JMJ + OBT
Sacred Scripture, Tradition & Magisterium
God bless you! Our Lady, St. Joseph, all the Holy Angels and Saints smile upon you. Welcome again to the Lay
Formation Program of Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. My name is Fr. Zachary of the Mother of God.
We rejoice that you have come to discover more about God’s love for you, His plan for you, and the revelation of
His love for you contained in Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church; this is the
subject of today’s teaching.
We begin, as always, with prayer.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name; Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against
us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, pray for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church in Our Lady’s Formation
We continue this Lay Formation Program patterning Our Lady’s life. Our Lady is beloved by God the Father, God
the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Most Holy Trinity had and has a plan for her life as God the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit have a plan for our lives. Our Lady related to God through Sacred Scripture, understanding the
traditions of her people and through prayer came to embrace God’s will. She embracedvGod’s will communicated
through prayer and the Word, the traditions of her people. The formation she received was all ordered to her
receiving the Word, Jesus Christ the Eternal Word, who came from heaven to reveal God’s love to us. As we enter
into the study of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church and understanding how
they relate, how they are important to us, how they form us, how God communicates himself through them to us,
we enter into Our Lady’s heart.
We want to see with the eyes of our Blessed Mother. We want to see Jesus. We want to have a living encounter
with Jesus and so this teaching is not about argumentation or polemics. It is about coming to love God as He
reveals Himself to us.
Self-Revelation of God & Aquinas Five Proofs for the Existence of God
First, we must start with some philosophy; the way God created us. You see, He gave us a mind so that we may
know the Truth who is a person, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Most Holy Trinity. The Eternal Word
became flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one
who inspires Sacred Scripture and gives us Sacred Tradition and guides us to properly understand these two
modes of revelation: Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition are understood properly in the Magisterium of the
Church. The Holy Spirit operates in our lives. We ask Our Lady “Come Holy Spirit, Come! Come by means of the
powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well-beloved Spouse.”
See what we are talking
about here is the self-revelation of God. God needs to reveal Himself because He is infinite, He is a mystery. Who
He is, His essence needs to be revealed to us.
Now again to philosophy, God gave us a mind, and reason tells us that God exists. It is clear that God exists. Any
reasonable person must admit that God exists.
St. Thomas Aquinas points out that there a five ways that we can
know that God exists. Any reasonable person knows that God exists. These five ways include the unmoved
mover. There has to be a first mover. Someone needed to start everything moving. From our experience and our
existence, we know that there has to be a mover,
the unmoved mover is God.
The second way we know God exists is the
uncaused cause. Everything has a cause and an effect. We know that
from our experience.
There is the first cause, this is God.
The third way we know God exists is the
necessary being.
There has to be a necessary being. We know that we
are contingent. There are two things I know for sure. One, there is a God and two, I am not him. Thank God. You
would not like me as God. I would not be a good God. We have the perfect God, the most beautiful God, the
loving God. Our Father is God and He takes care of everything and I need to be open to what He gives me as His
child, and I learn from our Blessed Mother how to do that.
The fourth way that we learn that God exists is the
order of perfection. You look out into creation, there’s an
order of perfection.
There are gradations of perfection, there has to be an ultimate perfection and that perfection
is God. Now God calls us to be perfect as he is perfect, that is what Jesus Christ reveals. That doesn’t mean that
we will be God. That means that we will participate in His life. He gifts us His life, we receive His life through, with
and in Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. We participate in His life and we learn to be merciful, kind,
forgiving and live a life of goodness, like our heavenly Father, but we do this by participation. The ultimate
perfection is God, He is perfect, He is completely happy and He shares that with us.
The fifth way we know God exists is His
governance of the universe there has to be a governess. There has to be a
governor: the stars, the sun and the moon do not randomly take care of themselves out there.
There is a
governor and that governor is God.
We know God exists, but what is His essence?
We know that God exists! Who is God? We know that He exists, but what is His essence? Here is where we
come to theology. You see through philosophy and through reason we can tell that God exists. But who is this
God that must be revealed to us? Jesus Christ came all the way from heaven; the second person of the Trinity
came.
He who is God’s Word, the living Word came to reveal God’s love to us, to reveal God as a Trinity. Now our
minds could not climb to that reality of our own mind. This mystery is so profound, the Mystery of the Trinity.
