Please know I only share these as personal concepts which help me grow closer to God in the hopes of helping others grow closer to God and help me grow greater in presentation.
jochoa,
Yes, that makes sense. My concern, though, is that some of your meditations may be leading you to expressions that aren’t in line with the way that the Church expresses her doctrine. So, while valuable to you in your faith journey as mileposts along the way of your growing understanding, they may nonetheless prove to be stumbling blocks. So, I think our discussion has great merit, allowing many to benefit both from your deliberations and from the wisdom of the Church…
Here are a few questions to consider:
Is Jesus a man, a god, or God, or some combination?
Yes, no, yes, no.
Jesus is the incarnation of the Logos, the 2nd person of God. So, properly speaking, Jesus is the incarnation of God. He is not a ‘combination’, though. In the early centuries of the Church, as the doctrine of the Trinity was beginning to be developed, there were many misunderstandings. Among them were ideas that Jesus was some mixture or combination of God and man; or, a man specially blessed by God; or God, who just appeared to be a man. What the Church came to understand was that in Jesus, we see the incarnation of the Logos, fully God and fully Man, with a complete divine nature and a complete human nature, without any type of ‘mixture’ or any type of ‘confusion’ between the divine and human nature or will. It’s not an easy concept.
Do you believe that the Father’s Will is/will be done on earth, as it is in heaven?
I believe that, since Jesus taught us to pray this, it is something that we strive toward. Since God’s will is done in us through our thoughts and actions, it’s a goal that we’ll never completely reach while living on earth; however, it’s a standard to which we aspire, and so, it becomes more (or less) present depending on our reaction to God’s grace in our lives.
And if His Will is being done, do you believe this is an experience of Heaven?
The Kingdom of Heaven is both ‘already’ and ‘not quite’ here on earth. In a limited sense, yes, we experience the Kingdom of Heaven already. However, it would be an exaggeration to say that we fully experience Heaven, although we have tastes of it: in the Eucharist, in the gifts of the Spirit, in the grace that we encounter and attempt to act in concert with…
What are your understandings on How the Father’s Will is done on earth?
Aah, that’s a deep question. I don’t know that there is a single answer, but Jesus’ words in the Bread of Life discourse provide a good summary:
"And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it [on] the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him [on] the last day.” (John 6:39-40)
So, I think that, on a macro level, it’s reasonable to say that the will of the Father is that all people should come to Him and be with Him in eternal life; so, we do the will of the Father when we act in a way that brings us closer to salvation… but also, when our words and actions also bring others closer to unity with God, as well. Do I always act in that way? No. When I stumble, though, I hope that I turn to God in contrition, ask forgiveness, and stand up, dust myself off, and try again…
Do you believe that during Holy Communion, we are in complete union (body, spirit, mind, and will) with God, the Holy Trinity, or the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit?
Well, I wouldn’t make such a strong statement as “we are in complete union”. Let’s remember how the Eucharist ‘works’ (if I can put it that way). The Eucharist truly is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus, present sacramentally in the physical elements of bread and wine. Therefore, there is grace present in the sacrament itself (that is, the Eucharist, by its very nature, is a means of conferring grace – the technical phrase is
ex opere operato). Neither the personal holiness of the priest who confects the Eucharist nor the disposition of the person receiving the Eucharist ‘make’ the Eucharist efficacious – it confers grace, freely given by God, by virtue of the fact that it is the Eucharist.
However, it doesn’t follow that, by virtue of receiving the Eucharist, you automatically receive the grace of the sacrament. (In other words, although the Eucharist is a miracle that happens at every Mass, it
isn’t magic.) A person has to be predisposed to receiving the grace in the Eucharist in order to receive the benefit of the sacrament.
(Wow… that took longer than I thought it would!)
With that in mind, then, you can see why I’d say that it isn’t necessarily true that we’re “in complete union” with God when we receive the Eucharist, right? Let’s use a thought experiment. Three of us are in line to receive Communion: you, me, and someone who has just committed murder. The murderer, who is not in a state of grace, receives communion, but is not disposed to receive the grace that the sacrament offers; certainly, he is not in union with God, even though he has received Communion – in fact, he’s committing a sacrilege by receiving while in mortal sin! I, perhaps, have committed venial sins, so I’m not perfect, but I can receive the grace offered in the sacrament in proportion to how I am predisposed (I receive some grace, and am brought closer to union with God, but it wouldn’t be accurate to say that I’m “in complete union” with God at that point). You, perhaps, have just come from Confession: you are in a state of grace, and therefore, you receive the grace of the sacrament; for that moment, you are in a certain state of union with God (although that doesn’t imply that you will necessarily remain that way – we’re human, and we sin, right?).
Sorry for the length of my answer… but you asked some deep questions, that require a bunch of up-front info in order to answer!
Blessings,
G.
