Today
is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. All of us believe the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three persons one God.
Each
person of the Trinity has a specific function. God, the Father, is
the creator. Jesus Christ, the Son, is the redeemer. The Holy Spirit
is the sanctifier. Yet, because each person is one with the other
persons, all persons create, redeem and sanctify.
The
Blessed Trinity is in scripture. For example, The Blessed Virgin Mary
was the first human being God revealed the Blessed Trinity. When the
angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, asking Her if She would become the
Mother of God. He said, “The
Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you (the Father), therefore the child to be born will be
called holy, the Son of God.” (Lk
1:35)
The
Trinity was also revealed at the Transfiguration and at the Baptism
of Jesus in the Jordan. At Our Lord’s Baptism, the Holy Spirit was
seen in the form of a dove and the Father spoke and said, “You
are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matt.
3:16-17)
Jesus
revealed the Trinity when he told His Apostles, “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.”
The
Church teaches that when we are baptized, the Blessed Trinity comes
to dwell within our heart, original sin and all personal sin is
washed away, we become a member of the Church, and we become a child
of God, such that we can cry out “Abba
Father.” (Rom. 8:14-17)
Through baptism we share in the divine life of the Trinity, as we
become God’s children.
In
the March 19th,
issue of the Harvey County
Independent, a protestant
pastor wrote an article called, “False
Gospels Have Been Around Awhile.”
When referring to what he said was a false gospel, he wrote, “It’s
called the Jesus-plus gospel.” He
said, “In another words,
it is Jesus plus something else that saves us. Maybe it’s Jesus
plus another holy book, of Jesus plus a creed….” He
said, “The bottom line
is this: There is one gospel message found in the Holy Bible, which
teaches that Jesus and Jesus alone is sufficient to save us. If
anyone, no matter who it is, tells you differently, they are teaching
a false gospel.”
First,
we must recognize these words from the Protestant pastor are a direct
reference to what Catholics believe. When he refers to Jesus-plus, he
is referring to the Sacraments and to Sacred Tradition of Catholics.
If
taken strictly, which I doubt he means it in a strict manner, does he
exclude the Father and the Holy Spirit and their role in saving men
and women? We can’t separate the persons of the Trinity because
they are perfectly one. Jesus is our savior, but the Father and the
Holy Spirit participate in saving us.
When
referring to “Jesus plus”, is the Protestant pastor also
referring to the Church itself? But Jesus gave us the Church for a
reason. The Church is “the instrument” in which Jesus saves us.
Jesus said,
“Peter, you are rock and on this rock, I will build my Church…”
Jesus
gave us the Church and leaders of the Church, to help save us. As St.
Paul tells us, the Church
is the pillar and bulwark of truth.
(1 Tim. 3:15). The
Catechism
of the
Catholic Church
(#86) states, “Yet
this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its
servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine
command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this
devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All
that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from
this single deposit of faith."
The
sacraments are the means, Jesus Himself chose, to save us. Jesus
instituted all 7 sacraments.
Does
the Protestant minister accept the need for baptism? Suppose for a
moment he does. Then would baptism be a Jesus plus thing?
I
am certain he does not accept Confession
because very few ministers would. However, Jesus wants all to go to
Confession and the early Christians did go to Confession to a priest.
Confession is found in
scripture, when Jesus told His apostles, “Whose
sins you forgive are forgiven, whose sins you retain are retained”.
(John 20:23) St. Justin,
who died in 165AD explains that the early Christians confessed their
sins to a priest. He said, “Of
how much greater faith and salutary fear are they who . . . confess
their sins to the priests of God in a straightforward manner and in
sorrow, making an open declaration of conscience.”
The
protestant minister rejects the
Eucharist. But Jesus
said, “This is my body
given up for you (Luke
22:14)..And
Our Lord said, “If you
eat my flesh and drink my blood you will have eternal life”,
(John 6:54). Non-Catholics say Jesus meant this symbolically. But if
that were the case, then Jesus would have said it was only symbolic,
especially when “many of
His disciples left Him and would no longer follow Him”. (John
6:66). But He didn’t tell them it was symbolic, He let them leave.
Why would He let many leave if He didn’t mean it literally?
The
minister most likely also rejects, the Priesthood
(bishops, priests and deacons), yet these are all in Sacred Scripture
in (1
Timothy 3:1,8; 5:17).
The early Church had them because Jesus wanted them. St. Ignatius of
Antioch in 107AD, (only about 10 years after the last apostle died),
shows us that the early Christians were receiving the Eucharist and
that there were bishops, priests and deacons. He said, “Make
certain, therefore, that you all observe one common Eucharist;
for there is but one Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and but one cup
of union with his Blood, and one single altar of sacrifice—even as
there is also but one bishop, with his clergy
and my own fellow servitors, the deacons. This will ensure that all
your doings are in full accord with the will of God.”
Would
the minister also reject Anointing
of the Sick which is
found in the book of James--"Is
any among you sick? Let him call for the priests of the church, and
let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord
will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be
forgiven." (Jas.
5:14–15).
