tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86765381766793354642024-03-13T14:30:55.735-04:00Nathan Barontini's Blog"STRIVE to enter by the Narrow Gate" (Lk. 13:24) “the gate not used by souls whose twisted love attempts to make the crooked way seem straight.” (Purgatorio, 10.1-3)Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.comBlogger382125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-30326974719864270962019-03-12T18:44:00.002-04:002019-03-12T18:44:25.382-04:00Dante Alighieri's Continued Influence on Modern American PoliticsCheck out my latest at History is Now Magazine...<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Theodore Roosevelt’s biography reads like a how-to manual for achieving great things. While he had many influences, one poet in particular fascinated him, Dante Alighieri. The sound of that name conjures up images of souls in torment, people crying in agony, and absolute horror. Roosevelt, however, didn’t read Dante as a house of horrors, but as inspiration for living the strenuous life.<br />Roosevelt knew Dante well enough to author an essay for <em style="word-wrap: break-word;">Outlook</em>magazine entitled “<em style="word-wrap: break-word;">Dante and the Bowery</em>”. IN the magazine Roosevelt wrote, “Dante dealt with those tremendous qualities of the human soul.” He also included an allusion to Dante in his greatest speech, “<em style="word-wrap: break-word;">The Man in the Arena</em>”: </blockquote>
Read the whole thing <a href="http://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2019/3/3/the-importance-of-a-13th-century-italian-poet-to-some-of-americas-greatest-20th-century-leaders#.XIg1LC2ZOS4=">THERE</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236133106186871715noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-80374122246741116492018-12-09T13:00:00.000-05:002018-12-09T12:34:47.980-05:00The Hell We Choose. An Advent Call to Holiness.One of the more frequent objections I hear online against the Holy Faith is that God throws people, supposedly against their own wills, into hell and thus must be some kind of moral monster. The answer to this, of course, is simply that God doesn't determine our individual eternal fate alone, rather He does so in conjunction with our will. St. Augustine of Hippo summed this up perfectly in a sermon when he said,<br />
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God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us (<i>Sermo </i>169)</blockquote>
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In that way salvation is like a marriage. God isn't a spiritual rapist, intent on forcing every one of His creatures into eternal union with Himself, rather He proposes, He offers, an eternal relationship and allows us the free choice to say "yes" or "no." Saying "no" has some logical consequences attached to it (see: <a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/11/couldn-god-have-made-hell-nicer-place.html">Could God Have Made Hell a Nicer Place</a> for more on that) as does saying "yes." These logical consequences make those without God (those who say "no") end up in "hell" and those with God (those who say "yes") end up in "heaven." Thus, just like marriage, it takes two "yeses" for someone to be saved - God's and their own. God, for His part, both wills all men to be saved (cf. 1 Tim 2:4) and provides the grace needed for each man to say "yes" to God. All that then separates the saved and the damned is the willingness of each individual person to say "yes" back to God. Or as CS Lewis puts it in <i>The Great Divorce</i>,</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEb-EHhy5S8k-NKQTVG3MPUUcjrUqSa_he7i5TuNZz8Cn_VGyEAgJqVkhaBsSh3AHWlZapx58UZiUjAmH1ZLELgHjWhJMoeoijgD2qkncziwQ4mXjmB1eQGTFGMMk1Iysmj7WRG_c3qzz9/s1600/blogger-image--440615662.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEb-EHhy5S8k-NKQTVG3MPUUcjrUqSa_he7i5TuNZz8Cn_VGyEAgJqVkhaBsSh3AHWlZapx58UZiUjAmH1ZLELgHjWhJMoeoijgD2qkncziwQ4mXjmB1eQGTFGMMk1Iysmj7WRG_c3qzz9/s1600/blogger-image--440615662.jpg" title="CS Lewis" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.</span></div>
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St. Catherine of Siena, the great mystic and Doctor of the Church, in her famous <i>Dialogue</i> (which was nothing less than a transcription of a conversation she had with the Father) received the same message on salvation from the lips of God</div>
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How great is the stupidity of those who make themselves weak in spite of my strengthening, and put themselves into the devil's hands! I want you to know, then, that at the moment of death, because they have put themselves during life under the devil's rule (not by force, because they cannot be forced, as I told you; but they put themselves voluntarily into his hands), and because they come to the point of death under this perverse rule, they can expect no other judgement but that of their own conscience. They come without hope to eternal damnation. In hate they grasp at hell in the moment of their death, and even before they possess it, they take hell as their prize along with their lords the demons.</blockquote>
Indeed it is our disposition toward Christ that even affects the way we see Him at the Last Judgement (for He looks on all of us the same) but the blessed,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
wait for divine judgement with gladness, not fear. And the face of my Son will appear to them neither terrifying nor hateful... The differences in the appearance of his face... will not be in him but in those who are to be judged by him. To the damned he will appear with just hatred, but to the saved with mercy and love. </blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBnPOPCnQiUrtyuUnA9L6Jr3KrCKkFoKYngV5C0q03U5-hkmsZCdM8ihDJ9YQpBNmFym1RIdKCmnvPrOjg0mk-mlitgw-LkZiF5zREAJmTypx8GIkIu3CG0GR3UQTSlaO9_od4M-_KOFNg/s1600/Michelangelo,_Giudizio_Universale_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Michelangelo" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBnPOPCnQiUrtyuUnA9L6Jr3KrCKkFoKYngV5C0q03U5-hkmsZCdM8ihDJ9YQpBNmFym1RIdKCmnvPrOjg0mk-mlitgw-LkZiF5zREAJmTypx8GIkIu3CG0GR3UQTSlaO9_od4M-_KOFNg/s1600/Michelangelo,_Giudizio_Universale_02.jpg" title="Last Judgement" width="266" /></a></div>
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St. Catherine explains this thus,<br />
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So no one waits to be judged. All receive their appointed place as they leave this life. They taste it and possess it even before they leave their bodies at the moment of death: the damned in hate and despair; the perfect in love, with the light of faith trusting in the blood. And the imperfect in mercy and with the same faith, come to that place called purgatory.</blockquote>
Thus it is the love of God that allows his beloved sons and daughters to turn their backs on Him forever. This love is powerful enough that He finally respects our choice, the choice we make not just with our lips but with our lives (cf. Matt 7:22). The great Dante, recognizing this truth, bold inscribes on the gates of hell,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Through me you pass into the city of woe:<br />
Through me you pass into the eternal pain:<br />
Through me among the people lost for aye.</blockquote>
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Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:<br />
To rear me was the task of power divine,<br />
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.</blockquote>
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Before me things create were none,<br />
Save things Eternal, and I eternal endure.<br />
All hope abandon ye who enter here. (<i>Inferno, Canto III</i>)</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT-lh1XfPl5pmV_njN8gBloztlkpdhYkff2xERBdBnxS69DPJrPtO4a8lNhBDvttzQIIUEmz9q7_Pg3IG54DvlvoA6gTbmwr-ScKC44AWeHVdr2_ytzmb0cESU7ZaOE_69me3GGMgQrond/s1600/dante-alighieri.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Dante's Inferno" border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT-lh1XfPl5pmV_njN8gBloztlkpdhYkff2xERBdBnxS69DPJrPtO4a8lNhBDvttzQIIUEmz9q7_Pg3IG54DvlvoA6gTbmwr-ScKC44AWeHVdr2_ytzmb0cESU7ZaOE_69me3GGMgQrond/s1600/dante-alighieri.jpg" title="Dante Alighieri" width="320" /></a></div>
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Such it is that some choose hell.<br />
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To put this in practical terms, I had the occasion of asking an atheist recently whether he would even <i>want</i> to be with Jesus for all eternity. Not whether he thought it possible, not even if he thought a person could survive death, but simply if he'd <i>want it. </i>He might think it as likely to come true as wanting to be Superman is, but still the question remained - <i>would you even want it if it were possible</i>? To those that answer "no," they can see immediately why existence apart from God, "hell," is possible.<br />
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Perhaps, though we might wonder, wouldn't the damnation of even one person ruin the joys of heaven for all, including God? C.S. Lewis shows us that such thinking amounts to no more than,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
the demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to <i>veto </i>Heaven. (<i>The Great Divorce</i><i>)</i></blockquote>
Which itself would be loveless and unfair (the very things people accuse the doctrine of hell of). Hatred doesn't have the last say. Love does.<br />
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Which means every man has the same choice presented to him - know God or no God. The one is the narrow path that leads to eternal bliss. The other the wide road to perdition (cf Matt 7:13-14). For those whose lives are centered on Christ, death just means more Christ. For those who live Christless lives, they receive an eternity of just that - Christlessness. This Advent I implore you to take stock of your life and ask yourself what choice is the way you're living making? Remember, it isn't enough to pay lip service to living God, just as it isn't enough to say "I love you" to your wife and then cheat on her. Talk is cheap. Those who love Jesus will show it by the way they live their lives (cf. Jn 14:13), which means more than going along with the prevailing culture (cf. Rom 12:2). So take this season, where we are called to reflect upon the coming of Christ not just at Christmas, but at the end of time, and decide to live a life of holiness. Don't wait for next year or when the kids are older or when you get that promotion or graduate from school or retire. Start today.<br />
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You Might Also Be Interested In: <a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2014/02/st-faustina-sees-hell.html">St. Faustina Sees Hell</a><br />
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Recommended Reading:<br />
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</iframe>Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-13852291092526031682018-08-06T14:48:00.000-04:002018-08-06T14:52:24.267-04:00Theodore Roosevelt on DanteSome of you will, no doubt, be surprised to learn that several American presidents were influenced by the thought and writings of Dante Alighieri. I wanted to point to one in particular today, Theodore Roosevelt.<br />
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Most of us know TR as an avid hunter, leader of the First United States Volunteer Cavalry (the "Rough Riders") in their famous charge up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. What many are less familiar with, however, is his love for reading. Roosevelt himself estimating that he read tens of thousands of books over the course of his life. He even managed to read a book a day during his time as president.<br />
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Even those who might be aware of TR's erudition, normally do not associate him with our favorite medieval love poet - Dante Alighieri. However, TR read enough Dante that the Italian ambassador, Edomondo Mayor Des Planches, called him a "constant reader of Dante," and the Italian king gifted TR a beautiful edition of <i>The Divine Comedy</i>. TR also wrote an article for <i>Outlook </i>magazine, which is well worth taking a moment or two to read.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #000020;">I</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 32); color: #000020;">T</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #000020;"> is the conventional thing to praise Dante because he of set purpose “used the language of the market-place,” so as to be understanded of the common people; but we do not in practice either admire or understand a man who writes in the language of our own market-place. It must be the Florentine market-place of the thirteenth century—not Fulton Market of to-day. What infinite use Dante would have made of the Bowery! Of course, he could have done it only because not merely he himself, the great poet, but his audience also, would have accepted it as natural. The nineteenth century was more apt than the thirteenth to boast of itself as being the greatest of the centuries; but, save as regards purely material objects, ranging from locomotives to bank buildings, it did not wholly believe in its boasting. A nineteenth-century poet, when trying to illustrate some point he was making, obviously felt uncomfortable in mentioning nineteenth-century heroes if he also referred to those of classic times, lest he should be suspected of instituting comparisons between them. A thirteenth-century poet was not in the least troubled by any such misgivings, and quite simply illustrated his point by allusions to any character in history or romance, ancient or contemporary, that happened to occur to him.</span></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.bartleby.com/109/30.html">Read the rest HERE.</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">by Nathan Barontini</span>Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-38248447178598589852018-01-01T12:25:00.002-05:002018-01-01T12:25:31.831-05:00Is Mary the Mother of God? An answer to a Protestant ObjectionHappy New Year's and Happy Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.<br />
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Today, on Facebook, I came across the following objection to Mary being called the Mother of God. In case you run across this today, or any day, here is my refutation.<br />
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The Objection (attributed to Dr. Walter Martin): "If Catholics say, 'Mary is the Mother of Jesus, therefore, Mary is the mother of God, then it also follows that we must say, 'God is Trinity; Mary is the mother of God, therefore, Mary is the mother of the Trinity.'"<br />
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Let's simplify this to a syllogism. The Catholic argument is:<br />
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Mary is the mother of Jesus<br />
Therefore, Mary is the mother of God<br />
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Syllogisms always have three propositions (two premises and one conclusion). This type of syllogism is called an "enthymeme," i.e. one that has an unstated "hidden" premise. Why do all syllogisms have to have three propositions? To link the three terms that are present. For example, in our Catholic argument, the three terms are: "Mary," "Jesus," and "God." The "hidden" proposition must link "Jesus" to "God." Thus, the hidden proposition is, "Jesus is God." So, our syllogism is:<br />
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<u>Syllogism 1:</u><br />
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Mary is the mother of Jesus<br />
Jesus is God<br />
Therefore, Mary is the mother of God<br />
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Fine and good. That is iron-clad logic.<br />
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Martin's argument seems, on the surface equally strong,<br />
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<u>Syllogism 2:</u><br />
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God is Trinity<br />
Mary is the mother of God<br />
Therefore, Mary is the mother of the Trinity.<br />
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Do we Catholics have to start claiming Mary is the mother of the Father and the Holy Spirit? No. Why? Because Dr. Martin's argument depends on this argument,<br />
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<u>Necessary, false, Syllogism 3:</u><br />
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Jesus is God<br />
God is the Trinity<br />
Therefore, Jesus is the Trinity<br />
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It is only by establishing the equivalence between Jesus and the Trinity that would require us to call Mary, if she is the mother of God, to also be the mother of the entire Trinity. Neither we Catholics, nor (I presume) Dr. Martin believe Jesus is the Trinity, therefore Martin's argument evaporates.<br />
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TL;DR - Mary being the mother of one person of the Trinity doesn't mean she is the mother of all three persons of the Trinity.<br />
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Have a holy feast day!<br />
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<br />Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-76613656289677905622017-09-13T15:21:00.001-04:002017-09-13T15:21:41.002-04:00Dante Died 696 Years Ago Today<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG4T667ZcZfXlX20HA0CacxlDTEEdpR3jdSZZUbIeKLI3ebAUCl2HYoqAoswN57X8fNJ9CxymF9929lsCSFLZDYwK84VCgh6urFD9ktfPFL-BehZqbeKPY09KZwfbetZA9O_CCVUDNDF5-/s1600/W1siZiIsInVwbG9hZHMvcGxhY2VfaW1hZ2VzL2MzNWQ2YjY3MDUxMDg5ZTVmMl9EYW50ZSAyLmpwZyJdLFsicCIsInRodW1iIiwiOTgweD4iXSxbInAiLCJjb252ZXJ0IiwiLXF1YWxpdHkgODEgLWF1dG8tb3JpZW50Il1d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG4T667ZcZfXlX20HA0CacxlDTEEdpR3jdSZZUbIeKLI3ebAUCl2HYoqAoswN57X8fNJ9CxymF9929lsCSFLZDYwK84VCgh6urFD9ktfPFL-BehZqbeKPY09KZwfbetZA9O_CCVUDNDF5-/s400/W1siZiIsInVwbG9hZHMvcGxhY2VfaW1hZ2VzL2MzNWQ2YjY3MDUxMDg5ZTVmMl9EYW50ZSAyLmpwZyJdLFsicCIsInRodW1iIiwiOTgweD4iXSxbInAiLCJjb252ZXJ0IiwiLXF1YWxpdHkgODEgLWF1dG8tb3JpZW50Il1d.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dante's Tomb, Ravenna</td></tr>
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"<i>L'altissimo poeta"</i> (the most exalted poet) died on the evening of September 13<span style="font-size: x-small;">th, </span>1321 - 696 years ago this evening. On such an occasion, it is interesting to reflect on Dante's thoughts about earthly fame.<br />
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The most striking conversation Dante has on this subject is with his old teacher, Brunetto Latini.<br />
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Dante, upon seeing Latini cries out,<br />
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Still in my heart stays, memory's dear inmate,<br />The fatherly kind image, paining now,<br />Of you, when in the world, early and late,<br />You taught me how man may eternal grow. (<i>Inferno</i> 15. 82-85<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*</span>)</blockquote>
The pupil has learned well from his master. Latini implores Dante to remember his greatest literary work,<br />
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Let my Treasure, in which I still live on,<br />be in your mind, I ask for nothing more. (<i>Inferno</i> 15.119-120<span style="font-size: xx-small;">**</span>)</blockquote>
The irony, of course, is all in the location.<br />
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This conversation takes place in the seventh ring of Hell. Latini speaks as he, naked, runs across burning sands with fire raining down upon him.<br />
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Later, in <i>Purgatorio</i>, Dante's idea of earthly fame via art is corrected by the great manuscript illustrator, Oderisi da Gubbio.<br />
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O idle glory of all human dower!<br />How a short a time, save a dull age succeed,<br />Its flourishing flesh greenness doth devour!</blockquote>
<i>(the "dull age" following the collapse of the Roman Empire being the reason the poets of antiquity are still remembered.) </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In painting Cimabue thought indeed<br />To hold the field; now Giotto has the cry,<br />So that the fame of the other few now heed.<br />So our tongue's glory from one Guido by<br />The other is taken; and from their nest of fame<br />Perchance is born one who shall make both fly.<br />Naught but a wind's breath is the world's acclaim (11.91-100<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*</span>)</blockquote>
Or, in Hollander's more sober translation,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Worldly fame is nothing but a gust of wind </blockquote>
Dante, of course, is the "one who shall make" the " Guido's" (Guinizelli & Calvacanti - both poets) "fly".<br />
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Oderisi is correcting Latini's error. He teaches Dante, and Dante teaches us, how futile Latini's hopes are (and who among you have ever read, or even heard of, Latini's <i>Treasure</i>?). Fame, and particularly artistic fame is something that rarely lasts and isn't worth pursuing.<br />
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Ironically, here we are, remembering one artist nearly seven centuries after his death. Has the last seven hundred years been another "dull age" or is Dante the exception to his own rule?<br />
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I'll let you decide.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">* Laurence Binyon translation</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">** Robert & Jean Hollander translation</span><br />
<br />Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-46987851927535842072017-09-07T15:47:00.000-04:002017-09-07T15:47:14.127-04:00The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis by Dante Alighieri <b style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis</b><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Midway life's journey I was made aware</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">That I had strayed into a dark forest,</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the right path appeared not anywhere.</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ah, the tongue cannot describe how it oppressed,</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This wood, so harsh, dismal and wild, that fear</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">As thought of it strikes now into my breast.</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">So bitter it is, death is scare bitterer.</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">...</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The day was going, and the darkened air</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Was taking from its toil each animal</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">That is on earth; I only, alone there,</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Essayed to arm my spirit against all</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The terror of the journey and pity's plea,</span><br style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which memory, that errs not, shall recall." (Dante, </span><i style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Inferno</i><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> )</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">--- From the <a href="http://amzn.to/2gPLKvH">Laurence Binyon translation</a>, which is, sadly, less know than it should be. If you're looking for a Dante that gives you a <i>feel for the poetry, </i>I'd highly recommend this translation, even over <a href="http://amzn.to/2xaDhte">Dorothy Sayers'</a>. --- </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I plan on, in a forthcoming post, examining a few different translations, setting forth their relative strengths and weaknesses. </span></span></span>Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-29215937327385789102017-08-08T11:16:00.001-04:002017-08-08T11:16:48.799-04:00St Dominic, Kind unto his Own, Severe with his Foes. Today, the Church celebrates the feast of one of her great saints - Dominic de Guzmán. In his honor, I thought I'd let Dante offer up his praise. This in the singing verse translation by Laurence Binyon.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Therein was born the enthusiast amorous<br />