Four Great Mysteries of Our Faith: The Trinity, the Incarnation & Redemption, the Catholic Church & the
Eucharist
There are four great mysteries of our faith, the
Mystery of the Trinity; the
Mystery of the Incarnation and
Redemption; (Christ the second person of the Trinity becomes Man, the Word becomes flesh, goes to the cross,
suffers, dies, rises and ascends); the
Mystery of the Catholic Church; and the
Mystery of the Eucharist, four great
mysteries of our faith. These things are revealed, revelations from God himself. This is theology, this is where
God comes to us and shares His life; it is a great gift.
The Gift of Revelation – Unless you live as you believe, you begin to believe as you live.
What we are going to talk about today is basically revelation. How God, the mysterious, invisible,
incomprehensible God who lives in unapproachable light, comes to us to reveal Himself, to reveal who He is, to
reveal that He is Love and He is Truth. That is a gift: revelation. It is a gift and we are to receive it as a gift, as the
gift is given. We do not pick parts of the gift that fit our limited way of thinking. Let me share this principle with
you: unless you live as you believe, which means to believe everything the Catholic Church proposes for us to
believe, soon you start to believe as you live.
Unless you live as you believe, you start to believe as you live. That
is the problem in today’s world, people start to justify themselves. God Himself came to reveal Himself to us. This
is revelation. The Revelation that God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that is a great gift to us.
Mary—The First Recipient of God’s Express Revelation
The first human person that this revelation of the Most Holy Trinity came to expressly, was the Blessed Virgin
Mary, a fifteen year old girl. She was a Hebrew girl who knew Yahweh, who loved Yahweh, and she studied
Scripture. She was anointed the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit worked in her life in such a
profound way that she understood God’s Word. Thus, when the angel Gabriel came and announced that God is a
Trinity (in the Annunciation of Saint Luke’s Gospel, you can read it for yourself) Our Lady received revelation. The
Father looks on His daughter and says, “Hail full of Grace the Lord is with you.” He says that through the angel
Gabriel.
Our Lady ponders these words and then the angel announces, “Be not afraid Mary, you have found favor with
God and you will conceive and bear a child and this child will be the Son of the Most High God and He will take the
throne of his father David and endure forever”. She knew the prophecy was being fulfilled. “How can this be?”
she said. “The power of the Holy Spirit will come upon you.” The power of the Most High God, the three Persons
of the Trinity are revealed. This is amazing: that is revelation.
Our Lady was open and she said ‘yes’ to this plan of God. She did not say, “Prove it to me.” She did not say, “I
have my own ideas.” She did not set herself up as a sole authority of the understanding of the revelation to God.
She was open to the revelation of God, she trusted in God and she related to God. In her humility the Word
becomes flesh and dwells among us.
Our Lady Conceived first in Her Heart
It is said by Saint Augustine that Our Blessed Mother conceived in her heart before she conceived in her womb.
Do you want to conceive Jesus in your life? Do you want the fruitfulness in Jesus come forth in your life, in your
family, in your work place, in every life you touch? Stay open to the revelation of God. The best way to stay open
is to stay close to Our Blessed Mother, she whom God chose to reveal Himself as the Trinity, she who brings forth
Jesus Christ to us.
The Persons of the Trinity Reveal One Another
If you want to know Jesus Christ, go to Our Lady. Our Lady will take you to the Father, the Father loves to talk
about His Son, Jesus. Our Lady will take you to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit loves talking about Jesus.
Read St. Mathew’s Gospel Chapter 11, verses 25 through 27; the Father will reveal the Son, the Father will reveal
the Holy Spirit. Jesus will reveal the Father, Jesus will reveal the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will reveal Jesus, the
Holy Spirit will reveal the Father. We have a Trinitarian Spirituality in Our Lady’s Society. It is a powerful
Spirituality to have real living relationships with Persons of the Trinity.
Now remember we are on the subject of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and Magisterium of the Church. We
are not just taking a doctrinal approach to this gift. We want to relate to the persons of the Trinity God as the
living God. Sacred Scripture is living. Sacred Tradition is living. The Magisterium of the Church is living.
