higher faculties or operations of intellect and will.

It follows, then, that God is rational. He too is both intellectual and volitional.

These simple truths serve as the foundation for what I call St. Augustine’s anthropological analogy that can
help us to understand better the great mystery of the Trinity:

In God we see the Father—the “being one” and first principal of life in the Godhead—the Son—the “knowing
one”—the Word who proceeds from the Father—and the Holy Spirit—the “willing one”—the bond of love between
the Father and Son who proceeds as love from the Father and Son. These “three” do not “equal” one if we are trying
to say 3=1 mathematically. These three are distinct realities, relationally speaking, just as my own being, knowing,
and willing are three distinct realities in me. Yet, in both God and man these three relationally distinct realities
subsist in one being.

As St. Augustine points out, we can never know God or understand God completely through this or any analogy,
but it can help us to understand how you can have relational distinctions within one being. And we can see this is
reasonable.

The weakness inherent here—there are weaknesses in all analogies with reference to God—is that our
knowing, being, and willing are not each infinite and co-extensive as the persons of God are. They subsist in one
being in us, but they are not persons.

The Analogy of the Family

The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us another analogy wherein we can see the reasonableness of the
Trinity by helping us to see the possibility of distinct persons who possess the same nature. CCC 2205 provides:

The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and
the Son in the Holy Spirit.

When we think of a family, we can see how a father, mother, and child can be distinct persons and yet possess
the same nature (human), just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons who each possess the
same nature (divine).

The weakness, of course, is that in God each person possesses the one infinite and immutable divine nature,
and is therefore, one being. Our analogous family consists of three beings. Again, no analogy is perfect.

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 But in the end, if we combine our two analogies, we can at least see both how there can be three relationally
distinct realities subsisting within one being in the anthropological analogy, and how there can be three relationally
distinct persons who share the same nature in the analogy of the family.

Biblical Background: Basis in the New Testament Text5

CONNECTIONS BETWEEN FATHER, SON, AND SPIRIT:

Matthew 28:19 (conclusion of the Gospel) - "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..."

Luke 3:21-22 (at the baptism of Jesus) - "Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been
baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, / and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like
a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." (parallels in
Mark 1:10-11; Matt 3:16-17; John 1:32)

John 14—16 (Last Supper Discourse) - The Holy Spirit, as the "Spirit of Truth" and the "Paraclete," is intimately
related to the Father and the Son (see esp. 14:16-17; 14:26; 15:26; 16:7, 13).

Galatians 4:4-7 - "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the
law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because
you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer
a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God."

Romans 8:14-17 - "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit
of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that
very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ--if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him."

2 Cor 13:14 (concluding prayer of the letter) - "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you."

1 John 4:2, 9, 13-15 - "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh is from God... God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so
that we might live through him... By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of
his Spirit. / And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. / God
abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God."

1 Peter 1:2-3a - Peter writes to "who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the
Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood: May grace and peace be yours in
abundance. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!"

1 John 5:5-6 - "Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is
the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And
the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth."

CONNECTIONS BETWEEN FATHER AND SON, SHOWING THE DIVINITY OF JESUS:

Matt 11:27 - "All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the
Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
(parallel Luke 10:22)

John 1:1-18 - Jesus Christ as the divine word/logos, the light and life of the world, the "only-begotten Son" of
the Father

5
From The Trinity in the New Testament by Felix Just, SJ, PhD. Retrieved from https://catholic-resources.org/Bible/Trinity.htm.
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 John 5:17-19 - "But Jesus answered them, 'My Father is still working, and I also am working.' / For this reason
the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling
God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. / Jesus said to them, 'Very truly, I tell you, the Son
can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does
likewise.' "

John 10:30, 38 - "The Father and I are one." / "...the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

John 14:8-11a - "Philip said to him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.' / Jesus said to him, 'Have I
been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How
can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? / Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The
words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. / Believe me
that I am in the Father and the Father is in me...' "

John 17:1b-5 - "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, / since you have
given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. / And this is eternal life,
that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. / I glorified you on earth by
finishing the work that you gave me to do. / So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I
had in your presence before the world existed."

Hebrews 1:1-5 - Jesus is "the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being" (v. 3); "For to
which of the angels did God ever say, 'You are my Son; today I have begotten you'? (citing Psalm 2:7; repeated
in Heb 5:5) Or again, 'I will be his Father, and he will be my Son'?" (citing 2 Sam 7:14)

1 John 1:3b - "...truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ."

1 John 2:22-24 - "the Son and the Father" are mentioned together four times in these short verses.

CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE FATHER AND THE HOLY SPIRIT:

Luke 11:13 - " If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

John 4:23-24 - " But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in spirit and truth."

Acts 2:1-36 - The Holy Spirit of God is poured out on the disciples at the feast of Pentecost (see esp. 2:33).

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Activity for Lesson 3 – Reflection Paper

In lesson, you will accomplish a reflection paper that will focus on how to live the intimate relationship of the Person
in the Trinity in the life of our family. In this endeavor, guide questions are given to provide direction in your writing.
This activity will be written in ESSAY form, not bullet by bullet.

Guide Questions in Writing the Reflection Paper:

• What is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity?

• What kind of relationship do the three Person in the Trinity share?
• What is in the Trinity and in the family that are analogical or similar?
• How can I express and live out the life of the Triune God in my own family?
• What should I and the rest of the household do to imitate the same relationship within the Holy Trinity?

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 LESSON 4

Learning Objectives:

✓ To articulate, whenever asked and challenged with sound doctrine and explanation even in its most basic
form, about the truth about the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus as both God and man as well as the Divine
Maternity of Mary.

Article: THE INCARNATION AND THE DIVINE MATERNITY OF MARY6

"Mary, of whom was born Jesus."--St. Matthew 1. 16.

