6.17.20 - Holy Spirit III: Job Descriptions/Logos

The Holy Trinity III: Trinitarian Job Descriptions/Logos

In Holy Trinity I, we re-established Who God Is. We learned that this God 1) is the origin and source of love, forgiveness, and justice, 2) initiates contact with humans, 3) seeks to establish relationships with us, and 4) requires us to develop relationships with other humans based on the same love, forgiveness, and justice, as he gives us. This is a very unique God with high standards about what love means.

Holy Trinity II: Logic and Analogies of The Trinity. We discussed the logic of how many persons can be in one being; the 3 key characteristics of the Trinity (God is three Persons, each Person is fully God, and there is One God); and then reviewed six Trinitarian analogies: Analogy of The Egg, Analogy of Water, Analogy of a Three-leaf Clover, Analogy of a Man/Woman, Analogy of 3 Colors Juxtaposed, and Analogy of the Dosadi Experiment.

Holy Trinity III: Now we begin trying to discern what the role is for each Trinitarian Member. Remember, since they are one, there are no strict division of duties; they all share them. That said, they can be seen doing different things. In a way, it’s kind of like different members of any family that may have different roles outside the family - which they all know and can perform - but they remain one family. Kind of... :)

Since we are celebrating Corpus Christi, let’s start with Jesus Christ, the Son, and 2nd Person of the Trinity. As you might recall, Jesus is his earthly name, and Christ represents his divine office on earth: Christ in Greek is “Messiah,” meaning anointed one of God.

The Son/ Word of God / Logos

We'll start with the opening lines in the Gospel of John:

In the beginning of time was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was, in the beginning of time, with God. It was through him that all things came into being, and without him nothing came to be. In him there was life, and that life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness, a darkness which was not able to overcome it.

He was in the world, and the world was made by him, but the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and own received him not. But all those who did receive him, he empowered to become children of God, to them that believe in his name.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw his glory, the glory of which belongs to the Father’s only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth.”

- John 1:1-5, 10-14

LOGOS

The “Son” is also called Logos of God, the Word of God, Mind of God, and Wisdom of God. The term “logos” is particularly helpful in understanding the Son.

Logos has evolved over the ages. Its concept is found in Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and Indian philosophy but for out purposes we will focus on Greek since that is the one that converged with Hebrew philosophy. Logos translates as “word,” “reason,” “logic,” or “plan.” It dates back to the 6th century BC to the philosopher Heraclitus, who saw in the cosmos a kind of logos analogous to the human mind.

By the 3rd century BC, the Stoics were defining logos as a more of an active, rational principle – if not spiritual – that affected all of reality; a kind impersonal force or laws that connected God with the Universe. In this sense, logos was the logical, finite framework of the universe, which also kept the universe operating (i.e., laws of nature).

It was in the same century that the Greek Empire had expanded to include Israel and Egypt under Alexander the Great, and the Jewish and Greek philosophies began to interact. The Greeks were fascinated by the Hebrew bible and went to great pains to translate it to Greek around 250 BC, now called the Septuagint. It was called this because they employed 70 Rabbis to help with the translation which took 70 days (sept = seven in Greek). Since ancient Hebrew scripture was lost after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Septuagint became the basis for our Old Testament.

In the 1st century BC, the Jewish philosopher, Philo (25 BC-50 AD), added a moral dimension to the concept of logos. Logos was not just the impersonal, intermediate force linking God to the physical laws of the universe, but God's personal, intermediate force, which included His moral laws ("Word" of God) – goodness, justice, mercy – as well. Philos furthermore used logos as an image of God, for instance in describing angels who appeared to man on behalf of God.

This takes us to the end of the 1st century AD, when the last of the Apostles, John, wrote the last Gospel referenced above. He was with Jesus for his entire, all the miracles, the Transfiguration, death on the cross, resurrection, and Ascension. He was known as the theologian of the Apostles. John explains that Logos was, indeed, everything Philo said, and more. Logos was not only God’s image and intermediary with the world, but God's mediator with the world; Logos was not only a personal force and interface with us but the person of Jesus Christ, through whom personalized himself even further by entering humanity to save us from ourselves.

Let’s read this again (the Greek translation for Logos is Word)...

In the beginning of time was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was, in the beginning of time, with God. It was through him that all things came into being, and without him nothing came to be.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw his glory, the glory of which belongs to the Father’s only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth. - John 1:1-3,14

In a way, Jesus/Logos is the Architect and Architecture of the universe, but also our connection, our link, to the Father.

Gina asked if Jesus' being the Architect and Architecture of the universe left any relevance for God the Father. That's a good question considering how much Logos seems to be doing! Let us remember, though, that God the Father is the author of existence, the “I AM,” from which Logos comes. Logos is a kind of manifestation of God's mind or intellect, and therefore has his existence in and from the Father.

The Nicene Creed uses "eternally begotten" to describe the Son. You can't think of begetting the same as we do in the finite world because this begetting is eternally happening. It is helpful that Augustine also uses the words "eternally given" and "eternally generated."

The CCC also explains that the Son is eternally generated by the Father:

"The fact that the Son is generated by the Father is indicated by the name 'Son.’ As Jesus and Paul are both quoted in scripture, we have ‘The Father’ and ’The Son.’ Sons are generated by fathers. The Second Person of the Trinity would not be a Son if he were not generated by the First Person as his Father."

Thought exercise...

Think of how you talk to yourself in your head all the time. Do you remember when it began? Pretty early, right? It’s your mind, and regardless of when you first remember using it, it was there from the beginning. You could say your mind is a function of you. It has its existence in you. Now imagine, for a moment, if you found out that your inner communications was actually a way for your lower self (desires, control, ego) to “have it out” with your higher self (love, fairness, humility…). In a way, that’s like two people talking inside of us. Is it really so hard to take this another step and imagine God having conversations with the Son? …although I'd imagine they'd be far more interesting than our own.

This may not be the best analogy, but remember we're trying to imagine something outside our finite understanding of things. It is meant to be a starting point.

It only seems right to end with a Logos prayer, so I have adapted what I use to try and fit the bill.

Lord Jesus Christ – Logos and Mind of the Father, Architect and Architecture of the Universe, Intermediator between the Creator and the created, the spiritual and physical, and God and man – how can we possibly thank you for emptying yourself of your pure Godhood to become one of us; to walk in our shoes; to teach us/show us personally; to suffer like us – nay, to suffer because of us; and, just when evil thought it had won, your love and forgiveness to the end defeated the finality of evil and reversed the fall of man. In doing so, you showed us, once again, how the Father allows humans free-will but then helps us turn suffering and adversity into something good; for by standing on the threshold of human death, you became a new doorway for the human race – a doorway accessible to us by the same humility, love, forgiveness, and freedom by which it was created; the freedom being to enter into a relationship with you that supersedes our relationship to this world.

Lord, I thank you, I love you, I ask you for your forgiveness, and I welcome your love, your strength, and your assistance all the days of my life.