The Concept of the Most Holy Trinity - The Relationship between the Three Persons in One God

Boston Catholic Journal ^

[NYer]

The Concept of the Most Holy Trinity

The Relationship between the Three Persons in One God

 

Some doctrines perplex us more than others. Offhand, we could enumerate the following:

• The Incarnation (the infinite God is born of a woman, the Virgin Mary, and takes upon Himself our finite humanity)

• The Virginal Birth (Mary remained a virgin before, during, and after the conception and birth of her Son, Jesus)

• The Immaculate Conception (Mary's being conceived in her own mother's womb without the stain of Original Sin)

• Creation ex nihilo (the creation by God of something out of nothing)

We assent to these dogmas (dogma, just by the way, is not a four letter word --- but rather, a formally revealed truth) although they remain mysteries, that is to say, they exceed the capacity of reason, while not conflicting with it. No logical contradiction can be adduced to discredit them; they simply lie beyond the province of our natural experience and the limitations inherent in reason (and reason has limitations: we need only ponder the concepts of infinity, infinite divisibility, and eternity to name a few).

Among these dogmas, or revealed truths, however, none quite so perplexes us as the notion of the Most Holy Trinity. That in and of itself it remains a profound mystery is profoundly true. However, because it pertains to the most central aspect of our faith as Catholics and Christians, inasmuch as it pertains to the Person and nature of God, we attempt to apprehend it in some measure, for only in knowing something, in knowing of its nature, can we begin to love it. We do not love what we do not know, and our knowing defectively or insufficiently results in our loving defectively or deficiently.

We wish to know God. We wish to know Him well. In fact, we are convinced --- and rightly so --- that the more we know about God, the more we will find to love in Him, and the more we love, the greater our own felicity ... especially when that love is requited.

Too often, in the minds of Christians, God is reduced to the Father: conceived as an elderly, avuncular figure with a great white beard Who is rather stern and quite distant; one Who is really very little involved in the trivial affairs of men, and so sent His Son instead, and the Son, of course, is less than the Father. What is more, the Son is more compassionate than this remote and rather irascible figure that more resembles Aristotle's Unmoved Mover, than a Father. We like Jesus --- although we fear His Father. In fact, for so many, Christian and pagan alike, Jesus was merely a man, perhaps a wise man, maybe even a prophet of sorts --- but not more. Well ... maybe ... but we are not quite sure how. The Holy Spirit? This faceless Spirit, whatever its nature, clearly cannot be that of a person, although He nevertheless figures largely in this mysterious narrative. Quite a conundrum.

Ask quite nearly every adult Catholic who has, over the past 40 years, suffered from the inexcusable negligence in Catechism, or CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine), as we call it here in America --- a negligence that lays at the feet of the Bishops who, opting for a more visible correctitude in matters social and political, have defaulted on their primary responsibility as Teachers of the Faith in their respective dioceses --- and the answer is the same, although the inflections vary: "I really don't know", or, "it is terribly unclear to me."

Many --- perhaps most --- will reply that there are three gods, or that one is superior to the other, or existed prior to the other, or in fact, that only one is God and the others are something of the nature of demiurges or lesser gods, possessed of remarkable abilities, to be sure, but rather like us in every other way.

Saint Augustine literally wrote volumes on the subject (De Trinitate), as did Saint Thomas Aquinas and many, many, other great and learned Saints. Even the the most modest compendium using the utmost concision will, very likely, avail you little in the way of understanding the most fundamental features of this doctrine, this profound mystery --- and in failing to yield understanding in whatever measure, consequently failing to motivate love for that which is not understood.

Perhaps, then, as it is said, "a picture (in this case a diagram) is worth a thousand words".  So, for the sake of  those who should be teaching and do not, or are teaching and know little of what they teach --- but most of all for the children, we present you a picture --- in the shameful absence of words.

Our motivation is simple: if you do not know God, how can you love Him?

Oh ... yes, ...God does not "look like" the conceptual drawing ... and we truly fear that we are compelled to say that ...
 

[Dr. Eckleburg]

No difference.

[magisterium]

"Pandering"? I don't think so. Hitting this culture directly with iconic representations is not likely to yield much in the way of results. Not in the first wave, anyway. There's a time and a place for everything. Our skeptical culture tends to want to see diagrams first, art second. That's okay. The art will come into its own in Phase Two.