I MUST detain you once more with some preliminary considerations before we proceed to examine the actual
facts of our Lady's life recorded in the Gospels. And I will preface what I have to say with a story which is told of some
poor Catholic lad who was picking up what instruction he could get in reading and writing at one of the so-called
ragged schools in London. It is said that a Protestant Bishop and other Anglican clergymen came on some occasion
to examine the scholars, and that this boy was asked if he could say his prayers. He began at once to repeat the "Our
Father," for which he was duly praised, and then went on (as any well instructed Catholic child would not fail to do)
to recite the "Hail Mary". But here his reverend examiners interrupted him, exclaiming, "Oh no, not that; we don't
want to hear anything at all about her; can't you say something else?" The boy did as he was bid, left the Angelical
Salutation unfinished, and began the Apostles' Creed. But now it was his turn to stop. He broke off in the middle of
the second article--"and in Jesus Christ our Lord"--and asked for further instructions. "What am I to do now, Sir, for
here she comes again you don't want to hear about?"

I do not know whether this story is really authentic; certainly there is nothing at all improbable about it, and
it very aptly illustrates a grave and serious truth which lies at the bottom of this whole subject, and which I want
specially to insist upon at present; viz., that it is impossible to make any progress in the right understanding of the
Christian Faith without encountering our Blessed Lady, and being forced to assign to her a very definite place in the
scheme of Christian Doctrine. Her name appears in the very first page of the Evangelical records, in the first chapter
of the first of the Gospels, and that which is there said of her is not only the sum and substance of all her greatness,
it is also a very valuable compendium of the whole Christian creed: "Mary of whom was born Jesus".

The whole of the Christian religion depends upon the doctrine of the Incarnation. "No other foundation can
any man lay but that which is laid, Jesus Christ our Lord." He is the cornerstone of the whole religious edifice. The
union in Jesus Christ of the two natures, the Divine and the human, is (one may say) the whole of Christianity;
everything depends upon it. His words and His works all have their value from the fact that they were done and
spoken by One who was at the same time perfect God and perfect man, yet but one and the same Person. What would
be His moral teaching or His example to us, except He were man even as we are men, with a body and a soul like
ours; a will, an understanding, a heart and affections like ours? Or, on the other hand, how should we have profited
by His death except He had been God, and so His sufferings had been of infinite value?

It is easy to see that no Christian doctrine would have any meaning at all if this one doctrine were not first
secured. Once admit a doubt upon this, and all becomes vague and uncertain. And hence it happens that, on the one
hand, the Church so delights to proclaim and honor it; and, on the other, that heresy and infidelity are so unwearied
in their attempts to corrupt, obscure or destroy it. The Church does all that she can to impress it deeply on men's
minds and hearts. Three times a day is it proclaimed by the ringing of the Angelus bell, for the meditation of the
faithful. Twice in the holy sacrifice of the Mass--in the Creed and in the last Gospel--does she bid us all fall down upon
our knees to adore, at its bare announcement. There is no other mystery which can compare with this, in the honor
with which the Church commemorates it; in fact, the whole Catholic religion is one continued proclamation of this
truth, for it is the worship of God made man.

6
Written by Fr. J. Spencer Northcote, D.D., published 1885. Retrieved from
http://catholicharboroffaithandmorals.com/Incarnation.html
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 On the other hand, no other mystery has been ever so fiercely and so unceasingly attacked, sometimes on
one side, sometimes on another, sometimes on all sides at once. I mean, sometimes by denying the perfection of the
Divine Nature of Christ, sometimes of His Human Nature, sometimes of both. Even in the lifetime of the beloved
disciple himself, there arose some who denied that Jesus had been a perfect man. They said that He had no real body
at all, but only the appearance of one; or again, that He had a body, but not of flesh and blood like ours; one that was
framed in the heavens, fashioned in some other way and of some other materials, so that He did not really suffer
what He seemed to suffer; or, acknowledging that the body indeed was real and human, they maintained that He, the
Divine Person, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, only took possession of it after it was born, and left it again
before it was crucified. Presently, another set of heretics arose who denied the Divinity of our Lord. They said He
was a real and perfect man, but not God; something more than an ordinary man, a singularly just and holy man, a
prophet, one specially favored, inspired, dwelt in by the Holy Spirit, of God, yet still not really Himself a partaker in
the Divine Nature, equal to God the Father in all things; or they allowed that He was God, but yet not the one true
and living God. In one way or another they continually sought to dissolve (as Holy Scripture speaks [1 John iv. 3])
Jesus Christ, i.e., to separate His two natures of God and man, and to deny the perfection either of one or of the other.

And in these modern days all the old heresies which once succeeded one another with rapidity yet
distinctness, are mixed in the minds of men pell-mell, and held (as it were) in solution in the world's atmosphere; so
that it is true to say of a great number of Christians that to them our Divine Lord is a being of the imagination, which
they paint to themselves, and, if forced, would put into words to others, rather by means of negations than by positive
assertion. Instead of holding distinctly and positively, and with the firm assurance of Divine faith, that He is both God
and man, and both in all perfection, they think of Him as God only when they find it inconvenient or difficult to think
of Him as man, and they think of Him as man only when the sufferings and indignities inflicted upon Him make them
wish to forget that He is God; thus destroying Him, as it were, by means of His double nature, and holding Him in
suspense between the two. They never think of His actions, of His whole life, of everything He did and suffered, as
having been done and suffered by one Person, who was at one and the same moment both God and man; but they
divide and multiply Him, thinking of Him as two Persons, and attributing one class of His actions exclusively to His
Humanity and the other to His Divinity.

Now, the one true and only sovereign remedy against this decomposition of the fundamental dogma of
the Christian religion (which, alas! is very common in these days) is to be found in the dogma of the Divine
Maternity of Mary--"Mary, of whom was born Jesus". Once get a man to believe and confess this in its true sense,
and he cannot hold any false doctrine upon the Incarnation.

