In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
My dearly beloved in Our Lord,
The Feast of the Blessed Trinity on the Octave day of Pentecost is like a sweet cherry on a good cake, a beautiful finishing touch of the cycle of Easter, an opening towards the second half of the liturgical year.
For the ‘moderns’ this feast makes no sense, it is rather an embarrassment to them.
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible and His judgments and how unsearchable His ways!” (Epistle, Rom 11:33) Modern man misunderstands this statement by St Paul and concludes that we cannot know anything about God, at least not for sure. This radical denial of a sure knowledge about God relegates theology to the realm of fantasy, of spirituality or of individual taste and preference. It is called by the name of agnosticism. This designates any philosophical system which pretends that humans cannot know anything for sure, particularly that which cannot be directly seen and witnessed by our bodily senses. Only empirical science, based on experiences which can be repeated indefinitely and thus be ever proven to be “true”, counts as science for the “moderns”.
How modern are those “moderns”? Judging by what St Paul writes in the first chapter of the same Epistle to the Romans, this type of modernity or modernism should better be called ignorance, stupidity or malice. It is as old as the world, or to be more precise, as old as sin:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain the truth of God in injustice: Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable.” (Rom 1:18-20)
God has given the human soul, the human mind, the faculty of intelligence or reasoning. This intelligence is naturally capable of knowing the substance of things. Therefore there is also a minimum which any human being can know about God if they make good and right use of their reasoning power. These are foremost: God’s existence and providence, and his attributes of wisdom, goodness and almighty power. “For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity”, as St Paul says. His conclusion is without appeal: Those who do not know God, or know him not properly in his attributes, “are inexcusable” because they “detain the truth of God in injustice”, injustice here meaning sin in general. St Paul further concludes that all kinds of shameful idolatry and also bodily perversity are a consequence of a man’s denial or refusal to make right use of his reason.
Modernism has plagued Holy Church in the 19th century and into the 20th. St Pius X calls it a synthesis of all heresies, a sewer where all ideological impurity finds itself collected. Similarly the present mainstream ideology is a sewer where all mental impurity is coming together. It stinks to heaven. But the present self-declared elite is embracing this collected impurity as if it were a precious treasure. Perversion is constantly “celebrated”. One false and ludicrous scheme or idea is chasing the other. It is like “the emperor’s new clothes”, but many times more ridiculous. In this manner the mind of the greater part of humanity is being kept busy with unworthy subjects instead of focusing on that which is good, true, beautiful, precious and virtuous. “Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.“ (Rom 1:21-22) Is it not telling that the would-be lords of our day and age come up with statements like: „Having children is the worst thing you can do with regards to the environment“ or „The best thing you can do for your child, do not have another one“ (publicity displayed in Vancouver, Canada)?
“With the holy, thou wilt be holy; and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent. And with the elect thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted“, chants the Prophet King David (Ps 17:26-27) As ever, nay, more than ever we need to choose the camp in which we live and for which we fight! Maybe in a year or two, simply saying that God is one in three Persons will be considered as ‘hate-speech’ because it is ‘exclusive’ of other ‘monotheistic religions’? Who knows? After all, over the past two decades the “moderns” have been celebrating June being ‘proud’ about their manifold perversions… instead of honoring the Sacred Heart of the Redeemer! The Catholic seeks his glory in God’s glory (cf 1Cor 10:17). “Modern” man seeks his glory in his ignominy (cf Phil 3:19).
For the “moderns”, the Feast of the Blessed Trinity makes no sense therefore, it has become impossible in every way and sense.
In this they are not modern, but heirs of the mahometan or jewish sect which declare that believing in one God subsisting in three Divine Persons is a blasphemy and polytheism (worshiping several gods).
The “moderns” go much further still by purely and simply denying the existence of the spiritual realities: God, the Angels, the human soul; and all that goes with these, like love, charity, joy, virtue and other true human values. Their doctors practice psychology and psychiatry, meaning learning about the soul and healing of the soul without believing in the existence of the soul. Their learned men practice theology without believing in God who has revealed Himself to men.
We as Catholics in this day and age have to take great care not to follow their footsteps. It is easy to become ensnared in the many traps laid out by this system in which Satan is playing his last card, that of mirroring to the entire mankind that it can replace God and be like God. This is how he seduced our first parents Adam and Eve: “And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:4-5) He is still trying to do that, and now he seems to be successful in establishing his false and evil and godless ideas not only in some, but most human minds, and in any given human society. It is a masterly trick of the devil to make himself, the seducer and tempter, unseen by making the humans to believe that spirits do not exist!