Of Christian faith, the saintly wrestler, kind<br />
Unto his own, severe unto his foes.<br />
So charged, soon as created, was his mind,<br />
With quickening power, that in the womb it led<br />
His mother a prophetic tongue to find....<br />
And that his name should with himself accord,<br />
They called him, prompted by a spirit from here,<br />
By the possessive of his only Lord.<br />
Dominic was he named and I aver<br />
He was a husbandman chosen by Christ<br />
To tend his garden and be His helper there.<br />
Messenger and familiar of Christ<br />
He showed him; for his love's first loyalties<br />
Clung to the first great counsel given by Christ.<br />
Often, awake and silent on his knees,<br />
His nurse would find him on the floor, as who<br />
Should there be saying: 'I am come for this....'<br />
A mighty teacher soon, he went his way<br />
About the vineyard to restore the vine<br />
Which, tended ill, fast withers and goes gray....<br />
With doctrine and with will then, both endorsed<br />
With the apostolic office, forth he went<br />
Swift as a torrent from some high vein forced.<br />
On stocks and stumps of heresy he spent<br />
His vehemence, most impetuously where<br />
Most stubborn was the opposed impediment. (<i>Paradiso</i> 11.55-102)</blockquote>
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<br />Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-51158402895424208252017-06-21T09:39:00.000-04:002017-06-21T09:39:18.000-04:00Painting through the Comedy. Canto II.<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Readers know of my love for the greatest of Catholic, indeed all, poets. Artist Eric Armusik is working his way through the <i>Commedia</i> one canto at a time. First he completed <a href="http://www.ericarmusik.com/divine-comedy-paintings/">Canto 1</a></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPN0uFzXLrcAkv9CoZPZvI5DncvsZQfFUdZA0hH385EY3BrobmwnF-VS1vJnDQu0uCnDnLihNC2QOP-LMCq6_KXOQgBDmfex69XEIY_Xj-BztOMX6yYL5riP7MlrZive9GnDvE53f8d-CY/s1600/1490277938733.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="810" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPN0uFzXLrcAkv9CoZPZvI5DncvsZQfFUdZA0hH385EY3BrobmwnF-VS1vJnDQu0uCnDnLihNC2QOP-LMCq6_KXOQgBDmfex69XEIY_Xj-BztOMX6yYL5riP7MlrZive9GnDvE53f8d-CY/s320/1490277938733.jpg" width="259" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nel mezzo di cammin di nostro vita...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And has now finished <a href="http://www.ericarmusik.com/dantes-inferno/canto-2-beatrice-virgil-limbo">Canto 2</a></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIIfAWg7a26VDN5PGS_m71phJoBAtW_9SW_g_shwHbrOkRFTrG1wRWWAbtPH2jxcCrGvJuF_3jVVlRqTzSNZC4VuJSAfHGSRrUuBusKs1HvpuiTOCggJNoNp5CcaVEArfcLyRFUd1OQF_/s1600/1497996835541.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="963" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIIfAWg7a26VDN5PGS_m71phJoBAtW_9SW_g_shwHbrOkRFTrG1wRWWAbtPH2jxcCrGvJuF_3jVVlRqTzSNZC4VuJSAfHGSRrUuBusKs1HvpuiTOCggJNoNp5CcaVEArfcLyRFUd1OQF_/s320/1497996835541.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I am Beatrice who send thee</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The importance of spreading a love for Dante through art is high. You can follow <a href="http://www.ericarmusik.com/dantes-inferno/">Armusik's progress (he posts pictures of the paintings throughout the process of bringing these scenes to life) at his blog.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Note the radiance of light from Beatrice into the dark of Limbo (where she engages Virgil's services). Virgil, the great poet of Rome, has his head bowed low before Beatrice, the Florentine girl who died, barely noticed, at 25, daring not to meet her gaze. The profundity of the image lies here - the great pagan, now damned, is abashed by the saint, regardless of her historical insignificance. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've blogged my way though much of the Inferno (I stopped as I became engaged to teach a course on the entire <i>Comedy</i>, which has occupied much of my time). You can check those posts out <a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2015/04/blogging-through-hell.html">HERE</a> and <a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/search/label/Blogging%20through%20Hell?updated-max=2015-04-16T09:35:00-04:00&max-results=20&start=11&by-date=false">HERE</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Those posts are very abbreviated. I cover these in much greater detail in the course, which I may make available online at some point. For now, enjoy these beautiful images and <a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2016/08/12-reasons-to-stop-what-you-are-doing.html">READ the <i>COMEDY</i></a>!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2015/05/pope-francis-wants-you-to-read-dante.html">The pope wants you to.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Consider signing up for email notifications for new posts on this blog. No spam, ever, guaranteed. Currently, posts are going out about once a month (or at least I'm trying to hit that schedule). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Posts frequently involve Catholic apologetics, occasional news commentary, Catholic book reviews, and - obviously enough - Dante. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(pictures posted with permission of Eric Armusik).</span><br />
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Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-46107592770038873112017-04-15T09:06:00.002-04:002017-04-15T09:06:37.654-04:00Holy SaturdayOf course today is a day of reflection on the death of Christ for our sins, but I think we can take a second to smile.<br />
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<br />Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-57811178638147855672017-04-13T16:06:00.000-04:002017-04-13T16:06:07.173-04:00Did God Die on the Cross? How to Discuss Catholicism with Non-Believers. (A Dialogue)<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Recently, I had </span><a href="http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=963591&highlight=servant19" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">an extended online conversation</span></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> with a non-Christian (specifically a </span><a href="https://www.bahai.us/" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">baha’i</span></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">) on the nature of Christ, centered around his questions on whether Christ is God and what the implications of a Divine Christ would be in light of the Crucifixion.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Below follows, not a transcript of the conversation, but a “Platonic dialogue” inspired by it (and other such conversations I’ve had). Enjoy!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE THE</b> <b>BAHA’I: </b>You believe that God became man and died, as a sacrifice for our sins, correct?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES THE CATHOLIC: </b>Yes, that’s the essential claim Christianity makes. In fact, it’s the one thing that all Christians agree with and that all non-Christians dispute. You could almost define “Christianity” as the affirmation of that one statement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>So, Christians believe that humanity killed God?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES</b>: “Humanity” is an abstraction. As such, “humanity” can’t <i>do anything, </i>including killing God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>If humanity didn’t kill God? How was God’s death a sacrifice?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>“Humanity” didn’t kill God; individual men did, specifically the Roman authorities under Pontius Pilate at the insistence of the Sanhedrin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>These men killed Jesus?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>And you believe Jesus was God?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>And Christians believe that Jesus is not only God, but also entirely human?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES:</b> Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>So the Romans killed the <i>human Jesus</i> not the Divine Jesus?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>No. Jesus was “entirely human,” but He is also entirely God. Killing Jesus (because Jesus = God) <i>is </i>killing God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>But Divinity can’t be killed, so the human body of Jesus died on the Cross, not Jesus’ divinity…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>It wasn’t merely the “human body” of Jesus that died on the Cross, but <i>the person Jesus Christ</i> who died. That person is a Divine person, hence God died on the Cross. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There aren’t two Jesuses, one Divine and another human, but one Person, Jesus Christ - who is both fully human and fully Divine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>So Christians believe that men killed God?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Then creation was Creator-less for three days?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>No, that doesn’t follow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>But you just said God was dead…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>God the Son died on the Cross, but God the Father and God the Holy Spirit did not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>I thought you Christians were monotheists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>We are. God is supra-personal, He exists in three persons who are all one God. <a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2015/02/how-can-god-be-three-but-one-cant.html"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">This isn’t a case of Christians not being able to do math</span></a>, for we don’t claim that God is one person who is three persons or three gods who are one God. Rather, we recognize that God transcends our ordinary experience. In the created order, one being equals one person, but on the Divine level one being (God himself) is three persons. Whether or not you believe that, you must recognize that there’s no contradiction inherent in our position, it certainly is <i>possible.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>I don’t want to digress too deeply into the Trinity, that might be best left for another conversation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>If you’d like to read more I highly recommend Frank Sheed’s classic work <i>Theology and Sanity</i>, which contains one of the simplest, clearest explanations of the Trinity that I know of. You can get if on Amazon (and support this blog at no additional cost) by purchasing it <a href="http://amzn.to/1AS17Yc"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(68, 68, 102); color: #444466;"></span></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(68, 68, 102); color: #444466;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EB0NNWW/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00EB0NNWW&linkCode=as2&tag=adersu-20&linkId=RKXX3D2D2ZHQXLZ7">HERE</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=adersu-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00EB0NNWW" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>I’ll check that out. But I think you have another problem that the Trinity can’t get you around.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>And that is?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>If Jesus is Divine (and thus eternal) how can his death be a sacrifice? An eternal being knows no sacrifice, that <i>would be</i> a contradiction. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Jesus is eternal in His divine nature, but He is mortal in His human nature (though Resurrected His human nature is now immortal). He suffered and died through His human nature, but it was still God (in the Divine Person of the Son) who suffered and died. In fact, being the perfect man, Jesus would have suffered immeasurably more than you or I if we underwent the same torture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Wait a minute. You just said “there aren’t two Jesuses, one Divine and another human, but one Person, Jesus Christ - who is both fully human and fully Divine” now you are dividing Jesus in two, when it suits your argument. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>This might require looking a little more at the Trinity…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Dodging the question? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Not at all, just giving you fair warning. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In God there are three distinct <i>persons</i>, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each Person is <i>fully</i> God (not just a part of God), each fully posses the Godhead. Each has the full Divine nature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>So the Father has the Divine nature, as does the Son, and the Holy Spirit? That’s what you are saying, they are each divine? So God has three faces He shows us…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>No. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but the Father isn’t the Son or the Holy Spirit, etc. Each person is distinct, although each has the full Divine nature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>How can that be?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Do you have a complete human nature?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Do I?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Am I you? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>No, but that gives us three gods, like we are two people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>In the finite created order you’d be right, but God transcends that. Would you agree that God is perfect?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>In every way? He has <i>every </i>possible perfection?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>And God is immaterial, He isn’t bound by time or space?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Yes, of course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Then there can’t be three Gods, for there is nothing to separate one perfect immaterial God from another one. You and I are not one because, while we both have human nature, we occupy different space, are made of different matter and have different imperfections. None of this can distinguish one God from another, thus all three possessors of the Divine Nature must be <i>one God</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>And you claim one of these persons became a man?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Exactly. At the Incarnation, the Second Person of the Trinity (God the Son) took on a human nature. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>So one of the members of the Trinity became human instead of being divine and was killed…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>No, God the Son didn’t replace His divine nature with a human nature. Christianity isn’t a Brother’s Grimm fairy story where a man loses his human nature, takes on a frog nature, then later gets back his human nature. God the Son <i>added</i> a human nature without losing His Divine nature. If He completely abandoned His first nature to become a man, it wouldn’t be God who became man as God the Son would have ceased to exist entirely.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>So you’re saying that God the Son, Jesus, has two natures? One human, another Divine?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Why would God want a human nature?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Through His Divine Nature Jesus can do all the things that are possible for God to do (create, control the weather, rise again, heal people, etc.) Through His human nature Jesus can do all the things that a man can do (suffer, die, get hungry, get tired, etc.) But it is one person, a Divine Person, who is doing all these things. Thus God, in the Person of God the Son, died on the Cross through His human nature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>God, in His Divine nature, is all powerful, right?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Of course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Then why would taking on a human nature allow Him to do things He couldn’t do in his all powerful Divine nature?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Dying, being hungry, getting tired, etc are not “things to do” in the full sense. They are results of our imperfections, they are the result of things we <i>can’t</i> do - live forever, expend energy without consuming calories or stay awake permanently. God, in His Divine nature, is perfect and thus doesn’t wrestle with the consequences of imperfection as we, with our imperfect human natures, do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Was it Jesus who died or just his human nature?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>This brings us back to where we started. Natures are abstractions, they can’t <i>do</i> anything. Natures are <i>what</i> things are, not <i>who</i> they are. They provide the ability to do things, but can’t actually do anything themselves. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE:</b> I’m not sure I follow…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES:</b> Think of unicorn nature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE:</b> But there are no such things as unicorns…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES:</b> Yes, but even imaginary things have natures. What something is and whether something is are two different questions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Would this be a description of a unicorn: a woman whose lower half is a fish’s tail?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE:</b> No, that’s a mermaid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES:</b> Exactly. I’ve described “mermaid-nature” even though the category “mermaids” is existentially empty. The fact that you can distinguish between non-existent things shows that even they can have natures. A nature merely answers the question, “what is it,” not “is it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE:</b> Okay.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES:</b> Now can our mermaid swim underwater?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE:</b> Yes, if she existed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES:</b> Right, but as there is no <i>who</i> in which mermaid nature actually subsists then there is no mermaid to actually swim. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Because a nature can’t do anything, it is only the persons with that nature that do things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES:</b> Including dying.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Okay, but wasn’t the human nature of Jesus also fully Divine? Doesn’t that follow from your belief that Jesus was both Divine and human?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>No, Jesus’ human nature isn’t Divine. That would be impossible (if Jesus’ human nature were Divine it wouldn’t be a human nature, it would be a Divine nature). A nature can’t be human and Divine, but a person can have both a Divine and a human nature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Jesus has a human nature and a Divine nature; the first makes him a man, the second God. That’s what you are saying?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>So when Jesus’ human nature was killed, the Divine nature was also killed, which brings us right back to our contradiction - an eternal nature dying.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Remember our principle, natures can’t do anything, only persons can. Natures don’t die, persons do. Jesus the Divine person died. This death was possible because Jesus has a human nature, and persons with a human nature can die. Persons can be killed, natures can't. When Jesus was killed, because Jesus = God, God was killed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I know this can be a bit confusing, as the great Dante Alighieri once wrote,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">madness it is to hope that human minds</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">can ever understand the Infinite</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">that comprehends Three Persons in One Being. (<i>Purgatory, </i>3:34-46)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Basically, you’re saying “this is a mystery, just believe it?” Why should I believe what makes no sense?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES:</b> I didn’t say it makes no sense, just that it can be confusing and that we can never fully understand God (in fact, St. Augustine used that as a proof of the truth of Christianity, if you can fully understand your god, it isn’t the real God, but a creation of your mind). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>What can we make sense of in this then? It seems all a muddle to me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>We can understand the basic distinctions which make this doctrine intelligible. I’ve gone over some of that ground before here on the blog (see: <a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2015/02/how-can-god-be-three-but-one-cant.html"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;"><i>How Can God be Three and One? Can’t Christians do Math?</i></span></a>). The secret here is to keep the distinction between nature (what something is) and person (who someone is) clear in your mind. Jesus is one person, one some<i>body</i>, but is both God and man, two some<i>things</i>. The one person (God the Son) died, which was possible because of one of the things He is (a man). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>This still makes no sense to me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Maybe an analogy, albeit imperfect, might help?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE</b>: Maybe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Consider an author like William Shakespeare. Shakespeare is the creator of the Verona of Romeo and Juliet. As an author he can't directly interact with the characters he creates, however, could he take on a “fictional nature” by entering the plot as Shakespeare-the-character?