This is the foundation upon which it all rests--Jesus was "born of Mary". He might have come into the world
in some other way; He might have taken to Himself flesh and blood and the form of a man, by creating a full-grown
body for Himself out of the slime of the earth, as He made Adam at the first, or, by a new creation, out of nothing. But
if He had done this, men might have doubted whether indeed He were truly man; they might have said, He was only
a man in outward appearance, just as the Angels sometimes under the Old Dispensation assumed this form,
accidentally and externally only, for a time.

But now that we know that He was conceived in the Virgin's womb--"born of the Virgin Mary," as we say in
the Creed; "made of a woman," as says St. Paul--there is no room for cavilling; no excuse for disbelief. He must needs
be a true and perfect Man, our brother, because, like one of ourselves, He was born of a woman; He had a mother; He
was once carried in the womb, He was then a baby, an infant, a boy, a young man, and finally of mature age. On the
other hand, He was something more than man, for His conception and birth were not altogether after the model of
those of other men. His mother was a virgin, and always remained so, before, and in, and after the birth of her Son;
and this could only be because her Son was God. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most
High shall overshadow thee; therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."

Thus, then, my Brethren, it is a right belief about the Divine Maternity of Mary, which is the most perfect
safeguard and security of the doctrine of the Incarnation. The prerogatives with which the Church invests her are
essential to the Catholic faith, and integral to the worship of Christ. To honour "Mary, of whom was born Jesus," is to
profess Christianity in its most perfect and essential act. It confesses Jesus Christ to be man, for He is the son of
woman; it confesses Him to be God, for this woman, this mother, is a Virgin; it confesses Him to be one person,
Godman, because it is by one only nativity, by His conception and birth of the Virgin Mary, that these two natures (of
God and man) were ever united in one Divine Person, Jesus Christ; and so this Virgin-Mother is the Mother of God.

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Wonderful titles! which sound like contradictions, and are mysteries; and though each by itself is a mystery and
inexplicable, yet, if added to the other mystery, and so doubled, it really becomes less mysterious, more intelligible.
A God-man! a Virgin-Mother! either title, taken alone, is beyond our comprehension; taken together, they in some
sort explain one another--they are correlatives. Mary is a creature, a woman, a mother, and therefore her Son is man;
but she is also a Virgin, and this because her Son is God, and with God all things are possible.

You see, then, how intimately connected is a right faith about the Incarnation with a right faith about our
Blessed Lady; and when anybody professes to be scandalized at what he hears or reads in ordinary Catholic books
of devotion about the dignity of our Blessed Lady, we may reasonably suspect one of two things; either indifference,
or positive error and ignorance about the great doctrine of the Incarnation. Yet surely neither ignorance nor
indifference can ever be safe with reference to so fundamental a mystery.

The knowledge of the Incarnation is not a mere matter of learning and scholarship for those who are deeply
read in theology. It should be the study of every one of us. All our eternal interests are at stake upon it--wrapped up
and contained in it; there is nothing in the whole world which we are so concerned to know, and to know well, as the
Incarnation; and I will add, nothing is more insisted on in Holy Scripture. If Holy Scripture is to be our guide, there
can be no question but that a great deal depends upon a right faith and knowledge about the Incarnation. "This is life
everlasting, to know Thee the only true and living God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." "Who is a liar but he
who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist, who denieth the Father and the Son." "Every spirit which
confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God; and every spirit that dissolveth Jesus, is not of God."
"Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God." "Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ, is born of God": and "whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world; and this is the victory
which overcometh the world, our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the
Son of God?" "No man, speaking by the Spirit of God, saith anathema to Jesus; and no man can say the Lord Jesus, but
by the Holy Ghost." (1 John ii. 22; iv. 2, 3, 15; v. 1, 4, 5; 1 Cor. xii. 3.)

Let it not be said, then, that these are idle subtleties, which ordinary Christians need not trouble themselves
about. No; the Athanasian Creed speaks truly as well as plainly when it says, "It is necessary to everlasting salvation
that a man believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ"; and no man can believe it rightly, and at the same
time think slightingly of her in whom the mystery was wrought, "Mary, of whom was born Jesus". With reason did a
Christian controversialist of the third century, arguing against those who denied that Mary was really the Mother of
Jesus, vehemently contend that the doctrine he was defending was no idle speculative question, but one in which the
whole Christian religion was engaged. "If you deny," he said, "that God was born of Mary, then you must deny also
that it was God who suffered and died on the Cross, for suffering and death are only possible to one who has first
been born. Then the whole worth and value, the very name, of the Cross disappears; and if the Cross is taken away,
neither did Christ rise from the dead. And if Christ be not risen, then is there no future resurrection for any of us; and
if so, no judgment, for it is clear that if I do not rise again after death, neither shall I be judged; and if there be no
future judgment, there is no obligation to keep the commandments of God. 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we
die.' All these things hang together--follow from one another by a necessary consequence.

Contrariwise, if you confess the Divine Maternity of Mary, then follows the reality of the Passion; from the
Passion, the Resurrection; from the Resurrection, the universal judgment; and so all the commandments of God are
saved, and their obligation enforced. For as all the law and the prophets are contained in these two commandments,
Thou shalt love God, and Thou shalt love thy neighbor, so all our hope is suspended from the child-bearing of Mary."
And this is why the Church lays so much stress upon the reality of that birth, singing-- "Ave verum Corpus natum De
Maria Virgine; Veri passum, immolatum In cruce pro homine." "Hail, true Body born of the Virgin Mary, which really
suffered and was offered on the Cross for man."

