Day Seventeen: Covenant, Part Three

                They seem to Love it when I explain the morbid details of a Covenant sacrifice! I start by reminding my students that the belief was (and is) that in order for a “new” family to be made, or to welcome someone new into a family, God was needed. Naturally, we have a family that God intended for us by virtue of, well, the rules of nature. But if we were to adopt or marry into a new “family”, God was needed to facilitate that “miracle”. So, the first question is, “How do we get God’s attention?” Some of the scholarship tells us that when an animal was sacrificed and then roasted, the smoke and the scent from the roasting animal was intended to attract and entice God. The more pure the sacrifice, the more enticing the aroma. Of course, this is not the reality of what is happening, but it is a nice detail to pass on to my students.

Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas in Galway, Co. Galway, Ireland. In the sacrifice of Jesus at the Cross, the perfection and purity of Jesus' sacrifice forms a New Covenant that invites, not only the people at the foot of the Cross, but all humans for all eternity into a relationship with God.

                If God is enticed to the celebration, He could then create family in a way that humans cannot. How did this happen? How did He know who was to be joined with whom? Well, after the animal had been killed on the altar, the animal’s blood was gathered and, in the case of a couple being married, the bride and groom to be would be placed on opposite ends of said altar. The altar, already covered in blood, would be like a bridge between the two people. Excess blood would be sprinkled on the bride and groom to signify to God the ones being joined in family. Blood, I tell my students, is central to this action because blood equals life and life equals God. They were now, quite literally, joined over the altar by blood. We don’t do this anymore (well, most Christians don’t), but we do have other signs that help us realize the presence of God in Matrimony, in particular, but we study that later on.

                At the end of this part of the lesson, I just want my students to understand that when God makes a covenant with us, He is Truly present. As we explore this idea more, we discuss how in a covenant, God is really asking us to be His family. He is not simply making a family between people; He is making a family between us and Him.

Day Seventeen: Covenant, Part Two

A Covenant, in the simplest sense, is a Sacred Promise. It is more than a simple contract. A contact is a legally binding document between two or more people. If one of the persons involved breaks the contract, the other is not bound to fulfill their end of the deal. A Covenant, on the other hand, does not become null and void if one member of the deal fails to fulfill their agreement. The Covenant remains. In the ancient world, a Covenant was used to create family, so to speak. That is, in case of a marriage, a regular contract was not enough. For two people unrelated by natural means to become family, a divine intervention was needed. A Covenant, then, and the intervention of God were required for this deal. I explain to my student that this is why names often change when people get married, a husband and wife are now considered legally related, and, in the Catholic Church, no human can break that bond, just like no human can break the family bond between father and son, mother and daughter, or brother and sister.

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, Ireland. The Cross, more specifically, the Crucifix, is a sign of the Covenant that Jesus makes with the Father on behalf of the entire human race. Like most other Covenants, the family of God is increased, including all humans (photo P. Smith)

Historically, Covenants were used to increase the size of a family. Two families or tribes, previously unrelated, are now joined by the power of God. They are one family, and, if God is involved, they are all considered in relationship with God. Marriage was not really about Love between two people as much as it was about a universal vocation to relationship between people and God. My students don’t necessarily like to hear this, but it helps them to better understand what I will later teach them about Catholic Marriage and Sacraments, in general. What they remember the best will be the details about sacrifice, blood, and vows. That will be in the next blog.

Day Seventeen: Covenant, Part One

                “What kind of signs do people use to show they have made a promise?” This bellowork, in case it wasn’t obvious, will set up a conversation about “Covenant”. I have gone back and forth over the years on how deep I get into the concept of Covenant. Usually I lean more towards focusing on the image and likeness of God and our Catholic Anthropology. The details of Covenant and Salvation History sometimes get lost. But Covenant and Catholic Anthropology are not mutually exclusive. Salvation History, after all, is the story of how God is constantly trying to guide us back to our True image and likeness. But what does that story look like? How does God help us to grow closer in relationship with Him so we can know our Authentic Self? This is the story of Covenant and the signs God gives us to remind us of our Salvation History.

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church is Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, Ireland. The Altar is a sign of relationship or Covenant, not simply because of the sacrifice involved, but also because the Altar is a table where people gather to dine. The double-nature of the Altar in Catholic belief and practice is typical in a Sacramental Vision of Creation. (photo P. Smith).

