Anecdotes and Examples Illustrating The Catholic Catechism/lesson3
LESSON THIRD
ON THE UNITY AND TRINITY OF GOD
Q. Is there but one God?
A. Yes; there is but one God.
Who Made the Devils?
A body of heretics, called the Manichees, taught that there are two Gods, one the author of good and the other the author of evil. A priest in catechism class asked: “ Who made the angels? ” “ God.”
answered the children in a moment. “ And who made the devils? ” he continued. No one liked to say that God made the devils, so all looked at each other and were silent. At length a little girl ventured to say: “ Father, God made the angels, and some of the angels made themselves devils.” She was quite right; all that is good is from the Creator, but all the evil is the creatures’ very own.
Q. Why can there be but one God?
A. There can be but one God because God being supreme and infinite, cannot have an equal.
A Lesson in Grammar
A school-teacher was giving her class a lesson in grammar. “Adjectives,” she said, “have three degrees, positive, comparative, and superlative; as, for example, high, higher, highest. Of the steeples in our city, all are high, some are higher than the others, but one only is the highest.” So it is with God. He exists in the superlative degree, and however many degrees of dignity, perfection, or power there may be below Him, He alone is, and He alone can be, God in the highest.
Q, How many persons are there in God?
A. In God there are three Divine Persons, really distinct and equal in all things — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
St. Clare of Montefalco
This virgin, a religious of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, died in 1308. So remarkable was she for her devotion to the Holy Trinity, that she was said to bear a representation of it in her heart. After her death, the vicar-general of Spoleto and three physicians visited by permission her tomb, and opening her breast, found in the heart three little round balls, the size of hazelnuts, of the same weight, size, and color, which put all together weighed as much as each by itself, and each one separate was exactly the same weight as the other two together. Thus in the heart of this virgin was marvelously represented the mystery of the most Holy Trinity.
Q, Is the Father God?
A. The Father is God, and the first Person of the Blessed Trinity.
The Peasant and the Prince
A peasant proprietor had lost all that he possessed through a fire. Hayricks and barns were burned down, and as nothing was insured, the man was reduced to beggary. One day by his wife’s advice he went to ask help from a nobleman who had a mansion in the vicinity and who was known to be very liberal toward the poor. The man intended to tell him of the misfortune that had befallen him, and ask for an alms. But when he got near the house, an unaccountable timidity took possession of him. He felt shy of entering the prince’s presence, not knowing by what title to address him. Was he to say, “Your Grace,” or “ Your Excellency,” or “ My Lord ”? He went over all the titles he could think of, but could not decide which was the correct one. At last he was so afraid of offending the nobleman by addressing him by the wrong title, that he turned away from the door and went back home. On his way he passed a church and went in. Kneeling down he devoutly said an Our Father, entreating God to assist him in his distress. As he prayed, the thought came into his mind: how simple is the title we give almighty God. When one speaks to Him one does not feel shy or embarrassed. And again, as he walked home, he repeated the Our Father. On reaching his own house he found to his delight that the assistance he had implored of God had already been granted to him. His wife handed him a considerable sum of money, a collection to which the nobleman had largely contributed.
Q. Is the Son God?
A. The Son is God and the second Person of the Blessed Trinity,
The Death of Arius
About three hundred years after the time of Our Lord, Arius, a priest of Constantinople, began to teach that Christ was not God. He gained many followers, but he and his heresy were condemned in the Council of Nicaea. Later, however, the Emperor Constantine espoused his cause and ordered the Bishop of Constantinople to restore him to the communion of the Church. The bishop was helpless, and could only beg God to avert such a scandal. Nor did God refuse his petition. When Arius with his followers came in joyful procession to the cathedral door, the heretic was suddenly seized with dreadful spasms, and having fled to a private room for relief, he remained so long that his friends went in search of him. They found him in the closet, livid and dead, the floor strewn with his blood and intestines. His body had burst asunder like that of the traitor Judas.