The greatness, and the glory which we reverence in Mary are really dependent upon the truths contained in
that one-word Deipara, Mother of God; but I ask you also to consider for yourselves, and to meditate upon what the
truths contained in that word really are. Even Calvin himself could say, that "it is impossible for us to recognize the
blessing which Jesus has brought us, without at the same time recognizing how much God has honored and enriched
Mary, by having chosen her to be the Mother of His only Son".

When, therefore, a man professes himself to be indifferent, insensible about anything that can be said of
Mary, it is not upon Mary, but really upon Jesus--upon God--his Savior, that his insensibility falls; he is wanting in
faith, or in love, with reference to the Incarnation. He has never tried to realize to himself what is meant by the Son
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of God becoming man; or, having thought of it, his affections have not been warmed towards it, and he treats it as a
common ordinary thing. If, indeed, the Word being made flesh be an ordinary thing, then Mary, in whom that mystery
was accomplished, may have been altogether an ordinary being, endowed with no special privileges, and deserving
no special honor. But if, on the contrary, that mystery be the crowning work of God's creation, the end for which all
things were and are, then surely it is only reasonable to expect that she, on whose will it once depended, at whose
word it began to be, in whose womb it was brought to maturity, should be a being of high and singular gifts, endowed
with many and great prerogatives, and to be reverenced with no common honor. No honor, no privilege (provided
only that it be possible and lawful in a creature) can be thought extravagant and out of place in one who alone of the
whole human race was deemed worthy to have a Son common to herself and the Eternal Father, the Creator and
Lord of all things. Once believe that He whom Mary bore in her womb and brought forth was God of God, very God
of very God, and all honor that man can pay her seems comparatively small. Though a man should have the wisdom
of angels and of men, the eloquence of the prophets and doctors of the Church, and as many tongues as there are
stars in the firmament or grains of sand on the seashore, he could never exhaust--he could never even adequately
express--all that is contained in that one fact--Mary was the Mother of Jesus, who was the Almighty God.

And hence it is that Holy Scripture repeats this title so invariably whenever it speaks of Mary. Of other
distinguished persons it gives us the birth and parentage, or relations to others and general condition in life, once
for all, and ever after speaks of them only by name. But Mary is always presented to us in mysterious isolation from
all other surrounding objects or persons save Jesus alone, and from Him she is never separated.

"Mary, the Mother of Jesus," this is her ordinary title in the Gospels; and this not only during His life, and to
distinguish her from other Marys, but also after His Resurrection and Ascension, and when she is in the company of
the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, and no other women are named. Her Maternity of Jesus was not a mere event
in her life,--a quality that belonged to her,--it was her whole history, and the very cause of her being. She was created
for this special purpose and no other. She is the Mother of God, just as men are men, and angels are angels. This is
the whole account of her being, the definition of her essence, so that she stands alone, forming as it were a class by
herself in the hierarchy of created beings, distinct from every other, and, by this special relation, above every other,
because brought so much nearer to God than any other; as an old writer has said, "Just as one being is called an angel
of God, another a prophet, a herald, a preacher, and so forth, and each is reckoned by his own name according to his
rank and dignity, so thou, O Blessed Virgin, shalt be called by a singular and special name, the Mother of God."

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Activity for Lesson 4 – Articulate the Truth

Situation:
Supposed that you are confronted by questions or statements like, “There is no point in giving honor to Mary;
she was insignificant to the whole Christian thing,” or “I think Jesus was not God; he was just a prophet – holy and
just,” you will be compelled to give a response. Provided that you took this class about Catholic doctrine and dogma,
you already have an understanding about the dogma of the Incarnation and the Divine Maternity of Mary. You will
give your defense.

Instruction:
Below are the basic points from the lesson. In defense to common challenges on the dogmas of the
Incarnation and the Divine Motherhood of Mary, you will choose two (2) basic points that you ought to use as a
response and explain them in your own words.

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 LESSON 5

Learning Objectives:

✓ To know what are the Marian dogmas in the Church.

✓ To discuss how these dogmas help lead us to Jesus and how it affects our Christian lifestyle.

Article: MARIAN DOGMAS7

This lesson will deal with three important concerns:

I. Mary can be understood only in concert with Jesus Christ, the Trinity, and the Church
1. Mary's importance lies in her relation to Christ.
• Jesus Christ is "born of a woman" (Gal 4,4). Mary is this woman (Read article 422 of the Catechism of the
Catholic Church [CCC]).
• Jesus Christ was born a Jew of a "maid of Israel" (read CCC 423).
• Mary is a Jewish woman.
• Jesus Christ is "true God and true Man" (Read CCC 471-483). Mary is true Mother of God (Theotokos)
according to his humanity.
• Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and was born of the Virgin Mary (Read CCC 484-512). Mary is
all-holy and sinless (Immaculate Conception). She is the virginal mother (Ever-Virgin).

2. Mary manifests the presence and action of the Holy trinity, especially that of the Holy Spirit. She is the
masterpiece and dwelling place of Father, Son and Spirit. Thus, she is called Seat of Wisdom (read CCC 721-
726)
3. Mary is not only Mother of Christ, but also Mother of the Church (Read CCC 963-975). Totally united to her Son,
in her life and her assumption, she becomes our mother as the work of grace. She is a model of faith, hope
and charity.

II. The most important features of Mary's role and person are captured in the four Marian dogmas.
1. It is important to have a positive understanding of dogma:
• A dogma proposes truths contained in Divine Revelation or having a necessary connection with it.
• These truths are immediately or mediately grounded in Scripture.
• They reflect not only the full authority of the Church received from Christ but also the Church's tradition,
liturgical practice and the faith of the people (sensus fidelium).
• Dogmas are lights on our path of faith. They have binding character, and intellect and heart to a deeper
understanding of God's mystery. Read CCC 88-89 (85-95).