We can look to the mystery of the Trinity to understand the mystery of revelation. The mystery of the Trinity,
there are three Divine Persons the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Coeternal God. For there to be an eternal
Father there always has to be an eternal Son. There can never be a time when there is not an eternal Son because
you cannot be an eternal Father without having an eternal Son. The love between them is a Person of the Trinity,
the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity: Three Divine Persons, One God.
The Inseparability of the Three means of Revelation: Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and Magisterium of the
Church
Revelation works the same way. There are three means of revelation: Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and
Magisterium of the Church, but there is one revelation. You can never separate them, that would be the same as
trying to separate the Father from the Son, the Son from the Holy Spirit. Why would you try to do that? You
cannot do that, it is not reality. It is the same thing: you cannot separate Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and
Magisterium of the Church. Some people try and we pray for them.
Prayer & Scripture – Lectio Divina
Prayer is very important to understand Scripture. We talked about how the Rosary is the praying of Scripture. We
will teach you along the way how to pray Lectio Divina, the divine reading. This is a method of praying the Sacred
Scripture, Sacred Tradition and Magisterium of the Church. We want God to come alive in our lives, let’s not get
caught up in doctrinal disputes. Let us be humble like Our Lady and be open to God. Let us submit our wills in the
obedience of faith that perfects us for the love of our neighbor which is written in the book of Saint Peter our first
Holy Father, by obedience to the Truth. Jesus Christ has revealed this Truth in Himself and in the Catholic Church
that He established. It is all about Love and Truth; you can never separate them.
It says in the first letter of St. John: “God is Love” and indeed He is. It is God who is Love who says, “I am the
Way, the Truth and the Life.” You can never separate Love from Truth. Know the Truth and the Truth will set you
free. As Catholics we love Sacred Scripture and we encourage everyone to know Scripture to love Scripture. Saint
Jerome says, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” We want to understand the fullness of God’s
revelation. In fact, Sacred Scripture comes from Sacred Tradition. You see Jesus Christ came all the way from
heaven to reveal God’s love and to give us commandments. He says, “If you keep my commandments then my
Father will love you and we will come and make our home in you”. This is the way we know we love God, by
keeping his commandments and everything He revealed to us.
Friends tell friends about God
We see him as our friend.
Friends reveal the truth of God to friends that is what true friends do. Jesus Christ
came and He started to do and to teach, it says that right in Scripture. That is a beautiful passage. Everything He
did was consistent with His words because He is the Eternal Word.
Has your word been with The Word?
We have to ask in our own lives, this is part of formation: “Are our lives consistent with the Word of God?” When
we speak a word, has our word been with The Word before we speak a word? Do our actions conform to the
words that we speak, the words of faith? God will bring us to this, He will complete the good work He began. Let
us be open to revelation, so Jesus Christ the second Person of the Trinity comes to us and He starts to do and to
teach. After He was crucified He continued to appear to the Apostles to whom He entrusted a positive faith. You
can read this in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the very first part, the relationship between Sacred
Scripture, Sacred Tradition and Magisterium of the Church.
In this Lay Formation Program we cover the four major parts. The first about Faith, Revelation and the Twelve
Articles of Faith. The second major part about the Sacraments, the life of Grace, we will go more deeply into this
with the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist: the source the center and the summit of our life, in the next
teaching. We move to Virtue, the Moral Life, the third major part of the Catechism and we already covered
Prayer, the fourth major part of the Catechism. Keep going back to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. As a
matter of fact, that is part of the Magisterium of the Church. It gives us a sure guide and norms to guide our life.
It is a great gift inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus comes to Do and to Teach
We thank God for the revelation in Himself. Jesus comes and He starts to do and to teach He gives the deposit of
faith to His Apostles. They go forth and they start to teach and preach. This is what is known as the Apostolic
Preaching. They preached basically that Jesus Christ suffered, died, rose and ascended in fulfillment of Scripture.
That was their basic message, the Good News.
How Sacred Tradition became Sacred Scripture
You had Jesus Christ come and teach and witness to the goodness of God. Then you had the Apostles going forth
witnessing, preaching and teaching orally; nothing is written yet in the New Testament, it is all Sacred Tradition.
Then, as the Apostles are going around the different communities, some of the communities start saying, what
did Saint Peter say? What did Saint John say? What did Saint Paul say? That was Oral Tradition. Well eventually
some of the communities said, “We had better write some of this stuff down.” Then they asked the Apostles,
“Would you write some of these things down?” Those who were inspired by the Holy Spirit in a very special way
did, because Sacred Scripture is infallible as inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The Third Council of Carthage – 397 A.D.
