Vernal Equinox: by Patrick J Zuniga

 
When winter fades and Orion flees away;
When fecund spring invades and all grieving is past; Oh vernal Sun with healing wings, awake.

Pleiades rise in thy splendor course, summoned forth by holy light and sensual warmth; Gift of life and morning dew, arise. 

In human sorrow. In desperate chante. In canticles of fragile joy. In what is known or not, visit these earth bound souls of need and want.  

For we shall yet live again in multum aperio. Oh Bless-ed Sun with healing wings awake... awake at last! 






*Image by Pixaby

The Shamrock: A Glimpse into Divine Mystery ~ by Patrick J Zuniga

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“Is this one leaf, or three? If one leaf, then why are there three lobes of equal size? If three leaves, then why is there just one stem? If you cannot explain so simple a mystery as the shamrock, how can you hope to understand one so profound as the Holy Trinity?” ~St Patrick   

So, as legend goes, Ireland’s patron saint answered his audience after being asked to explain the mystery of the Trinity. Biblical scholars ever since have taken the shamrock apart theologically, philosophically, historically, mathematically, and biologically. Whatever happened to K.I.S.S – Keep It Simple Sonny. Whether or not St. Patrick actually taught his students Trinitarian doctrine using a shamrock as a metaphor is debatable. He never mentions the event in his own writings (those which have been preserved), although it is plausible that he did; for such a practice fits What Jesus Would Do by creatively composing naturalistic parables as a visual method to shed light on kingdom truths.

St. Patrick – as Our Lord often did – most likely appropriated available means at the moment in an attempt to give insight into a complex teaching. His students were required to have a measure of faith. Although the exercise of faith is nothing less than intellectual suicide for those who put complete stock in their reasoning faculties alone, i.e., rejecting all religious/spiritual propositions not sanctioned by science, i.e., despising anything alien to man’s cognitive ken.

Christianity’s Master a few centuries before Patrick made it clear to his disciples (and us), “I still have many things to say unto you, but you cannot hear them now.” Their minds and souls were not yet developed in the way of higher assimilation so as to absorb divine mysteries. Trusting Him was for them, as it is for us, a necessary virtue. In the words of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

A variety of illustrations have been set forth over the past two thousand years in an effort to depict the Trinity: H2O in it’s three elemental stages; the egg; the tri-part existence of man – soul, spirit, flesh; and many others. Yet, some of these props are completely faulty; while others fall short in fully describing the 3-in-1 mystery of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Trinitarian theology has been attacked and criticized by dissenting factions long before the Irish apostle ever preached his first sermon. Because it doesn’t fit ‘traditional’ monotheistic concepts; and because the term Trinity is not mentioned in the bible. Roman Catholicism, Constantine, neo-platonism, manuscript canon, and controversies surrounding the Tetragrammaton (Jewish application of God’s Holy Name and Title) also come into the controversy – most of which will not be answered in this article, but apologetic resources addressing these relevant topics are provided at the end. Non-trinitarians will often quote scriptural verses which at first glance lend credence to their position. Trinitarians will counter with passages that uphold a Triune God.

What is important about the Trinity? Does it really matter? Venerable Church Fathers say yes, for it clearly affirms the pre-incarnate Divinity of Christ, the Cornerstone of Christian salvation.

A Three Person Godhead has solid exegetical support from both Old and New Testament scripture. Unitarians and non-Christian monotheistic religions dispute any and all such exegeses. Nevertheless, Nicaea’s 325 AD council resolved the ‘Trinity’ controversy by primarily basing their conclusion on the teachings of Jesus as he referred to a very personal Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. While the word itself, although biblically absent (like rapture) is universally recognized.

That platonism influenced Church Fathers with triad-god ideas is a clumsy polemic, and mere opinion rather than provable fact. Pagan philosophies have always shadowed biblical doctrine and dramatic events. Furthermore, Plato’s god was a lower deistic entity or Demiurge which intermingled with physical matter; not anything like the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ‘Early’ Church Fathers were inspired by Scripture and the Holy Spirit in their development of doctrine, not Greek myths. Linguistically they translated from Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, applying proper philological constructions, not subtle Greek etymological preferences in order to fulfill an ideological agenda.

Even the laws of physics are occasionally postulated against a Triune God by non-trinitarians. Yet, when God the Son did a miracle – viz, multiply the fish and loaves – He clearly transcended human scientific rationale and our limited epistemological grasp of physics. Perhaps He merely applied cosmic laws in Omnipotent/Omniscient ways far above our feeble comprehension. To wit:

In Quantum physics specialists propose that there can be as many as eleven or more operational dimensions compacted within subatomic particles (unlike the four dimensional universe our senses normally observe). String Theory, which is intricately associated with quantum mechanics, sometimes called “The Theory of Everything,” is a world of cryptic subatomic particle behavior, a widely accepted phenomena among theoretical physicists. In plain language, string theory researchers have been discovering micro-entities and anomalies so mind boggling that theoreticians are just beginning to realize how awesome, mysterious, and contradicting our universe actually functions. Unusual physics’ principles outside the reach of Einstein‘s genius roam within those hidden dimensions. And these probing experiments only pertain to the physical realm. What happens when we peer into the metaphysical? spiritual? or eternal?

In view of these inexplicable marvels, is the One = Three = One Trinity not possible, regardless of how perplexing to man’s puny four dimensional perceptions of reality? And how do we fathom the ‘Omnipresence’ of GOD?

