Tamayo Niño March 25, 2019

The God of Jesus Christ

Summary and Reflection

Chapter I: God

The chapter four is subdivided into four parts. First is, God has names. Second, God
is three and God is one. Third, The creator God. Fourth, Job’s question. Names are important it
somehow gives us a glimpse of our identity. The first part of the chapter one, open a story about
Yuri Gagarin returned from his space flight, and Yuri Gagarin reported that he had not seen God
in the outer space. Of course as Christian we already know that the God we worship cannot be
touched with our hands or seen with our naked eye. The problem on man today is we like to become
God. According to Ratzinger, man possesses total power over the world…his knowledge is power.
Man can dissect the world an put it back together again; he look at the world as a functioning
system that he uses and that he compels to serve him. If we try to reflect there is no longer any
place for an intervention by God. Man become the center of the world and no longer God. On the
other hand, the first chapter leads the reader to the basic question, the existence of God. Ratzinger
uses the religious history to clarify the question. Which is identical with the intellectual history
even in the birth of the high cultures. Ratzinger say this because in the history God is presented
everywhere as the being with eyes on all sides as the act of absolute seeing. This can be proven in
the Old Testament in Psalm 139. That is why it is impossible for us to separate the question of
whether God exists from the question of who or what God is.

In the Old Testament book, we can read some biblical descriptions about God. Who
God is in the Old Testament. Some of which is, God is the protector of his people’s right. In order
for the person to know God like Moses and Jesus, he needs to go out from the business of everyday
living and accepts the confrontation with the power of solitude. Because of that God reveals
himself and expounds his name in the formula, “I AM WHO AM.” The God of Moses and Jesus
cannot be limited in our own concept of time. After we have known God, may we, too, be ever
more of God so that we may have a deeper knowledge of God and become for others a path to the
knowledge of God.
God is three and God is one—every time we perform the sign of the cross we are
not aware that we are renewing our baptismal vows. “I baptize you in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Martin Luther posits a question, what does it mean to have a
God, or what is God? The answer which struck me is, to have a god is nothing else than to trust
and believe him from the heart. God is, powerful. God is the creator. God is transcendent. For us
Christian, God is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three and one. Why a Trinity? The Father and
the Son do not become one in such a way that they dissolve into each other. They remain distinct
from each other, since love has its basis in a “vis-a-vis” that is not abolished. Their unity cannot
exist in each one by himself, rather their unity must be in the fruitfulness in which each one gives
himself and in which each one is himself. They are one in virtue of the fact that their love is fruitful,
that it goes beyond them. In the third person in whom they give themselves to each other, in the
Gift, they are themselves, and they are one.
The Creator God—God is the creator of the world. What does it mean? It means
that the Christian faith concerns the whole reality. It concerns reason. Therefore the Christian faith
is not opposed to reason. It protects reason and its questions about the totality of things. The final
point of this meditation leads us to the conclusion that belief in the creator God is also belief in the
God of our Conscience. Because he us the creator, he is close to each one of us in our conscience.
On the final note, the image if God is man. According to Irenaeus of Lyons, “Gloria Dei homo
vivens” (The living man is the glorification of God.)

