My Catholic faith and me, part drei

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God. . .

I have seen much written about opening communications between Muslims and Christians. That is well and good and to be applauded, but the limitations of such dialogue must be recognized. Dialogue will open communications and further understanding, but if the idea of such dialogue is to convert the Muslims to Christianity, or to convert the Christians to Islam, forget it. It's on this very point that conversion stops. Islam holds that there is one God only. Trinitarian thought, the triune God that is standard to Christianity, the dual nature of Jesus Christ, are complete anathema to Islamic thought. In fact, Islam is much closer to Judaism than to Christianity in many respects - which only highlights the tragedy of the struggle in the Middle East. It's a fight between cousins.

The Hebrew word for peace - shalom - implies much more than an absence of war. It refers to one's being well with the universe. The Arabic word that captures the same concept: Salaam. Quite a resemblance there! The words are cognates, and there are quite a few cognates between Hebrew and Arabic.

But I am part of the Christian faith community. Thus:

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God. . .

And the Nicene Creed continues:

eternally begotten of the Father. . .

That also doesn't go over very well in the non-Christian community.

God from God, 

Light from light,

True God from True God. . .

The nature of this Jesus Christ has been a source of much discussion, even during his own lifetime. The disciples wondered, "Who is this man, that even the wind and sea obey him? Who is this man who, using just a few loaves and fishes, feeds thousands? Who is this man who causes the blind to see, the lame to walk - the dead to live?" In asking this, they were really asking the only question that they could ask. The history of Christian thought tells us that if we start down the paths suggested by the question  "How?" or "Why?" we're going to wind up down a wrong path. We can't get our heads around concepts like, "How can God be three-in-one?" "How can Jesus be, at one and the same time, fully human and completely divine, with no confusion of the natures?"
No - the only question we can really ask is, "Who?" Who is the God-Man? Who was it who, in his earthly life, showed us who and what God is? Who is it that, by his Passion and Resurrection, provided the onkly means of salvation for us all? No other question really matters.
'Nuff for now. Thanks for hanging out for a few, and I'd love your thoughts.