Religion 9: Chapter 8

What does it mean that we are contingent beings?

We owe our existence to something (or someone) else; we did not create ourselves or our world. God is the source of our life, who worked in cooperation with our human parents.

What is revealed about God the Father and Jesus when call them Father and Son?

Father and Son are relational terms and their definitions depend on each other. The Father and the Son (Jesus) are eternally in relationship with one another.

What does the Sacrament of Baptism make us? How does this fact affect our relationship to God?

Adopted brothers and sisters of Jesus and adopted sons and daughters of God/ This makes us heirs to the Kingdom of God, and participants in the relationship between the Father and Son and members of the family of the Trinity.

How can we describe God the Father's fatherhood?

He watches over and cares for all. He is forgiving and loving and patiently waits for us to accept His invitation to come home.

What does the word consubstantial mean? Why do we use it to describe the relationship between the Persons of the Trinity?

Consubstantial means to possess the "same substance." The substance of something is what it is at the deepest level of its being. God's substance is divinity. Each of the Persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, fully share in the divinity of God - they are "consubstantial" or "of the same substance." The persons of the Trinity do not possess a portion of the divinity of God (Such as 33.33% of God's divinity. Rather, each is fully 100% God.

What does it mean that God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, is eternally begotten of the Father?

He is born from the Father, not at a specific point in time (because God exists outside of time - time, in fact, is a creation of God's), but rather there never was a time before the Son was born from the Father. God the Son has always and will always (eternally) be begotten, or born from, the Father. (However, the Incarnation of the Son of God did occur at a specific moment in human history)

How is Jesus the "New Adam"?

Adam is Hebrew for "man," in the sense of all of mankind or humanity. The Fall of Adam, the first man, is really the story of the fall of all of humanity. Jesus, the New Adam, is the first of a new humanity. Since death and sin entered the world through the disobedience of one man (Adam), so too does eternal life, the Resurrection of the Dead, come through Jesus. Jesus is the perfect man, what and who the first man was made to be.

What does Jesus do as our Redeemer?

He brings about our own personal salvation, but also the recapitulation of the entire world, which is to say He restores God as the head of creation through His Crucifixion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension.

How is Christ's mission on earth continued?

In the Church.

How is the love shared between a man and woman in marriage like the Holy Spirit?

Love is fruitful; it creates. The love between a man and woman in marriage bears fruit in the form of a new person, a child. This is much like the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. He is the love eternally shared between the Father and the Son, which bears fruit in the form of the Holy Spirit, who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.

What is the work of the Holy Spirit? What is His relationship to the Church?

He acts directly in human history in the days after Jesus returned to His Father in Heaven by going out from the father and the Son and bringing grace to the world to sanctify us. The work of sanctification is carried out by the Church, so in a sense the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church.

How do we receive the Gifts of the Holy Spirit? Where do the fruits of the Holy Spirit come from?

We receive the Gifts of the Holy Spirit at our Baptism (and in Confirmation). The Fruits of the Holy Spirit are enjoyed when we cooperate with the Holy Spirit and accept His Gifts.

How can we describe God and everything He makes? What does this mean for evil and suffering?

God is infinitely good; everything He makes and does is good. Therefore, God does not make evil or do evil things and He does not cause suffering. Evil and suffering is either the work of the Devil or the result of our sins.

How can we begin to understand the suffering experienced by natural events?

The suffering caused by natural events are not signs of God's displeasure or punishment, but consequences of sin upon creation itself.

Why does God allow evil and suffering?

Because God created human beings (and angels) as free creatures. We can use our freedom for good, as it was intended, or we can turn away from love, goodness, and God. God allows us to freely choose and experience the consequences of our choices, because if He did not, we would not truly be free.

What is the greatest example of God bringing good out of evil and suffering?

The greatest moral evil, the rejection and murder of God's only Son, Jesus, brought about the greatest of goods, the glorification of Christ and our redemption.

How did St. Patrick teach the people of Ireland about the Trinity?

He used a shamrock as an analogy - just as the shamrock has three leaves but is one shamrock, the Trinity has three distinct Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but there is only one God.

Consubstantial

Of the same substance. This word is used to describe how God the Father and God the Son are both fully God, or of the same divine substance.

Begotten

Born from. The second Person of the Holy Trinity, God the Son, is eternally begotten of the Father

Adam

Hebrew for "man," as in mankind or the entire human race. Also, in Scripture, the name given to the first man.

Redeemer

A person who saves or frees others from slavery or oppression. Jesus is our Redeemer because He saved us from the slavery and oppression of sin and death.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Seven gifts of grace given to us by God at our Baptism and again in Confirmation that help us respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. They are wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Fruits of the Holy Spirit

Twelve perfections formed in us by living a holy life in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. They are: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.