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Yes, I suppose he could write a Shakespeare character.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>And could that character do what the author couldn’t? He could, for example, leap between Mercurio and Tybalt during the duel, saving Romeo’s best friend, but dying on Tybalt’s blade? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Yes, certainly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES:</b> Thus, Shakespeare could, by taking on “a second nature,” enter the world of his creation and thereby do what, in his "authorial nature", was impossible - be killed by his own character?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>It would seem so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Christianity merely posits an undeniable claim in addition to our analogy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>What is that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>That God is at least as powerful as Bill Shakespeare.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>But Shakespeare isn't <i>really </i>hurt when "Shakespeare-the-character" dies. It's all pretend. Are you saying</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> God just pretends to die, like Shakespeare the author pretends to be killed by Tybalt?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>I said the analogy was imperfect. Shakespeare can only pretend to enter his play; the real Shakespeare sits unharmed at his desk regardless of what happens to Shakespeare-the-character. God, however, can <i>really</i> enter into a <i>real</i> world and thus <i>really</i> suffer and <i>really</i> die. All of this is made possible by His assumption of a <i>real </i>human nature. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>Shakespeare’s world is a fiction, but God’s Creation is real.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>Right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>So Jesus didn’t sit unharmed in Heaven as His “human body” was killed like Shakespeare in our analogy? You’re saying God <i>really died</i>? It wasn’t just the body that Jesus took on that was killed? Men actually killed God? Why would God allow that to happen? It makes no sense.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b>God became a character in his own drama to set the plot straight - the plot we had entirely messed up. It would be as if you saw your children playing a game wrong and decided to get down on the floor and make sure they had a happy ending. God cares <i>that much</i> for us. He loves us <i>that much</i>. So much in fact that St. Paul can say,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Christ Jesus,<b> </b>who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,<b> </b>but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.<b> </b>And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.<b> </b>(Phil 2:5-8)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And St. John can sum up Christian theology by writing, “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BERNIE: </b>I’ll have to check out that book you recommended. What was the title again?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>CHARLES: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EB0NNWW/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00EB0NNWW&linkCode=as2&tag=adersu-20&linkId=RKXX3D2D2ZHQXLZ7"><i>Theology and Sanity </i>by Frank Sheed</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=adersu-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00EB0NNWW" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. You might also grab a copy of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BD2UR0/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002BD2UR0&linkCode=as2&tag=adersu-20&linkId=MAFTM4PLYRI3HRHQ"><i>Mere Christianity</i> by C.S. Lewis</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=adersu-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002BD2UR0" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
while your at it. </span></div>
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BOOKS RECOMMENDED IN THIS POST:<br />
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<!--End mc_embed_signup-->Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-11221406626104163102017-04-10T16:30:00.000-04:002017-04-10T16:40:18.761-04:00Can God Suffer?: How to Discuss God and Suffering like a Pro.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>John: </b>God is said to be "impassible," I think I understand what that means, but can you give a brief definition? I think I disagree with the teaching, but I want to be certain I understand it correctly.<br />
<b><br /></b><b>Pius:</b> Defining terms is always the best place to start. Divine impassibility is the doctrine that God does not suffer, indeed, <i>cannot </i>suffer.<br />
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<b>John:</b> That's what I thought. I'm not sure I can agree with it.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Doubt is always a good place to start when journeying towards the truth.<br />
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<b>John:</b> I'm a Christian. I find truth in the Scriptures. Is this doctrine taught by the Bible?<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>It isn't specifically mentioned in the Bible, but the conceptual framework that requires the doctrine is present. God is immutable, i.e. He doesn't change. If God doesn't change, then He doesn't change emotional states, and therefore God can't suffer - He is impassible.<br />
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<b>John: </b>How do we know God can't change? Isn't God able to do <i>anything</i>? If so, why wouldn't He <i>be able</i> to change? Doesn't saying "God is immutable" conflict with God's omnipotence?<br />
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<b>Pius</b>: How would you describe the omnipotence of God?<br />
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<b>John:</b> That's easy. God is all-powerful. There are no limits on what He can do.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Would it be fair to summarize and qualify you're position as "God can do all possible things" or are you uncomfortable with that? I want to make sure I'm understanding you before going on.<br />
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<b>John:</b> I'd simply say God can do all things. Why do we need the word "possible" added in?<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Can God do <i>impossible </i>things?<br />
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<b>John: </b>There are no impossible things to God. That's what being "all-powerful" means.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>All things, we'd agree, that are possible to do, God can do.<br />
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<b>John: </b>Yes, but to God that means all things, full stop.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Would you say God can "zing-ding a wall and blah-blah a bag?"<br />
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<b>John: </b> I'm not sure I understand what that would mean?<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>I'm asking, does the sentence "God can zing-ding a wall and blah-blah a bag" make sense?<br />
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<b>John: </b>No, it's gibberish.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>And God can't do "gibberish?"<br />
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<b>John: </b>Gibberish isn't a thing to do. It's not a lack of power in God, it is a lack of sense in the sentence that makes it something that can't be done.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>God can do all things, but what I said isn't a thing to done?<br />
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<b>John:</b> Yes.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Is it also gibberish to speak of logical contradictions?<br />
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<b>John: </b>I'm not sure. Can you provide an example?<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Certainly. Would it make sense to say "God can make a circle with four sides?"<br />
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<b>John: </b>Clearly not. If it has four sides it isn't what we call a circle, it's what we call a square.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>And that doesn't limit God's power?<br />
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<b>John: </b>Of course not. It's a confusion of words. God can <i>turn </i>a circle <i>into</i> a square, but it doesn't make sense for us to call a four sided object a circle. That's a problem of our language, not of God's power.<br />
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<b>Pius:</b> Precisely. It is like the gibberish we explored before.<br />
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<b>John: </b>Right.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>What about the statement "God can make it bring as day and dark as night at the same moment in the same place at the same time"? Does that make sense or is it gibberish too?<br />
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<b>John: </b>God can make day night and night day.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Yes, but can He make it both at the same time in the same place?<br />
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<b>John: </b>Well...<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Is that a confusion of terms, a confusion in our words?<br />
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<b>John: </b>Yes. It is like with the square and circle. God can make it night or day, but to say it is both bright and not bright is a failure in language. But what does any of this have to do with whether God can change? Surely, asking that isn't like confusing words.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Maybe, but I'm not so sure. Let's dig deeper and see if we can be sure of that. For now, I'm only asking whether adding "God can..." in front of nonsense - in front of a series of confused words - suddenly makes those words mean something.<br />
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<b>John: </b>Not at all. But that has to do with our ways of speaking and thinking not with God's power.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>So logical contradictions, things that end up being nothing more than a confusion of words, are failures in our understanding and speech, not in God?<br />
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<b>John: </b>I don't see how anyone can conclude otherwise.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Going back to my clarification of your statement, "God can do all things" would you agree now that it is a better definition to say "God can do all possible things." Or better, "God can do all things that are doable things."<br />
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<b>John:</b> Yes, I see why you've added that in. Some "things" really aren't "things to do" but are just a series of confused ideas or words.<br />
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<b>Pius:</b> Right. Now we are discussing whether God can be happy now and suffer later.<br />
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<b>John: </b>Yes, let's get back on track.<br />
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<b>Pius:</b> I'm not sure we have been off-track. Would you agree that God being happy now and then suffering later is a change?<br />
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<b>John: </b>Clearly it is.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>And the doctrine of Divine Immutability says God cannot change?<br />
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<b>John:</b> That is what it says, but I'm not sure how we can agree with that. It is a limit to God's power to say He can't change. That isn't a confusion of words. Changing <i>is</i> a doable thing. You can't disagree with that?<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Change it certainly a "doable thing" for us. Is it for God?<br />
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<b>John: </b>I don't see how it can't be. If we can do it, surely God can too. Otherwise, He is <i>less</i> powerful than we are! If He's less powerful than you or me, then He isn't God at all.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Agreed. If God is less powerful than you or me, He isn't God.<br />
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<b>John: </b>Then God can change and if He can change why shouldn't He be able to have emotions?<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>I think we might be moving too fast here. Let's explore whether God can change a little more before moving on. Is God perfect?<br />
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<b>John: </b>Of course, He is. If He isn't it's not God we're talking about.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>If God is perfect would a change make Him more perfect?<br />
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<b>John: </b>No. God is perfect, there is no such thing as "more perfect." If you can be "more perfect" then you aren't perfect, just really good. You're back to spewing gibberish. I'm afraid we aren't getting anywhere.<br />
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<b>Pius:</b> So saying God can be "more perfect" is gibberish?<br />
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<b>John</b>: Yes.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Can God, then, become <i>less perfect</i>?<br />
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<b>John:</b> No. If God became less than perfect, He wouldn't be God anymore and that's absurd. More gibberish!<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>So God can neither become <i>more</i> perfect nor can He become <i>less</i> perfect. Can He become something else that is equally perfect?<br />
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<b>John:</b> No. Nothing can be "equally perfect." If you are perfect, you are perfect. There are no other perfections to add or you aren't perfect in the first place.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>So God can't become <i>more</i> perfect, <i>less </i>perfect, nor add some new perfection to what He has already.<br />
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<b>John: </b>Exactly.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Then how can God change? Isn't all change either moving from two things of equal value, or moving from a better thing to a worse, or moving from something worse to something better?<br />
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<b>John: </b>Yes, I can't disagree with you there.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Then God, being perfect, can't change.<br />
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<b>John: </b>Okay.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>That establishes God's immutability, then.<br />
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<b>John: </b>Yes.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>And if God can't change, He also can't change emotional states.<br />
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<b>John: </b>That would seem to follow.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Is suffering now and not suffering later a change in an emotional state?<br />
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<b>John: </b>Yes.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>And...<br />
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<b>John: </b>And so God can't suffer. Okay I get that. Doesn't it also mean that God is indifferent to us? If a baby is starving to death, He simply doesn't care? Isn't that the God of the Deists, the "Divine Clockmaker" instead of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?<br />
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<b>Pius:</b> The apostle who you are named from, how does he define God?<br />
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<b>John</b>: He says, "God is Love" (1 John 4:8).<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Is love indifferent?<br />
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<b>John:</b> No, not at all. That's precisely my objection to what we've said about God. It seems to refute the Biblical God.<br />
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<b>Pius:</b> Can God love us, without changing? Does love necessitate change?<br />
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<b>John:</b> Not at all. God loves us without change. He always loves us, loves us unconditionally.<br />
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<b>Pius:</b> Then God can both love us and be unchanging, the two aren't contradictions, we aren't speaking in gibberish?<br />
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<b>John:</b> Right.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Then it doesn't follow that God is indifferent, that God is a "clockmaker" who leaves His creation on its own without a care.<br />
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<b>John: </b>I see that.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>God loves us, but we can't blackmail Him. We can't make Him suffer. He is always joyful. Is that fair to say?<br />
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<b>John: </b>Yes, but He loves us and thus can love us to the point of sending His Son to die for us. Surely, the death of Jesus (who <i>is</i> God) suggests that God <i>can </i>suffer after all. How does this square with what we've been saying? It seems we've proved that God doesn't suffer, but in the process have disproved Christianity, the religion that specifically teaches that God did suffer!<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Well, that's certainly possible.<br />
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<b>John: </b>So we should leave off Christianity?<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Not necessarily, we've not proven that yet, but it is possible.<br />
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<b>John: </b>Well, let us go on then. I'm a firm Christian, but I won't continue to be if we find it false.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b> You're a true philosopher, John. I'm with you, if we can't square what we know to be true - that God can't suffer - with what as Christians we believe - that Jesus is God and did suffer - we ought to seriously reconsider our Christianity. Let's review our premises. Christians believe Jesus is...<br />
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<b>John: </b>God.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>And Jesus suffered?<br />
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<b>John: </b>Clearly. In fact, according to Christianity, He suffered more than anyone else ever has or ever could. That is the contradiction. Is Christianity gibberish?<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Perhaps. Why would Jesus suffer?<br />
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<b>John: </b>He descended from Heaven to become a man to save men from sin.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Jesus is both man and God.<br />
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<b>John: </b>That belief pretty much defines who is and who isn't a Christian.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Jesus had two natures, one Divine and another human. One person, two natures. That is the teaching of Christianity, correct?<br />
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<b>John: </b>It is.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Can men suffer?<br />
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<b>John: </b>I can attest to that from personal experience, as I'm sure you can!<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>And Jesus was a man?<br />
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<b>John: </b>Man and God.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>But still a man? He has a complete human nature. He became fully human. He became a man. Correct?<br />
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<b>John: </b>Yes.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Then Jesus can suffer as a man, in His <i>human nature</i>, while, in His <i>divine nature</i>, He remained impassible, that is logically possible? That isn't gibberish?<br />
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<b>John: </b>That is logically a possibility.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Then there is no logical contraception in saying that Jesus suffered and yet Jesus is God (and man).<br />
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<b>John: </b>That makes sense.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Did God the Father and God the Holy Spirit also become men?<br />
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<b>John: </b>Not according to Christian teaching, no.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Do Christians believe they suffered?<br />
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<b>John: </b>No, only Jesus suffered and only Jesus died on the Cross.<br />
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<b>Pius: </b>Then Christianity doesn't contradict Divine Impassability after all.<br />
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<b>John: </b>It doesn't. Unfortunately, I've got to get on to work. Thanks for an interesting conversation!
