Diocesan Theology Courses

Week 2: The Family Living the Faith
Second Hour:  The Family as Sacrament of Love 
November 14, 2012

Alen Giliana

Lecture Summary

1. God takes the love that a couple brings to him and He elevates, magnifies and infuses it with the divine love in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
2. The love found in the Trinity is both creative and redemptive.
3. During the precious time on the cross, Christ shows us the depth and loftiness of marriage.
4. It is not something within the spouces that keeps a marriage bound together but a holy marriage keeps the spouses together.
5. It is the parents that must first prepare the way of God within their children.
6. A holy family is sent out to the heart of society to evangelize by its existence.

Lecture Notes 

All of the sacrament flow out of God's love to us so that we may be worthy to receive his grace

• so when one of those sacraments translates the divine love into human love a bridge is built
• God gave us a way to make visible His invisible divine love. ****

The only Sacrament that two persons are required to enter

• all the other sacraments a person enters, marriage two enter
• God has chosen this sacrament to mimic the trinity on earth
• its given two because its not static love, like the Trinity
• He takes the love that a couple brings to him and elevates magnifies and infuses it with the divine love, the love that is at the core of the Holy Trinity

Trinitarian love is two part

• Creative love
  • it is in the cyclical love of the Father to the Son and from the Son to the Father that the Holy Spirit is begotten
  • God could have chosen any method to bring life in this world, but he chose through lovewhen a husband loves his wife and the wife in return loves her husband they give the themselves fully that's when window is open to life
    • trees grow fruit
• Redemptive love
  • it is the loving submission of the son to the father's will humanity has redemption
    • John 3:16
    • Luke 22:42 ESV - "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done."
  • in a home where the father and the mother live in complete dedication to one another and keeping God's will first before their own they open the biggest window to the children to God's saving grace
    • we say this during the mass "Lord, grant us peace and serenity that we may confess your Trinity"
    • Peace and serenity are prerequisites
  • starts with one and gives to the other
  • must come from inside and given to the other

Love of Christ to Church is the prime image of family;

• Chaldean liturgy
  • This theological reality is not overlooked in the Chaldean liturgy
  • liturgical calendar-after the season of the cross is the crowning of the church
  • church hymn and marriage rite -Church, O betrothed of Jesus Christ who save you by his precious Blood; gave you his body (living Food which wicked man had sacrificed), who placed in your hands his redeeming Cup (his most precious Blood that flowed from his side when they stabbed him by the spear)

• A holy and successful marriage
  • is in love with God. Not just internally or individually, but externally and collectively.
  • does not melt within society. We are not married because we are not religious. We are sent as a religious couple in the world. Zero exceptions or excuses.

Week 2: The Family Living the Faith
First Hour:  The Family as Created by God 
November 14, 2012

Fr. Andrew Younan

Biblical Texts:

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?" He answered, "Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, `For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder." They said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" He said to them, "For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery." The disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry." But he said to them, "Not all men can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it." Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people; but Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." And he laid his hands on them and went away.

           - Matthew 19:3-15

• Being in society is something that is part of our nature. This is especially true in marriage.
  • The society does not end in the husband and wife, it ends in children.
• Those who are called to virginity are not against nature, they supersede nature.
  • Children are also in the context of consecrated life. The element of taking care of others and being responsible for

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

           - Genesis 1:26-31

Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.

           - Genesis 2:18-24

• God did not create man alone. Even at creation, he did not create male and female alone.
• The family is not an isolated unit on its own, this too is unnatural. A family is meant to interact with the world and make it a better place.
• Even God the creator is not alone, it overflows into the human being and the family.
  • Therefore, the family too must overflow into society.
• Human nature as we have inherited it is fallen and stained with sin.
  • It is because of this fall that we have people desiring things that are against nature.
• Creation was not “very good” until man and woman were created. 

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), "that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth." Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

           - Ephesians 5:21-6:4

• Parents must be the first example of obedience before they expect their children to obey them.
• The father is the father of his child because of Christ. Parents are stewards of the family, not the creators or gods of their children. 

Week 1: Introduction to the Faith
Second Hour: The Church Believes in the Holy Trinity
November 7, 2012

Bishop Sarhad Yawsip Jammo

In One God: The Father Almighty, and in our Lord Jesus Christ his only begotten Son, and in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father through the Son.

1. a)We believe in God consisting in one divine nature, possessed by three persons, or three distinct “Qnome” (i.e. distinct individuals, distinct but never separate), as expressed in the eastern theological terminology; which means that God revealed himself to us as a transcendent and dynamic being:

• • The Heavenly Father, the fountain and ultimate source of every being and existence;
  • His own internal image, the only Son or the Word of God sent to the world in human nature to accomplish our redemption; and
  • The Holy Spirit who is the divine energy that animates and sanctifies every spiritual being, applying and distributing the effects and graces of redemption.

1. b)Because the term “Person” is used with a specific meaning referring to human individuals or legal institutions, we may be justified in theology to prefer the term Qnoma, to express the transcendent reality of the divine Persons.

1. c)If Jesus Christ is not the “Son of God”, whatever he said or did could not have the ultimate value and be the final reference for human race. Without Trinity there cannot be Incarnation; therefore, the Father sent to us his Son, and the Son reveals to us his Father; when the Son departs, the Father sends to us the Holy Spirit to remain with us till theThe Holy Trinity is the transcendent image of every genuine family and unity.   

Week 1: Introduction on Faith
First Hour: We Believe in One God
November 7, 2012

Bishop Sarhad Yawsip Jammo

We Believe

What do we mean with this declaration? “We Believe in One God”?

To believe in this context implies:

1. a)The result of research for an intellectual answer in regard to basic question of the existence, origin and finality, of the world and of our own, which we identify as God, who has created the world, the universe, and ourselves for a purpose.

1. b)The implications in regard to conscience moral imperatives, valid as personal and social standards for human individuals, with eternal consequences.

1. c)“We believe” goes beyond: an intellectual “we know”, to the “commitment” of ourselves to a specific relationship with God, implying submission to his plan of creation. That plan implied a beautiful universe created with its crowning, which is the human being, to whom God created an intellectual soul, made in the image of God himself; an image which is beautiful, therefore possessing a precious but limited freedom.

1. d)Because of the historic fact of human sin since primordial time, God reached out to human race providing salvation, whose outline implied the selection of Abraham, sealing a covenant with him and his inheritance; a covenant with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. More than generic “commitment”, it indicates a “covenant” in the blood of Jesus Christ, as a response of his faithful within his ecclesial body.

The Chaldean Institute for Mesopotamian Studies
Annual Session of Theological Studies On
The Comprehensive Liturgical Reform

THEOLOGICAL COURSE 2011
Every Wednesday
from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Starting November 02, 2011
Ending December 08, 2011
on the Feast of Mary the Immaculate Conception

Previous Courses:
2010 Diocesan Course
2009 Diocesan Course
2008 Diocesan Course
2007 Diocesan Course

The Chaldean Institute for Mesopotamian Studies
Annual Session of Theological Studies On

The Year of Faith

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THEOLOGICAL COURSE 2012
Every Wednesday
from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Starting November 07, 2012
Ending November 28, 2012

Previous Courses:
2011 Diocesan Course
2010 Diocesan Course
2009 Diocesan Course
2008 Diocesan Course
2007 Diocesan Course