Q. Is the Holy Ghost God?
A. The Holy Ghost is God and the third Person of the Blessed Trinity.
A Seasonable Text
In the sixth century there lived in Spain, Leovigild. King of the Visigoths. This king, while believing in the Father and the Son, rejected the divinity of the Holy Ghost. But St. Gregory, Bishop of Tours, hearing of it, wrote him thus: “ Prince, as you do not believe in the divinity of God the Holy Ghost, will you explain to me why St. Peter said to Ananias: ‘Why hath Satan tempted thy heart that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Ghost? . . . Thou hast not lied to men, but to God.’ ” This argument was too much for the king. He then and there acknowledged his error and renounced his heresy.
Q. What do you mean by the Blessed Trinity?
A. By the Blessed Trinity I mean one God in three Divine Persons.
St. Patrick and the Shamrock
About four hundred years after Our Lord, St. Patrick was sent by the Pope to convert Ireland from paganism. He arrived on Easter Sunday at Tara, and forthwith proceeded to preach Christianity to the king and his assembled people. To illustrate the mystery of the Trinity he stooped and plucked a sprig of shamrock, and said: “ Behold this little plant which bears on one stalk three small leaves, the exact copy and resemblance of one another. They are distinct and yet one, for they form but one sprig and rest on one stalk. So too the God I preach to you is one in nature and three in person, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, each equally God, but possessing one undivided Godhead.” Ever since the Irish people have loved and cherished this little plant and have adopted it as the fittest emblem of their country and their faith.
Q. Are the three Divine Persons equal in all things?
A. The three Divine Persons are equal in all things.
The Doxology
Cardinal Bona thinks that the first part of the Doxology or “Glory be to the Father,” etc, was composed by the apostles themselves. The Council of Vaison, 529 a.d., was the first to ordain the singing of it at the end of each psalm. The second part, “ As it was in the beginning,” etc., was added by the Council of Nicaea in 325 as an offset to an Arian heresy. As often as the Doxology is recited, the head should be bowed in adoration of the mystery of the Trinity.
Q. Are the three Divine Persons one and the same God?
A. The three Divine Persons are one and the same God, having one and the same divine nature and substance.
The Conductor and the Lawyer
On a street car an infidel lawyer noticed the conductor raise his hat on passing a church or whenever a priest got aboard. To show his smartness, he asked the man why he did so. The conductor replied that he did so in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. “And I suppose,” continued the lawyer, “ you even believe in the Trinity. Can you explain the Trinity? ” The conductor answered: “ I believe in the mystery most assuredly, but I cannot explain it. But can you explain to me how you move your finger?” “Because I will it,” rejoined the lawyer. “ Why, then,” demanded the conductor, “ cannot you will to move your ears? ” The lawyer was confounded, and hastened to leave the car, when the conductor, turning to another passenger, said: “ I declare I feared he would beat my argument by moving his ears, for a man who will only believe what he can see and understand is little better than an ass.”
Q. Can we fully understand how the three Divine Persons are one and the same God?
A. We cannot fully understand how the three Divine Persons are one and the same God, because this is a mystery.
St. Augustine and the Sea
The mystery of the Trinity is incomprehensible. The following anecdote is related of St. Augustine, the great theologian and Doctor of the Church. For many nights and days he had been meditating on the mystery of the Holy Trinity; he was of the opinion that one must at length attain thorough knowledge and understanding of the doctrine. One day he was walking on the sea-shore, pondering on this subject, when he saw a little boy who was engaged in carrying some of the sea-water in a shell to a trench which he had dug. St. Augustine stopped and asked the child what he was doing. He answered: “I want to empty all the water of the ocean into this pit.” The saint shook his head, and said: “ My child, that is impossible! ” The boy looked up and smiled. “It would be easier,” he replied, “ to empty all the sea into this trench than to fathom the mystery of the Holy Trinity.” Our finite intelligence can no more comprehend the nature of the infinite Deity than the waters of the ocean can be confined in a vessel of human manufacture.
Q. What is a mystery?
A. A mystery is a truth which we cannot fully understand.
The Word of a Missionary
If we believe man, how much the more ought we to believe God! A missionary from Europe went to preach the Gospel in a heathen country situated in the tropics. Once upon a time he told the natives that in his country during winter the water became so hard that an elephant could walk on it. The natives, who only knew water as always warm and even boiling in certain springs, could not imagine such a thing to be possible. Yet as they knew the missionary to be an upright and honorable man, they did not doubt him but believed his statement. If we give credence to the word of a man of known integrity, how much more ought we unhesitatingly to believe the word of God.