The Holy Trinity

It is a daunting task for any theologian to attempt to tackle the subject of the Holy Trinity. It is perhaps the most profound and indeed, non-intuitive, of the Christian mysteries. Yet it is also the central mystery of our faith. While it is sometimes tempting to avoid the complexity of the Trinity, it must be addressed in order to speak clearly and knowledgeably of the Christian creed as a whole. Because of its mysterious nature, it is one of the most misunderstood tenets of Christianity, and easily the one round which the most objections have been raised. Thus, it is the dogma most jealously guarded by the Church, and consequently, one which many theologians are loath to touch.

Pope Benedict XVI referred to this as “a realm in which Christian theology must be more aware of its limits… where the attempt to gain too precise a knowledge is bound to end in disastrous foolishness; [where] only the humble admission of ignorance can be true knowledge and only wondering attendance before the incomprehensible mystery can be the right profession of faith in God.” (Ratzinger: Intro to Christianity, 1,V)

The Trinity will always remain a mystery. Yet it is a beautiful glimpse into the nature of God, a threefold nature which our feeble minds are not capable of fully grasping. The extent to which God has deemed to enlighten us reveals a remarkable love in God’s interaction with his creation. It is an awareness of that love, a fluid and threefold love, toward which I hope to point this inquiry.

THE DOGMA

First let us examine the Church’s summary of the dogma, according to the Catechism:

“The Trinity is one. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the “consubstantial Trinity.” The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire. Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature.” (CCC, 253) “Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son’s is another, the Holy Spirit’s another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty co-eternal.” (CCC, 266).

The Theology is based primarily on Jesus’ final commandment, to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt. 28:19) While having hinted at the triune Godhead throughout his ministry, here at the end, he states it clearly. While he does not name it a Trinity, or describe the relationship of the three, the deity he describes is definitely “triune.” This cannot be ignored.

There is nothing in our lives which can be likened to the relationships of the Trinity. In our experience a father must always precede a son and nothing can be both the same and individual. It is little wonder that the Trinity has caused so much controversy. The demand of the dogma is to accept the mystery. We must accept that God is larger than our understanding. If he was not, then he would not be God. Far from the complete truth, the Trinity is an attempt by feeble minds to grasp the nature of God, as the Holy Spirit has enabled us. We humbly continue to call it a mystery, for it would be impertinent to assume we fully understood God. “We see now in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully.” (1 Cor. 13:12)

Even so, I will attempt to explain this mystery as I understand it, not to solve it like a puzzle, but merely as an effort to eliminate confusion in the minds of my readers, and to illuminate the love at the root of God’s nature, which has been revealed to us through a Trinity. This will by no means be a “proof text,” for I do not presume to have a proof for the Trinity. I am coming from a perspective of belief, using argument and metaphor to support that belief, rather than arguing a position beginning from a point of complete neutrality.

THE FLUID NATURE OF GOD

One of the oldest, and I think the best, metaphors for understanding the mystery of the Holy Trinity is the idea of water. Water is a single entity, but it is manifested in three states familiar to us: ice, liquid water, and steam. Yet any of these can be accurately described by the same chemical name, H20. Similarly, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit can all be rightly called God. Their individuality comes in the ways they are made manifest to us through experience and revelation.

Water is the most abundant thing on our earth. It gives life to all the plants and animals. It can be all places at once, and even when it is ingested, processed, polluted, and evaporated, the water in our world is not lessened. Its transition between ice, water and steam never threatens its unity. So can God be in all places at once, in all three of his forms, as the world needs him most.

Trinitarian theology has come to us slowly over the history of the Judeo-Christian religion. Many scholars argue against it because it is not specified emphatically by Scripture. The Bible certainly describes the workings of all three essences of God, particularly when read with a hermeneutic interpretation fitting to the post-Apostolic era, and there is the defining passage already quoted from Matthew, but the Bible does not name them as a Trinity. The first extant Christian texts which use the word Trinitas are those of Tertullian, at the beginning of the Third Century. But it should not surprise us that our understanding had to grow over time. It was necessary for God to increase our enlightenment as our knowledge became more prepared for comprehending the mystery. Just as, while we have understood the connection between the three essences of water for many centuries, it was not until the development of modern chemistry that we truly understood the phase transition it undergoes.

St. Gregory Nazianzen outlines the long-term development of the doctrine: “The Old Testament proclaimed the Father openly, and the Son more obscurely. The New manifested the Son, and suggested the deity of the Spirit. Now the Spirit himself dwells among us, and supplies us with a clearer demonstration of himself. For it was not safe, when the Godhead of the Father was not yet acknowledged, plainly to proclaim the Son; nor when that of the Son was not yet received to burden us further.” (Oratio, 31, 26) God uses time and the advancement of human knowledge to gradually enlighten more of the truth of his mysteries.