Chapter II: Jesus Christ

The second Chapter can be summarize with these phrases; He came down from
heaven…and became man. He is consubstantial with the Father. He is Resin from the dead in
accordance with scripture.
In the German translation of the Missal has omitted the word down for two reasons.
First is, it prompts the question of whether God makes himself dependent on man. Second, it is
less profound but all the more tangible. The phrase “…and become man” has become the subject
of the theological reflection of the theologians in every century. They reflect on what it means to
say that Jesus lived his humanity in the sequence of Childhood, adulthood, and death.
Jesus became a child. Because it is in being a child that the very essence of what it
is to be a man is realized, so much so that one who has lost the essence of childhood is himself
lost. Being a child also possesses nothing of his own. Possessions and power are the two great
temptations faced by man, who become the prisoner of his own goods and throws away his own
soul for the sake of these goods. We cannot deny the fact that Jesus Christ was born and raised as
Jew in the town of Galilee in the place called Nazareth. We can say that Jesus really exist in the
history of mankind. It is in the hidden ministry of Jesus we come to know who Jesus is. It is said
it is in this hiddenness that men gain access to him. Lastly, to be human means to make one’s way
to death. To be human means one must die. So since Jesus is human he died. But on the third day
he rose again. Jesus as Consubstantial with the Father. It is during the council of Nicaea in the year
325 that the divine sonship of Jesus was being defined. The term added in the creed is the word,
Homoousios. Which means, “of one Being with the Father.” Even though Jesus is Man he is
consubstantial with the Father—they are one.
With regards to the resurrection of Jesus, Ratzinger in his meditation he did not
dare to discuss the various contemporary theories. He based his meditation on the biblical
testimony. He also discuss the two different types of tradition concerning the Resurrection. The
first type is the—confessional tradition, which is being exemplified in verse 3-8 of chapter one of
the book of Corinthians. The second type is called—narrative tradition. It can be found in the
Resurrection narratives of the four Gospels. These two traditions is indispensable in its own way,
but at the same time, we can see that there is a hierarchy. The confessional tradition is superior to
the narrative tradition. The confessional tradition is really the faith that provides the criteria for
every interpretation. Eventually, the faith in the resurrection concerns more on the genuine power
of God and the extent of human responsibility. The power of God brings us hope and joy. This is
the essence of Easter, which allows us to sing Alleluia even though we know that the world lies
under the shadow of death.

Chapter III: The Holy Spirit

There are many writing and documents that study or say about the Father and the
Son but only few are able to write and talk about the third person in the trinity, the Holy Spirit.
There is only one person that dare to claim that he is the incarnation of the Holy Spirit. The person
I am referring to is Mani, the father of the Manichaeism. Since he is the incarnation of the Holy
Spirit it means he is superior to Christ. Because of his claim it brings chaos to the church during
the Middle Ages. Ratzinger did not fail to mention a particular person in the name of Joachim of
Fiore, who really concerned of the deficiencies of the Church in his time. He so convinced that
according to him, that this could not yet be the definitive form of the church of God on earth. He
longed for a church that would be truly in accordance with the New Testament. He attempted to
interpret the rhythm of history on the basis of the Trinitarian image of God. The ideas of Joachim
is more on the speculations of the future. St. Francis gave the most beautiful answer to Joachim.
St. Francis really live out the Gospel. The Christianity of the Spirit is the Christianity of the lived
word. Because of some erroneous teachings of Joachim, the church gives us an initial outline of
the Holy Spirit. It is said that, we come to see the spirit, not by departing from the Son, but by
entering into him. John can gives us a good picture of this, that the spirit is the breath of the Son.
The character of the third person is distinct from the character of the Father and the Son, yet the
third person is that which is common, the unity of the Father and the Son, the unity in Person. The
Father and the Son are one with each other by going out beyond themselves; it is in the third
person, in the fruitfulness of their act of giving, that they are One. In the New Testament especially
in the Gospel of John and book of Paul, the latter calls the Spirit Paraclete, which means advocate,
helper, defender, and comforter. The former, emphasizes joy very strongly. For Paul joy is the sign
of grace. One who even in the midst of turmoil and still finds the Spirit of eternal Joy is not far
from the God of the Gospel.
Reflection

After reading the book I realized and agreed to some of my professors that it is
really difficult to comprehend the written works of the German authors. I find it difficult yet
interesting because I see that there is a connection between theology and proclamation, on the
triune God and on the Incarnation of God. I learned most especially in the first meditation that
there is a shift of faith in the triune nature of God from a theoretical proposition to a spiritual
knowledge that address man in his personal life. The second meditation gives the reader the
concrete content of Jesus’ humanity. The meditation on the resurrection of Jesus revolves around
the Christological discussions. The last meditation talks about the Holy Spirit and considers it in
comparison with the new experiences of the Spirit in the charismatic movement based on history.
Another thing that I learned from the readings, even though God has name. But his being God
cannot be contain in His name. He can go beyond on that name. We cannot limit God in His name.
After he reveals His name to Moses, He send His son to make the word “I AM WHO AM” in to
Flesh because Jesus Christ is the Logos. To glorify and to complete His wonderful works God sent
His only begotten Son for us men for our salvation. How can we attain salvation? A person can be
saved by becoming the body of Christ himself, receiving ourselves from him every day and giving
ourselves back every day. We can only achieve this if we invoke the help of the third person of the
Trinity the Holy Spirit. In whom we believe comes from the Father and the Son in the movement
of pure mutual giving, pure mutual handing over of oneself. Amen.