Twenty seven books of the New Testament were composed and inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is not a work of
man this is a work of God.
It is amazing then in the year of 397 A.D. at the Third Council of Carthage, the Catholic
Church gathered these twenty seven books and declared them in the Canon of Scripture. We recognize that
they are inspired by the Holy Spirit. There would be no New Testament unless it was for the Catholic Church.
Catholics love Sacred Scripture but you see how first there was Oral Tradition, Sacred Tradition. Jesus Christ did
not write any books by hand; He lived it. He brought the fulfillment the law and the prophets of the Old
Testament, this is what Jesus Christ did. He handed that to His Apostles and they went and preached it and they
lived it. The other communities that accepted it, they talked about it, they lived it and eventually it was written
down.
The first books of the New Testament were not written until about twenty years after Jesus was crucified. They
were written, a little bit before twenty years, but we do not have to get into an exact date. Right now we just
know that there was a time period, a significant time period. First Thessalonians was written by Saint Paul the
great missionary. We know the Gospels were collected. Saint Mark, Saint Matthew, Saint Luke and Saint John,
somewhere around the periods of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s. Scripture scholars put dates on those, we know
about the time periods and we are pretty sure about these time periods. The point is, it was not done until
decades after Jesus died on the Cross for us and rose.
The world itself could not contain the books to be written about Jesus Christ
There was a Tradition, and there is a Tradition in fact in Scripture itself. St. John the beloved disciple was there at
the Last Supper, was there at the Crucifixion of our Lord, who represented all of us when Jesus on the cross gave
us Our Blessed Mother. St. John accepted Our Blessed Mother into his house and took her to Ephesus with him.
This great Apostle writes at the very end of the Gospel inspired by the Holy Spirit, St. John’s Gospel chapter 21:24-
25: “This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know
that his testimony is true. But there also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be
written, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” The world itself could not
contain the books to be written about Jesus Christ.
The idea of “Scripture Alone” is not contained in the Scriptures
We thank God for Sacred Scripture, I love Sacred Scripture there would be no New Testament if it was not for the
Catholic Church. But we must understand that this flowed from Sacred Tradition.
Everything that Jesus said and
taught is not contained in Scripture, and by the way, it does not say in Sacred Scripture “Scripture alone.” The
idea of “Scripture alone” is no where in Scripture. If that were the idea, from God Himself, it would say it right in
Scripture. I am not here to argue, I just want to confirm you in the fact that Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and
the Magisterium of the Church, the teaching authority of the Church, are the sure guides of the Church. We do
not want to set ourselves up as the sole authority. We all know we are limited, our visions are narrow sometimes.
We thank God for the gift of the Holy Spirit for the infallible guidance of the Church in matters of Faith and
Morals.
Infallibility through the Holy Spirit in matters of Faith and Morals
So the Holy Father the first Holy Father St. Peter and then his successors were given this gift of infallibility in
matter of faith and morals. When it comes to faith and morals there is infallibility. The Holy Spirit is the sure
guide of the Church; we need a sure guide. We know from our own experience people twist Scripture to justify
themselves. We need a sure guide. The Truth is the same yesterday, today and forever. We thank God for the
gift of revelation.
Revelation is basically the self-communication of God; God communicates with us.
Remember when we talked about the Image and Likeness of God, when God speaks He communicates; He
creates. When God speaks He creates. Well this is the Living Word and when He speaks this Word He creates us,
He renews us, He lifts us up. The same is true with Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the
Church.
God loves you and seeks you
What I want you to understand, what God wants you to understand, what Our Lady wants you to understand is
that
God loves you. You should look at the revelation of God, instead of from a perspective of arguing, you should
see that
God is seeking you. All of salvation history is God seeking man. The problem is that when we start with
ourselves some people say, “Well prove it to me.” They get caught up in arguing over the truth and they end up
arguing with the Truth who is Jesus Christ, who established the Catholic Church to reveal the Truth of God’s love.
We need to be open to God’s revelation; that takes humility.
Don’t doubt—Doubt closes the door to revelation
You see faith comes before understanding. We never say to God, “I doubt you God,” because if we doubt God it
closes the door; no more revelation. Yes, we may have difficulties, we may wrestle, but believe me a thousand
difficulties do not equal a doubt, but you cannot play games. Do not play word games, we are talking about our
life, we are talking about our relationship with God.