2. There are four dogmas stating important aspects of Mary's role in salvation and her personal relationship with
God.

Their names are:

DIVINE MOTHERHOOD (already discussed in Lesson 4)

7
From the article Marian Dogmas – An Overview by Fr. Johann G. Roten, SM. Retrieved from
https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/d/dogmas-marian-overview.php#p1
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 PERPETUAL VIRGINITY (Baptismal formula; since 3rd century AD)
The expression perpetual virginity, ever-virgin, or simply "Mary the Virgin" refers
primarily to the conception and birth of Jesus. From the first formulations of faith,
especially in baptismal formulas or professions of faith, the Church professed that Jesus
Christ was conceived without human seed by the power of the Holy Spirit only. Here
lies the decisive meaning of expressions such as "conceived in the womb of the Virgin
Mary," "Mary's virginal conception," or "virgin birth." The early baptismal formula
(since the third century) states Mary's virginity without further explaining it, but there
is no doubt about its physical meaning. Later statements are more explicit. Mary
conceived "without any detriment to her virginity, which remained inviolate even after his birth" (Council of
the Lateran, 649).

Although never explicated in detail, the Catholic Church holds as dogma that Mary was and is Virgin before,
in and after Christ's birth. It stresses thus the radical novelty of the Incarnation and Mary's no less radical
and exclusive dedication to her mission as mother of her Son, Jesus Christ. Vatican II reiterated the teaching
about Mary, the Ever-Virgin, by stating that Christ's birth did not diminish Mary's virginal integrity but
sanctified it (LG 57). The Catechism of the Catholic Church ponders the deeper meaning of the virgin bride
and perpetual virginity (Read CCC 499-507). It also maintains that Jesus Christ was Mary's only child. The
so-called "brothers and sisters" are close relations.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (Pius IX, December 8, 1854)

The solemn definition of Mary's Immaculate Conception is like Divine Motherhood and
Perpetual Virginity part of the christological doctrine, but it was proclaimed as
independent dogma. Though highlighting a privilege of Mary it in fact stresses the
dignity and holiness required to become "Mother of God." The privilege of the
Immaculate Conception is the source and basis for Mary's all-holiness as Mother of God.

More specifically, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception states "that the most
Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and
privilege from Almighty God and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, was kept free of
every stain of original sin."

This dogma has both a "negative" and a "positive" meaning which complement each other. The "negative"
meaning stresses Mary's freedom from original sin thanks to the anticipated or retroactive (here called
preventive) grace of Christ's redemptive act. By the same token, the dogma suggests Mary's all-holiness. This
"positive" meaning is the consequence of the absence of original sin. Mary's life is permanently and intimately
related to God, and thus she is the all-holy.

Although difficult to explain, original sin provokes disorderliness in thought and behavior, especially with
regard to the primacy of God's presence in our life. Consequently, in declaring Mary immaculately conceived,
the Church sees in Mary one who never denied God the least sign of love. The dogmas declares that from her
beginning Mary was exceptionally holy and in constant union with the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit.

Papal documents on the pronouncement of the dogma:

▪ Apostolic Constitution issued by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854
▪ Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum: On the Immaculate Conception, Encyclical of Pope Pius X promulgated on February 2, 1904

ASSUMPTION (Pius XII, November 1, 1950)

A distinction needs to be made between Ascension and Assumption. Jesus Christ, Son of God and Risen Lord,
ascended into heaven, a sign of divine power. Mary, on the contrary, was elevated or assumed into heaven
by the power and grace of God.

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 The dogmas states that "Mary, Immaculate Mother of God ever Virgin, after finishing the course of her life on
earth, was taken up in body and soul to heavenly glory." This definition as well as that of the Immaculate
Conception makes not only reference to the universal, certain and firm consent of the Magisterium but makes
allusion to the concordant belief of the faithful. The Assumption had been a part of the Church's spiritual and
doctrinal patrimony for centuries. It had been part of theological reflection but also of the liturgy and was
part of the sense of the faithful.

This dogma has no direct basis in scripture. It was nonetheless declared "divinely
revealed," meaning that it is contained implicitly in divine Revelation. It may be
understood as the logical conclusion of Mary's vocation on earth, and the way she
lived her life in union with God and her mission. The assumption may be seen as a
consequence of Divine Motherhood. Being through, with, and for her Son on earth, it
would seem fitting for Mary to be through, with, and for her Son in heaven, too. She
was on earth the generous associate of her Son (LG 61). The Assumption tells us that
this association continues in heaven. Mary is indissolubly linked to her Son on earth
and in heaven. (LG 56).

In heaven, Mary's active involvement in salvation history continues: "Taken up to heaven, she did not lay
aside her salvific duty ... By her maternal love she cares for the brothers and sisters of her Son who still
journey on earth" (LG). Mary is the "eschatological icon of the Church" (CCC 972), meaning the Church
contemplates in Mary her own end of times.

The definition of the dogma does not say how the transition from Mary's earthly state to her heavenly state
happened. Did Mary die? Was she assumed to heaven without prior separation of soul and body? The
question remains open for discussion. However, the opinion that Mary passed through death as her Son did,
has the stronger support in tradition.

Glorified in body and soul, Mary is already in the state that will be ours after the resurrection of the dead.
The Assumption of Mary is a promise of immortality for all human beings. The Assumption highlights the
unity of body and soul, their respective dignity and fulfillment.

Are the four Marian dogmas grounded in Scripture? One of the criticisms voiced on behalf of the Marian
dogmas is their lack of biblical foundation. This criticism does not apply in the case of Mary's Divine
Motherhood and Virginity, even if every single aspect of these dogmas cannot be substantiated from
Scripture. As noticed for the Assumption, the biblical foundation of the two modern dogmas is more difficult
to establish. There is no explicit reference to Immaculate Conception and Assumption in Scripture. Elements
of the two dogmas are implicitly contained in the Bible.