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<!--End mc_embed_signup-->Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-62551527233273962972017-02-06T08:57:00.000-05:002017-02-06T08:57:08.035-05:00How to Discuss the Eucharist Like a Pro. A Dialogue between a Catholic and a Protestant.<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Eucharist. A Dialogue.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The scene: A busy street downtown in a major American city. A Corpus Christi procession passes by. Two friends, one Catholic, the other Protestant, inspired by the sight, begin a conversation.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Why were you kneeling down? You got your pants all dirty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> The Eucharist is Jesus Christ Himself, in the flesh. “It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me’” (Romans 14:11). I’m just doing what Jesus commanded.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> You think that piece of bread is Jesus? It doesn’t look like Jesus to me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Do you believe Jesus is God?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> You know I do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>Did Jesus “look like God” when He walked the streets of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> No. He came hidden under the appearance of a regular man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> People who saw Jesus during His earthly ministry thought He wasn’t God because of the way He chose to appear?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>Then coming “hidden under the appearance of” a “piece of bread” would seem to follow His <i>modus operandi</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Well…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> And, just as there were people who refused to believe without seeing then, there are still people who refuse to believe without seeing now. I seem to be in the same position as Jesus’ first followers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> And I’m the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Only on this one point, perhaps.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Okay, I admit coming as a surprise, in a hidden manner, is Jesus’ style, but that doesn’t prove He actually does come in the Eucharist, does it? It seems like you’re making quite a leap from “this is possible” to “this is actual,” brother.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Fair enough, but might it not suggest that we shouldn’t dismiss the possibility because “it doesn’t look like Jesus”?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> I can agree with that. But you have another, bigger, problem, I think.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> And what is that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Science. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>Science?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>Science tells us that what you are bowing to is <i>just bread</i>. You like Biblical comparisons, maybe a better one would be comparing my position to the righteous tribe of Levi at Mount Sinai and yours to the other tribes that danced about worshipping the Golden Calf.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>If I’m wrong, I’m much worse than they were. They fashioned an idol of gold, creating a God from the best they had. If we Catholics are wrong, we worship an idol which is crafted of the commonest of things. They were filled with wonder at a piece of art, we worship a hunk of bread. If we’re wrong, we’re the worst idolaters in history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> “Repent and believe the Gospel” (Mark 1:15), brother!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> <i>If </i>I’m wrong. We’ve yet to prove that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> I did. Science proves it. You’re worshipping bread. Don’t believe me? I challenge you to put your consecrated Host under a microscope and tell me if you see any signs of flesh, even on the molecular level. Bet you won’t.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> I’m sure I won’t.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> I bet you couldn’t even tell the difference between a consecrated Host and a plain piece of bread under that microscope.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> I’m sure I couldn’t.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Then you’re ready to leave off your Medieval superstition?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>I didn’t say you were right…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>You just admitted that science proves the Eucharist is still bread after consecration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Not exactly. Are you familiar with the doctrine of transubstantiation as taught by the Catholic Church?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Yeah, you believe the bread and wine turn into Christ’s Body and Blood. That’s exactly what science disproves!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Does the Catholic Church teach that the bread also <i>looks</i> like Christ’s Body after it changes?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Obviously not. If I understand your church’s teaching, you think the bread looks like bread, but is really Christ’s Body. That is what I keep saying science disproves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Right. The Catholic Church teaches the bread <i>appears</i> to be bread while actually being Jesus. We say the <i>accidents</i> of bread (and wine) remain while the <i>substance</i> has been utterly transformed. Thus, the bread has been transformed in substance or trans-substan-tiated. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> What’s the difference between the accidents and the substance? You’re getting all scholastic on me…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Simply? Just think of the accidents as the appearances, as what the bread (or wine) looks like to our senses. Think of the substance as what the bread (and wine) really are.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Ok. I think I follow. You’re saying basically what I said above. Your church says the bread looks like bread, but really is Jesus, that’s why I challenged you to put your consecrated Host under a microscope…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> But looking at the Eucharist, even under a microscope or studying it under any other scientific means can only ever get at the appearances. The microscope just gives you a microscopic look at the <i>accidents </i>of the Eucharist which…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> …still looks like bread. Okay, I see what you’re saying. Science is like enhancing your senses, but your church teaches the senses can only perceive bread or wine, so science can’t be expected to see anything else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Exactly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Alright, so science can’t disprove your church’s theology of the Eucharist, but can’t it suggest that you’re wrong? You’re basically appealing to a miracle, but aren’t miracles supposed to be big outward signs that demonstrate clearly God’s presence and power? Clearly the Eucharist doesn’t meet that definition and if it can’t be miraculous then we can’t avoid the science.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Couldn't the same be said of Jesus Himself? Scientifically, to all appearances, He appeared to be a man, nothing more. He has human DNA and no science experiment could ever reveal that He is Divine. We might appeal to the miraculous, but your objection would apply - aren't miracles supposed to be big displays of God's power? A baby born in a stable who grows up in obscurity then dies on a Cross hardly qualifies. Your argument, then, would seem to prove too much, as it doesn't simply attack the Eucharist but also the Incarnation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>God had good reasons for coming in disguise. He wanted men to have Faith in Him and an overly powerful display of His Godhead would have forced everyone to immediately love or hate Him, to be saved or damned, just as will happen at the Last Judgement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> And “God has good reasons for coming in disguise” in the Eucharist. In fact, He has the <i>exact same</i> reasons. He wants men to have Faith in Him and too obvious a display wouldn’t allow for that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Alright, I’ll concede that the Eucharist <i>could </i>be a miracle, but that doesn’t mean it <i>is a miracle</i>. Mind you, I love holy communion in my church. I take it very seriously. It’s only a symbol, but one which ought to be treated <i>as if </i>it were Jesus, even though it isn’t.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Now <i>you</i> seem more like the Israelites who worshipped the Golden Calf.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> What? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> How can you justify treating a symbol as if it were God? That seems to be the very definition of idolatry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Well… I don’t worship the bread…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Do you worship Jesus?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> You know I do. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Then you don’t treat communion like Jesus after all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Maybe not, but I still think we should take it seriously as Jesus intended it to be a reminder of Him and He should be remembered with respect. It is a beautiful symbol…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> “If it’s a symbol, to hell with it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> What? No need for profanity, brother.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Sorry, I was quoting Flannery O’Connor (<i>The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor</i>). She was once confronted with the idea that the Eucharist is merely a “pretty good” symbol and responded thus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> What’s wrong with seeing it as a beautiful symbol?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> O’Connor went on saying the Host “is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.” If it is just a memento, it isn’t essential and, well, “to hell with it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> The only thing that should be described as “the center of existence” is Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Which is exactly what we Catholics claim the Eucharist is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Claim. But I think you’re demonstrably wrong. Look to Scripture! Don’t you Catholics claim John 6 as the theological seedbed for your theory of transubstantiation? I have my NIV Bible right here (I always carry one).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Yes. that’s one place we find it. Jesus says there that He is “the bread that came down from heaven” (v. 41) and says “my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink” (v. 55).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> If you’d read more carefully, right there in John 6, you’ll see that “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing” (v. 63). See? I’ve even highlighted it. With this line Jesus is explicitly condemning the <i>carnal </i>interpretation you are trying to bestow on his words. Don’t you see? Jesus says that it isn’t <i>flesh</i> that’s important, but the Spirit! John 6 is a metaphor for Faith, which alone saves!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> You’re saying that when Jesus refers to flesh in verse 63, He is speaking about the same flesh He called “real food” in verse 41?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Whose flesh is He referring to in verse 41? Whose flesh is “real food?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> His own, of course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Jesus’ flesh?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>So, in your interpretation of John 6:63, it is Jesus’ flesh that “counts for nothing?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Well…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> I suppose the Incarnation (the in-flesh-ment of God) counted “for nothing” then?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>As did His death on the Cross? He did die <i>in the flesh </i>after all?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> He did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> And the Resurrection. That was the Resurrection of Jesus in His flesh, wasn’t it? You’re not a gnostic are you?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> No, of course you know I’m not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Is your position that Jesus’ Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection - His life <i>in the flesh</i> - counted “for nothing?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Of course not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Then <i>Jesus’</i> flesh doesn’t “count for nothing?” In fact, it is though His flesh alone that we are saved, isn’t it? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Then how do you account for John 6:63?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Jesus isn’t speaking about <i>His Flesh</i>. He just spent most of the chapter demonstrating the importance of His Flesh, it wouldn’t make any sense for Him to throw in one line negating everything He just taught. Jesus is saying that “the flesh” of his listeners (i.e. their attempts to use merely natural reason to understand what He is speaking about) are worthless. Any other interpretation leads to a rejection of Christ’s Flesh as salvific, which we both agree is absurd. Jesus here is saying the kind of “scientific argument” you were advancing earlier is bound to fail for our natural knowledge, our flesh, “counts for nothing.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>Why would Jesus even want us to “eat His flesh” in the first place? As a Christian, I believe that by confessing Jesus as my Lord and Savior He dwells within me <i>spiritually</i>. Why would I need to add eating His flesh to the mix?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> For one Jesus says you have to. John 6:53-54 - “Jesus said to them, Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>The Good Thief was saved without eating Jesus’ Flesh.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> God doesn’t require us to do the impossible. The Good Thief wasn’t physically able to receive the Lord in the Eucharist and thus, in justice, wasn’t required to. But even finding an exception certainly wouldn’t be cause to just dismiss the commands of your professed Lord, would it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>No, but you’ve avoided my question. <i>Why</i> would Jesus want us to eat His Flesh. It doesn’t make any sense in context of the Old Testament at all. In the Old Testament eating flesh and blood together was prohibited (cf. Gen 9:4).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>What does John the Baptist say when he sees Jesus?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>“Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:29).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> That’s an odd way to announce the Savior’s presence, no?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Not if you know your Old Testament! You need to read the Word more, brother. In the Old Testament the lamb of God was the Passover Sacrifice. It was the perfect, spotless victim ready to die so that the people of God might live. Sound familiar?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> The Old Testament Passover lamb prefigures Jesus’ own death? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> The death of Jesus is the ultimate Passover sacrifice. Just as the Passover lambs were slaughtered in sacrifice, so too Jesus died sacrificially on the Cross.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> During the first Passover, the lamb wasn’t only slaughtered was it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> The blood of the lamb had to be sprinkled on the wooden door frames as a sign for the angel of death to pass over the house.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Was Jesus’ blood sprinkled on wood too?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Of course, on the Wood of the Cross. In fact, Jesus was offered vinegar on a branch of hyssop, the same plant that God required His people to use to sprinkle the blood on the door frames.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic</b>: What else did the Israelites have to do with the lamb to make sure their house was skipped by the angel of death?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>They had to eat it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic</b>: They had to <i>eat</i> the <i>flesh</i> of the <i>lamb of God</i>? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> And if they didn’t, if they were vegans or preferred beef to lamb, and they slaughtered the lamb and smeared the blood but didn’t consume the sacrifice, they would wake to find…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>Their first born son would be dead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Jesus is the Lamb of God?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> And He has been sacrificed and His Blood had been smeared?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> And now we have to eat His flesh?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> That would seem to follow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> But isn’t He with us spiritually? Why shouldn’t that be enough?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Was His Incarnation only a spiritual presence? Did He die on the Cross only spiritually? Did He rise again only in spirit?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> No.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>Perhaps a better question would be why you’d expect Him to do anything less physically. Is God appearing as bread that much crazier than God becoming man?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> I guess not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>The Old Testament has another parallel to the Eucharist. What is Jesus doing at the beginning of John 6?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>He is miraculously feeding a multitude of people with a few loaves of bread and some fish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> The people related that back to what Old Testament precedent?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>The manna. According to the Old Testament the Messiah would provide a new manna, which would surpass the manna given to the Israelites though Moses. When Jesus multiplied the loaves the people knew He was giving them the new manna and thus that He was the longed for Messiah.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>Moses fed the Israelites with manna for how long?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>Exodus 16:35 tells us that “the children of Israel did eat manna forty years.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Any how many Israelites did the manna feed?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Probably over a million. Numbers 26 says there were over 600,000 armed men plus women and children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>And how many people did Jesus feed in John 6?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> “A great crowd.” (v. 5).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Which is more impressive, feeding over a million men, women, and children as they wander the desert for forty years or feeing “a great crowd” one meal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>The manna would seem more impressive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> But the prefigurement of the manna was supposed to be surpassed by the fulfillment in Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Then you’re saying Jesus failed to surpass the miracle of Moses, but wouldn’t that suggest He wasn’t the Messiah after all?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> We both believe the same thing about the loaves, so that puts us both in the same tough spot, doesn’t it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Not so fast. I’d say the Eucharist, in the Catholic view, is superior to the manna. Unlike the miracle of Moses, which only lasted forty years, the Eucharist has been ongoing for two thousand years. And while Moses only fed the children of Israel “food that spoils” (Jn 6:27), Jesus gives us Himself for He is “the bread of life” (Jn 6:35). Receiving God is infinitely superior to receiving bread, even miraculous bread. If the Catholic interpretation of John 6 is correct, would you agree Jesus surpassed the miracle of the manna?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>If it holds true, yes obviously Jesus feeding the people of God His very flesh for two thousand years is a greater miracle than Moses feeding the children of Israel bread for forty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Let’s go back further still in the Old Testament to Adam himself. The early Christians loved to call the Cross the “tree of life.” Just as sin and death entered the world through eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, eternal life and justification come into the world through eating of the fruit of the “tree of life” - the Cross.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Which would be Jesus’ Flesh and Blood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> And is why Jesus says, “the one <i>who feeds</i> on me will live because of me.” (Jn 6:57).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Don’t you know Jesus refers to Himself as all sorts of things figuratively? He says He is the gate (10:9), the good shepherd (10:11), and the light of the world (8:12). Are you saying all these statements are to be taken literally? Is Jesus a literal gate? Does He literally tend sheep? Is He a light bulb?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Did Jesus go on at length about how He is the “gate come down from Heaven” or insist that His Body is “gate indeed?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> No.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> When the crowds baulk at His teaching on the Bread of Life, does Jesus strength His teaching or back away from it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> He doubles down, using the Greek <i>trogein</i> a verb better translated as “chew” or “gnaw” in verse 55.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Did He do anything similar in any of the other examples you are referring to?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> He didn’t.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Did anyone in His original audience take Him as speaking literally in any other case than this one?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> No.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Were the other examples you’ve given prefigured by the Old Testament and mentioned throughout the New Testament like the Eucharist is?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> No.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Seems like John 6 is quite different then, doesn’t it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> I suppose so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> It’s different in another important way too. What’s happening at the beginning of John 6?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Jesus is being followed by “a great crowd of people” (v. 2).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>And after Jesus lays out His teaching on the Eucharist, on being the Bread come down from Heaven, how many of that “great crowd” are left? Skip down to verse 66 there in your Bible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> What happens next?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Jesus asks the Twelve if they want to leave Him too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Does Jesus want people to follow Him?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Of course He does. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn 14:6)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>But here He is willing to go from a “great crowd” to losing even His most trusted followers over His Bread of Life teaching. He is <i>that</i> serious about this. Don’t you think He’d have said “hey guys chill out, I’m only speaking figuratively” instead of watching everyone walk away if He hadn’t been speaking literally?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Well…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> In fact, wouldn’t letting all those potential Christians walk away be sinful if they merely misunderstood Jesus’ figure of speech?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Jesus is without sin (cf. Heb 4:15).