Do not doubt God. He is the infinite God and we do not say
to God, “Prove it to me.” We say, “Thank you for revealing yourself in Jesus Christ.” “Thank you for revealing
yourself in the Catholic Church.” “Thank you for the gift of Sacred Tradition.” “Thank you for the gift of Sacred
Scripture.” “Thank you for the gift of the Magisterium of the Church.”
Faith precedes Understanding & the Faith is a seamless garment
Faith precedes understanding, but then we recognize I believe in order to understand. The faith is totally
intelligible;
the faith is so beautiful, I can share with you the faith is a seamless garment. Don’t pull it apart. If you
start to pull one thread the whole thing will fall apart. You see how it all fits perfectly, but if you start to pick and
choose things that you understand without submitting your will to God, it falls apart. If you open yourself to the
beauty of the seamless garment it is amazing.
I will share with you, in my own life as most of you know I was an attorney-at-law. I used to be able to find a hole
in any argument because they were all man-made. But when it comes to the Faith I look at the Faith, the things
that may appear to be a hole, but there is no hole, they are actually the beautiful ways that the garment flows.
There is no hole in the Faith, this is from God, it is beautiful. Don’t take the beautiful and pull it apart. We must
be open. It is about Faith seeking understanding, and I believe in order to understand.
Here is the beauty of
salvation history: God seeks man.
We are created for Communion
We start with God the Trinity who created us out of nothing; He has a perfect communion within Himself: Father
Son and Holy Sprit. Perfect being, perfect happiness, He doesn’t need us and He did not create us because He was
bored. He did not create us because He needed an ant farm to take up his time. He doesn’t need a pet, He is
perfect happiness. He created us out of nothing because He is pure goodness and goodness by its nature diffuses
Himself; He shares his life.
He wants us to have communion with him, so He communicates with us He creates us out of nothing, and then
in His Love He reveals Himself to us. Now here is where we must go through a little salvation history, covenant
history. You see at first God created Adam and He walked in the cool of the evening with Adam. This meant that
He was in communion with Adam, and God’s plan was to have communion with Adam and Adam’s progeny, his
family from the offspring of Eve. He was going to have communion with all of mankind and we never would have
to die. Somehow God was going to take this family, the family of mankind to Himself, forming us into Christ,
learning to walk His ways and learning to live the Word. But what happened?
Man sinned and so the communion the covenant with God was broken. The most tragic consequence of sin is man
could no longer call God “Abba, “ Father. We need a Father. Our Father did not give up on us, God continues to
seek us. You want to see God seeking man when you look at the Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the
Magisterium of the Church; you want to see God seeking you.
Fr. Z’s conversion
In my own life I promised God I would share if it would benefit people. I was away from the Church for eighteen
years, the greatest of sinners, lost. Through Our Lady’s intercession, Our Blessed Mother on December 8, 1993
the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, I received a Grace from God. My hard heart was pierced and despite
everything I had done, I was right where I was supposed to be. I was in a Catholic Church and the circumstances
of life God steered me there. I walked before that Nativity scene, I saw the Holy Family there with the Child Jesus,
this God who came all the way from heaven to reveal God’s love as a little child, and I started to cry profuse tears
and I said the most powerful prayer of my life, three words: “God help me.” I meant it, I humbled myself. Finally
this arrogant attorney on his high horse was knocked off his high horse, opened himself to God, and Our Blessed
Mother obtained Grace for me. I knew that God loved me. Now the journey was one where I had to be open to
what God was doing.
God finds us—He is not lost, we are lost
You see God was always seeking me. Some people say, “ Well Father, how did you find God?” I tell them I did
not find God, He found me. He wasn’t lost, I was lost. If you are out there lost, no matter what you have done
know that God loves you and he is seeking you. That is covenant history, that is salvation history.