But first, it is incumbent on us to get these folks to abandon their skepticism, and that means getting to them in ways that they have some chance of understanding based on what they already know. Our time is unique in the number and kind of secular enticements, readily available via mass media, that the Church must contend against. Moreover, what is perceived as "rationality" is itslf often embraced as an enticement in its own right, at least in the self-congratulatory style we often see around us (Christopher Hitchens comes immediately to mind). We already made the mistake of simply being "relevant" in teaching through the culture, where ew quickly watered down theology to feel-goodism and a rationalization of all sorts of irrational behavior (witness the SPI fiasco in San Franciso, for example). We're too far removed (due to our own fault) from traditional catechetics to simply return to them instantaneously and without recourse to ancillary methods). Two generations of potential catechists do not know the faith well themselves, and cannot teach that way alone. Integrating a more "flow-chart," diagrammatic approach may be a good way to get the ball rolling in the West, at least until something resembling Christendom has been restored here.

Ethereal spirituality (even when authentic) is largely lost on the hard-edged, hyper-pragmatic, skeptical agnostics who pervade our western culture. St. Paul advised a diet of spiritual milk before the neophytes take to spiritual meat. Well, the milk of diagramming spiritual truths may be quite useful to this generation while they are spiritual infants, when they start teething in a spiritual way, we can introduce the chopped meat, and beyond that: the great day will dawn when we can introduce icons and other artistic expressions to coexist with the mystical writings of the saints! But, for many, for us to simply launch at them with a perceived tenuous tone is to simply lose them immediately. Hook 'em any way you can, so long as it can be integrated with a higher understanding of orthodoxy when the time is appropriate. I fail to see how employing such aids as the "steering wheel" with the likes of our contemporary unchurched cannot be integrated with traditional methods of teaching the Faith to achieve that end.

[stuartcr]

I’m sure that is what you believe, but our beliefs differ.

[Uri’el-2012]

how do you read Isaiah 60:16 ?

shalom b'shem Yahshua

[Salvation]

Wonderful! Too many Catholics (and I might add Protestants) have forgotten the Holy Spirit. We need to put the words, “Holy Spirit” back into our vocabulary!

Onward, Holy Spirit, lead us!

[MHGinTN]

I know, Stuart, but I can't give up just yet. I don't want to offend you though ... (^:

[Kolokotronis]

“I fail to see how employing such aids as the “steering wheel” with the likes of our contemporary unchurched cannot be integrated with traditional methods of teaching the Faith to achieve that end.”

Perhaps such methods can be used. In the GOA right now there is something of a debate raging about what methods to use for catechesis. Interestingly, it is the modernists and “liberals” (sort if a meaningless term when applied to Orthodox, I know!)who seem positive about those methods. The conservatives are not at all enamored of them. Here’s the thing, its the traditional, very conservative (but English speaking) Orthodox parishes which are growing with converts arriving and secularized Orthodox returning to the fold while the liberal places (and the hyper ethnic parishes outside of Greek “ghettos”) are dying on the vine.

In my parish the Yankee converts seem to take to icons from the first day they walk into the temple. I suppose many of them had read about icons before they ever come to church, but a number have told me that it was the experience of icons “in real life” in a parish church which brought them out of protestantism or whatever and into The Church.

[Salvation]

Gospel from Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 10-20-07, Opt. Mem. St. Paul of the Cross

Emphasis added by me here.

Gospel
Lk 12:8-12

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I tell you,
everyone who acknowledges me before others
the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God.
But whoever denies me before others
will be denied before the angels of God.

“Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven,
but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will not be forgiven.
When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities,
do not worry about how or what your defense will be
or about what you are to say.
For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”

[stuartcr]

I don’t think it’s possible to be offended on an anonymous web forum, but thanks.

[NYer]

how do you read Isaiah 60:16 ?

I never gave it much thought. How do you read it?

[NYer]

All of these people need to start at the bottom rung when it comes to learning actual doctrine, and most of them live in an analytical world, as opposed to a spiritual one, at least to some extent.

Ahhhh .... there's an awesome icon that fits this, as well. Hats off to Kolokotronis for introducing me to it.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent

As the French would say - "sans paroles" - no words necessary. Each and every day is a struggle. There is no shortcut to Heaven. We are tempted at each and every stage of our journey. We can draw inspiration from the saints who have gone before us and set the examle to follow. Love this icon!

[Kolokotronis]

:)

[NYer]

Thank you for posting that!

