59. Be able to choose 2 other eras of liturgical development and describe them

Sub-Apostolic Era:  this was after the last apostle, John, died ~90 AD.  There were persecutions, so celebrations were held underground.  The Didache (~100-180 AD) was prayerful preparation for Mass prior to coming to the liturgy.  In this era, there was definition of concelebration practices, role of the bishop, unity of the bishop with the people.  There was the Liturgy of the Word, the offertory flowing into the Eucharistic Prayer, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  The faithful responded by saying “Amen.”  Communion was taken in hand and there was a collection taken for the poor.  Around 200 AD, Hippolytus wrote the first detailed Eucharistic prayer.  The language of the liturgy was Greek.  Latin became the standard language around 350 AD.  In the 600s, the liturgy became bilingual.

4th-6th Centuries:  this was the Golden Age of the Church.  There was a movement from having liturgy in homes to having liturgy in basilicas.  The local bishops produced libelli (“little books”).  There was a growth of daily Mass and we began to see liturgical vesture appear.  People began to be organized into dioceses.  The form of the Mass was greeting, psalm (Trisagion), enthronement of the Gospel book, opening prayer (invitation, supplication in silence, collect, amen), the proclamation of the Word (OT, Psalm, “Epistle”, Alleluia, Gospel, homily, general intercession, dismissal of the catechumen, presentation of the gifts given from home (after touching the sheep etc. the priest would wash his hands)), anaphora (introduction of the Sanctus, addition of intercessions), double movement (we pray to God and God sends his blessings back to us), breaking of the bread, Lord’s prayer, and communion.

To be continued….

57. Be able to describe St. Augustine and one heresy he was instrumental in teaching against

St. Augustine was born in 354 in North Africa.  He was a teacher of rhetoric and lived a wild life, including having a mistress and a child.  His mother, St. Monica, prayed incessantly for his conversion.  Eventually, after investigating different heretical sects, he joined the Catholic church, becoming the Bishop of Hippo from 395-430.

One of the heresies St. Augustine fought against was Manicheanism, which is a variant of Gnosticism.  They believed that good and evil are divided, yet equal powers (a good symbol for this might be the yin/yang symbol).  They are always in tension.  However, if this were the case, God could not have created both good and evil without being divided within Himself.  God is one.  God has to be good (evil is merely the absence of good).  God’s creation has to be good.

56. Is Jesus two people, or suffering from multiple personality disorder?

No.  Jesus is one person with two wills, a divine Will and a human will.  He avoids conflict with His two wills in that His human will is completely subservient to His divine Will.  There is no confusion, division, change or separation between the natures of Christ, and their uniqueness was not abolished by their union.

55. What do we mean when we say that Christ is “consubstantial” with the Father?

Christ is of the same “stuff” as the Father.  He shares the same essence of being.  They *are* the same; they are one God, yet two persons.

53. What do we mean when we say that Christ was fully human and divine?

He is fully human in that He is like us in all ways except sin, and He is fully divine in that He is the second person of the Trinity and consubstantial with the Father.

52. Be able to identify 2 Christological Heresies and explain them

Adoptionism:  Jesus Christ is the son of God only by adoption.  He did not have a divine nature per se, but the Father is willing to accept this imperfect Son as His own and raise him to perfection.

Arianism:  Claimed that the Son of God was a created being, “came to be from things that were not,” and therefore has a different substance than the Father.

Nestorianism:  Christ was first a divine person who then put aside his divinity and became human.  Christ could be God or man, but He could not be both.  Mary is then a Christ-bearer, but not a God-bearer.  Mary was the main issue here.

Monophysite Heresy:  The Divine nature of Christ completely overtook the human nature of Christ, so that all that was left was a divine nature, and no elements of human nature remained.

Personal Subject Heresy:  Some later claimed that Christ’s human nature was the “personal” side, or subject of Jesus.  That in some sense, the human deeds and weakness of Jesus could be attributed to his human subject, and his miracles to his Divine nature.

51. What four reasons does the Catechism give for why God became flesh?

• In order to reconcile us with God
• So that we might know God’s love
• To be our model of holiness
• To make us sharers in the divine nature

50. What does it mean to call Jesus “Christ” and “Son of God”?

Christ comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “messiah,” meaning “anointed one.”  In Israel, those who were consecrated to God for a special mission were anointed, including priests, prophets and kings.  Jesus is all three of these.  He is the messiah because he completed perfectly the mission of the Father and shares in that three-fold ministry.

Son of God is a phrase used throughout the Old Testament, in the New Testament it is a revelation of the unique relationship between Jesus and God the Father.