The Various Covenants of God with our Fathers in Faith
So we go and we see how God wanted this relationship with Adam but this relationship was broken. Eventually,
what does God do, our great God our loving God? He is not going to give up on us. He establishes a new covenant
with Noah, you know the rainbow in the sky. The sign of that covenant that there will never be another flood, but
God purified mankind and established a new covenant but man did not stay faithful to that covenant. Then God
makes a covenant with Abraham our father in Faith. You look at the journey of Abraham, a faithful man, his faith
is beautiful. Abraham did not ask God for the whole agenda, he had an encounter with God and he followed God
wherever God led him. He is our father in Faith, Our Blessed Mother is our mother in Faith. But man did not stay
faithful with that covenant so God established a covenant in writing with Moses: the Ten Commandments. Man
failed to live that covenant so God makes a covenant with David; man failed to live that covenant. So what did
God do?
Jesus establishes the New Covenant
God sent “His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him will not die but will have eternal life,” St. John’s
Gospel 3:16.
But to believe means to accept everything that God has revealed to us in Sacred Scripture, Sacred
Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. The Gospels do not contain just one verse, John 3:16 is one of my
favorite verses, but if that said it all, then why do we have the 27 books of the New Testament and 46 Books of
the Old Testament that help prepare us to understand the New Testament and they fit together perfectly? The
Old Testament foreshadows the New Testament and the New Testament gives light to the Old Testament: never
separate them. There are 73 books of the Bible:
Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth. Sacred Scripture: love
the Word. It is not just one verse, you have to understand the whole.
The New and Everlasting Covenant, it will never be broken because it was established in the blood of the God-
Man Jesus Christ the second Person of the Trinity. You see, all the other covenants depended on mans
faithfulness to the covenant with God. God recognized we kept falling, so what did He do? He sent his only Son.
When you read Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church understanding God’s
seeking man, seeking you, seeking me in His Love, His passionate Love, it all makes sense. Be open to this reality,
be open to this Love.
Live in oneness with the Trinity along with Our Lady
Live in oneness with the Trinity just for Himself, you learn to do this by moving across covenants.
I recommend
Dr. Scott Hahn’s book A Father Who Keeps His Promises for this covenant history. It is a beautiful work.
More
powerful is a relationship with Our Lady. She helps you relate to the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit. She helps you have a living encounter with Jesus Christ so that you can come to the New and Everlasting
Covenant the Covenant of Communion of the Most Holy Trinity. Because all the covenants are contained in this
New and Everlasting Covenant, it is called “New and Everlasting.” We will talk about that in the next teaching
about the Eucharist, this covenant in the Blood of the God-Man, Jesus Christ.
Be open to God revealing His Life to you
You want to learn to go into God before creation. Remember we talked about that regarding the plan of God.
Your life was seen in God’s mind and heart before you were even created. Before you were in the womb He knew
you and He saw every breath you take and every step you would make. He desires that your name is written in
the book of life. He came all the way from heaven seeking you, seeking me; praise God! He reveals Himself, be
open to that revelation. He communicates His Life to us. He communicates His Life to all. To understand this
Love we can ask ourselves, “Why did God become man?” Some of the answers include these beautiful truths to
us.
God became man to reveal Himself to us & He has taken away the veil
The first reason God became man was to reveal Himself to us. Remember that revelation means, to take away
the veil. When sin entered the world a veil put over our mind and we could not see anymore. Do you want to
walk around your whole life not being able to see? I urge you to walk by Faith not by sight. Faith comes first.
Faith and reason go together, these are the two wings by which man soars to contemplate the Truth. That is
what John Paul the Great wrote in the wonderful work, Faith and Reason. We don’t just fly with one wing
otherwise we just go around in circles. Both wings are necessary. First comes Faith, we also use our reason. Faith
is very reasonable. Anybody who rejects Faith is unreasonable and anybody who denies the existence of God is
unreasonable. Anybody who rejects the love of God I pray for them. God wants us to be happy, God came to
reveal himself to us, God became man to reveal Himself to us, to save us.
God used every way to teach us. You see that in creation and providence and history and law and prophecy and
the fullness is in the God-Man. The God-Man becomes Incarnate, the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us,
in Him is every perfection. In Jesus Christ, as we noticed, we see the human face of God and the Divine face of
man. Contemplate the face of Christ in the school of Mary. Know that you are loved.
God became man to show His great love for us
The
second reason God became Man was to show us how much God loves us.