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> And thus wouldn’t have let all those people leave simply because they misunderstood Him. Let me better understand what you believe here. I say that the Eucharist is, literally, Jesus’ body. And you say…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> That it isn’t. It is only a symbol of Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Jesus disagrees with you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>Show me that and I’ll change my mind! You know I only seek to serve the Lord.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>It’s right there in your Bible. At the Last Supper Jesus takes the Eucharist and says, “this is my body.” (Matt 26:26). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> But He meant this is a <i>symbol</i> of my body.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>When He said “this is my body” He meant “this isn’t my body?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>When you put it that way…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>Should I believe Jesus who said “this is my body” or you who say “this isn’t His body?” Are you more trustworthy than Jesus? Do you know something He doesn’t?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> Of course not. But I’m talking about <i>understanding </i>what He meant…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> I think you’re a bit confused.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> No, I know exactly what I believe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> You’re confusing <i>understanding</i> and <i>belief</i>. <i>Understanding</i> has to do with what a person or text is saying. <i>Belief </i>is whether or not you agree with the person or text. Understanding is about the other person. Belief is about you. It isn’t that you don’t understand His words, they are simple enough, rather you seem to not believe Jesus, to disagree with Him as to whether He was correct when He said “this is my Body” or “My flesh is true food.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>Not at all. I believe Jesus, I just don’t believe the Catholic Church!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Or the earliest Christians?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> You mean those Christians who worshipped in small Proto-Protestant communities before Constantine founded the Catholic Church?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>Well, let’s see what these “Proto-Protestants” have to say about the Eucharist. Ignatius of Antioch (circa AD 110) decried those who </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in his goodness, raised up again.” (6:2, 7:1). </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And Justin Martyr (circa AD 140) wrote, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Not as common bread or common drink do we receive these… the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer… is both the flesh and blood of that incarnated Jesus” (<i>First Apology</i>, 66:1-20). </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Clement of Rome (c. AD 80), Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Origen (c. AD 244), Hilary of Poitiers (c. AD 340), Cyril of Jerusalem (c. AD 350), Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose of Milan (c. AD 390), and Augustine of Hippo (c. AD 400) are just a few of the early Christians, from all over the Christian world - many of whom lived before Constantine, who wrote about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, of the Eucharist being the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus and not “just a symbol.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>Wait a minute, Augustine speaks about the Eucharist being a symbol! In his <i>De Doctrina Christiana </i> he writes about the Eucharist, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“it is symbolic commanding us to communicate in the Passion of the Lord and to remember pleasantly and usefully that his flesh was crucified and wounded for us.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Catholics admit that the Sacraments are symbols, we just hold that they aren’t <i>only</i> symbols. Augustine is talking about the symbolic power of the Eucharist there, but he also believed in, and wrote about, the real transformation that the bread and wine underwent. It isn’t an either / or, it is <i>both</i> symbolic <i>and</i> real. For example, he also wrote, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“That bread that you see on the altar and that has been sanctified by the word of God is the Body of Christ.” (<i>Sermon 227</i>) </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Christ was carried in his own hands when, entrusting to us his own Body he said: “This is my Body.” Indeed he was carrying that Body in his own hands.” (<i>Commentary on Psalm 33</i>). </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Obviously, Augustine believed the Eucharist is <i>both</i> symbolically powerful <i>and </i>literally Christ’s Body.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>Fine, but Augustine isn’t the Bible! He could’ve been wrong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> Can you think of even <i>one </i>Christian who wasn’t wrong, one who believed the Eucharist was merely a symbol, from the first centuries of Christianity?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> I didn’t think so. Were all these Christians wrong? Was the whole Church wrong until Martin Luther came about 15 centuries after the death of Christ? If so it seems the Reformers were a much better teachers the Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>That’s absurd.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>Well, the Reformers managed to successfully teach people that the Eucharist isn’t really Jesus’ Body. Jesus failed to pass that same teaching along, confusing everyone for 15 centuries, having them worship a piece of bread as if it was Him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>Maybe the early Christians just didn’t want to argue with each other. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>The early Church battled over all kinds of things: what books should be in the Bible, is Mary the Mother of God, is Jesus divine, but no one doubted that Jesus was telling the Truth when He said “this is my Body” at the Last Supper. But it wasn’t even just the early Christians. Even the pagan Romans who persecuted the early Christians thought they were cannibals because they literally ate the Flesh of Christ. If your worship isn’t something that can be mistaken for cannibalism, you’re not worshipping the same way the first Christians did. Do you really think the first Christians, people who learned the faith from the Apostles, men and women who were willing to endure brutal deaths for their beliefs, who were willing to battle over doctrine to make sure the faith was expressed just right, were all absolutely wrong when it came to what they regarded as the central act of their worship, but 15 hundred years later, a bunch of people finally figured it all out? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>I don’t put my faith in people, I put my faith in the Word.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> In the Word, when God said “let there be light” (Gen 1:3) what happens?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant: </b>There’s light.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> And when God says to Lazarus come out of the tomb (cf. Jn 11:43) what happens?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> He comes out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic:</b> And when God says your sins are forgiven (cf. Luke 7:48), what happens?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> They are forgiven.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Catholic: </b>And when God says “this is my body” (Matt 26:26) to a piece of bread, what happens?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Protestant:</b> It…</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At this moment, the procession returns, making its way down the opposite side of the street. Our Catholic friend falls silently to his knees once more. Our Protestant friend bows his head slightly, closes his eyes, and begins to pray, “Lord Jesus, you know I love you, lead me into your truth…”</span></i></div>
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<!--End mc_embed_signup-->Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-38452143744085070552017-01-30T11:18:00.001-05:002017-01-30T11:18:59.128-05:0025 Dante Links from Around the InternetIf you are interested in Dante and his masterpiece, <i>The Divine Comedy</i>, here are some must see websites:<br />
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<a href="http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/">Princeton Dante Project </a>- read the entire Comedy in Italian and in Jean Hollander's excellent translation plus Dante's minor works.<br />
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<a href="https://dante.dartmouth.edu/">Dartmouth Dante Project </a>- "a searchable full-text database containing more than seventy on Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i>."<br />
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<a href="http://oyc.yale.edu/italian-language-and-literature/ital-310">Yale's Open Course on Dante </a>- taught by Dante scholar Giuseppe Mazzotta<br />
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<a href="https://www.dantesociety.org/">The Dante Society of America</a> - of which I'm a proud member (but not so proud as to have to circle the first terrace of Purgatory for long!)<br />
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<a href="http://divinecomedy.org/">DivineComedy.org</a> - read the <i>Divine Comedy</i> in the original Italian, 3 English translations, German, and Finnish.<br />
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<a href="http://www.worldofdante.org/">The World of Dante</a> - "a multi-media research tool intended to facilitate the study of the <i>Divine Comedy.</i><br />
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<a href="http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/">Danteworlds</a><i> - </i>an interactive multimedia journey... through the three realms of the afterlife presented in Dante's<i> Divine Comedy.</i><br />
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<a href="http://www.museocasadidante.it/en/">The Dante Museum in Florence</a> - a museum in a reconstructed house on the spot where Dante lived before his exile.<br />
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<a href="http://angelfire.com/">AngelFire.com</a> - a fun website with a variety of Dante related information, including a quiz on what circle of hell you'd end up in if you died today.<br />
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<a href="http://www3.nd.edu/~italnet/Dante/">Renaissance Dante in Print</a> - Dedicated to showcasing beautiful illuminated editions of the <i>Divine Comedy </i>from the Renaissance.<br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6656.The_Divine_Comedy">GoodReads.com</a> - Join a discussion of the <i>Divine Comedy </i>online.<br />
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<a href="http://www.italnet.nd.edu/Dante/text/Chronology.html">A Brief Timeline of Dante's Life</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-dante-saved-my-life/">How Dante Saved My Lif</a>e - an article by Rod Dreher relating the impact the <i>Divine Comedy </i>had on his life.<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0KIq0ywDDY">Youtube.com</a> - a Series of videos on the <i>Divine Comedy</i> featuring art from Gustav Dore.<br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri">Dante Alighieri Wikipedia Page</a> - for a quick overview of the man, not for an authoritative account of his life or works.<br />
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<a href="https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3A%22Dante%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Dante%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Dante%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Dante%22%29%20OR%20%28%221265-1321%22%20AND%20Dante%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29">Archive.org</a> - A Listing of Works By or About Dante and his Works<br />
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<a href="https://librivox.org/author/1189?primary_key=1189&search_category=author&search_page=1&search_form=get_results">LibriVox.org</a> - Audio books on Dante and his Works<br />
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<u>Posts from this Blog</u>:<br />
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The "<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/search/label/Blogging%20through%20Hell">Blogging Through Hell</a>" Series<br />
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An Inspirational Post, <a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2016/08/12-reasons-to-stop-what-you-are-doing.html">urging you to read Dante</a>.<br />
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An article on the <a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-three-advents-of-christ-in-dante.html">Three Advents of Christ in Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i></a>.<br />
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Recommended Dante Reading List<br />
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<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2015/05/pope-francis-wants-you-to-read-dante.html">Pope Francis' call to read the <i>Divine Comedy</i></a>.<br />
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Why Dante is a "<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2015/03/dante-poet-of-popes-and-great-read-for.html">Great Read for Lent.</a>"<br />
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<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2014/10/read-dante-there-are-few-better-uses-of.html">Why Reading Dante is a great use of your time and effort.</a><br />
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<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-limerick-in-honor-of-cold.html">A Limerick</a> inspired from Dante's Hell written on a cold winter's day.Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-58818241217006123742017-01-23T11:10:00.001-05:002017-01-23T11:10:10.758-05:0010 Favorite Images of Jesus to Know and ShareAs Catholics we know the power of images to help us draw closer to God.<br />
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And no, it isn't idolatry to use images as an aid to our worship (see my post <u><a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2014/08/do-catholics-worship-statues.html">Do Catholics Worship Statues?</a></u>)<br />
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In that spirit I thought I'd share hear some of my favorite images of Christ, excluding those recognized instantly worldwide e.g. Michelangelo's <a href="http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/CSN/CSN_Main.html"><i>Pieta</i> and </a><i><a href="http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/CSN/CSN_Main.html">Last Judgement</a> </i>or Leonardo's <i><a href="http://www.aboutmilan.com/last-supper-leonardo.html">Last Supper</a></i>, and confining myself to Italian masters whose works are on public display.<br />
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I'm including:<br />
<ul>
<li>names of the artists</li>
<li>original titles of the works </li>
<li>where you can visit these masterpieces <i>in persona</i></li>
<li>dates of the master's life</li>
</ul>
<div>
You'll note all these artists all worked between 1225 and 1680, a period stretching from the revival of the arts in the High Middle Ages to the end of the Baroque. Dante tells us fame is fleeting,</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Oh vana gloria de l'umane posse! </i><i>com' poco verde in sul la cima dura, </i><i>se non è giunta da l'etati grosse! </i>(<a href="http://amzn.to/2jvxVPj"><i>Purgatorio</i></a>, 11.91-93)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
O vanity of human powers,<br />
how briefly lasts the crowning green of glory,<br />
unless an age of darkness follows! </blockquote>
<div>
We remember these men. Whether or not we can conclude this period was therefore "an age of darkness" (the neoclassicism of the Enlightenment to modern abstract "art"), I'll leave to my readers to decide.</div>
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<div>
My personal top ten:</div>
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10. <i>Cristo morto sorretto dagli angeli</i>; Paolo Veronese, 1528-1588 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Fine_Arts,_Boston">Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA</a>)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd4IhOSFB_z_EyWqv1cdt_PRKs3RllV4NZbzRWAQY1evX5Lo4aZbOJQ2UiC1-CRs8pN_hvIh7PvA4jhPhX-vs8FFIpZCO__REd_TeKZh2eYPIWXrUPHYZZwPVRGQnE0BhDkEH89qMThr4h/s1600/Veronese_-_The_Dead_Christ_Supported_by_Angels_-_Boston_Museum_of_Fine_Arts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd4IhOSFB_z_EyWqv1cdt_PRKs3RllV4NZbzRWAQY1evX5Lo4aZbOJQ2UiC1-CRs8pN_hvIh7PvA4jhPhX-vs8FFIpZCO__REd_TeKZh2eYPIWXrUPHYZZwPVRGQnE0BhDkEH89qMThr4h/s400/Veronese_-_The_Dead_Christ_Supported_by_Angels_-_Boston_Museum_of_Fine_Arts.jpg" width="291" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Veronese#/media/File:Veronese_-_The_Dead_Christ_Supported_by_Angels_-_Boston_Museum_of_Fine_Arts.jpeg">source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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9. <i>Cristo coronato di spine; </i>Annibale Carracci, 1560-1609 (<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gem%C3%A4ldegalerie_Alte_Meister">Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister</a></i>, Dresden)</span><br />
<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2f6GbpLD7r-mxZUGFiQIwsExsPef0omnscY6r8mEppUPmiSdvvzIYiDqhANrFNW8MGzjtddqRoQKHpEUnCVSO234C3B8-ny7KbY5O5IxT6maronaIbsgrnNReQW1QuwgLFj8wI3Yy529T/s1600/Annibale_Carracci_-_Christ_Wearing_the_Crown_of_Thorns%252C_Supported_by_Angels_-_WGA04427.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2f6GbpLD7r-mxZUGFiQIwsExsPef0omnscY6r8mEppUPmiSdvvzIYiDqhANrFNW8MGzjtddqRoQKHpEUnCVSO234C3B8-ny7KbY5O5IxT6maronaIbsgrnNReQW1QuwgLFj8wI3Yy529T/s400/Annibale_Carracci_-_Christ_Wearing_the_Crown_of_Thorns%252C_Supported_by_Angels_-_WGA04427.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Annibale_Carracci_-_Christ_Wearing_the_Crown_of_Thorns,_Supported_by_Angels_-_WGA04427.jpg">source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
8. <i>Testa di Cristo</i>; Correggio, 1489-1534 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Paul_Getty_Museum">Getty Museum</a>, Los Angeles, CA)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-n1ytjYMvLSaXAMAHLpeC5xqgHuNi_3PWnbiTsMVoRECT2uF9Mo8hH3xJOzrof4I-OimlupC-Rjgdj4-Drick36eWoH8nFTEX5BITwWKzZ8TVwFKWC5ee_5EYalA52vG6iz9qIl5PAlSl/s1600/Correggio_%2528Antonio_Allegri%2529_%2528Italian_-_Head_of_Christ_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-n1ytjYMvLSaXAMAHLpeC5xqgHuNi_3PWnbiTsMVoRECT2uF9Mo8hH3xJOzrof4I-OimlupC-Rjgdj4-Drick36eWoH8nFTEX5BITwWKzZ8TVwFKWC5ee_5EYalA52vG6iz9qIl5PAlSl/s400/Correggio_%2528Antonio_Allegri%2529_%2528Italian_-_Head_of_Christ_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" width="321" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_of_Christ_(Correggio)#/media/File:Correggio_(Antonio_Allegri)_(Italian_-_Head_of_Christ_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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7. <i>Salvator Mundi</i>; Gianlorenzo Bernini, 1598-1680<i> (</i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Sebastiano_fuori_le_mura" style="font-style: italic;">San Sebastiano fuori le mura</a>;<i> </i>Rome, Italy)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMljg38D6Zxe3owPXMDxYlDA7_2qG2V4YEpZuva7yJC_PdvyfxPY8qaQu13pSIecuxd4fwXzl_AvDaBPp_C37Ntb9wYftAcnHzE37_SoINBAZayIix77eaHY9yPUhkuFH5NmCalqNQvfi/s1600/Bust_of_Jesus_Christ_by_Gianlorenzo_Bernini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMljg38D6Zxe3owPXMDxYlDA7_2qG2V4YEpZuva7yJC_PdvyfxPY8qaQu13pSIecuxd4fwXzl_AvDaBPp_C37Ntb9wYftAcnHzE37_SoINBAZayIix77eaHY9yPUhkuFH5NmCalqNQvfi/s400/Bust_of_Jesus_Christ_by_Gianlorenzo_Bernini.jpg" width="395" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Bust_of_Jesus_Christ_by_Gianlorenzo_Bernini.jpg">source</a><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
6. <i>Cristo morto</i>; Andrea Mantegna, 1430-1506 (<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinacoteca_di_Brera">Pinacoteca di Brera</a>, </i>Milan, Italy)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ApbrJoa3CFpIE8lgsnqmDHcIHCPGP9nbP9NJfv3diAbFbYxWI2hRxK2XkVU0fZYiVW9jrdQ5W6MByxrpCv7cPY2zOAO4W3rI1fe_nFPpDQCJil573MjcTiC0knFpWQmiY0JBqcY7CZJK/s1600/Mantegna_Andrea_Dead_Christ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ApbrJoa3CFpIE8lgsnqmDHcIHCPGP9nbP9NJfv3diAbFbYxWI2hRxK2XkVU0fZYiVW9jrdQ5W6MByxrpCv7cPY2zOAO4W3rI1fe_nFPpDQCJil573MjcTiC0knFpWQmiY0JBqcY7CZJK/s400/Mantegna_Andrea_Dead_Christ.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamentation_of_Christ_(Mantegna)#/media/File:Mantegna_Andrea_Dead_Christ.jpg">source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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5. <i>Il Crocifisso</i>; Maestro della Croce 434, mid-13th century (<a href="http://www.uffizi.org/"><i>Uffizi</i>, Florence, Italy</a>)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8_TgRrAJos17M4uNaG0rk7ArYgJY3vNlVKx1N2jrMvb9GA_OIvYGPX_cPjoqfDGQVDha5Tl8zsZ92TNaS5ZKYdhEi_CjI4OdEsFa7H0Pus54HBYlX-EI_l1XjRk1DFXrFgaJg_fcqQFtW/s1600/Croce-434.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8_TgRrAJos17M4uNaG0rk7ArYgJY3vNlVKx1N2jrMvb9GA_OIvYGPX_cPjoqfDGQVDha5Tl8zsZ92TNaS5ZKYdhEi_CjI4OdEsFa7H0Pus54HBYlX-EI_l1XjRk1DFXrFgaJg_fcqQFtW/s400/Croce-434.jpg" width="317" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.friendsoftheuffizigallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Croce-434.jpg">source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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5. <i>Il Bacio di Guida </i>(detail);<i> </i>Giotto di Bondone, 1266-1337 (<i><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappella_degli_Scrovegni">Cappella degli Scrovegni</a></i>, Padua, Italy)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcLA1rDmDzQ1Cb-lXMo9_KK7qQEupuloRGOyUZ9qryHvCh1dyPqQCRr3aa5CZQn9yvYRQU0cXFwm_uKUxN6TnABaL6ux04j3bVj6ccnrQmyJrWbCcrAxolEtK0gJ0UHKzx5TA8LBIU7efL/s1600/Gitto+Arena+Chapel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcLA1rDmDzQ1Cb-lXMo9_KK7qQEupuloRGOyUZ9qryHvCh1dyPqQCRr3aa5CZQn9yvYRQU0cXFwm_uKUxN6TnABaL6ux04j3bVj6ccnrQmyJrWbCcrAxolEtK0gJ0UHKzx5TA8LBIU7efL/s400/Gitto+Arena+Chapel.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/arth213/arenachapel.html">source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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4. <i>Incredulità di San Tommaso</i>; Caravaggio, 1592-1610<i> </i>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanssouci_Picture_Gallery">Sanssouci Picture Gallery</a>; Potsdam, Germany)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM3rrdEwWrvWCNO7GRLqL9u6MfiyBJuju0G2PU6KPbADWica-1qtZTWRH8j8Oeo3d1CcbHD7EWvQNnOZnwFFrw3qzylai_OI6Cn1a1rcDYI5s5iZu7gGfTopGQn1YRrZ5sbleaq756j0jq/s1600/Caravaggio_-_The_Incredulity_of_Saint_Thomas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM3rrdEwWrvWCNO7GRLqL9u6MfiyBJuju0G2PU6KPbADWica-1qtZTWRH8j8Oeo3d1CcbHD7EWvQNnOZnwFFrw3qzylai_OI6Cn1a1rcDYI5s5iZu7gGfTopGQn1YRrZ5sbleaq756j0jq/s400/Caravaggio_-_The_Incredulity_of_Saint_Thomas.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Caravaggio_-_The_Incredulity_of_Saint_Thomas.jpgS">source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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3. <i>Il Crocifisso</i>; Donatello, 1386-1466 (<i><a href="http://www.santacroceopera.it/en/">Santa Croce</a></i>, Florence, Italy)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2AtfNqPaVz7M-6yBI2KEgHC8nnOEMbMshWt8-74a4mmG1p2dAc5kvJi7MzhInMsTSYzpu4CMdOJ9HY1V_zk2eJkaQf7CY96uybIP7Kgt3VX7w4s_e5Z4Mo0kEarIR2cLRoaMdXACoDxZn/s1600/PIC6744O.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2AtfNqPaVz7M-6yBI2KEgHC8nnOEMbMshWt8-74a4mmG1p2dAc5kvJi7MzhInMsTSYzpu4CMdOJ9HY1V_zk2eJkaQf7CY96uybIP7Kgt3VX7w4s_e5Z4Mo0kEarIR2cLRoaMdXACoDxZn/s400/PIC6744O.jpg" width="307" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://goflorence.us/471/s_croce_5.htm">source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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2. <i>Testa di Cristo</i>, Drawings, Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519 (from his notebooks)<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWAX6p7lDMxzqHON0Da_m2dkRsZM4bgUtuiVofoYZKYOPX3aZ85lteZ2DeUOoDgLwrh3zfvJS2Xbl48hTFFB_Fkltn1TexdtDcEzc3Acx-CgGVmZN11Xaq8CYTfz9ufCOgIbcJtfIKEv1/s1600/537px-Vinci%252C_Leonardo_Da_-_Christ_Figure_-_c._1490_-_1495.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWAX6p7lDMxzqHON0Da_m2dkRsZM4bgUtuiVofoYZKYOPX3aZ85lteZ2DeUOoDgLwrh3zfvJS2Xbl48hTFFB_Fkltn1TexdtDcEzc3Acx-CgGVmZN11Xaq8CYTfz9ufCOgIbcJtfIKEv1/s400/537px-Vinci%252C_Leonardo_Da_-_Christ_Figure_-_c._1490_-_1495.jpg" width="357" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vinci,_Leonardo_Da_-_Christ_Figure_-_c._1490_-_1495.jpg">source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
