Readings:
• Prov 8:22-31
• Ps 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
• Rom 5:1-5
• Jn 16:12-15
The apologist and novelist Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) dryly noted, in an essay titled “The Dogma is the Drama,” that for many people, even more than a few Christians, the doctrine of the Trinity is, “The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the whole thing incomprehensible.”
There are likely a few Catholics who would candidly admit, “Well, the Church teaches that the Trinity is a mystery—and it’s certainly a mystery to me!”
In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life” (CCC 234). It goes on to explain that this great mystery is the most fundamental, essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith” and that it is a mystery of faith “in the strict sense”—it cannot be known except it has been revealed by God (CCC 237).
A theological mystery, such as the Trinity, is a truth about God known only through divine revelation, not by reason or philosophy. It is like a well with no bottom from which we can drink endlessly, our minds and souls never going away thirsty.
Belief in the Trinity—one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is a distinctive mark of the Christian Faith. The first few centuries of the Church were filled with controversies and careful definitions regarding the one nature of God, the three Persons of the Trinity, and their relationship with each other. Yet the dogma of the Trinity cannot be proven in the usual sense of “proven” and “proof.” But this does not mean that the dogma of the Trinity is contrary to reason or that reason cannot be applied to understanding it to some degree (cf. CCC 154); it means that the Triune reality of God is ultimately beyond human reasoning. As St. Augustine remarked, “If you understood Him, it would not be God” (CCC 230).
Today’s readings do not use the term “Trinity,” of course, because the word doesn’t appear in Scripture. But they are some of the many texts the Church has looked to as either foreshadowing the revelation of the Trinity or giving explicit witness to it. The reading from Proverbs is one of several Old Testament passages that describe the wisdom of God, which is often referred to as a sort of personal being or reality. Some of this language is taken up in the New Testament to refer to the Son, including St. Paul’s description of Christ as “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24). Or, similarly, in a passage that bears a strong resemblance to the reading from Proverbs, the “one Lord, Jesus Christ” is described as the one “through whom all things are and through whom we exist” (1 Cor 8:6).
While the Old Testament contains hints and suggestions, the mystery of the Trinity was revealed with the Incarnation—first at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River, and then in His teachings. Jesus spoke of the intimate communion between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, included in this Solemnity’s reading from the Gospel of John. “Everything that the Father has is mine,” Jesus tells the Apostles, “for this reason I told you that he”—the Holy Spirit—“will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”
The Father sends forth the Son so that, as St. Paul wrote to the Romans, we might have peace with God, while the Holy Spirit pours out God’s love, all so we might be justified and made right with God.
In his great fifth-century book De Trinitate (On the Trinity), St. Augustine summed up the heart of the Church’s belief in the mystery of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by simply stating, “If you see charity, you see the Trinity.” God is One and three Persons; He offers His divine life and love to those who believe in Him (CCC 257). The Trinity is not just a mystery to us, but also for us.
(This “Opening the Word” column originally appeared in the June 3, 2007, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
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Some say, based on science, the rule of possibility that there may well be intelligent life beyond the stars. If that possibility were to be a reality with epochal impact, that intelligence must be comparable to human intelligence, which is not rated as to degree of intelligence among living things, rather that it’s intelligence with the capacity to apprehend the essences of things and think, to contemplate its own existence. Why so? The Trinity.
That one and the same eternal God who created all things has revealed himself as three persons, yet one and the same God. Jesus of Nazareth the second person of the Trinity begotten of the Father existed from all eternity [why human intelligence acknowledges this as mystery] even though begotten from.
Why couldn’t there be other manifestations of the Son elsewhere? Because Jesus of Nazareth is particular to Man in historical time and place and nowhere else. Man made in God’s own image born into our world as the Christ true God and true man who alone reveals who the Father is. None other than he. Present and revealing himself to those who love him through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you Carl for simplifying the mystery of the Holy Trinity; A theological mystery, such as the Trinity is a truth about God known only through divine revelation, not by reason or philosophy.
Amen
We don’t have any real world ETI aliens to question, so until then everything is speculation. The Bible was written for we humans without the need to depend on technology as a pre-requisite for salvation. To me this was the message behind 2001-A Space Odyssey. That the monolith beings were only interested in us if we could demonstrate a certain level of technological attainment.
Carl, the son reveals the Trinity to us, the Blessed mother is in some way United to this Revelation also, and John the Baptist. The Trinity is revealed at the annunciation our Blessed mother immediately goes to Elizabeth, to bring in this revelation, so that John the Baptist could be born without
original sin and the importance of this is because he will eventually baptize our Lord and once again the Trinity will make it’s manifestation at his public ministry. These are deep mysteries however they are meant to be listened to what love and faith and Hope and then we will somehow understand. I think today we are trying to hard to explain great mysteries in a methodical mathematical scientific way that is not necessary and will never be understood we don’t know how the incarnation ever came about because there was no human sperm our Blessed mother was not pregnant as everyone says because she’s the mother of God a divine intervention happened we all understand that because we believe in it nothing else is necessary. However the church needs to come up with a term for the time of our blessed mothers Fiat to the time of our Lord’s birth this special nine months of carrying needs to be defined by the church in a holy unique word that we can bring to the world this Revelation and meditate upon this revelation without science without fetuses without any kind of measurement. Thank you for writing about the trinity it makes us understand and think about the incarnation which we need to reflect on more and define more of the beautiful mysteries that are mysteries but they’re also facts and cloud becomes mad the word becomes flesh John the Baptist is freed from original sin probably Elizabeth too and we need to go further with these meditations.
Our faith is a revealed faith. The eye is the lamp of the body, Original Sin destroyed the soundness of Adam and Eve’s eyes. God is Logos, the Word. In the Gospel of John Christ is called the Word, and asserts His divinity. In order to read the printed word on paper, you need good lighting. The Word of God is such that the human intellect cannot bring enough light to illuminate the divine realities. This requires divine illumination that only God can provide by His self revelation and the efforts of the contemplative to purify their spiritual eye so as to receive this divine revelation/illumination as clearly as possible. The Bible and Church teachings are a good way to give ourselves a spiritual eye exam to test if we are seeing clearly. Another thing involves the development of an interior spiritual life from where the Holy Spirit can speak and find a dwelling place in the depths of our being. St. Teresa of Avila wrote a book about this titled “The Interior Castle” covering the Seven Dwelling Places. The voice of the Holy Spirit all too often gets drowned out by people who are too busy acting and speaking, monopolizing the conversation. Christ often went out to pray in solitude. Mary pondered things in her heart. As it was said in the book of Job, if we question God, it is only useful if we are capable of understanding the answers. Job’s know it all friends, who thought that they had all the answers, were completely misguided. God gave them a good chewing out. God’s self revelation is given at a time and place of God’s Own choosing. We need be willing to wait on the Lord and to be receptive when He speaks. Answers to spiritual questions sometimes takes time, study, and contemplation to prepare us for the answer. Even then some answers may end up only being given in the next world and in the End Times.
Amen