First he came to reveal himself to
us, second he came to show us how much he loves us. “And this is Love, not that we have loved God first but He
has loved us,”that is said by St. John in Sacred Scripture. Receive this Love; Jesus from the cross says, “This is
what I have done for you. What have you done for me? Do you accept my love?” “Put my faith into action,”
Jesus urges us, “and love.” Love with your whole heart and soul, might and mind, the Almighty God. Remember
that is how we begin every day, asking for this grace, and to love your neighbor as yourself for the love of God.
God became man to save us
The
third reason Jesus came, we already noted,
was to save us. We don’t just start with us though.
Jesus came
first to reveal God to man. Second, Jesus came to show us that we are loved (that God loves us). Third Jesus
came to save us. They all go together. We talked about why it takes a God-man to save us. Adam’s sin is an
infinite offense against God. Sin is an offense against God. Sin is an offense against an infinitely good God; a God
of justice, mercy, and wisdom and so the matter is insolvable without a God-man. To satisfy God’s justice, in His
wisdom and in His mercy He sends us Himself.
Jesus comes because He loves us and that is revelation: He comes and reveals Himself, to reveal His love and save
us. On the cross He shows us perfect Love. Jesus saves us. We have to accept this gift in faith and manifest it in
works. In St. Mathew’s Gospel, Jesus says at the Last Judgment, “You did it to me.” Faith and works go together.
We are justified by Faith, but we must work out our salvation.
Scripture citations for Tradition: I Corinthians 11:2/II Thessalonians 2:15/II Thessalonians 3:6/II Timothy 2:2
Now I could give you many Scriptural citations about how Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium
of the Church all go together. For example First Corinthians 11:2, we are told to “Hold fast to the traditions just as
I have handed them on to you.” Second Thessalonians 2:15, “Hold fast the traditions that you are taught by an
oral statement or by a letter.” Second Thessalonians 3:6, “Shun those who do not follow traditions you receive,”
we are talking about Sacred Tradition. Second Timothy 2:2 “What you heard from me entrust to the faithful.”
Scripture citation for Magisterium: Luke 10:16
There are many other quotes, for example in Saint Luke’s gospel 10:16 we hear, “Whoever listens to you listens to
me, whoever rejects you rejects me.” That’s the Church, when the Church speaks Jesus is speaking. We already
talked about St. John’s Gospel, the close of his Gospel. I just give those to you to confirm you in the Truth that
sets you free. Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church; they go together.
Go to Our Lady for help
I encourage you to turn to Our Lady, humble yourself go to Our Lady ask her to reveal to you her Son Jesus Christ
the Living Word. Have her give to you her relationships with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Remember this Lay
Formation Program patterns Our Lady’s life. Be open to God’s love for you.
The three most important points of this teaching
The three most important points of this teaching are:
God came all the way from heaven and established the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church so that we may
know, love and serve Him and be happy with Him forever. He reveals Himself, He came all the way from heaven
to reveal Himself. He deposited the Faith into the hands of the Apostles and this was handed on faithfully in
apostolic succession.
Second, humble yourself, pray that I am humbled, let us learn from Our Lady how to humble yourself before this
revelation and understand that Faith comes before understanding. Everything is understandable if we open
ourselves in Faith.
Third, have a living relationship with the Persons of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit through Our Lady.
We
recognize that Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church go together, they are
inseparable just the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are inseparable. We are talking about living relationships God’s
Love revealed to us.
The challenge of this month
The challenge of this month is to go into the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is time for us to do a little work,
now let us go into the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The very first parts I urge you to turn to
Sections 80 to
90; really easy to remember.
Ten sections: read them, the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
It is spelled out clearly for you, the grace, the fruit of living this living relationship with the Trinity who loves you
and seeks you. God seeks you, He loves you no matter what you have done. He is waiting for you, He is seeking
you be open to Him. God has a plan for your life. It is revealed in His Love, it is revealed in Sacred Scripture,
Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church.
Be open, turn to Our Lady and ask her to help you, Our Lady is there waiting for you as she was there waiting for
me. I did not deserve this gift. I share with you that I was away, lost, confused, stubborn, obstinate, hard-
hearted. Yet, God is always looking for that little opportunity, and He will come into your life just as He has come
into my life. Now I am the happiest person who ever lived. Trust Our Lady. My name is Father Zachary of the
Mother of God because I know what Mary, the Mother of God did for me, and she will do it for you, and now I gift
her to you. In this blessing I gift Our Lady. May Almighty God bless you the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.