Papal documents on the pronouncement of the dogma:

▪ Encyclical Munificentissimus Deus by Pope Pius XII. Defining "ex cathedra" (from the chair of Peter) the dogma of the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
▪ Mary and the Church: Assumption (eschatological image) (A list of quotations on the Assumption from post-Vatican II
magisterial documents

III. The Marian dogmas have a rich meaning for our spiritual life.
1. For better understanding of Mary
The four dogmas help us distinguish between person and role in the life of Mary. They give us a better
understanding of who she is in the eyes of God.
▪ As we can see there are two early dogmas highlighting Mary's role in the Incarnation: Divine Motherhood
and Perpetual Virginity.
▪ There are two modern dogmas closely affecting Mary's person: The Immaculate Conception and Mary's
Assumption into Heaven.
▪ The four dogmas show that Mary's role in the Incarnation as Mother (humanity of Jesus Christ) and
Virgin (divinity of Jesus Christ) was first. The interest in her person (Immaculate Conception and
Assumption) came later. All four dogmas stress Mary's unique relationship with God.
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 2. For a better understanding of Jesus Christ
Divine motherhood and perpetual virginity ascertain and deepen our understanding of Jesus Christ. They
contribute to answering the question: Who is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is true God (Mary's virginity) and true
man (Mary's role as Theotokos).

Immaculate Conception and Assumption point out how we are to follow Jesus Christ. Following Christ means
to be called and predestined/commissioned (Immaculate Conception), and thus to lead a God-pleasing life
based on his grace (Assumption).

Mother of the Church (Mary's mediation and spiritual motherhood)–although not a solemnly defined truth
(dogma)–highlights the importance of ecclesial community. We follow Christ as members of his Church. Mary
is not only mother but also sister in the faith.

3. For better understanding of our own life

Marian dogmas have a special meaning for our self-understanding as human beings created in the image and
likeness of God.
▪ Mary's divine motherhood reminds us that God is the origin of life and life's fulfillment, and that it is in
him that we are called to bear fruit.
▪ Mary's virginity reminds us that human fulfillment and authentic efficacy is rooted in the gift of self.
▪ Mary's Immaculate Conception reminds us that we are called to the highest possible and most intimate
and lasting unity with God
▪ Mary's assumption is promise of ultimate and everlasting fulfillment in God.

4. The Church has a rich memory of Mary's ongoing role and active presence
The teaching about Mary (we call it doctrine) is not limited to the four dogmas. Much of the Church's
theological thinking about Mary has never been the object of a solemn dogmatic declaration. It doesn't need to
be; for example, we firmly believe that Mary was the first disciple of Jesus Christ, our sister in faith, and an
associate in her Son's mission. None of these beliefs are dogmas. Similarly, we believe that Mary is our mother,
in fact, a spiritual mother. Vatican II, Chapter 8, summarizes most of the aspects of Mary's activity on our behalf
with the expressions "Mother of the Faithful" and "Mother of Human Beings."

5. Jesus Christ gave Mary as mother to the beloved disciple (Jn 19, 25-27).
Thus, she becomes the mother of all of Christ's disciples, indeed, of all human beings. Mary's motherhood for
us has its root in her service to Jesus our Savior. Here is what the second Vatican Council had to say about this:

61. The predestination of the Blessed Virgin as Mother of God was associated with the
incarnation of the divine word: in the designs of Divine Providence she was the gracious mother
of the divine Redeemer here on earth, and above all others and in a singular way the generous
associate and humble handmaid of the Lord. She conceived, brought forth, and nourished Christ,
she presented him to the Father in the temple, shared her Son's sufferings as he died on the
cross. Thus, in a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning
charity in the work of the Saviour in restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason, she is a
mother to us in the order of grace. (LG 61)

We are speaking about a spiritual motherhood. This means that Mary's maternal activity is to unite
us with Christ who is our life, truth and being. Several spiritual authors have used the expression
"forming Jesus Christ in us" or "forming us in the likeness of her Son."

Mary, although called "mother in the order of grace," is not the author of grace. Her "spiritual
motherhood" is the power of salvation (LG 60). Mary brought forth her Son in the power of the
Spirit. It is in and through this same Holy Spirit that she exercises her maternal presence and activity
on our behalf.

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Activity for Lesson 5 – Discussion

Instructions:

Using any three key ideas that you learned from the lesson regarding the Marian dogmas, write a simple
discussion (in essay form) that focuses on this important theme: Ad Iesum per Mariam, which means, “To Jesus
through Mary.” Encode your answer or write it on a separate paper.

AD IESUM PER MARIAM

To Jesus through Mary

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 LESSON 6

Learning Objectives:

✓ To examine/re-examine one’s faith and attitude towards the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, when
attending the Mass, and the priesthood that makes this reality and presence possible.

Article: THE REAL PRESENCE8

When Pope Paul VI published his now historic Encyclical Mysterium Fidei on the Real Presence, he reminded
especially us priests, that there is a crisis of faith regarding the Eucharist and that Catholics had better awaken to
the fact. Otherwise they are liable to be swept off their feet by subtle theology and their faith in the Eucharist will be
weakened - if not destroyed - by current assaults on this cardinal mystery of Catholic Christianity.

Somewhere near the center of the theological controversy about which the Pope warned us is precisely the
question that no Catholic should raise, namely, "Is the Holy Eucharist Presence or Reality, or is it, as the Church
teaches us, Presence and Reality?"

There is more at stake here than meets the eye.

My purpose will be to defend the following thesis: that the Holy Eucharist is Jesus Christ, who is in the Blessed
Sacrament both as Reality and as Presence. He is in the Eucharist as Reality because the Eucharist is Jesus Christ. He
is in the Eucharist as Presence because through the Eucharist He affects us and we are in contact with Him -
depending on our faith and devotion to the Savior living really in our midst.

Eucharist as Reality
There have been before modern times two major crises of faith in the Real Presence in Catholic history.