Early man, with his understanding only of God’s fatherhood, can be likened to a civilization living in an ice age, or high on a mountain where the temperature never warms past freezing. The life-giving nature of water can be gained, but it is more difficult. This civilization knows the necessity of ice for their survival, they love it, but they also fear it, knowing it can and will destroy them if they do not give it the proper respect. These people will never know the beauty and warmth of liquid water. This was the state of the Israelite nation in the Old Testament.

Jesus was like liquid water coming into the world, giving a life that sprung from the Father, but was altogether new and fresh. “The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14) Jesus is like the stream flowing out of the glacier which is the Father. As he says “The Father is Greater than I” (John 14: 28) and “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.” (John 14:31). The dawn of the Christian age was like the rolling back of winter into spring. The new essence of God that came to be known took nothing away from the old, but it made life more accessible to all humanity.

Imagine now a civilization which has come to know water in its liquid form. Suddenly, this people learns to harness the power of steam. This discovery gives them a sudden advantage in heating, transportation, and all manner of industry. Such a sudden advancement can be likened to the disciples’ receipt of the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Though the Holy Spirit was at work all throughout the Old Testament, explicitly revealing its power and nature to humanity was not necessary, as we were still endeavoring to learn the nature of the Father. Now that the Son has given us new life, new law, and new opportunity, the power of the Holy Spirit is tantamount in our works and our comprehension of truth.

It is ridiculous to speculate on which is greater—ice, water, or steam. Obviously, ice is easier to grasp, so an ignorant mind might think it was greater. Water is most visibly abundant, and steam is invisible. But though different, they are one, and it is nonsense to discuss which is greater. So it is with the Trinity. All three are God. We encounter them differently, but each holds the full power of God.

DIFFICULTIES OF UNDERSTANDING

A problem with rightly comprehending the Trinity comes from some of our careless definitions. We seek to describe the mystery with words we can understand, to describe God with terms we have created and defined. Yet God is beyond all definitions or words we might devise, and beyond all comprehension our brains can muster.

I feel that the use of the word “persons” in describing Father, Son and Spirit, is misleading, and has confused Christians throughout the ages. It leads us to think of them as a group, even a committee, rather than as one. When defined as a group, the idea of a hierarchy naturally replaces that of equality. Father, Son and Spirit are not persons as we know the term to mean, just as ice, water and steam cannot be accurately discussed without recognizing the behavior of the others.

Addressing the difficulty, the Fourth Lateran Council stated that while there is a distinction between the three, there is a “unity of nature. They are not different realities… all are contained in a certain supreme reality, incomprehensible and ineffable, which truly is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the three together and each separately.” (Lateran IV, 2)

Pope Paul VI sought to further contextualize the use of terms when discussing the Trinity. He does not consider the use of terms such as “persons” as an attempt to “submit the faith to human wisdom, but [that their use] gave a new and unprecedented meaning to these terms, which from then on would be used to signify an ineffable mystery, infinitely beyond all that we can humanly understand.” (Solemni hac Liturgia 9, CCC 251)

Father, Son and Spirit are essences of God. The presence of one does not signify only a portion of God, or negate the possibility of the others. Any encounter we have with the Father, the Son or the Spirit is an encounter with the complete and total fullness of God. God is never reduced by his manifestation.

If the Trinity were three parts of a whole, then God in heaven would have been somehow reduced by Jesus’ incarnation into the world, and perilously endangered by his descent into hell after crucifixion. Yet God is never reduced by the giving of himself, and though present in many forms and in many places, he is always fully God. Jesus was fully God through all his life on earth. He died as fully God. As fully God he descended into hell. And as fully God he rose again. All the while, the Father in heaven was not reduced by the fact that Jesus was also fully man. The Father was still remarkably present, listening to Jesus as he prayed from the garden. The Father nourished Jesus in his suffering, just as a glacier’s melting feeds the lake, maintaining its strength even in the heat of summer.

We refer to Jesus as the Father’s “only begotten Son.” We also speak of the Holy Spirit as “proceeding from both the Father and the Son.” These statements make us think, was the Father there before his Son? and, were both there before the Spirit? Does this not connote a separation of the essences, making them more of persons, and giving the Trinity a necessary and unavoidable hierarchy?

