Replies

"How you can interpret these three as one other than a metaphorical one is beyond me. They are separate."

This doctrine of the Trinity took many years to fully develop to what we have now. The Church Fathers carefully developed this doctrine to weed out what the faithful DOES NOT believe. When terminology was initially given, heresy would pop up that took the faith in a direction that the Apostles had not taught. For example, the idea of three hypostases (persons) removed the taint of Sabellianism (the idea that God manifested Himself differently through history, in essence, saying that there was no distinction between Jesus and the Father and the Spirit). However, this brought up the threat of Tritheism, which claims that God is three separate persons. Deut 6:4 is being threatened, thus, the careful wording by the Fathers. And so, the Fathers had to define to what extent God consisted of three hypostases (persons).

We can thank the Cappodocian Fathers for our definitions that we have today that preserve "the tradition of the Scriptures", as St. George of Nyssa recalled. Specifically on the question of distinctions among the Three, he identified causality as the only real point of distinction, stating that one was the cause, namely, the Father, and that the Son and the Spirit were derived from Him, but eternally. In this one cause was the guarantee of the unity of the Three. By saying this, we can rest assured that there are not three Persons who act separately from each other. When one acts, all three act. There are three persons, but they have one will, one nature. They act together. It is a fine line, but it keeps us away from Tritheism

Here is what the Catechism says on the subject:

254 The divine persons are really distinct from one another. "God is one but not solitary. [Father], [Son], [Holy Spirit] are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: "He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son." They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: "It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds." The divine Unity is Triune.

256 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called "the Theologian", entrusts this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of Constantinople:
"Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that casts down. . . the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely God. . . the three considered together. . . I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendour. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me".

St. Basil said that what was common to the Three and what was distinctive among them lay beyond speech and comprehension and therefore beyond either analysis or conceptualization. The distinction between the generation of the Son and that of the Spirit remained an "unknown mode", according to Didymus. These Fathers were determined to "guard tradition we have received from the fathers, as ever sure and immovable, and seek from the Lord a means of defending our faith" (George of Nyssa).

I think we will have to admit that the mystery of the Godhead cannot be fully understood in this lifetime. These theological definitions attempt to explain using human words an essence and subject that we can never fully penetrate. However, it is important that we have an understanding of who God is based on His revelation to the Apostles.

Regards