The Holy Spirit answers some questions for me through His divinely inspired Scriptures

I really have to start going to daily Mass more often.  I feel so much more capable and confident in my abilities to defend the Faith after Mass.  The Holy Spirit spoke loud and clear to me through the readings this morning at Mass.   At one point He humbled me by pointing out an error I made in a discussion with my sister-in-law Marilyn recently.  The topic of our “ranking” in creation was brought up and I said I thought one of Paul’s epistles said we were higher than the angels.  Oops!  Psalm 8 states our hierarchy pretty succinctly.  Here is how our “ranking” in creation is explained at Catholic Online:

 When the first man was being created:

"Let us make man in our image. after our likeness ... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them." (Genesis 1:26-27)

This does not mean that the first of the human race had exactly the same physical nature as the angels, for the angels were made to live forever. Adam and Eve were not made never-dying: they did sin, and they suffered death as the punishment for it. That is why the whole human race has been dying ever since.

Psalm 8 is a Psalm in which the creation of the earth is extolled. Here we are told that man's position is lower than the angels:

"What is man, that thou art mindful of him? ... For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour." (Psalm 8:4,5)

The New Testament quotes this passage, and tells us that mankind - including the Lord Jesus himself - was made a little lower than the angels, "for the suffering of death" (Hebrews 2:9). Angels do not die, but men and women do. Even Jesus, the Son of God, was a mortal man, but has now received the glory and honour which was his due when, as he said after his resurrection, "all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18).

During that same discussion with Marilyn, she said she was sad that a lot of people just don’t understand what Catholicism has to offer.  She feels a lot of people are turned off by our acceptance of pain and suffering as God’s Will in our lives.  It should be noted that even very "good" Catholics forget this concept sometimes. They will say “How can a loving God inflict or even allow pain and suffering to continue?  Didn’t Jesus’ death and resurrection atone for the sins of Adam and Eve?” 

Paul answers these questions forcefully, I think, in his letter to the Romans (Rom 5:1-5):

Brothers and sisters:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.  

Ever since my chat with Marilyn last week, I was feeling inadequate in my responses to her.  Being the prideful man that I am, I would not have admitted it to her face, though.  I have been praying that I can find the strength that comes with humility to admit I didn’t really know the answers to the questions she was asking, and along comes the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity with 2 readings that explain some of the topics that were brought up!  Way to go, Holy Spirit—and thank You!  In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.