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Father Cleary
Father Richard James Cleary was born and reared in Wichita. After graduation from Cathedral High School in 1947, he attended the seminary operated by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey in Northwestern Missouri. There he came to appreciate the life of the monks and, having obtained the permission of Bishop Mark Carroll of Wichita, he became a monk of that monastery. After being ordained a priest in 1955, his superiors sent him to get his master’s degree at the University of Ottawa, Canada, then to study in Athens, Greece, and then in Rome, Italy, where he obtained his doctor’s degree in Theology. Finally, he spent a year of study at Harvard University. Later, Fr. Cleary was assigned to teach for many years in Rome. In 1998, he returned to Wichita, where he served in parish ministry at St. Mary’s Cathedral and at Blessed Sacrament parishes. In 2001, his abbot (superior) transferred him to Arkansas, where he served as chaplain of the Benedictine Sisters of Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, and helped in the parishes of northeast Arkansas. In March 2010, he was re-assigned to his monastery, Conception Abbey, Conception, in Missouri 64433. He can be contacted there at, 660-944-2877, or by email: rjcleary@juno.com.
Religion
2013-03-01 10:44:28
Questions on baptism
A-You are attempting the impossible: to understand the concept of the Trinity. This is the primary mystery of the Christian faith. I use the term “mystery” in the sense of something we cannot fully understand. Some of the greatest thinkers and minds, who ever lived, e.g. St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Hilary of Poitiers, Karl Barth, and other great intellectuals have pondered and studied and written many volumes about God; but most of this writing is pure human speculation, and in the end the truthful author has to admit that there is so much we don’t know and cannot know. They recognize the impossibility for human reason to explain or understand the concept of three persons in one God. This is because of the weakness of our intellect. Not even the most brilliant human or angelic intellect is capable of understanding the full life of God. The Bible, in both testaments, gives us inspired insights about God; but the more it says, the less we really understand about the Supreme Being. We know for certain that there is only one God; nevertheless in this one only God there are three distinct persons. Each of the three persons in God is eternal, i.e. has no beginning nor end, and equal and all-powerful, and the ultimate Source of all life and of everything that exists. We Christians accept it as a fact based on faith in Jesus, from whom we learned it. You ask: “If there are three persons in one God, was there only one of these persons who ‘always was’?” I answer: There are three persons in God, each of which ‘always was.’ Therefore both the Son of God (who took on a human nature in time and in that human nature is known as Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit do not have a beginning as they with the Father constitute the one eternal God. You ask whether all these three persons are eternal. The second verse of the Bible says that God’s Spirit hovered over the face of the formless earth. The Gospel of John starts with a strong assertion that Christ (the Word of God) was in the beginning and was the co-creator of everything: “. . . The Word (Jesus) was with God and the Word was God.” Even though the word “Trinity” does not appear in the Bible, it certainly is taught there. The word Trinity was invented by disciples of Jesus and his Apostles. It expresses what we believe. We believe that from all eternity God the Father begot his Son, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, equal to each and equal to both of them. But we cannot understand all the implications of that fact. We believe that at a certain point in time, determined by the Father, God sent his Son into this world: to be conceived in a unique manner of a Virgin without human intervention, and this Son was born of her in a human manner. Thus Jesus is the Son of God and of the Virgin Mary. This is the mystery of the Incarnation. As a human being, Jesus remained God, but comported himself in human fashion in every way, except sinning. Jesus is perfect God and perfect man! Jesus is one person with two natures, human and divine. Jesus has two Wills, which are perfectly coordinated and in union with the Will of God. As a human being, Jesus can say truthfully: “The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), as God is greater than any human being. In his divine nature Jesus says: “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30). In the same chapter 10, Jesus says: “The Father is in me and I in him” (verse 38). In his final words spoken before his Ascension into heaven, i.e. in the Great Commission, Jesus states: “Full authority has been given to me both in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:18-19). These statements do not contradict belief in the Trinity; that the three persons are equal. Rather these statements confirm it. Yet all this is a matter of faith, incapable of scientific proof. If science could explain these mysteries, they would no longer be matters of faith. True science and authentic faith are not opposed; rather they are two distinct and separate sources of knowledge; and both have God as their author.
 
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