It’s called the Athanasian Creed, by the way.

I had never read this until you posted it. God bless you for this!

[ichabod1]

Really? I thought you would have. I discovered it a few months ago on Quicumque Sunday. We chanted it in procession around the nave. It really made an impression on me, and the more I look at it the more I become impressed with its clear, cogent declaration of the faith. It was obviously written (about 600 I think) to address certain heresies, Arianism, Nestorianism, and Gnosticism to name a few.

[NYer]

I discovered it a few months ago on Quicumque Sunday. We chanted it in procession around the nave. It really made an impression on me, and the more I look at it the more I become impressed with its clear, cogent declaration of the faith.

Many years ago, I attended an intensive group workshop intended to turn a group into a team. There is a BIG difference and I was most fortunate to be a member of the only group in that session, that achieved 'synergy' - transformation into a team where all of us together were more effective than any one individual. It was a life altering experience.

I thank you again for your earlier post. Try to view yourself as a member of a team, okay? Kudos on an excellent post!

[ichabod1]

I don’t understand. You actually hit on something, all I want in life is to live and work as part of a real team, but I don’t see what my statement about the Quicumque has to do with it. A team with you and Salvation and GOP_Thug_Mom and Frank Sheed and An American Mother and the other serious Catholics on this site? A team with my choir? (That’s what I like best about singing in the choir)

[AnAmericanMother]

Or a team with your retrieving dog . . . .

(sorry! < g > just got back from an all-day seminar, started at 8 am, with a big time retrieving guru from Florida, Carol Cassady. This lady knows her stuff! I really improved my teamwork with BOTH my dogs!)

[Zuriel]

**Never seen the ‘steering wheel’ diagram before. I like it!**

Shouldn’t there be a ‘steering wheel’ with one spoke shorter and weaker for a short time when the equally powerful Son (according to the ‘trinity’) cried out to the Father for strength while in the garden. Or......

Maybe there should be a diagram with one spoke entirely missing for three days and three nights, as the Son died and later arose. Was part of God dead for that time? Or......

Maybe there needs to be a ‘seven spoke wheel’ since the Word speaks of the seven spirits of God.

Who was the Father of Jesus Christ? The Father or the Holy Ghost? Did God have two fathers?

It is simple. You desire a picture of God? Try starting with a blank sheet of paper. Nothing on it, nothing visible? God is a Spirit. There you have it. No man hath seen God.

But God is good, and has appeared USING visible images (Heb. 1:1). The Father was in Christ doing the works, telling him what to say; leaving the son so he COULD die on the cross. “Him hath God raised up..”, and “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of ALL THINGS....”. The fullness of the Godhead is found bodily in Jesus Christ. That’s why when someone calls on the name of Jesus, they ARE talking to the Father.

How many Spirits of God does a born again believer have in him/her? Jesus Christ said he would dwell in believers; physically, no, of course not, but Spiritually, yes. The Spirit of Christ IS the Holy Ghost. It’s the Spirit that left the Son while he was on the cross, and then raised him from the dead.

Jesus made it clear that God is a Spirit, and God gave not the Spirit by measure unto the Christ. But he cannot give all of his Spirit to us. We can’t HOLD it all.

Diagrams.......icons......that carnally attempt to portray the Godhead; reminds me of Jeroboam resorting to making golden calves to give the people of the ten tribes something religious to LOOK at.

It wasn’t a long period after the death of David that Solomon began down his slippery slope, which was increased by his son Rehoboam. Jeroboam was given ten tribes and anointed by God to correct this rebellion. He instead committed an even worse sin, building images to God; and images that were not at all representative of the Godhead.

It wasn’t long after the church was born that false doctrine was taught, and has led many a ‘ten tribes’ away from truth. Satan indeed has transformed himself into an angel of light.

Enough for now, and may the Lord bless them that love him.

[NYer]

It wasn’t long after the church was born that false doctrine was taught, and has led many a ‘ten tribes’ away from truth. Satan indeed has transformed himself into an angel of light.

What a nice way to begin Sunday morning by calling our Lord, Jesus Christ, a liar. Matthew 16:18.

[Eagle Eye]

There is only one God and God is one.

Three is not one; one is not three.

And there is only one mediator between God and man, the MAN Christ Jesus.

God is not a man that he should lie or the son of man that he should repent.

God is spirit and invisible.

Jesus came in (totally in) the flesh and he that denies that is antichrist.