1. <i>Giudizio Universale</i>;<i> </i>Coppo di Marcovaldo, 1225-1276 (<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Baptistery#Interior">Battistero di San Giovanni</a></i>, Florence, Italy)<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUQxwOCRXJWRonla0SKdRX-Xxze9jyunrUX70sVNwnAJgK3NOY1Vq96OqekPgcg1_cIWcnbcYihw0MWOs3cKsQ7DamoZrYKpGp0613bA1RmmX9YArjhlmlfDJvUvjiG8Gw2X7R0fWDRkz-/s1600/The_mosaic_ceiling_of_the_Baptistery_of_Florence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUQxwOCRXJWRonla0SKdRX-Xxze9jyunrUX70sVNwnAJgK3NOY1Vq96OqekPgcg1_cIWcnbcYihw0MWOs3cKsQ7DamoZrYKpGp0613bA1RmmX9YArjhlmlfDJvUvjiG8Gw2X7R0fWDRkz-/s400/The_mosaic_ceiling_of_the_Baptistery_of_Florence.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/The_mosaic_ceiling_of_the_Baptistery_of_Florence.jpg">source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Which of these do you like best?<br />
<br />
What are some of your favorite depictions of Our Lord?<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
You might also enjoy these posts:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2014/07/5-favorite-images-of-mary-magdalene.html">5 Favorite Images of Mary Magdalene</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2014/06/top-3-great-paintings-of-annunciation.html">Top 3 Great Paintings of the Annunciation</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2014/05/top-5-favorite-images-of-our-lady.html">Top 5 Favorite Images of Our Lady</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
Love Catholic Art? You'll want to consider this book:<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Wondering why our churches are not full of masterpieces (and why the buildings look less like houses of God and more like factories or assembly halls)? You'll want to read this book:</span><br />
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<br />Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-8060475346860783022017-01-02T09:55:00.000-05:002017-01-02T09:55:07.240-05:00What I've Read in 2016.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwAMfjyF1Ub_MRymGzY7VxoaFwqxc0Rv0ZYbkI4v5ki3GvDjHwyG9jUu5cvg7W5hndZUGU2ONhbaqBbKMguLUkufGdmjwdM7hSavRayjH1a_aAUNtIHiu2PND4Fp4oHXG7jwUyyYfsDhUS/s1600/40222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwAMfjyF1Ub_MRymGzY7VxoaFwqxc0Rv0ZYbkI4v5ki3GvDjHwyG9jUu5cvg7W5hndZUGU2ONhbaqBbKMguLUkufGdmjwdM7hSavRayjH1a_aAUNtIHiu2PND4Fp4oHXG7jwUyyYfsDhUS/s400/40222.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.infobarrel.com/Why_You_Need_Bookshelves_--_And_Other_Book_Care_Tips">picture source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I thought I might share with you what I've managed to read (or re-read as the case may be) this year. If any of the titles interest you, I've provided a link to Amazon where you can purchase the book. If you've read any great books this year, make sure to let us know in the comments so our readers (and myself!) can check those out too.<br />
<br />
If you have any questions about any of these books drop me a line in the combox and I'll try to answer all of them.<br />
<br />
I'll be taking a break from blogging in January. See you all in February.<br />
<br />
<div>
1. <a href="http://amzn.to/2h3iwnu">The Flying Inn - GK Chesterton</a></div>
<div>
2. <a href="http://amzn.to/2ic7GAE">Born Standing Up - Steve Martin</a></div>
<div>
3. <a href="http://amzn.to/2hb6xIa">Aristotle for Everybody - Mortimer Adler</a></div>
<div>
4. <a href="http://amzn.to/2hb5Pur">The Gospel of Luke - Bible</a></div>
<div>
5. <a href="http://amzn.to/2h34fY4">Dante and Philosophy- Etienne Gilson</a></div>
<div>
6. <a href="http://amzn.to/2h3iZGg">Dante and Catholic Philosophy in the Thirteenth Century - Frederic Ozanam</a></div>
<div>
7. <a href="http://amzn.to/2hIDJr3">Rediscover Jesus - Matthew Kelly</a></div>
<div>
8. <a href="http://amzn.to/2h3mWe9">Vita di Dante - Gio. Boccaccio </a></div>
<div>
9. <a href="http://amzn.to/2hb8WSU">Vita di Dante - Lionardo Aretino</a></div>
<div>
10. <a href="http://amzn.to/2ic1ZTg">Dante: A Life in Works - Robert Hollander</a></div>
<div>
11. Dante: A Penguin Life - RWB Lewis</div>
<div>
12. <a href="http://amzn.to/2hsGhXa">Chronicle of Florence - Dino Compagni</a></div>
<div>
13. <a href="http://amzn.to/2igLotL">Unam Sanctam - Boniface VIII</a></div>
<div>
14. <a href="http://amzn.to/2h33uOS">Book of Wisdom - Bible</a></div>
<div>
15. <a href="http://amzn.to/2ic2CMJ">Faction & Civil Strife in Italy</a></div>
<div>
16. <a href="http://amzn.to/2hsDmhn">Chronicle of Florence - Giovanni Villani</a></div>
<div>
17.<a href="http://amzn.to/2h372k9"> Vita Nuova - Dante Alighieri </a></div>
<div>
18. <a href="http://amzn.to/2ibQTxM">Epistles of Dante Alighieri</a></div>
<div>
19. <a href="http://amzn.to/2h3fOPf">Euthyphro - Plato</a></div>
<div>
20.<a href="http://amzn.to/2h3kKTS"> Il Fiore - Dante Alighieri (attributed)</a></div>
<div>
21. <a href="http://amzn.to/2igQgik">Inferno - Dante Alighieri</a> (Hollander)</div>
<div>
22. <a href="http://amzn.to/2hb8Bjo">Book of Ben Sira - Bible</a></div>
<div>
23. <a href="http://amzn.to/2hWwTyA">Book of Daniel - Bible</a></div>
<div>
24. <a href="http://amzn.to/2igPulA">Fluent in Three Months- Benny Lewis</a></div>
<div>
25. <a href="http://amzn.to/2hWyPHu">Purgatorio - Dante Alighieri</a> (Hollander)</div>
<div>
26. <a href="http://amzn.to/2igSMoG">In un boschetto - Guido Calvacanti</a></div>
<div>
27. <a href="http://amzn.to/2ibTcRk">Moneyball - Michael Lewis</a> </div>
<div>
28. <a href="http://amzn.to/2ibTjfI">Eclogues - Dante Alighieri</a></div>
<div>
29. <a href="http://amzn.to/2igH25I">The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene </a></div>
<div>
30. <a href="http://amzn.to/2hbhXeM">The Consolation of Philosophy - Boethius</a></div>
<div>
31.<a href="http://amzn.to/2hbhk59"> Gorgias - Plato</a></div>
<div>
32. <a href="http://amzn.to/2igSG0x">The Four Loves - CS Lewis</a></div>
<div>
33.<a href="http://amzn.to/2ibW1lE"> Paradiso - Dante Alighieri </a>(Hollander)</div>
<div>
34. <a href="http://amzn.to/2ic4QLY">Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck</a> </div>
<div>
35. <a href="http://amzn.to/2hbhZUd">Dante: His Times and His Work - Arthur John Butler</a></div>
<div>
36. <a href="http://amzn.to/2h3kp3z">The Fractured Republic - Yuval Levin</a></div>
<div>
37. <a href="http://amzn.to/2hbhWrf">Church of Spies - Mark Riebling</a></div>
<div>
38 <a href="http://amzn.to/2hWFEZs">Till We Have Faces - CS Lewis </a></div>
<div>
39 <a href="http://amzn.to/2hWw2Oz">Aeneid (book 6) - Virgil</a></div>
<div>
40 <a href="http://amzn.to/2hWAwod">Dante: The Story of His Life - Marco Santagata</a> (<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2016/11/book-review-dante-story-of-his-life-by.html">my review is here</a>)</div>
<div>
41 <a href="http://amzn.to/2ic2Tzw">Eclogues - Dante Alighieri </a></div>
<div>
42 <a href="http://amzn.to/2hbdWH6">Advent at the Gates - Mark Musa</a> </div>
<div>
42 <a href="http://amzn.to/2ibVK1Z">Inferno (selected canti) - Dante (Mandelbaum)</a></div>
<div>
43 <a href="http://amzn.to/2igPja1">Purgatorio (selected canti). - Dante (Wicksteed)</a></div>
<div>
44 <a href="http://amzn.to/2igTUc9">The Poet's Dante - Hawkins & Jacoff</a></div>
<div>
45 <a href="http://amzn.to/2hWFBwJ">Scholastic Metaphysics - Ed Feser</a></div>
<div>
46 <a href="http://amzn.to/2ic7WzS">Monarchia - Dante Alighieri</a> </div>
<div>
47 <a href="http://amzn.to/2igTMcA">Essays on Dante - Mark Musa</a> (ed)</div>
<div>
48 <a href="http://amzn.to/2igH4KM">Odyssey - Homer</a> </div>
<div>
49 <a href="http://amzn.to/2hbiCx2">Benedict XVI, Last Testament</a> - With Peter Seewald</div>
<div>
50 <a href="http://amzn.to/2ic5yZK">Jesus of Nazareth: the Infancy Narratives - Pope Benedict XVI</a></div>
<div>
51 <a href="http://amzn.to/2hbdvge">A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</a></div>
<div>
52 <a href="http://amzn.to/2hsJXrW">A Christmas Carole - Charles Dickens</a> </div>
<div>
53 <a href="http://amzn.to/2hbkLsx">The Sign of Four - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</a> </div>
<div>
54 <a href="http://amzn.to/2h3s1mJ">The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</a></div>
<div>
55 <a href="http://amzn.to/2hbbjW6">Take Five. Mediations with Pope Benedict XVI.</a><br />
<br />
Are you looking to read more in 2017? If so, here's some inspiration from the man who created Rome as we know it, Gianlorenzo Bernini:<br />
<br />
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<!--End mc_embed_signup-->Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-39227570356702591432016-12-19T09:46:00.001-05:002016-12-19T09:46:05.342-05:00Grow in Holiness this Advent Wk 4; Round-Up<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgalLdRodBj-xn2xtMPijorNrXXiBlgbCP8Ijn9I_a2wYAel83ZacD5tUQo_4FuGDeJgD_puOydMN88KHo3XZVPO7TQwYlr6XtrLJkcyUPKua7uDUgHJjGVuF00LdXtFHfI-wvllMkkJUxi/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-12-07+at+5.27.45+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgalLdRodBj-xn2xtMPijorNrXXiBlgbCP8Ijn9I_a2wYAel83ZacD5tUQo_4FuGDeJgD_puOydMN88KHo3XZVPO7TQwYlr6XtrLJkcyUPKua7uDUgHJjGVuF00LdXtFHfI-wvllMkkJUxi/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-12-07+at+5.27.45+PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Definition via <a href="https://www.google.com/">Google</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
If you've been regularly following the blog this Advent, you know we've been working on becoming holier. In the last week of this season of preparation, I present to you a round-up of Advent and Christmas posts for your reflection.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2016/11/grow-in-holiness-this-advent-three.html">Grow in Holiness this Advent Wk 1, the Three Advents of Christ</a><br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2016/12/grow-in-holiness-this-advent-wk-2.html">Grow in Holiness this Advent Wk 2; Conquering Conquering Covetousness</a><br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2016/12/grow-in-holiness-this-advent-wk-3.html">Grow in Holiness this Advent Wk 3; Confess and Rejoice!</a><br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-hell-we-choose-advent-call-to.html">The Hell We Choose. An Advent Call to Holiness</a><br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-three-advents-of-christ.html">The Three Advents of Christ</a><br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-three-advents-of-christ-in-saint.html">The Three Advents of Christ in Saint Bernard</a><br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-three-advents-of-christ-in-dante.html">The Three Advents of Christ in Dante</a><br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/gaudete-sunday.html">Gaudete Sunday!</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-spirit-of-scrooge.html">The Spirit of Scrooge</a><br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/pope-francis-on-christmas.html">Pope Francis on Christmas</a><br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/pope-benedict-on-marriage.html">Pope Benedict on Christmas</a><br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/keep-christ-and-mass-in-christmas.html">Keep Christ AND Mass in Christmas</a><br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/how-we-keep-christ-in-christmas.html">How We Keep Christ in Christmas</a><br />
<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/santa-claus-herald-of-christmas-or-anti.html">Santa Claus, Herald of Christmas or Anti-Christ?</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Have a holy final week of Advent and a very Merry Christmas in the presence of Our Lord.Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-20840601687460586562016-12-12T09:01:00.000-05:002016-12-12T09:01:26.331-05:00Grow in Holiness this Advent Wk 3; Confess and Rejoice!<i>(This is the third in a series of Advent meditations. You can read t<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2016/11/grow-in-holiness-this-advent-three.html">he first mediation, on the Three Advents of Christ</a>, and <a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2016/12/grow-in-holiness-this-advent-wk-2.html">the second, on Conquering Covetousness</a> by clicking those links. This week, we're looking at another essential part of Advent -- Confession.)</i><br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3555190/Teenagers-given-unexpected-opportunity-confess-sins-Pope-Francis-chair-middle-St-Peter-s-Square.html">Picture with Story from Daily Mail - check it out HERE</a></td></tr>
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It's the third week of Advent - <i>Gaudete </i>(Rejoice!)<i> </i>Sunday. This week we light the pink candle on our advent wreaths, Mass is celebrated by father in pink (sorry, <a href="http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=1586">rose</a>) vestments, and we are called to Rejoice! that our Savior is near at hand.<br />
<br />
One way to Rejoice! over the last two weeks of Advent is to make a sincere and contrite confession. Unburdening yourself of your sins and hearing the words of Christ, speaking though his priest,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. </blockquote>
provides, as any Catholic can tell you, a feeling of relief and joy.<br />
<br />
Rejoice! for the healing power of Christ is still alive and active in the world.<br />
<br />
If you are skeptical, if you are asking yourself why you ought to confess in the presence of a priest, I'll point you to my post:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2015/03/7-reasons-all-christians-should-confess.html">7 Reasons All Christians Should Confess to a Priest.</a></b></div>
<br />
Yes, that says, "<b>All Christians,</b>" not just all Catholics.<br />
<br />
Aside from Eastern Orthodox, we also find the value of a good auricular confession maintained, though not stressed as essential, in some Protestant traditions, especially Anglicanism and Lutheranism.<br />
<br />
Of course, most Protestant denominations have eschewed the traditional Christian practice of confessing their sins. Some confess only "in their heart," others have abandoned confessing altogether, believing that their Faith in Jesus means they have no need of confessing their sins post-conversion. This is, <a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2015/03/7-reasons-all-christians-should-confess.html">as I demonstrate in the aforementioned post </a>, is a grave misunderstanding. For, as Jesus Himself assures us<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light. (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+8%3A16-17&version=RSV">Lk. 8:16-17, RSV</a>)</blockquote>
Better to have it "come to light" in this life, in the confessional, than hiding it until all things will be dragged into the light after we have time to repent of them. We will confess our sins with repentance now or confess them unrepentant when it is too late, either way we will confess.<br />
<br />
This is made wonderfully clear in <i>The Divine Comedy</i>. Dante, upon entering the first circle where he sees the damned being punished, meets Minos - the judge of Hell standing "<i>orribilmente, e ringhia</i>" ("horribly and growling"). The souls, lost for all eternity, having never confessed, having tried to keep their sins from "com(ing) to light," find themselves compelled to do what could have saved them,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Dico che quando l'anima mal nata</i><i>li vien dinanzi, tutta si confessa;</i><i>e quel conoscitor de le peccata</i><i>vede qual loco d'inferno è da essa.</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I say, that when the ill-born spirit comes before him, it confesses all; and that sin-discerner sees what place in hell is for it (<i><a href="http://amzn.to/2glgrqe">Inferno </a></i>5.7-10)</blockquote>
Their confession is now futile.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>vanno a vicenda ciascuna al giudizio,</i> <i>dicono e odono e poi son giù volte.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
they go each in his turn to judgment; they tell, and hear; and then are whirled down. (<i><a href="http://amzn.to/2glgrqe">Inferno </a></i>5.14-15)</blockquote>
But <i><u>your</u> </i>confession isn't futile, at least not yet.<br />
<br />
Confess, rejoice, and be glad as you come closer to Christmas.<br />
<br />
Have a holy Advent!<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And behold I am coming soon (Rev. 22:7, RSV)</blockquote>
<b><u>Books Mentioned or Recommended in this Post:</u></b><br />
<br />
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Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-52157912217256094712016-12-05T11:08:00.001-05:002016-12-05T11:08:24.811-05:00Grow in Holiness this Advent Wk 2; Conquering Covetousness <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In Dicken's <a href="http://amzn.to/2gYo3xx"><i>A Christmas Carol</i> </a>we meet the embodiment of Avarice, Ebenezer Scrooge, a man who loved gold more than God. His opinion of Christmas is well known to us all,</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Merry Christmas! Out upon a merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will... every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' upon his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his hear. He should! (pp. 5-6)</blockquote>
Scrooge's love for money has replaced not only his love of Christmas, but love of anything else. This love of money isn't <i>just</i> greed, it is a false <i>religion</i>.<br />
<br />
Dante dramatically presents this reality to us when he stands before the damned Pope Nicholas III (Giovanni Gaetano Orsini),<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Fatto v'avete dio d'oro e d'argento;</i><i>e che altro è da voi a l'idolatre,</i><i>se non ch'elli uno, e voi ne orate cento?</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You have wrought yourselves a god of gold and silver.<br />
How then do you differ from those who worship idols<br />
except they worship one and you a hundred? (<i><a href="http://amzn.to/2h6KjUE">Inferno</a> </i>19.112-114)</blockquote>
St. Thomas Aquinas addresses the "spirit of Scrooge" in the <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2gYt7BS">Summa</a></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
man seeks, according to a certain measure, to have external riches, in so far as they are necessary for him to live in keeping with his condition of life. Wherefore it will be a sin for him to exceed this measure, by wishing to acquire or keep them immoderately. This is what is meant by covetousness, which is defined as "immoderate love of possessing." It is therefore evident that covetousness is a sin. (II-II. Q. 118, A. 1)</blockquote>
Or, in the more recent words of Pope Benedict XVI<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Material possessions, in themselves, are good. We would not survive for long without money, clothing, and shelter. We must eat in order to stay alive. Yet if we are greedy, if we refuse to share what we have with the hungry and the poor, then we make our possessions into a false god. How many voices in our materialist society tell us that happiness is to be found by acquiring as many possessions and luxuries as we can! But this is to make possessions into a false god. (<i>Address to Disadvantaged Youth</i>, in Sydney, Australia.)</blockquote>
How tempting it is this time of year, especially for those who ignore Advent, focusing solely on the "shopping season" of the secular Christmastide - Black Friday through December 24th, to focus overly much on possessions. Indeed, admirably, much of this is the opposite of what Scrooge lived for. He wanted only to take, to increase, while ignoring those others about him. We rather look to purchase things for others, for those we love and cherish. However, this Advent I would recommend to you to take it one step further - give to someone in need. Not just through an organization, great and commendable as that may be, but directly, personally. How can you find such people? Contact your parish, they'll point you in the right direction. For Scrooge himself began to recognize this. While haunted by the Ghost of Christmas Past, upon seeing his younger self, he remembers a small boy who had earlier began singing <i>God bless you, merry gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!</i> at his keyhole. Scrooge's reaction?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost. (p. 9)</blockquote>
His later reaction to his behavior?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
'I wish,' Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his pocket, and looking about him, after drying his eyes with his cuff: 'but it's too late now.'<br />
'What is the matter?' asked the Spirit.<br />
'Nothing,' said Scrooge. 'Nothing. There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should have liked to have given him something: that's all.' (p. 26)</blockquote>
We might not have the poor singing carols at our doors, but they might be a lot closer than you think.<br />
<br />
If that isn't enough to motivate you, remember how Jesus, "the reason for the season," identifies Himself with the poor,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you... For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.... Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. (Matt. 25:34-40, ESV)</blockquote>
Have a holy Advent.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.<i> </i>(Rev. 22:20-21, ESV) </blockquote>
<b><u>Books Mentioned or Recommended in this Post:</u></b><br />
<br />
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Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-29189707411093491782016-11-28T10:12:00.002-05:002016-11-28T10:12:45.932-05:00Grow in Holiness this Advent, the Three Advents of ChristYesterday, the Church's liturgical year began anew with the first Sunday of Advent. This is a time of preparation, <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_P4O.HTM">though <i>not </i>penance</a>, for the coming of the great feast of the Nativity of Our Lord. Just as Lent precedes Easter, so too does Advent precede Christmas.<br />
