Is Jesus and God the same?

By Paul Dion, STL

This is a question that does not come up too often because so many Christians live with their firm beliefs tightly contained secretly in their hearts. It is a topic that does not come up at cocktail parties for sure, and, truth be told, it is not even discussed at Baptisms and weddings.

For several years I taught a theology course which is traditionally called, “Christology”. That is the study of the mystery of Jesus Christ.

I never took a poll, but in every class I observed that there were two strong factions. One, that Jesus was God and therefore was not like us at all. The other, that Jesus was human, felt that He was a special “missionary” from God and that His wonderful life allows those of us who “believe” that He was the Son of God.

Most times, the first position in the class was stronger than the second. Where do you stand? What is the Doctrinal position of the Church?

Think about it and send me your answer with some reasoning comments and I will send the summary of your answers and the Doctrinal position of the Catholic Church.

Post your thoughts below. I look forward to hearing what they are.

"Who is your neighbor and what are you doing about it?"

By Paul Dion, STL

"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,with all your being,with all your strength,and with all your mind,and your neighbor as yourself." He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live." (Luke 10; 27)

We have all heard the old saw, "You can choose your friends but you can't choose your relatives." As a matter of fact, we can't choose our neighbors either.

Just who are these people? How do we get to love them? Why do we even have to love them? If we love them, how do we prove that we love them?

We believe that love begets love and we observe that some of the love that we put out to some of our "neighbors" has not begotten love in return. As a matter of fact, some of the love that we have put out to some of our very own relatives has not begotten love in return.

We read the story as told by Luke in the gospel quote above and the thing that is striking here is that Jesus Himself throws the challenge back on to the conscience of the questioner, "...which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?" Jesus then tells the questioner to "...go and do likewise."

We too know that the answer to the question lies on our conscience. So, answer the Burning Question: Who is your neighbor and what are you doing about it?

Why was Jesus born in a manger?

By Paul Dion, STL

What is the symbolism of Jesus being born in a manger?


This is the Christmas Season and of course we have a lot of questions floating around in our heads. I hope that none of you has to figure out how to balance your check book so early in the month.

But because this is a seriously spiritual season, let's consider the story of the Nativity and some of the symbolism that the Gospel Story of Luke holds. I suggest that you find a quiet corner, your favorite "dog-eared" Bible and read the first two chapters of Luke's gospel meditatively.

Luke calls the mother of Jesus, MARY. This name means "Excellence." Or, in the words of the angel Gabriel, "Full of Grace."

The carpenter who saves Mary's honor is called JOSEPH. This means "May Yahweh add."

The mother of John the Baptist is ELIZABETH. This name means "My God is fullness."

His father carries the name ZECHARIAH. This means "Yahweh has remembered."

Finally, the name JESUS means, "God saves." The same as Joshua, the successor of Moses who led the Chosen People of God into the Promised Land, thus saving them from Egyptian slavery for good. Jesus saves us from the slavery of sin.

Amidst all this symbolism we have the symbolism of the 100 mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census, three Magi, the three gifts which they brought, the visiting shepherds, the singing angels and the swaddling clothes.

I could bring up a lot more, but that should be enough for now, except for the question:

"WHAT IS THE SYMBOLISM OF JESUS BEING BORN IN A MANGER?"

Must we believe the Church 100% to be Catholic?

Must we believe the Church 100% to be Catholic?

By Paul Dion, STL

Living the Catholic life is a life of penance, prayer and missionary zeal. It is about giving-up some things and for giving some things too. As Catholics, we hear a lot of teachings about our religion and we pray for all souls including those people who are going to be baptized into the Catholic religion each Easter Vigil.

But recently, a Catholic friend told me how he's been facing his own Catholic friends and family who seem to disagree with certain specific tenets of our faith. So maybe now is a critical time to ask ourselves an important question about our religion and our faith. It is not a "stupid" question, nor is it an idle one. It is a question that I have been asked several times by Catechumens. I even hear it now and then from life-long Catholics who are attending Faith Growth Sessions for Adults.

We hope that all of you who read this would consider the depth and the value of the question. We want to hear your opinion about what the answer is. We are sure that you will have deep seated opinons about this one. Share them, please. We are sure that the sum of all of them will add up to the true answer.

"In order to be Catholic, do you have to believe 100% of what the Church teaches?"

Please pray over it and then chime in with your opinion. We will provide a comprehensive answer as part of the comments. In the meantime, we will join you in the running comment exercise.

Let us know what you think. Post your comment below.

Is it OK for God to get angry?

It sure looks that way.
By Paul Dion, STL

So often in our culture, as children we are reprimanded by our parents when we get angry because it isn't "nice." We are trained as we grow up that anger is not a "nice" emotion. We are so often told to "control ourselves" rather than to show anger.

OK, so what about God? He doesn't seem to have any problem with anger.

He sure took care of His Adam and Eve problem nicely. He wasn't afraid to use the old 40 day rain trick at one point. Fire and brimstone worked rather well against Sodom and Gomorrha. Turning a woman into a salt statue sure taught her a lesson, didn't it?

When God saw humans building a tower in Babel, He came and visited the project, didn't like what He saw and so dispersed everyone by giving them each a different language. Ten plagues against Egyptians sure made life rough on them for a while.

Jesus had his moments too. He had a pretty sharp tongue that shows that He had no fear of showing His inner heat.

God has a history of getting angry. Is this wrong? How can God get away with it and I can't? I get angry, I hit someone and I go to jail. Are we missing something?

Try your hand at this one. There is more than just a lesson of disobedience and punishment. So, what is in it for us when God gets angry?

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