The difficulty we face with words like begotten, from and before, is that they are indicators of time. Time, as St. Augustine first taught (Confessions, XI), and Einstein eventually proved, is not absolute, and therefore cannot be applied to God. Time is a law of this earth, it is relative to the observer, and it is certainly not as limiting a factor as we once thought it was. “What times should there be, which were not made by thee?”(Ibid) Time is nothing more than a creation of God, just like every other phenomena we observe. It is a measuring device that accurately describes the passage of events in our universe, but it cannot be used to describe God. Ergo, we should not fall into the trap of over-analyzing the concept of Jesus being begotten by the Father, yet being co-eternal with him. Once we eliminate the obstacle of time, we do not find it to be such a conflict.

CONFESSION OF NON-OBJECTIVITY

Before addressing some of the various arguments against the classical view, I wish to make an honest confession of non-objectivity regarding the Holy Trinity. Certain of the heresies, which keep cropping up over time, seem attractive. The Church has always had to fight to keep the doctrine pure. My search, insight and prayer has led me to a belief in the dogma of the Trinity as taught by the Catholic Church, and surely, if the evidence pointed me elsewhere, I would readily admit it. But the truth remains and I must confess that I want to believe it. Therefore, if my arguments seem to come from a positive point of belief, I am not apologizing. My belief in the Trinity, while strong and defensible, cannot be considered truly a priori or a posteriori. Rather, it is upheld by the teachings of the Church Fathers. The Trinity is not something which can be proven, nor even a mystery which can be fully understood. Accepting mystery is a requirement of the Christian faith.

Modern philosophy finds such non-objectivity naïve. But I would argue that a small portion of naïvety, from an epistemological perspective, is wise. As a Catholic, I draw on two thousand years of literature and tradition which support the classical view of the Trinity. I feel it would be naïve to banish the teachings of such wise men and women and search for an answer contrary to their findings. I would rather begin from a place of affirming their concept of truth, and if I truly, prayerfully, and academically find that I cannot agree, then I will make such an admission.

Biblical and theological scholars now days are tempted to be drawn into studying scripture, “Etsi Deus non daretur” (As if God did not exist). Their exegesis then necessarily becomes strictly scientific and historical, allowing no place for revelation. While I am certainly not belittling the use of science and history, if scripture is read from these perspectives alone, it will inevitably lead to a dead end.

Even if scholars do not go this far, a recent trend in Christianity, particularly in certain Protestant traditions, has been to strip away much of the dogma which has come into Christianity after the conclusion of the Apostolic era. They wish to purify their theology by limiting it to the writings of John, Luke, Paul, and the other New Testament writers. However, if we are to believe Christianity, accepting its mystery and wonder, then we cannot discount Jesus’ final gift—that of the Holy Spirit. The inspiration which came upon the believers at Pentecost was not a one-time event. It continues to this day. The Spirit of Truth led the development of Christianity, even through its corruptions. If we believe any of Christianity, then we must believe in the Spirit’s inspiration, and if we believe in the Spirit’s inspiration, then it would be inconsistent to expect the Spirit would not have stayed with us.

The development of trinitarian theology is not surprising. In the fourteenth chapter of his gospel, as well as in other places, John explained the Trinity to the best of his ability with his own limited understanding of the mystery. It was natural for later Christians to attempt to understand the mystery further, and eventually to name it. If we limit ourselves to John’s words, without acknowledging the work of later dogmatists like Tertullian, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and St. Augustine, we do ourselves a grave disservice, and blaspheme the work of the Spirit in the lives of the later Christians.

The interesting thing about trinitarian belief is that it assigns miraculous power to the work of the Holy Spirit. Once we believe in the Spirit’s work, we have to observe the development of the Church and its dogma within this context. Our belief in the Spirit necessitates admission of the Spirit’s guidance of those who immediately succeeded the apostles. Belief in the Trinity therefore supports itself philosophically, if not entirely exegetically.

In his monumental book “On the Development of Christian Doctrine,” John Henry Cardinal Newman offers the following explanation: “It may be objected that [Scripture’s] inspired docu-ments at once determine the limits of its mission without further trouble… The question is whether those ideas which the letter conveys from writer to reader, reach the reader at once in their completeness and accuracy on his first per-ception of them, or whether they open out in his intellect and grow to perfection in the course of time. Nor could it surely be maintained without extravagance that the letter of the New Testament, or of any assignable number of books, comprises a delineation of all possible forms which a divine message will assume when submitted to a multitude of minds.” He goes on to say, “This moreover should be considered—that great questions exist in the subject matter of which Scripture treats, which Scripture does not solve; questions too so real, so practical, that they must be answered, and, unless we suppose a new revelation, [they are] answered by means of the revelation which we have, that is, by development.” (II, 1)

With this background, we can now address some of the arguments which have been put forth against the Holy Trinity. I hesitate to call them heresies, even though the Church has defined them as such, because most often those who held to these views were on an honest search for truth, and in human weakness, failed to find it. Yet if their search was indeed for the face and character of God, then their search would not be in vain, even if dogmatically they may have been in error. As the Second Vatican Council so poignantly reminds us, “Whatever good is found sown in the minds and hearts of men, or in the rites and customs of peoples, these not only are preserved from destruction, but are purified, raised up, and perfected for the glory of God.”(Lumen Gentium,17)

True heresy is when a man or woman attempts to lessen God or promote humanity, done with a will toward selfishness or freedom from moral law, not simply out of a philosophical error. While some of the arguments against the Trinity can indeed lead to such faults, this is seldom the intention of the arguetant. Even heretics must be treated with compassion, for in most cases, their search is valid and commendable, even when the answer is wrong.