The first crisis occurred in the early Middle Ages when theological speculators, mainly in France, raised doubts about
the reality of the Blessed Sacrament. The first crisis reached a peak in the person of one Berengarius of Tours who
died in 1088 A.D.

Berengarius denied the possibility of substantial change in the elements of bread and wine and refused to
admit that the body of Christ exists corporeally on the altar. His argument was that Christ cannot be brought down
from heaven before the Last Judgment. He held that Christ's body, which exists only in heaven, is effective for
humanity through its sacramental counterpart or type and that Christ therefore is not really in the Eucharist except,
as he said, ideally.

Pope Gregory VII ordered Berengarius to subscribe to a profession of faith that has become the cornerstone
of Catholic Eucharistic piety. It was the Church's first definitive statement of what had always been believed but not
always so clearly understood. It is a declaration of faith in the Eucharist as unquestionable and objective and
unqualified Reality.

"I believe in my heart and openly profess that the bread and wine placed upon the altar are, by the mystery
of the sacred prayer and the words of the Redeemer, substantially changed into the true and life-giving flesh and
blood of Jesus Christ our Lord, and that after the consecration there is present the true body of Christ which was
born of the Virgin and offered up for the salvation of the world, hung on the cross and now sits at the right hand of
the Father, and that there is present the true blood of Christ which flowed from His side. They are present not only
by means of a sign and of the efficacy of the sacrament, but also in the very reality and truth of their nature and
substance."

8
Written by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. All rights reserved 2002. Retrieved from
http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/realpres/realpres.htm.
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 Words could not be clearer. If reality means actuality, and if actuality means objectivity, then the Catholic
faith believes that the Christ who is in the Eucharist is the Christ of history, the one who was conceived at Nazareth,
born at Bethlehem, died and rose from the dead at Jerusalem, and is now seated at the right hand of God, the Father
Almighty. It is the Christ who will call us when we pass out of time into eternity. It is the Christ who will appear at
the end of the world to judge the living and the dead. It is the Christ who is the Omega of the universe and the goal
of human destiny.

Five centuries after Berengarius arose the second crisis of faith in the Eucharist at the time of the Protestant
Reformation. Again, much the same objections were raised and theories disseminated as in the Berengarian
controversy. And once again the Church countered at the Council of Trent to revindicate the Reality of the Christ
who is in the Blessed Sacrament.

The Trindentine proposition of faith is not unlike that required of Berengarius a half millennium before. "The
holy council teaches," declared Trent, "and openly and straightforwardly professes that in the Blessed Sacrament of
the Holy Eucharist after the consecration of the bread and wine, our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is
truly, really and substantially contained under the perceptible species of bread and wine." But then Trent added,
with characteristic vigor, that this is the plain meaning of Christ's words when at the Last Supper He said, "This is
My body. This is the chalice of My blood." Consequently the faithful were told "it is an infamy (shameful) that
contentious evil men should distort these words into fanciful, imaginary figures of speech that deny the truth about
the body and blood of Christ, contrary to the universal understanding of the Church."

The Reality of Christ in the Eucharist therefore is no figure of speech. It is no fanciful rhetoric. It is, in the
clearest words that can be expressed, the Incarnation extended into space and time. It is literally the Emmanuel
made flesh - the God-man who is here and now living in our midst.

The Crisis of Today

Four Centuries after the Council of Trent the Church is now in another crisis of Eucharistic faith and
specifically of faith in the Real Presence.

Palpable evidence of such a crisis is seen in the practical disappearance in not a few dioceses of the Forty
Hours Devotion; the corresponding disappearance of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament; the complete revision
of constitutions of once flourishing contemplative institutes that specialized in worship of the Blessed Sacrament
exposed on the altar, the widespread neglect of showing any of the customary signs of reverence to Christ's Real
Presence in the tabernacle; the removal of the tabernacle in churches to some obscure and unobtrusive place where
the Real Presence is isolated from even possible devotion by the faithful; the mounting literature in still nominally
Catholic circles that seldom touches on the Real Presence or that explains it in a way congenial to Protestants who
do not believe in Christ's corporeal presence in the Eucharist, but totally incompatible with the historic faith of
Catholicism; the dissemination of religious education textbooks, teacher's manuals, and study guides that may make
an apologetic mention of the physical presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament but leave a distinct impression
that this presence is peripheral to Catholic faith and practice and is certainly not a cardinal mystery of the Church
founded by Jesus Christ.

Although seldom adverted to, part of the same crisis about the Real Presence is the contemporary
desacramentalization of the Catholic priesthood. Priests are said to be essentially preachers of the word or ministers
of the Gospel or organizers of Christian communities, or spokesmen of the poor or defenders of the oppressed or
social leaders or political catalysts or academic scholars or theological appraisers of the faith of believers.

So, they are. But is that all? And is that the primary purpose of the Catholic priesthood? No. The primary
meaning of the priesthood is its relationship to the Eucharist - as Reality, as Sacrament and Sacrifice. And among
these three primarily as Reality, made possible by priestly consecration.

Once again as in previous ages the Church's magisterium has reaffirmed the Real Presence but in accents and
with nuances that were not called for in previous times.

Pope Paul VI in Mysterium Fidei was concerned about those who in spoken and written word "spread abroad
opinions which disturb the faithful and fill their minds with no little confusion about matters of faith."

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 Among these opinions was and is the theory that so redefines the meaning of the Eucharistic Presence as to
obscure, if not deny, the fact of the Eucharistic Reality. It is as though someone said "I believe in the Eucharistic
Presence but not as Reality, or as Reality which is only presence and not objective actuality."

Eucharist as Presence
This brings us to the second dimension of our subject: the Eucharist as Presence.