Does
he also reject Confirmation
which is found in the Acts of the Apostles, “..they
sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that
they might receive the holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon
any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy
Spirit.”
(Acts 8:14-18)
All
of these are in scripture. All of these were instituted by Christ.
All these were done by the early Church. He is right when the
minister said, we only need Jesus to save us. But He is missing
something very important. And that is the means
in which Jesus intends to save us. The means are the Church, the
leaders of the Church and the sacraments, all of which Jesus is the
source and how we come in contact with Him.
If
one rejects the means Jesus desires to save us, would one also reject
Jesus Himself?
The
protestant pastor excludes all creeds. However, in the history of the
Church creeds were necessary because of false gospels, which
Catholics call heresies. For example, in 325, all the bishops
gathered in union with the pope at Nicaea to clarify who Jesus is--
due to the Arian heresy. Bishop Arius denied the divinity of Jesus,
which began to spread in the early Church and as a result a Creed was
developed to help the people to understand, Jesus is fully God and
fully man. We say the Nicene Creed every Sunday at Mass.
On
another occasion, the Council
of Ephesus in 431AD
was
called-- due to the Nestorian heresy, which claimed Mary gave birth
only to the human Christ. The Council affirmed Christ is a divine
person, who assumed human nature when conceived in Mary’s womb and
therefore Mary is the Mother of God, because Mary is the Mother of
Jesus, who is God.
The
Nicene Creed helps us to know Jesus saves us because
He is truly God and truly man. The Creed reminds us that there are
three persons, and one God. It reminds us the Trinity is the same
substance.
Without
creeds (statements of beliefs), people can have the wrong
understanding of who Jesus is. They can take scripture out of
context.
We
can clearly see this today. For example: Jehovah Witnesses deny Jesus
is God. They also deny the Holy Spirit is God and they even state
they do not believe in the Blessed Trinity. Another example: Mormons
don’t believe Jesus is God. They believe Jesus is an angel. Muslims
don’t believe Jesus is God, they believe He is only a prophet.
(None of these religions believe in the Blessed Trinity).
If
Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons accepted the Nicene Creed, they would
believe Jesus is God and believe in the Trinity.
When
any Christian church says, it does not need a creed, but only Jesus,
it risks losing the understanding the fullness of who Jesus is. How
would it be possible for Jesus to save us, if He were not fully God
and fully man?
This
is why in the Nicene Creed, we say, Jesus was “incarnated”
(became man) by the Holy Spirit. He is fully God and fully man. Also
in the Nicene Creed, we say, Jesus is consubstantial with the Father.
We use the word, “consubstantial”
in the creed because of a heresy which said Jesus and the Father are
not the same substance.
Some
religions have invalid baptisms. When I was an associate pastor at
St. Francis in Wichita, I called one of the largest Protestant
churches in Wichita and asked which formula they used for baptism.
Because there were multiple ministers at that church, the pastor told
me, “Each
minister uses whatever formula he or she wants to baptize. Some
ministers baptize in the name of the Creator, Redeemer and
Sanctifier. Another minister baptizes in the name of Jesus. And some
baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of Holy Spirit.”
But
how can they choose to baptize in any other way, except the way Jesus
instructed His apostles which is in Scripture. “Go..
and baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of Holy
Spirit.” The
Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith said all other formulas are
invalid.
How
can those who subscribe to scripture alone, not use scripture when
baptizing and how can they even refer to the Blessed Trinity, without
tradition? The word “Trinity” is not in the bible. The tradition
of the Catholic Church gave us the words, “Trinity,
consubstantial, incarnation, etc…”
If
one were to exclude everything outside of scripture, it would
contradict scripture itself. The false gospel idea of “scripture
alone”, is a man-made idea. In fact, no-where is “scripture
alone” found in the bible. Quite the contrary, St. Paul in 2 Thess.
2:15 states, “So
then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were
taught by us, either
by word of mouth or by
letter.”
Even the last sentence of John’s Gospel proves there is more than
scripture to what Jesus said and did. St. John said, “But,
there are many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them
to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the
books that would be written.” (John
21:25)
Some
non-Catholics exclude everything Jesus said and did, outside of
scripture. Therefore, they are not accepting the fullness of what was
revealed by God because of their false doctrine of scripture alone.
Just
think about this for a minute. There was no such doctrine as
scripture alone for the first 1500 years of Christianity. Were all
those Christians wrong including the apostles and St. Paul? Or were
the people 500 years ago who rejected the tradition of the Church
wrong? The answer is clear, the “Jesus
plus Gospel”
(the Church, Church authority, the Sacraments, Sacred Tradition) all
of these Jesus gave us----and make up the authentic Gospel, and that
which lacks these is truly, “the false gospel”.
Today,
let us rejoice in the Blessed Trinity and in our Catholic faith,
handed down to us from the apostles. And may, Mary other Mary, help
all to come to know who Jesus really is and all Jesus revealed. For
God the Father, sent His only Son, to save us. He sent the Holy
Spirit to form the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, which
will last until Jesus comes again to the Judge of the living and the
dead.