I have often spoke and written about paradox, why I think it\nis meaningful, and how we can use it to better understand our beautiful Catholicism.\nJust as allegory in the biblical world becomes a metaphor, in the same manner,\nparadox becomes an analogy. The mystery of our faith demands we understand what\nit means when we say both these, and this also. Two contradictory elements\nwhich are in themselves complementary demonstrates the mystery. As Catholics,\nwe are forced to the conclusion that problems have a definitive answer and mysteries\ndo not. We revere the mystery just as wise people seek out problems because they\nneed their gifts. Jesus\u2019 answers were frequently, better questions. His answers\nwere often outside the parameters of the question. He spoke in parables and\nmorality stories using the locations and audiences as His scenery. All of this, in an effort to direct His followers\nto go beyond their thinking and into a mental imagery inspired by His revolutionary\nmessage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus lived in a world of unending matrix. Nothing wasted,\nnothing without meaning. Nothing going unnoticed. His followers spoke of Him as\nthe corner-stone, and He was the keystone in the archway between worldly and\ndivine. How many times do we hear Jesus asking His disciples to go beyond themselves,\nout of the practical world of this and that, and into the world of the greatest\nparadox of all? There He stood in front of them as entity and singularity, the physical\nprecursor of the Trinity. He is both\nthese and this also. In our image and likeness of Him, we express the\npsychological, the philosophical and the worldly. He expresses all of these worldly\nattributes and He is ecclesial, spiritual and mystical. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, where do we go from here? I say we go to His Church, into\nthe building, where we find the physical and definitive expression of the Real\nPresence. We enter into the liturgy and sacraments, where the practical meets\nthe transcendental; where the visible meets the mystical; where the signs and\nsymbols meet the fruit; where we can become the cause and the effect, His\nmystical body, His hands and feet. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have often spoke and written about paradox, why I think it is meaningful, and how we can use it to better understand our beautiful Catholicism. Just as allegory in the biblical world becomes a metaphor, in the same manner, paradox becomes an analogy. The mystery of our faith demands we understand what it means […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13,47,46],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","tag-catholic-faith","tag-christian-theology","tag-real-presence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223,"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reflectionsonfaith.net\/reflections\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}