<br />
We can all understand the power a good Lent has to make Easter truly celebratory. But many Catholics have lost a real sense of Advent as it has been trampled under the shopping frenzy that is the secular build-up to the feast.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What is Advent Anyhow?</span><br />
As a refresher for those who might not be sure what exactly Advent is and what we are supposed to be doing, I direct you to the <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01165a.htm">Catholic Encyclopedia</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">with Advent the ecclesiastical year begins in the Western churches. During this time the faithful are admonished</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>to prepare themselves worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the coming into the world as the God of love,</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>thus to make their souls fitting abodes for the coming in Holy Communion and through grace, and</span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>thereby to make themselves ready for His final coming as, at death and at the end of the world.</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
Advent, then, is a time to focus on the coming of Jesus. This is made clear in the name itself. "Advent" comes from the Latin "<i>ad-venio"</i> meaning "come to" or "coming."<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What Are We to Dwell on During Advent?</span><br />
With Christmas on the horizon it is easy enough to look back on the first coming of Christ, His birth into our sinful world on the first Christmas.<br />
<br />
With the Feast of Christ the King behind us, hopefully, it is easy to keep in mind the final coming of Christ, that as the just judge at the world's end.<br />
<br />
How different these advents are!<br />
<br />
Perhaps no one has laid bare just what Christ's first advent really was better than C.S. Lewis,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Enemy-occupied territory - that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening-in to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going. (<i><a href="http://amzn.to/2g8iJJC">Mere Christianity</a></i>).</blockquote>
Compare that to Christ the All Powerful King, best presented, perhaps, by Michelangelo Buonarroti,<br />
<br />
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Not exactly landing "in disguise" this time is He?</div>
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There is, however, a <i>third</i> advent of Christ that we all would do well to ponder over the next four weeks. If the Nativity is the First Advent and the Last Judgement is the Final Advent, this other advent is one that occurs not once in the past or in the future, but <i>each and every day</i> in the heart of all believers and thus is the most important advent of all to dwell on during this season.</div>
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<br /></div>
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With that teaser, I'll direct you to: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
a post I wrote on S<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-three-advents-of-christ-in-saint.html">t. Bernard of Clairvaux's description of the Three Advent's of Christ</a> and, once you've digested Bernard, </blockquote>
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And I will encourage you to: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
use <a href="http://amzn.to/2gAi025">Dante' <i>Divine Comedy</i></a> as an Advent mediation on the Three Advents of Christ, each of which is "hidden" in the poem (don't worry you won't have to find them, <a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-three-advents-of-christ-in-dante.html">I lay them all out HERE</a>). </blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">How is this Supposed to Make me Holier this Advent?</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
In a word, meditation. While the word "meditation" frequently brings to mind certain "mind-clearing" techniques used in eastern religions, there is an authentic and very important form of meditation in our Christian tradition stretching back to the first centuries after Christ. This is laid out by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in a 1989 letter to bishops (under the signature of then Cardinal Ratzinger, our present Pope Emeritus).</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;">The meditation of the Christian in prayer seeks to grasp the depths of the divine in the salvific works of God in Christ, the Incarnate Word, and in the gift of his Spirit. These divine depths are always revealed to him through the human-earthly dimension. Similar methods of meditation, on the other hand, including those which have their starting-point in the words and deeds of Jesus, try as far as possible to put aside everything that is worldly, sense perceptible or conceptually limited. It is thus an attempt to ascend to or immerse oneself in the sphere of the divine, which, as such, is neither terrestrial, sense-perceptible nor capable of conceptualization. (<i><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFMED.HTM">Letter on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation</a></i>).</span></blockquote>
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Advent, being a time a quiet reflection and prayer, is the perfect time to delve into this tradition. As stated by the CDF, Christian meditation differentiates itself from eastern meditation in that the Christian is meditating <i>on </i>some aspect of his faith while the eastern mystic is clearing his mind of everything. GK Chesterton brings out this difference,</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: "georgia" , "bitstream charter" , serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">No two ideals could be more opposite than a Christian saint in a Gothic cathedral and a Buddhist saint in a Chinese temple. The opposition exists at every point; but perhaps the shortest statement of it is that the Buddhist saint always has his eyes shut, while the Christian saint always has them very wide open. The Buddhist saint has a sleek and harmonious body, but his eyes are heavy and sealed with sleep. The medieval saint’s body is wasted to its crazy bones, but his eyes are frightfully alive. There cannot be any real continuity between forces that produce symbols so different as that. Granted that both images are extravagances, are perversions of the pure creed, it must be a real divergence which could produce such opposite extravagances. The Buddhist is looking with a peculiar intentness inwards. The Christian is staring with a frantic intentness outwards.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "bitstream charter" , serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"> (</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "bitstream charter" , serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: center;"><i><a href="http://amzn.to/2fsLYY9">Orthodoxy</a></i>, p. 194)</span></blockquote>
By meditating on this great mystery, the coming of God-in-the-Flesh, you can grow closer to Jesus, the perfect preparation to celebrate His Nativity.<br />
<br />
And isn't growing closer to Jesus - i.e. growing in holiness - the real "reason for the season?"<br />
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Have a Holy Advent!</div>
<br />
For a detailed look at the Three Advents of Christ in Dante's <i>Comedy</i>, I highly recommend Mark Musa's <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2fCLCtp">Advent at the Gates</a></i>.<br />
<br />
For a deep meditation of the Nativity of Christ, I highly recommend Pope Benedict XVI's <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2gaVqPe">Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives</a>.</i><br />
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Books Mentioned or Recommended in this Post:<br />
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<br />Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-55067637906386902392016-11-21T10:07:00.002-05:002016-11-21T10:07:59.713-05:00Book Review - Dante: The Story of His Life by Marco Santagata<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://amzn.to/2edx2db"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4PqwTnircMj1wAnUnH49NZ2FMazPl2Gw0MoQxVCojFSTQ_axXFla0RoG8d-fDuJe_6LEmOWdhoiYS5mgFTxqV8we9wgiacdhILDG1ix7U4KFfIutT8Kt2JwbLHsUczffATvWfOxH9b5za/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-10-17+at+2.19.21+PM.png" width="233" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Dante Alighieri. Poet. Politican. Philosopher. Exile.<br />
<br />
Dante lived this multifaceted life while producing the greatest poetry in world literature. He definitely wasn't an <a href="http://amzn.to/2eOs89b">Essentialist</a>.<br />
<br />
His life has been the topic of countless biographies, essays, talks, and lectures over the last seven centuries. The latest, Marco Santagata's <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2edx2db">Dante: The Story of His Life</a>,</i> translated by Richard Dixon, continues in this tradition.<br />
<br />
<b>Scholarship</b><br />
Santagata brings a wealth of erudition and study to the task of writing an interesting biography of Dante. Indeed, he manages to break into new ground, which is always impressive when writing about a man written about as frequently and for so long as Dante. His mastery and clear elucidation of the complex political history engulfing Dante's Florence and Italy is the highlight of the book and alone makes it worth the money.<br />
<br />
Not only does he vividly describe the troubled times our poet navigated, but he contemplates into under-explored possibilities. Nothing less would be expected of Santagata, professor of Italian Literature at the University of Pisa.<br />
<br />
Some of these theories are more compelling than others. Let us, briefly, examine a few.<br />
<br />
<b>Corso Donati</b><br />
One interesting possibility explored by Santagata is an alleged attempt by Dante to return to Florence, something dear to the poet's heart, through the means of Corso Donati.<br />
<br />
Anyone who has spent anytime studying Dante knows that Corso, condemned to Hell according to the prediction of his brother Forese in <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2eooyQh">Purgatorio</a> </i>was one of Dante's prime enemies.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I see him... dragged behind a beast toward the valley where there is no absolution. The beast goes faster with each step, and faster, until it hurls him to the ground and leaves his body horribly disfigured.<i> </i>(24.82-87)</blockquote>
It was Corso Donati, leader of the Black Guelfs, whose ascendancy would prove the proximate cause of Dante's lifelong exile. It would seem odd, then, that Dante would pin his hopes for return on the very man who led the party that exiled and sentence him to death. Santagata sees Dante's marriage to a distant relative of Corso's, Gemma Donati, as a possible bridge between the two.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In my view, Dante and his supporters would first have played the family card. Gemma was a Donati, a third cousin of Corso, and her readmission to the city would have done no harm to the family prestige: indeed, if anything, it would have increased it. By allowing considerations of kinship to prevail, Corso would have shown himself to be the true man of strength in Florence. (p. 191)</blockquote>
This might be too tenuous and hard to swallow. Corso would have "shown himself to be the true man of strength in Florence" without calling back a man he helped exile. In fact, that just as likely would have shown Corso to be a man of great weakness. It could even have contaminated him to association. The time in which Santagata thinks Dante could have used Corso's help was when Corso was losing influence in the Black Party to Rosso della Tosa. While highly unlikely this is an interesting possibility to contemplate.<br />
<br />
<b>Epilepsy</b><br />
Another interesting theory explored in the book is the possibility of Dante having been an epileptic. Santagata admits his debt here to Cesare Lombroso and his school of psychiatry's diagnosis of Dante, a disgnosis Santagata readily admits "has never been accepted by Dante scholars." (p. 31)<br />
<br />
Despite this, reading Dante's poems has helped Santagata 'rediscover' Dante's illness. He points to the poem <i>E' m'incresce di me sì duramente </i>as evidence. In the poem, Dante relates an experience from the first few months of his life.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"so suddenly... I fell to the ground" as if struck by lightning." (p. 30)</blockquote>
Dante's <i>Amor, da che convien pur ch'io mi doglia </i>is another exhibit as Dante tells us the mere sight of his lady caused him to fall "lifeless" to the ground.<br />
<br />
This is certainly a literalist interpretation of these poems, which sounds a bit odd coming from a man who questions whether Beatrice really inspired Dante's writings. Admittedly, Santagata avoids the common error of reading Beatrice as only an allegory of "Theology" to the point where her name could be dropped for the subject, but his suspicion here could call into question his reading into these poems a disease. If Dante attributed inspiration to Beatrice as a poetic device, why ought he not to have used fainting poetically as well?<br />
<br />
Nonetheless, Santagata is right on the money when he says this is<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
an hypothesis to explore with caution, but nevertheless (is) preferable to the idea suggested by one scholar that (Dante) used stimulants or narcotics. (p. 33)</blockquote>
I couldn't agree more.<br />
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<b>Dante's Sense of Self</b><br />
Santagata contends that Dante had a very unique sense of himself and his life.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The most remarkable aspect of Dante's personality is, in fact, his feeling of being different and predestined. In whatever he saw, did or said... he glimpsed some sign of destiny, the shadow of an unavoidable fate, the mark of a higher will.... How can we avoid asking, then, what kind of self-image such an egocentric man, so sure of his exceptional nature, must have possessed in daily life? (p. 4)</blockquote>
Whether this is an accurate description of the inner workings of Dante's personality is, as all such "remote psychoanalysis" must be, highly questionable. No psychologist worth his salt would seek to describe the inner psyche of a man who never laid upon his couch, that, however, doesn't stop (some) historians. Santagata has fallen into this trap. This is particularly jarring as he readily admits,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
His contemporaries offer little help to anyone wishing to reconstruct the true Dante. Almost none of those who knew him wrote about him; only a few of the next generation had anything reliable to say about him. (p. 5)</blockquote>
Apparently, eight hundred years after the poet's death, Sanatagata can, based off what he sees as less than credible historical accounts, have something "reliable to say about him."<br />
<br />
Was Dante prideful? Without a doubt. This is a man who, based off the <i>Vita Nuova</i> and a few <i>canti </i>of the <i>Comedy</i>, claimed poetic equality with the greatest poets in history: Virgil, Homer, Ovid, Horace, and Lucan when he tells us "I became a sixth amidst such wisdom" (<i>Inferno</i> 4.102) and who feels the heavy weights the penitents on the terrace of pride must bear already.<br />
<br />
Can we extrapolate out of his work all Santagata does? That is a bit more questionable, but worth reading his theory in full to decide for yourself.<br />
<br />
<b>Dante: The Story of His (Political) Life, Revenge and Patronage</b><br />
This might well have been a more apropos title to this biography. Santagata tells the story of Dante almost exclusively through a political lens leaving unmentioned or marginalized Dante's relationship with the Church as an institution, with Christian belief, with philosophy as expounded by the Scholastics, with his poetic rivals and predecessors, and with his intellectual development from a servant of "the god of Love" to the supreme poet of the Christian God.<br />
<br />
This narrow focus spills over into his interpretation of the <i>Commedia,</i> which is viewed as if it was <i>only</i> a political work. Each event examined by Santagata is seen as either an attempt to gain favor with a potential or current patron or as an act of revenge on those who rebuffed the poet in life.<br />
<br />
He calls the first canticle of the <i>Comedy</i> "The Guelf <i>Inferno" </i>(p. 219)<i> </i>contending <i>Inferno</i> is entirely Guelf without a hint of pro-Imperial sentiments. This, according to Santagata, is because <i>Inferno</i> was largely written to assert Dante's loyalty to the Guelf cause as a means to return to Guelf Florence.<br />
<br />
He fails, however, to convincingly explain the condemnation of the leading Guelfs in the cantica. Tegghiaio Aldobrandini, Jacopo Rusticucci, Calvacante Calvacanti, the great Guido Guerra and Brunetto Latini are all inexplicably (if we accept Santagata's thesis) met in the "Guelf <i>Inferno"</i>. Nor does he address why, if the canticle is stressing Dante's loyalty to the Church Party, we meet Pope Celestine V as soon as we enter the realm of the dead. Hardly an auspicious start to a poem dedicated to prove Dante's loyalty to the Guelf-Papal cause. Celestine is only the first pontiff we meet in Hell. Popes are among the innumerable sinners in the "dismal round" (<i>Inferno</i> 7.31) shouting "Why do you squander" (<i>Inferno </i>7.30) as they crash into other sinners.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
These were clerics who have no lid of hair<br />
upon their heads, and popes and cardinals,<br />
in whom avarice achieves its excess. (<i>Inferno </i>7.46-48)</blockquote>
And, of course, we meet Pope Nicholas in Malebolgie who predicts that he will soon be joined by Pope Boniface VIII and Pope Clement V, both supports of the <i>Parte Guelfa, </i>especially in Florence, and of the Guelf-Angevin alliance responsible for destroying Ghibelline hopes of ultimate victory. These condemnations hardly would have endeared Dante to the Guelfs back in Florence.<br />
<b><br /></b>Santagata's claim that there is no mention of a pro-imperial position in <i>Inferno </i>is even weaker. Not only do we meet Julius Caesar, the first Roman Emperor (as Dante's day considered him), among the virtuous pagans, but Brutus and Cassius (traitors to the founder of the Empire) are co-sufferers with Judas Iscariot in the three mouths of Satan. This puts traitors to God's divinely established Empire on par with betrayers of God's divinely established Church. Can we imagine a more pro-Imperial (i.e. Ghibelline) sentiment?<br />
<b><br /></b>
Santagata's go to response to this counter-evidence is to explain away the inconvenient facts as "later rewritings." He doesn't present early manuscripts that lack these passages or other historical or textual evidence to support this claim. Instead he concludes these passages must be rewrites solely on the basis that these episodes put the lie to his theory! This is (historical) pseudo-science at its worst. The theory ought to be disproven or supported by the facts; here we see the facts manipulated to fit the theory. This is a move beneath the dignity of Santagata.<br />
<br />
That is not to say Dante's work wasn't at all influenced by the kindness or rejection he met in exile. Nor is it to say that Dante's politics never shifted nor that these shifts are present in the work (as we'd expect them to be). Santagata doesn't get this all wrong. He does overemphasize this element of the work and ignores other, more important, influences on the poem.<br />
<br />
Perhaps this is because of his mastery of the politics of Dante's day. Rather, I suspect, it is an effect of the unfortunate "drift" of the humanities in seeking to emulate the hard sciences by emphasizing "new discoveries" over the passing on of accurate, time-tested, dare I say somewhat "traditional" and even "conservative" understandings of the great books.<br />
<br />
Professors of the liberal arts are, or ought to be, guardians and transmitters of tradition - critiquing that tradition where necessary and adding new information when possible. When these professors are lauded only when presenting novel theories of interpretation (e.g. a feminist reading of the <i>Comedy</i>) things go astray and can quickly descend into absurdity.<br />
<br />
<b>Incredible Historical Vision</b><br />
Despite this understandable tendency, Santagata proves himself an able historian with a firm grasp on the very complex historical events of Dante's Italy. His explanations of the history and politics of Dante's Florence makes the book well worth reading. This is especially true of the first half of the book in which Santagata's learning shines. When he stays away from postulating theories of interpretation of Dante's works based exclusively on political events and sticks to relating the facts and in exploring various theories based on those facts, Santagata is at his finest.<br />
<br />
<b>Final Verdict</b><br />
The book might be a bit uneven, but it is, in the end, worth picking up and reading. If you are interested in the poet, his life, and his times this is well worth the money. With the reservations noted above, I recommend <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2eNx9yU">Dante: The Story of His Life.</a></i><br />
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<br />Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-47902613962258345142016-11-14T10:05:00.000-05:002016-11-14T10:01:22.080-05:00The Feast of Christ the KingThis weekend is the patronal feast of this blog, the Feast of Christ the King. In honor of one of my favorite feasts in the Church, I thought we'd take a closer look...<br />
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<br />
<b>What is the official name of this feast?</b><br />
While it is popularly known as the Feast of Christ the King, it's technical name is the Solemnity of Christ the King. It's original Latin title was <i>Dominus Nostri Jesu Christi Regis, </i>which was changed by Pope Paul VI to <i>Dominus Nostri Jesu Christi universorum Regis </i>(Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe).<b> </b><br />
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<b>What is a "solemnity"?</b><br />
Solemnity is the highest rank given to a feast by the Church.<br />
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<b>What color vestments will the priest be wearing tomorrow?</b><br />
White or Gold as he does for all major feasts.<b> </b><br />
<b> </b> <br />
<b> </b><br />
<b>When is Christ the King celebrated?</b><br />
Christ the King closes the liturgical year and is always celebrated on the last Sunday of ordinary time, the last Sunday before the first Sunday of Advent. This year the feast will be celebrated this Sunday on November 20th.<br />
<b> </b><br />
<br />
<b>Is Christ the King celebrated in the <i>forma extraordinaria, </i>the 'traditional Latin Mass'?</b><br />
Yes, but on a different date. In the old pre-Vatican 2 calendar the Feast of Christ the King is celebrated on the last Sunday in October, the Sunday before All Saint's Day. This is one of those areas where we might be better off changing the old calendar to match up with the new. That, however, is well above my pay grade.<b></b><br />