                Like all bellwork, they have a few moments to respond. I expect a wide variety of examples. “Handshake”. “Contract”. “A Ring”. These are the most common. Sometimes their responses are different, to say the least. “A puppy”. “Cash”. “A Car”. I wonder if they are thinking of bribes! Either way, when a deal or a promise is made between two or more people, there is usually some sort of physical sign that reminds one or both of the individuals of that promise. Maybe it is purely a psychological ploy so we do not fail our part of the contract. Maybe it is a sign, itself, of the sacramental nature of Creation (this is much more complicated and requires deeper meta-analysis and contemplation). Maybe we just like material stuff and it is a good way of “communicating” a new relationship to each other. Maybe it is all of the above. But when we start talking about Covenant in the Scriptural and Sacred sense, this conversation will serve us because God’s Covenant with us is also marked with tactile and material signs. In fact, if we get to the root of it all, God’s Covenant of Love with us is marked, very simply, by the Truths of Creation and that we exist and have the Freedom to experience His Love. I mention this to my students as we start to pray and think of Creation as a sign that we are Loved.

Day Sixteen: Hypostatic Union, Part Three

There is something to be said about having a working vocabulary when it comes to theology. The words we use help us to reflect on and to understand the beliefs we have. Without the right words, we cannot contemplate the Truth that God reveals to us, and without contemplation, we cannot fully encounter God, not with our intellect, at least. To put it simply, to begin to know God, we have to start talking about Him. Maybe the first step I take with my students is to help them develop that language so they can start that conversation.

St. Senan's Catholic Church in Shanagolden, Co. Limerick, Ireland. The Hypostatic Union may also suggest to us the reality of the Real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. (photo P. Smith)

Students will be able to define Hypostatic Union and explain why it is necessary that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. I tell students that they need to remember the following:

• God made us in His image and likeness of perfect Love.
• We sin and reject that image and likeness; we prefer to define Love ourselves.
• We do not know how to Love perfectly or to be Loved perfectly.
• God wants a relationship with us so He can teach us how to Love again.
• He becomes incarnate to make this happen.

With that basis, we define Hypostatic Union as “…with reference to the Incarnation to express the revealed truth that in Christ one person subsists in two natures, the Divine and the human.” (Newadvent.org). The Hypostatic Union means that the one person, Jesus of Nazareth, possesses a Divine nature and a Human nature. All other humans have one nature: Human. The Father and the Spirit have one nature: Divine. Jesus has two natures, simultaneously.

I ask the question directly: “Why do you think this has to be True? Think in terms of the True nature of humankind, Love, sin, and relationship.” Usually, my students can start coming up with statements like: “He has to be fully human because if He wasn’t then True Love would be impossible for all of us.” I also hear things like, “He must be Fully Divine, otherwise the image of True Love as sacrifice would be limited.” Probably the best, and most insightful thing I hear is “Jesus has to be fully God and Fully Human so we can see what True relationship looks like and how a relationship with the Divine can make us our Authentic Self.” It we give them the right language, the depth of their thoughts and intuition is profound.

Day Sixteen: Hypostatic Union, Part Two

                It’s easy to list evidence from the Bible of how Jesus is “human”. He sleeps, he drinks water and wine. He eats. He is even tempted to sin. He dies. My students know enough about Jesus to be able to list these proofs of Jesus’ humanity. I ask them to work in groups to come up with a list and to write on the whiteboard these proofs. But I also want them to look for evidence of Jesus as being divine. This seems just as easy; He performs miracles, of course. That is a good detail, but I wonder if my students can come up with more.

Trinitarian Abbey in Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland. Stained-glass windows often depict the very "human" reality of Jesus and are a reminder that Jesus was a person in flesh and blood. (photo: P. Smith)

                They take about ten minutes to talk, check the Bible, and look in their textbook for possible responses. Some of the less motivated students may just look it up online. It doesn’t matter. I just want them thinking about it for a few minutes.

                I reveal to them the teaching that Jesus is “fully human” and I remind them of the Paschal Mystery. I reveal to them that Jesus is “fully divine”. We will do more formal notes on this in the next part of class, but I challenge them to consider why Catholic theology says Jesus is both human and divine. After they have written all their responses on the whiteboard, I literally ask them, directly, “Why does Jesus have to be human and divine?” This is difficult, but this is going to be the Assignment question for the night, so we start considering it early. There is logic to this concept of Hypostatic Union. We can either assume His Hypostatic Union first or we can assume He is the path to salvation. Either way, we can use logic to show the necessity of his dual nature. At the heart of this Doctrine is our need to know that we, as humans, 1) are Loved perfectly by God and 2), can be saved. I hold off for a minute and let my students gather consider this.