Certainly even the Catholic, the child of God, cannot see God with his eyes. But our mind has been made by God to know God. The human mind is capable of knowing God. It has the duty to know God in order to love and serve him. This is the only manner in which man can save his soul.
Therefore we need to arm ourselves against “modern thinking”. It is the contrary of thinking because it proceeds on a false premise, that of agnosticism. Ultimately it means going against the very manner in which the human intellect must proceed, namely according to the principle of non-contradiction. Something cannot be itself and its contrary at the same time, under the same angle of view. The chemical element carbon can be a piece of charcoal, or a precious diamond. But a piece of charcoal is no diamond, and vice versa. They consist of the same material, but they are not identical in their substance.
Right and just reasoning is paramount for the Catholic life! You do not need to be a philosopher or a scholar to be a Catholic. But you necessarily need to use your God-given brain for the purpose for which God has made it, and in the manner God has made it to function. Otherwise you will end up in a mindset of “Who knows…?”, thus joining the enemy camp, probably without even noticing you did.
If you want to do yourself some special favor on this Feast of the Most Blessed Trinity, pray the Athanasian Creed (see below) with your whole mind and soul, as the Church does on this feast and on many Sundays throughout the year. The first and largest part is an in-depth explanation of the truth of the Holy Trinity and a refutation of many errors contrary to this truth.
“Ne permittas me separari a te – do not permit me to be separated from Thee”, we pray in the beautiful prayer “Anima Christi”. Every day we need to petition the Triune God that we become not separated from Him, our Creator, our Father, our Redeemer, our Judge. We must remain united, and get ever closer to God through Our Lord Jesus-Christ. We can only know and serve Our Lord if we are faithful to the Church founded by him. We can only be faithful to the true Church if we make every reasonable effort to know and understand the letter and the mind of the Church’s teachings.
May Our Blessed Lady, the beloved daughter of the Eternal Father, the august Mother of the Son of God, the divine Spouse of the Holy Ghost, the perfect Temple of the Most Holy Trinity, come to our help in our struggle for sanity and sanctity.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Athanasian Creed
Whoever wishes to be saved must, above all, keep the Catholic faith.
For unless a person keeps this faith whole and entire, he will undoubtedly be lost forever.
This is what the Catholic faith teaches: we worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity.
Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the substance.
For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Ghost.
But the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost have one divinity, equal glory, and coeternal majesty.
What the Father is, the Son is, and the Holy Ghost is.
The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, and the Holy Ghost is uncreated.
The Father is boundless, the Son is boundless, and the Holy Ghost is boundless.
The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, and the Holy Ghost is eternal.
Nevertheless, there are not three eternal beings, but one eternal being.
So there are not three uncreated beings, nor three boundless beings, but one uncreated being and one boundless being.
Likewise, the Father is omnipotent, the Son is omnipotent, the Holy Ghost is omnipotent.
Yet there are not three omnipotent beings, but one omnipotent being.
Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.
However, there are not three gods, but one God.
The Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Ghost is Lord.
However, there as not three lords, but one Lord.
For as we are obliged by Christian truth to acknowledge every Person singly to be God and Lord, so too are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to say that there are three Gods or Lords.
The Father was not made, nor created, nor generated by anyone.
The Son is not made, nor created, but begotten by the Father alone.
The Holy Ghost is not made, nor created, nor generated, but proceeds from the Father and the Son.
There is, then, one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Ghost, not three holy Ghosts.
In this Trinity, there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or less. The entire three Persons are coeternal and coequal with one another.
So that in all things, as is has been said above, the Unity is to be worshipped in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity.
He, therefore, who wishes to be saved, must believe thus about the Trinity.
It is also necessary for eternal salvation that he believes steadfastly in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thus the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and man.
As God, He was begotten of the substance of the Father before time; as man, He was born in time of the substance of His Mother.
He is perfect God; and He is perfect man, with a rational soul and human flesh.
He is equal to the Father in His divinity, but inferior to the Father in His humanity.
Although He is God and man, He is not two, but one Christ.
And He is one, not because His divinity was changed into flesh, but because His humanity was assumed unto God.
He is one, not by a mingling of substances, but by unity of person.
As a rational soul and flesh are one man: so God and man are one Christ.
He died for our salvation, descended into hell, and rose from the dead on the third day.
He ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
At His coming, all men are to arise with their own bodies; and they are to give an account of their own deeds.
Those who have done good deeds will go into eternal life; those who have done evil will go into the everlasting fire.
This is the Catholic faith. Everyone must believe it, firmly and steadfastly; otherwise He cannot be saved. Amen.
P. Arnold Trauner (paterarnold@hotmail.com), njemački i engleski.
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