The moment we hear the word "Presence" we think of a personal relationship between two or more people.
We are present to someone or someone is present to us when we are aware of them and they of us; when we have
them on our minds and hearts, as they think of us and sense a kinship and affection for us.

We are not exactly present to stones and trees nor they to us. So that presence implies rational beings.

Presence, as such, also transcends space and time. St. Paul or St. Augustine may be present to me although
they are long since dead and although they are not physically where I am physically. They can be present to me
mentally, volitionally, or as we say spiritually.

She can be in New York and he in San Francisco. Yet as soon (and as often) as he thinks of her with love, she
is present to him. And whenever she does the same he is present to her, reaching over the distance of miles and
irrespective of the fact that neither of them is where the other is in body. No matter - they are with each other in
spirit.

Presence therefore does not deny physical reality, because two people can be both near to each other in body
and intimately united in spirit. But neither does presence require nearness in body. It rather stresses intimacy of
mind and heart.

Herein lies at once the dignity and danger of some current theories about the Real Presence of Christ in the
Eucharist. There are those who laudably emphasize the subjective aspect of Christ's presence but at the expense of
the objective reality.

Let me not be misunderstood. There is great need, even crucial need, to talk about and act upon the
awareness of Christ in the Eucharist and to raise our sentiments of love toward Him. But this cannot be at the expense
of ignoring or transmitting the prior fact that Christ is actually in the Eucharist, that in the words of the Church's
solemn teaching He is "contained under the perceptible species of bread and wine." What was bread and wine after
the words of consecration is no longer bread and wine but a living, physical, bodily - in a word, the real - Jesus Christ.

We might then say that the Eucharistic Presence of Christ is at once a reality and a relationship. It is a reality
because Christ really is in the Eucharist. So that the Real Presence of Christ postulates on faith the real absence of
bread and wine. He is now where before the consecration were bread and wine. They are gone and He is there. What
before was real bread and wine is now only the external properties of bread and wine. He is here in the Eucharist
truly present. They are no longer present but only their species or, as we say, appearances.

Transubstantiation is a fact of faith and all the twisted criticism of the Church's doctrine as being Hellenistic
or Aristotelian is learned naiveté. For the soul that believes, this is no Hellenism or philosophical terminology. It is
the expression of truth. In Greek equivalents the words of institution institute a meta-ousiosis. The ousia or being of
bread and wine become the ousia or being of what constitutes Jesus Christ - body, blood, soul and divinity. In a word,
in the Eucharist is present the totus Christus just as truly as He was present on earth in Palestine and as He is now in
heaven. It is the total Christ in the fullness of what makes Christ Christ with no objective difference between who He
was then (in the first century on earth) and who He is now (in the twentieth century on earth). Jesus Christ is [in
New York] as He is also everywhere where a duly ordained priest has changed bread and wine into the body and
blood of the Savior.

Taken for Granted

Having said all of this, however, and how it needs resaying in today's confused Catholic world, we are not
finished yet. As so often happens, error arises among men because they have been neglecting the truth. The hydra of
Communism is partly God's visitation for the neglect by Christians of their practice of communal love.

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 So, too, with the Eucharist. Too many Catholics including priests had taken the Real Presence for granted.
They complacently assumed that Christ is in the Eucharist and they proceeded to leave Him there. Empty churches,
empty chapels, seldom a worshiper before the tabernacle and seldom a Eucharistic thought among millions of
believers who would be offended if told they were ignoring the greatest Reality in the universe right in their midst.

These are not the words of mysticism or of poetry. They are the language of faith.

What to do? What we need today, in the present crisis regarding the Eucharist, is another Francis of Assisi
raised by God to remind the world of his day of what a priest is and what his words of consecration can produce in
this valley of tears.

Francis, as we know, was never ordained to the priesthood. But he had an extraordinary reverence for priests
because he saw them as the divinely enabled consecrators of the Holy Eucharist.

In his last will and testament, Francis wrote what we today in our sophisticated age of agnosticism need to
hear and listen to.

"God inspires me," he said, "with such great faith in priests who live according to the laws of the holy Church
of Rome, because of their dignity, that if they persecuted me, I should still be ready to turn to them for aid. I do this
because in this world I cannot see the most high Son of God with my own eyes, except for His most holy Body and
Blood which they alone administer to others."

Francis concluded on a superlative tone that was not customary with him.

"Above everything else" - that is, more important than anything else he could urge upon his followers -
"above everything else, I want this most holy Sacrament to be honored and venerated and reserved in places that
are richly ornamented."

This is the simple Poverello whose name has become synonymous with total poverty, even to destitution in
imitation of his poor Master. But it is also the mystic seer who saw more clearly than most of his contemporaries
who it was who dwells among us in the Blessed Sacrament. It is, in Francis's words, "the most high Son of God" in
human form who is always here in Reality, but He is not always present to us in spirit. We do not always honor and
venerate Him reserved in the Eucharist in places which are richly ornamented, not so-much in silver and gold as
ornamented in the acts of faith, hope and love that reach out to Jesus who is constantly reaching out to us. That is
why He is here; that we might also be where He is, united with Him in spirit as He has united Himself to us in body -
as a prelude to that union where the Eucharist will be unveiled and where vision will replace what faith now tells us
is true, because truth became incarnate to teach us how much God loves the sons and daughters of the human family.

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Activity for Lesson 5 – Self-Examination

Instructions:

This activity aims to unpack your experience on this lesson: your initial thoughts, your learnings, and your
realizations. There are guide questions to organize our answers. You can answer in an enumerative manner (bullet
form). You can add more points if necessary. Encode your answer or write on a separate sheet of paper.

a. What were your initial thoughts about the Real Presence in the
Eucharist?
•
•
•

b. What were you able to pick up or learn from this lesson about the Real
Presence in the Eucharis?
•
•
•

c. What were you able to realize while going through this lesson? (What
are you going to do about them?)
•
•
•

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