Day Sixteen: Hypostatic Union, Part One

“What does it mean to be ‘fully human’”? I ask my students at the beginning of class. They have a minute to respond, but I already know what over half of them will say. They will likely say thinks like “To be fully human is to make mistakes”, or “to be fully human is to be selfish” or “to be fully human is to suffer and die”. My favorite are my more morbid and despondent students. I make a note of them and email the counselor later. I listen to their murmurs as they respond to this question, even though they are not supposed to speak, and occasionally I am surprised by a profound answer. But I wait until after we pray for them to share.

Trinitarian Abbey in Adare, Ireland. As God, Jesus could certainly have done without the Crucifixion. As human, He definitely was tempted to do so. But to be "fully human" may have more to do with letting go of our temptation or fixation on comfort, pleasure, power, honor, etc... The Crucifixion may be a sign of what it means to be "fully human". (photo P. Smith)

I call on students to read verses from Luke 4:1-13. Most of my students are somewhat familiar with the temptation of Jesus, but almost no one has ever read it. They haven’t even heard it at Church. Every year the number of students I have whose parents never took them to Church goes up. Unfortunately, it falls to their religion teacher to introduce them to Scripture. It’s not ideal, but it is where we are now. As we read, they witness Jesus being tempted in the desert. I challenge the to use their imagination to “see” and “hear” and even “feel” that temptation.

To be fully human, many of my students will argue, is to suffer temptation and even to sin. In class today my students will encounter the term Hypostatic Union, but the main point I want them to get from the lesson is that Jesus is not only fully human…He is the epitome of what it means to be “fully human”. So as we read the passage, I point out that, yes, it is human to be tempted, but it is “fully human” to NOT surrender to that temptation. There is more to this theology, but I hold off. I want them to actually take notes on this concept later.

Day Fifteen: Paschal Mystery, Part Four

“Students will be able to define and describe the purpose of the Paschal Mystery.” The last blog gives an anthropological lens through which we can view the relationship we are called to have with God. This lens is vital in understand the “why” of the paschal mystery. I turn to my students; they have the “why”; now is when I give them the “how”.

A stone Crucifix in the middle of Shanagolden, Ireland. The self-emptying of Jesus is a sign of what it means to "let go" of our own fixations on material Truths. This sort of humility and vulnerability is Authentic Love. (photo P. Smith)

First, Jesus is God (Son in the Trinity). I ask students to practice a little academic restraint before they reject everything I have to say. Second, Jesus is the Incarnation of God (God made flesh; humility). I teach these two points in more depth in a later unit on Christology. Third, the mission of Jesus is to help us develop a relationship with God so we can be Loved and Love more perfectly. Jesus’ entire purpose is to be “a rope” for us so we can become what God made us to be: Beloved and Lover. This was the thesis of the previous blog. Without this basic premise of who Jesus is and why He is, the Paschal mystery is merely an academic idea. This groundwork and basic knowledge allows for deeper, rational contemplation, a True attribute of God in whose image and likeness we are made.

To be specific, the Paschal Mystery refers to the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Jesus lives and experiences the same sufferings that we experience, especially rejection and death. He dies on a cross even though He does not have to; he dies just like we do. Jesus is resurrected from the dead. He ascends, body and soul, into Heaven. This is all fundamental catechesis for any Catholic,  but I push my students to consider this mystery.

The Resurrection and Ascension at the Trinitarian Abbey in Adare, Ireland. The Resurrection and Ascension are not events limited to Jesus' life, but also ensured to our life as we grow in relationship with God. If Jesus is fully human, then we, too, can experience this saving Love of God. (photo. P. Smith)

Through His life and death, Jesus comes to experience what we experience. His sacrifice and humility shows us what it means to Love and to be Loved; He is willing to suffer with us (in the Pit; see previous blogs). Through His Resurrection and Ascension, Jesus shows us that if we learn to Love and to be Loved in a relationship with Him, we are no longer fixated on material Truths and we can have Hope that we. Too, will be Resurrected and we will spend eternity with God in Heaven.

What does the Paschal Mystery teach us about Love? What does Love look like? Love is self-giving. It is Humble. (Incarnation, Suffering, and Death are signs of God’s Love for us). Love is also Hopeful. The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus (because Jesus is Human, too) are signs that we can experience a relationship with God, just like Jesus. Indeed, we are called to be in relationship with God, not so God can Love us and be Loved by us, but so we can learn what is means to Love and to be Loved if a full and Authentic way. The Paschal mystery is an image for us of what it means to be Fully Human… to be our Authentic Self.