Lining up to whom we pray?

Lining up to Whom we pray?

Parallel to ”To whom should I Pray?” Father, Son, Holy Ghost.”

Recently I heard a person saying; “I pray to the ‘big guy, the Father in heaven, and not to his Son.  After all, this person alluded to.  Of course, without embarrassing this person, they need a little catechesis toward the Holy Trinity.  Even Augustine knew that all three persons are one, he just wondered how it was possible by human standards.  

July 2017 I wrote a similar article titled; “To Whom should I Pray?  Father, Son, Holy Ghost!”  It has always been a question in the minds of people who do not understand the meaning of the Trinity or are not privy to who God really is

It is not a test that may intrigue our searching minds, like with Augustine, but a deep knowledge of just who God is and what he has created beginning with the first words of Genesis;  “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth……..”  (Gn 1: 1 - 3).  Too often Christians and even Jews and Muslims overlook the deeper meaning of what the author implied.  It isn't as though he was trying to give us an exam to read between the lines, it was a guide to have us believe what may not be a literal understanding of God, in three persons at the beginning of creation.

If this was all we have to try to explain the Trinity, we would not garner the many minds that are in a quizzical mode of understanding God.   Do we need to explain God to those who are a little short on knowledge regarding God?  I don’t believe anyone can totally explain the ins and outs regarding God.  He is who he is and no explanation short of divine understanding can do that.  

When I hear anyone saying, “I’ll pray to the one who is in charge” as though we are placing God in an industrial environment and speaking to the top one of the echelon.  God is not a human existence with managers and those under his control as subservient officials.  As soon as we place God in a position of elevated ranks, we are creating levels of understanding and competing with the Almighty.  Lucifer did this exactly by climbing the ladder of authority and looking to become a parallel with God, or even trying to get ahead of his creator.  Surprisingly, you would think even the devil would know better.  

Jesus put this issue to rest when in his Priestly Prayer he said;  “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they all may be one, as you Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.  And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.”  (Jn 17: 20 -23).

These are the most profound words and a certain statement of the truth regarding God, in three persons, without division or separation.  “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life.  It is the mystery of God in himself.  It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them.  It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the hierarchy of the truths of faith.  The whole history of salvation is identical within the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin.”   (CCC 234).

Praying to God, in any of the three persons, is still praying to God.  

Ralph B. Hathaway