“For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits Eternity…”  – Isaiah 57:15 

Let’s picture going back in time with a laptop. We are assigned the task of explaining this puzzling device to a community of serfs in 12th century England and how it works in the 21st century. We turn it on, upload pictures, music, numerous apps, and reveal to these astonished listeners other hi-tech wonders of a modern era hundreds of years ahead. After concluding our crystal clear presentation the awe struck peasants agree to talk it over. They discuss our little demo in the norms of Middle-Age conversation. Finally, shrugging their shoulders and shaking their heads most of them decide it is much easier to simply dismiss our existence rather than mentally embrace what they just heard and saw. People react in similar ways when confronted with scriptural doctrines that require faith, viz,The Trinity; The Atonement… – “It is too hard to receive. It doesn’t make sense.” So they get dismissed, rationalized away.

Patrick encouraged his pupils to accept life’s veracity of more things in heaven and earth existing than man is capable of calculating by reason alone. Whether it was him or others who employed a shamrock to symbolize God’s Holy Trinity is still being discussed among scholars. Those students – like our 12th c. peasants – had to be patient and trust that what they heard is quite possibly real, regardless of how difficult to conceptually envision.

Mankind should always be humble and learn the art of waiting and listening. Whatever is made known by trustworthy writings, masters, and teachers, anything greater than his shallow awareness of science and nature, could simply be a transcending reality.

The shamrock today has a high market value for merchants who trade in Irish goods. For believers who are willing to apply a little faith it represents an even greater spiritual value. One that keeps on giving beyond March 17.

“Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” Matthew 28:19   

Sources and References: The Life and Writings of St. Patrick: Rev. Dr. Healy, Dublin, 1905; St.Patrick: Catholic Encyclopedia; SPEAKING OF THE TRINITY: METAPHORS FOR THE MYSTERY by Jerome Van Kuiken; “The Elegant Universe…” : Brian Greene, W.W. Norton & Co. 1999; Hamlet: William Shakespeare; NKJV Bible; Shamrock picture, courtesy of Dreamtime

More apologetics on Trinitarian doctrine:

http://www.contendingforthefaith.org/responses/booklets/revelation.html

http://evidencetobelieve.net/the-holy-trinity-in-scripture/

http://www.bible.ca/trinity/trinity-history-constantine.htm

https://earlychurchhistory.org/christian-symbols/the-tetragrammaton-yahweh/

Recommended books: https://rdtwot.wordpress.com/the-defense-of-an-essential/recommended-reading/

Breastplate of St. Patrick

I arise today… Christ to be my shield today.
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding…

So that there may come to me abundance of reward…

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me…

I arise today…
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness, Through confession of the oneness, Of the Creator of Creation.

A Time for… Time ?

~ By Patrick J Zuniga

Einstein convincingly postulated, by reason of his advanced mathematical theories, that time is not as we think. We are extremely inept in understanding our universe and how it fully works by reason of this X factor alone. For example: scientific evaluations and/or posits which determine celestial/terrestrial age heavily depend on time relevant principles and measuring tools like carbon dating, stellar red shifts, applied mathematics, etc. Yet, by Einstein’s estimation, and other esteem physicists, the past, present, and future exist simultaneously, and time as we view it is merely an illusion. Therefore, any accurate theory for something which has been labeled as very, very, old is not the ‘illusion’ of millions and millions of ‘years’ ago, but rather the reality of millions and millions of ‘processes’ or what Feynman preferred calling ‘direction[s].’ And these processes – or directions – are not effectively construed by a technician’s current time measuring techniques. All kinds of alteration Phenomena (gravitational effects on time) are constantly influencing temporal attributes. Meaning what? A ‘billion years’ could literally be several thousands of lineal years which have undergone billions of time/particle processes, erroneously interpreted as billions of lineal years. Or, another way of putting it: Man’s infantile concept of what time really is and his exercise in futility when he solely measures it by, and comprehends it within, a 3-dimensional-clock paradigm.

And as for the future, well, it is here and now; constantly co-manifesting with the past and present. Past, present, and future, ever changing – or perhaps in some respects never changing at all – yet, all snug and existing together. A cosmic enigma which puny man does not have the capacity to comprehend. But there is One who does.

Quantum physics specialists are increasingly stumped by a torrent of interesting paradoxes and mysteries newly uncovered in the field of sub-particle behavior. Scientific communities have been hit with a fairly recent discovered fact (headache). The speed of light is not the stable yardstick they once believed it to be. Advanced methodical experimentation has uncovered a slowing down of light’s velocity. Which means at one point in existence it was much faster. What does this revelation bode for the integrity of 21st century scientific evaluations and conclusions on cosmological and terrestrial age, especially when these sketchy evaluations, coupled with inadequate instrumentation, ill affected by innumerable and uncertain cosmic forces, are used as a gauge for primordial chronology?

Indisputably then, modern 3 dimensional human scientific investigations have inherent impediments; inasmuch as such investigations fall short of comprehending multiple dimensional space/time and sub-particle anomalies. It’s the ageless conundrum of trying to pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps. And the very reason why mankind needs outside revelation before he can fully comprehend origins or his own existence, i.e, outside of scientific methodology.

Good! It’s about time. Mortal intellect must wake up and stop playing god with its feeble scientific conjectures and learn the art of listening to his Maker. Mankind, if not careful, can be caught in a vortex of academic vanity. All he ever can do then is learn, learn, learn, in a never ending frustration of how little, little, little, he knows. And what he does sorta know is meaningless without a meaningful beginning and fulfilling end. ^{_{Copyright: patrick J Zuniga 5/16}}

Einstein and the Fabric of Time

Sound Doctrine Ministries: Everythingforever-Albert-Einstein

Sources: Gevin Giobran, Einstein and the Fabric of Time; Sound Doctrine Ministries. Everything Einstein; Space.com, Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity Picture: Public Domain, courtesy of Pixabay