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<b>Is this an ancient feast?</b><br />
No. In fact it only dates to the twentieth century. Pope Pius XI founded the feast with his 1925 encyclical <i>Quas Primus. </i>That means no complaining about the change of date after Vatican Two.<br />
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<b>Is there any Biblical evidence that Jesus is a King? I thought He was a poor, simple man.</b><br />
Saint Paul, in his letter to the Philippians tells us that Jesus<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: <span class="reftext"></span>But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: <span class="reftext"></span>And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. <span class="reftext"></span>Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: <span class="reftext"></span><b>That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow</b>, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; <span class="reftext"></span>And that<b> every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord</b>, to the glory of God the Father." (2:6-11)</i></blockquote>
and in First Timothy he tells us that Jesus<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span class="text 1Tim-6-15" id="en-KJV-29804">"is the blessed and only Potentate,<b> the King of kings</b>, and Lord of lords." (6:15)</span></i></blockquote>
and in the Book of Revelations we read that Jesus<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"<span class="text Rev-19-16" id="en-KJV-31034">hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;"><b>King Of Kings</b>, And Lord Of Lords</span>." (19:16)</span></i></blockquote>
Examples multiply, but I'll end with my favorite. The unwitting proclamation of Pontius Pilate<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span class="text John-19-19" id="en-KJV-26845">"And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Jesus Of Nazareth <b>The King Of The Jews</b></span>." (John 19:19)</span></i></blockquote>
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<b>Do any other Christians celebrate this feast?</b><br />
Yes. Following the lead of Pius XI in honoring Christ as King with this feast are Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, the Church of England, the United Church of Christ, and some Eastern Orthodox Churches all of whom adopted the feast <i>after </i>the Catholic Church. I suppose even high Church Protestants can look to Rome for guidance now and then. I'd call that ecumenism at its best.<br />
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<b>What other posts have you written on Christ the King?</b><br />
Several:<br />
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<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2014/11/christus-rex-est.html">Christus Rex Est</a> - being a brief overview of the feast<br />
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<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/11/quas-primas-pope-pius-xi-on-christ-king.html">Quas Primus, Pope Pius XI on Christ the King (pt 1)</a> - being a look at the Papal Encyclical of Pius XI<br />
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<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/11/quas-primas-pope-pius-xi-on-christ-king_25.html">Quas Primus, Pope Pius XI on Christ the King (pt 2)</a> - being the second part of the same.<br />
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<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/homeless-jesus.html">Homeless Jesus</a> - being a reflection on a statue blessed by Pope Francis.<br />
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<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-homeless-king.html">The Homeless King</a> - being the second part of the same.<br />
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<a href="http://adoroergosum.blogspot.com/2014/07/our-world-is-enemy-occupied-territory.html">Our World is "Enemy-Occupied Territory. Are YOU Ready to Fight?</a> - being a call to arms of sorts.<br />
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<br />Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-74695892284356935312016-11-07T13:06:00.000-05:002016-12-30T19:23:06.414-05:00Of Milton, Dante, and Shakespeare <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Shakespeare, Milton and Dante from Ezra Pound's <i>Dante</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The comparison of Dante and Milton is at best a stupid convention.... Milton resembles Dante in nothing; judging superficially, one might say that they both wrote long poems which mention God and the angels, but their gods and their angels are as different as their styles and abilities. Dante's god is ineffable divinity. Milton's god is a fussy old man with a hobby. Dante is metaphysical, where Milton is merely sectarian. <i>Paradise Lost</i> is conventional melodrama, and later critics have decided that the Devil is intended for the hero, which interpretation leaves the whole without significance. Dante's Satan is undeniably evil. He is not "Free Will" but stupid malignity. Milton has no grasp of the superhuman. Milton's angels are men of enlarged power, plus wings. Dante's angels surpass human nature, and differ from it. They move in their high courses inexplicable.... Milton, moreover, shows a complete ignorance of the things of the spirit. Any attempt to compare the two poets as equals is bathos, and it is, incidentally, unfair to Milton, because it makes one forget all his laudable qualities. Shakespear (<i>sic</i>) alone of the English poets endures sustained comparison with the Florentine. Here are we with the masters; of neither can we say, "He is the greater"; of each we must say, "He is unexcelled."... Our knowledge of Dante and of Shakespear (<i>sic</i>) interacts; intimate acquaintance with either breeds that discrimination which makes us more keenly appreciate the other. </blockquote>
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<!--End mc_embed_signup-->Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-69579821120474497742016-11-03T11:21:00.002-04:002016-11-03T11:21:24.109-04:00If Catholicism is True, Why do Protestants Seem Closer to God?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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Over at C<a href="http://catholic.com/">atholic.com's</a> forums a Catholic asked:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; font-style: italic;">i am catholic but i feel more engaged by protestant worship and preaching and appreciate the close fellowship offered by some protestant communities. i feel that my relationship with God would become deeper and my discipleship would become more intentional by joining a protestant church. please enlighten as to why this is a sin if my overall relationship with the Lord is improved. </span><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; font-style: italic;" /><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; font-style: italic;">thank you</span></span></blockquote>
To which I answered<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">An analogy:</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">One person has 1 million dollars in the bank but only withdraws $100.</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">A second person has $1,000 in the bank and withdraws all $1,000.</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">Who has more money in his pocket? </span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">The second person is the Protestant. He doesn't have the Sacraments and so has less grace available to him. The first person, the Catholic, thanks to the Sacraments has more grace available.</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">BUT, the Protestant, being more devout and having a better relationship with God (in your example), has withdrawn and uses more of the grace available to him and thus is closer to the Lord.</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">HOWEVER, the devout Protestant, if he were to become Catholic, would be able to access much more grace and grow even closer to God than he is now. The Catholic, on the other hand, might leave the Church for a Protestant community, grow closer to God, and have more "money in the pocket" than he had as a Catholic. Of course, he would have even more had he stayed in the Church and grown closer to the Lord, but he is closer now than he was before.</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">That shows (hopefully) why you can feel closer to God as a Protestant than you do in the Catholic Church, but why being in the Church is the best way to be as close as possible to the Lord.</span> </span></blockquote>
What say you? How would you have answered the question?Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-7328578785753725972016-10-30T21:08:00.000-04:002016-10-30T21:10:05.637-04:004 Halloween Mistakes for Catholics to AvoidIt's that time of year again.<br />
<br />
Time for the secular world to entirely miss the point of (and forget the Catholic origins of) another holiday - Halloween. As faithful Catholics we know (or should know) that Halloween is the Eve of All Hallows (Saints) Day and should celebrate it as the Catholic holiday it is. That is, sadly, becoming more and more difficult with each passing year. To help you out this year, I thought to give you a handy guide on avoiding a few common Catholics Halloween mistakes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_2NUIZaLdVmxcaHYq2mbkq3tfzBQTBcvVabZwyg8DxdogqAWozPt4yxS3RCiuiMGNnna9npst3Vr2gX9arU6mcopqTjoPI_Dm56gCt39WAk6IAyQaeibsE4lJyKshHuBHMRsaS5D63HTy/s1600/crazy-halloween-party.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Adult Halloween Party" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_2NUIZaLdVmxcaHYq2mbkq3tfzBQTBcvVabZwyg8DxdogqAWozPt4yxS3RCiuiMGNnna9npst3Vr2gX9arU6mcopqTjoPI_Dm56gCt39WAk6IAyQaeibsE4lJyKshHuBHMRsaS5D63HTy/s1600/crazy-halloween-party.jpg" title="Halloween Party" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mistake #1 - Think Halloween is "Pagan" Rather than Christian</span><br />
It is nearly inevitable that we Catholics must listen to those who would rewrite history, replacing the Vigil of a Catholic Feast with all kind of historical fabrications, creating (out of thin air and without any credible historical evidence) links to various pagan holidays (Samhain seems to be a favorite these days). Of course All Saints Day falls near a pagan holiday - <i>every</i> <i>calendar day falls near one pagan holiday or another.</i> It would be like claiming Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving are <i>really </i>Catholic holidays because they all fall near Catholic Feast days - of course they do, <i>every</i> day is near some Catholic feast or another.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrTyHAyl3uRpcR2xVdS_67WmT-0Y8L-vvwingJrwCkKADB3eXj2dIiTEekJ9KFUqFgHRrH4w7rnThCRY_85srnMAE3TxyKNGAK5JBgBf8n5QKsodr6TbO_thMVY94LULVfGBlMnEOQwVQ3/s1600/simple-jack-o-lantern-pumpkin-carving-decor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrTyHAyl3uRpcR2xVdS_67WmT-0Y8L-vvwingJrwCkKADB3eXj2dIiTEekJ9KFUqFgHRrH4w7rnThCRY_85srnMAE3TxyKNGAK5JBgBf8n5QKsodr6TbO_thMVY94LULVfGBlMnEOQwVQ3/s1600/simple-jack-o-lantern-pumpkin-carving-decor.jpg" title="jack o lantern" width="200" /></a></div>
The fact, of course, is much less surprising. All Saints Day is celebrated on November 1 (and its Vigil - Halloween on October 31) not to compete with some Celtic pagan feast but because Pope Gregory III (reigned 731-741) consecrated a chapel inside St. Peter's Basilica ("the Vatican") to "all the saints" on November 1. In so doing, he began a feast dedicated to all the saints on the same day for Rome. Eight decades later, Gregory IV (reigned 827-844) decided to bring the feast to the Church Universal.<br />
<br />
<br />
Not that there would be a problem even if the Church <i>did</i> decide to hold a feast for all the saints to "baptize" a pagan holiday.<br />
<br />
Those Protestants who most insist upon a pagan origin for Halloween usually hold "Reformation Day" or "Fall Festival" celebrations and invite people to celebrate those instead of celebrating Halloween. So they replace what they think is a problematic holiday by celebrating a different holiday on the same day - exactly what they accuse Catholics of doing with Halloween. Ah, the irony of the season!<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mistake #2 - Celebrate Exactly Like the Secular World</span><br />
The problem for us Catholics isn't so much a misreading of the history of Halloween, but with <i>how</i> Halloween is celebrated here in the United States, especially the increasingly semi-undressed female costumes (for ever younger girls) and blood-soaked, gore-filled costumes for even the youngest of boys isn't keeping the Catholic in Halloween. The secular world, with its obsessive focus on lust and violence, is profaning a holy day, something we Catholics must never join in doing. Participating in Halloween - craving pumpkins, trick or treating, etc - is fine, but the darkest extremes must be avoided to stay true to the Church and to who Jesus is calling us to be. Before you select your costume, ask yourself, "is this going to please God?" If not, pick another.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4OXPFGt1R1SjnQIhzi9XJK5bXX4EA6YfB2Nqae0qhRpK9vXnK9ytgVk7nn3XXlX66TkLp9JQ154Y5Be2xr83NEsXlnxuLQnqykyO0Ab5YE5aq7t5snLvUxGGU09TyUx8nxi1FlKQZfHko/s1600/halloween.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Halloween meme" border="0" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4OXPFGt1R1SjnQIhzi9XJK5bXX4EA6YfB2Nqae0qhRpK9vXnK9ytgVk7nn3XXlX66TkLp9JQ154Y5Be2xr83NEsXlnxuLQnqykyO0Ab5YE5aq7t5snLvUxGGU09TyUx8nxi1FlKQZfHko/s1600/halloween.jpg" title="Halloween" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mistake #3 - Make Halloween "No Fun"</span><br />
While it is commendable to bring the focus squarely back onto the Feast of All Saints, opting for only saint costumes might be a step too far. I have nothing against dressing my kids as saints if they so choose (in fact one of my sons is being St. Michael this year), but I also have nothing against a little horror thrown in - such is quintessentially Catholic. The traditional ghouls, skeletons, vampires, and zombies all speak to a simple post-Easter reality - Christ has conquered death. At Halloween we mock death, we laugh in its face, proclaiming with St. Paul, "O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory?" (1 Cor 15:55). Such leaves Catholics open to a less completely sanitized version of Halloween (without descending into a demonic display of lust and gore which has overcome the secular Halloween). This accords with our firm conviction that Christ has already destroyed death. Dr. Taylor Marshall sums this up nicely,<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7JsdiRNxCl36iG99C3ulh72bI2W_TWSBlieQZDZqWRAqYjP6Iohpn6vodUfS3gwWq5YHHeWE28kGnrzozbEP3BJ0-prnScFyLKbzzEK5kXIckgokjGZCxqIidmFO1AOrd4fMH4ysVNIby/s1600/82649-004-56D5C952.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7JsdiRNxCl36iG99C3ulh72bI2W_TWSBlieQZDZqWRAqYjP6Iohpn6vodUfS3gwWq5YHHeWE28kGnrzozbEP3BJ0-prnScFyLKbzzEK5kXIckgokjGZCxqIidmFO1AOrd4fMH4ysVNIby/s1600/82649-004-56D5C952.jpg" title="gargoyles" width="161" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">"Don’t be turned off by the ghoulish-ness of Halloween.<b> </b>Every great Catholic cathedral has gargoyles carved into its stone work. Illuminated manuscripts are also full of ghouls in the margins. Catholics are into this kind of stuff. Why? Because Christ has conquered death and the devil." (<a href="http://taylormarshall.com/2013/10/top-10-christian-halloween-ideas.html">source</a>)</span></blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />
The greatest example of this might be found in my favorite poem - <i>The Divine Comedy </i>of Dante Alighieri. We end in the Empyrean - the highest heaven - outside all space and time, beholding the very <i>Vultus Dei </i>(Face of God),<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I believed, from the keenest of the living ray<br />
that I endured, I would have been undone<br />
had I withdrawn my eyes from it....<br />
He who beholds that Light is so enthralled<br />
that he would never willingly consent<br />
to turn away from it for any other sight....<br />
now my will and my desire were turning with<br />
the Love that moves the sun and all the other stars. (<i>Paradiso </i>33.76-78; 100-102; 144-145, Hollander)</blockquote>
<br />
But, earlier in the poem we are faced with images far worse and more terrifying than anything you'll see in your neighborhood or at a haunted house. The entire canticle could be cited, but let this scene from the eight circle's ninth pit suffice to make our point,<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Who, even in words not bound by meter,<br />
and having told the tale many times over,<br />
could tell the blood and wounds that I saw now?...<br />
it would be nothing to the ninth pit's filth.<br />
No cask ever gapes so wide for loss<br />
of mid- or side-staved as the soul I saw<br />
cleft from the chin right down to where men fart....<br />
he looked at me...<br />
saying: 'See how I rend myself.'...<br />
Another, with his throat pierced through<br />
and nose hacked off just where the brows begin,<br />
and only one ear left on his head...<br />
And then another, whose hands had been chopped off,<br />
raising his stumps up in the murky air<br />
so that the blood from them befouled his face,...<br />
I truly saw, and seem to see it still,<br />
a headless body make its way...<br />
And by its hair he held his severed head<br />
swinging in his hands as if it were a lantern. (<i>Inferno, </i>28.13-;22-24;29-30;64-66;103-105;118-119, Hollander)</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHmapNEyhPHAA4vgCrvGHhgo1dmo3wV3yptz_L6AliIFXElgjZyBKMLboNUkQNQI69D9EorUVe1dj4UQYIlFVzw4TUTVEuU7JbdukNUUnUa8kS5GweutkPwDN0GxD4TIW2sTkj_L1soxc1/s1600/interior_dante_divinecomedy_inf_28_265.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHmapNEyhPHAA4vgCrvGHhgo1dmo3wV3yptz_L6AliIFXElgjZyBKMLboNUkQNQI69D9EorUVe1dj4UQYIlFVzw4TUTVEuU7JbdukNUUnUa8kS5GweutkPwDN0GxD4TIW2sTkj_L1soxc1/s400/interior_dante_divinecomedy_inf_28_265.jpg" width="286" /></a></div>
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<br />
Gruesome stuff that.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mistake #4 - Claim Your Way of Celebrating Halloween is the Only Valid One</span><br />
How to celebrate Halloween is ultimately a prudential decision, one on which good Catholics can disagree with one another. Each person, each parent, has to decide for themselves just what balance to strike between the grotesque display of the secular Halloween and refocusing on the saints. In the end, only <i>you</i> can determine how to best honor this great feast in your family. I just implore you to stay away from the extremes of, on the one hand, the lust and gore that have taken pride of place in the world's celebration and, on the other, of the complete retreat into a "fall festival" that some Protestants opt for. Be Catholic. Claim our holiday. And do it with class - honoring Christ in all things (cf. Col 3:17).<br />
<br />
God bless and Have a Happy Halloween (and a Holy All Saint's Day)!<br />
<br />
And don't forget to visit the graves of your dearly departed on All Soul's Day (October 2). The dead in Christ are still a part of the Church and need our prayers more than ever.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">H</span>ow are you choosing to celebrate All Hallow's Eve this year? <span style="font-size: large;">W</span>hat kind of costumes will you and/ or your kids be wearing?<br />
<br />
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Nathan Barontinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149641876919091106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8676538176679335464.post-77088344806002160732016-10-30T07:50:00.002-04:002016-10-30T07:52:17.573-04:00Prayers for Norcia (Nursia) Italy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8cSsWsbwTMSh7p9Drt7N2Msk-1K8OwgKPgkgBl4oidkUj_4t9z09E0HIOg40Tcm3iFt5LLqBFGPkkj1HPiFCxZgq6VmLPzUtMyHvtRgbVsLNm84a0BR9qmeR6K_C0tIIS-nVt9yA93sM7/s1600/norica+quake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8cSsWsbwTMSh7p9Drt7N2Msk-1K8OwgKPgkgBl4oidkUj_4t9z09E0HIOg40Tcm3iFt5LLqBFGPkkj1HPiFCxZgq6VmLPzUtMyHvtRgbVsLNm84a0BR9qmeR6K_C0tIIS-nVt9yA93sM7/s400/norica+quake.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Our prayers go out to those affected by the 6.6 magnitude earthquake that rocked Umbria, t<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/italy-earthquake-today-magnitude-norcia-latest-updates-a7387301.html">he most powerful earthquake to hit Italy in decades</a>.<br />
<br />
One casualty of the quake was the 14th century <a href="http://us13.campaign-archive2.com/?u=9c8b7f2ca0c8ac14f8ab4b8c1&id=49d2e54386">basilica of St. Benedict</a>, built over top of his home and his burial place, and cared for by the (mostly American) Benedictine Monks of Norcia.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/quake-measuring-7-1-magnitude-strikes-central-italy-065718092.html">From Yahoo News</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
ARTISTIC LOSS<br />
The destruction of the Norcia basilica was the single most significant loss of Italy's artistic heritage in an earthquake since a tremor in 1997 caused the collapse of the ceiling of the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, which is 80 km to the north. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The frescoed basilica, which is the spiritual, historic and tourist heart of Norcia, was built over the site of the home where the founder of the Benedictine order and his Sister St. Scolastica were born in 480. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The basilica and monastery complex dates to the 13th century, although shrines to St. Benedict and his sister had been built there since the 8th century.</blockquote>
The quake was felt as far away as the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/oct/30/italy-earthquake-66-magnitude-tremor-felt-in-rome">Eternal City herself.</a><br />
<br />
Thankfully, it seems, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37814975">the earthquake claimed no lives.</a><br />
<br />
Join me in praying for those living in the area. <a href="http://www.catholictradition.org/Saints/two-saints.htm">CatholicTradition.org has some prayers our ancestors prayed in these times and the traditional saints to invoke.</a><br />
<br />
In this case, turning to St. Benedict might be best. From <a href="http://www.st-benedict-medal.com/prayers-to-saint-benedict.htm">the Novena to St. Benedict</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"O Glorious St. Benedict, sublime model of all virtues, pure vessel of God's grace! Behold me, humbly kneeling at thy feet. I implore thy loving heart to pray for me before the throne of God. To thee I have recourse in all the dangers which daily surround me. Shield me against my enemies, inspire me to imitate thee in all things. May thy blessings be with me always, so that I may shun whatever God forbids and avoid the occasions of sin." </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Help me, O great St. Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to be ever submissive to His holy will, and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven. Amen."</span></blockquote>
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