The teaching is fairly simple on the
face of it: we believe in one God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit: 1 God, 3
persons. Though it is simple, it is hard
to comprehend, in fact we never fully comprehend this mystery. For us personhood and individuality go hand
in hand: every person is also a separate substance. But, when it comes to God, this is not the
case. Rather, God is one substance, but
three persons in a loving communion of persons. This is the teaching, but where does it come
from? When I was in the seminary I had
the good fortune to take a full 3 credit course on the Trinity. During this course I was able to learn
exactly how this doctrine has unfolded in the history of humanity.
We begin with the faith of the people of Israel, who,
beginning with Abraham, believed in only one God. In the face of the polytheism of the ancient
world, Israel came to know the one true God.
This was not a discovery of reason, rather God revealed himself to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. This
one God continued to be in relationship with his people, speaking to Moses in
the burning bush and face to face on the mountain. He continued to guide his people through the
words of his holy prophets. Christianity
is based upon the faith of the people of Israel. So, we inherited this faith, this revelation
the God is one and that there is only one God.
The gods of the heathens are naught!
They don’t even exist. So Judaism
is a monotheistic faith, and so is Christianity.
However, the birth of Jesus does change things. It doesn’t really change God! We hear in the first reading that the Wisdom
of God was with God from the beginning.
Since the early days of the Church, Christians have seen the Wisdom of
the Old Testament as a type referring to Christ, who is the Word, the Logos, of
God. So Jesus, the divine word, existed
for all time, even before the incarnation.
Yet, when God becomes Man it furthers the revelation of the nature of
God. God reveals more about himself to
us. We maintain our faith in the unity
of God: God is one. But Jesus is
God! Not only that, but the Father sends
us the Spirit through the Son. Last week
we celebrated Pentecost, so it is fitting that we celebrate Trinity Sunday on the
following Sunday, since the coming of the Holy Spirit is the last revelation of
the mystery of the Trinity.
So this is how we arrive at the teaching of God as
Trinity. We inherit the faith of the Old
Testament, which held that God is one.
The life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus reveal to us the
Son. And with the coming of the Holy
Spirit the revelation of the mystery is complete. There is one God, who is the Father who sends
the Son so to give the Holy Spirit. God
is one, but three persons.
It is certainly true that the Trinity is a mystery. But, this doesn’t mean that we cannot say
anything about the Trinity. Rather, it
means that we can say many true things about the Trinity even though we can
never get to the fullness of the Truth about God’s existence. So, it is important to study and pray as a
way to bolster our faith. I want to
challenge everyone to do a little reading on the Trinity this week. Get out your catechism (if you don’t have
one, go buy one). Read, pray, and study
a little bit about the Holy Trinity.
Even this Mass is like a great catechism lesson on the Holy
Trinity. The whole Mass is a prayer to
the Father in heaven, where we glorify God the Father, in Christ through the
power of the Holy Spirit. Notice that
most of the prayers of the Mass are addressed to the Father, through the Son,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit. So, the
mass is a prayer that lives in and through the whole blessed Trinity.
This should be a reflection of our whole lives. The sacrifice of the Mass teaches us not only
the Trinity, but also how we are to live!
Our lives should be directed to the glory of God, through our communion
with Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
In closing, let us pray to the blessed Trinity: Glory be…
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