Happiness

  Obj: Mary was only the ark of the covenant while bearing Jesus, not after. Ans: The ark lives in God’s temple as Rev. 11:19 says. From that, it follows that the ark has no more of an earthly use but a heavenly use. An earthly use rots away as Mt. 6:19 says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy…” but heavenly use is “where moths and vermin do not destroy” (Mt. 6:20).  That which does not rot away is perpetual. So then the ark is perpetual. If the ark is perpetual, Mary being the ark is perpetual. Obj to the Ans: The ark never had an earthly use but always had a heavenly use, even when it was still on earth with the Israelites.  Moreover, Exodus 40:34 says, “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” That which has the cloud covering like so is of heavenly use, not earthly use. Ans: Luke 1:35 is where the angel told Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most...

 I may have said, “I am in existence” before. But this seems unclear to me. Is existence bigger than the “I am” so that the “I am” exist *in* it? If yes, how could existence be bigger than the “I am” if it is only through the “I am” do I know about the bigger existence or existence at all? Somehow the bigger existence is in my existent conception? One could avoid this unclearness by saying, “I exist,” instead.

 I just noticed recently that I am prideful. The pride that I have is implicit in my mind. This implicitness is why I am prideful. If I realized that I am prideful, I would have tried to stop my prideful actions or thoughts or words immediately. I did not give enough thought into how my actions are prideful. Perhaps they are not prideful actually, but just seem prideful from a third person perspective. People can find me to seemingly be prideful in anything I do so it is impossible to not seem prideful, but there exists a spectrum in which pride falls into. Pride can be seemingly miniscule or it can be absolutely puffed up. I would hope that a person who views me would at least seemingly assume that I am prideful in a miniscule manner as opposed to being absolutely puffed up.  The contrast to pridefulness is humbleness.  Humbleness does not always involve being quiet. For example, when a person asks me if I won my basketball game yesterday, it would not necessarily be hum...

  Consider this statement: some Catholic laymen and even apologists claim that it is only God who can judge who goes to hell–no pope can judge who goes to hell. I think this has to be qualified.  I agree with the statement insofar as it is ULTIMATELY ONLY in God’s power to judge who goes to hell. Whereas a pope only gets to judge who goes to hell as a participant because of the power given by God. Now that the one sense where it is only within God’s power to judge who goes to hell is out of the way, I argue that there is another sense in which a pope can judge who goes to hell. Consider this anathematization formula according to Pope Zachary in the chapter Debent duodecim sacerdotes, Cause xi, quest. Iii which says, “Wherefore in the name of God the All-powerful, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost …we declare him excommunicated and anathematized and we judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of t...

  God’s immensity or absolutely immeasurability means that God is not a relative infinite. A relative infinity can be measured by a spatiotemporal respect. For example, the universe has a spatiotemporal respect which can be considered as a set and can be measured even if the universe was infinitely big. God, on the other hand, is absolutely infinite because he is infinite in every respect and cannot be measured by a spatiotemporal respect. So, it is wrong to think the following: God is infinitely wise but that wisdom can be comprehended as a set of individual wisdoms Omnipresence is a positive and relative attribute. This means that omnipresence has a positive ontological status in the universe, the universe itself being spatiotemporal. But this does not mean that God is limited by the universe, it just means he has a relation to the universe. God is omnipresent because of his power, knowledge, and essence. It is through his essence that he is substantially present to everything cr...