ADDRESSING THE ARGUMENTS

Though the Trinity may not at first seem intuitive, it holds up more logically than the arguments against it. Let us examine three of the most commonly recurring non-trinitarian viewpoints on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Arianism is a hierarchichal view, with God the Father having always existing, being the greatest and only true God. Jesus Christ (only-begotten) was born before time began and while still God, is lesser than the Father. The Holy Spirit, then is subservient to the Son as the Son is to the Father. This view was widespread throughout the early centuries of Christendom. In many parts of Europe and North Africa, the membership of the Arian churches surpased that of the Catholic churches. It was in response to Arianism that the council of Nicea coined the word “co-eternal” to describe the relationship of Father and Son. Though Arianism fell out of vogue for many centuries, many of its tenets have returned in some present day sects, notably, the Johovah’s Witnesses.

One of the main problems of believing in a hierarchichal Godhead such as Arianism, is that it turns Jesus death into a blood sacrifice. Whether it is the Father’s order or the Son’s choice does not really matter here. The point would be that God’s justice had to be avenged for human sin, and Jesus gave himself as the sacrifice to appease God’s anger, just as the Isrealites sacrificed lambs and pigeons to God, and the Romans sacrificed bulls to Jove. Although this type of terminology is widespread in Christian literature, the reality of trinitarian theology is that Jesus’ death is an act of love, more than a blood sacrifice.

Jesus’ death is an act of personal love and mercy from God, the lover, to humanity, the beloved. By being truly God and also truly man, Jesus fulfills the words of the prophet Hosea, “For I desired mercy and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God, more than burnt offerings.” (Hos. 6:6)

If Jesus is less than Father, then the Father sacrificed the Son on the altar. But the marvel that arrises from knowing that Jesus is one with the Father, that he is Very God, is that Jesus laid himself on the altar. He was not a lamb who was sacrificed. He is the lamb who sacrifices himself as an act of love. Jesus is fully God, and shows his love for us by walking with us through the darkest time of our existence—death and descent into hell. Jesus, as fully God, but experiencing the totality of human weekness, freely chose to shoulder the sin of the world. Only by truly being God, does the crucifixion hold its marvel. If Jesus was not one with God, but subservient, then his death implies a character of the Father which is unlike the character we know of him. Of this kind of God, who would order his own Son’s slaughter, the Pope says “one turns away in horror from a righteousness whose sinister wrath makes the message of love incredible.” (Ratzinger: Intro to Christianity, 2, II, 3)

Arianism is an attempt to put God into terms we can more easily understand. While it makes more logical sense than the Trinity, it puts a limitation on God by implying that the Father, Son and Spirit have a relationship similar to that of earthly progeny. It also implies characteristics for the Father unlike that which Jesus attempted to show us.

Another view which was popular in the early days of Christianity was Modalism. This is the belief that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are different modes, or aspects of the same single God, rather than three distinct persons (or to use my prefered word, essences). God could reveal himself as one or the other, but was always God in his completeness. Thus, Jesus was an actual incarnation of the entire Godhead. Tertullian pointed out the implication inherent in Modalism that the Father himself would have suffered on the cross (pater passus) and even descended into hell. While this would truly be a heroic God, it is also somewhat terrifying, for Jesus truly limited himself to the human experience during his years on earth. If the entirety of God was contained in the suffering Christ, then for that time the world was truly in the devil’s hands, and during his three days in the grave, the world was void of God.

Gnosticism is a widely encompassing term, but I wish to address one form of it here because it has again gained popularity in the present day. According to certain gnostic views, Jesus of Nazareth was born a man and through his goodness, became like unto God. He is thus the embodiment of God incarnate on earth. Many people find themselves attracted to this view because it implies that the goodness of Jesus is something toward which we can all aspire. Jesus is divine in that he manifests the true divinity inherent in humanity, and has risen to the level of sitting at the right hand of God in heaven. The novel “The Da Vinci Code” has brought gnostic thought back to the foreground in the last few years, along with attempts to scientifically and historically disprove both the Virgin Birth, and the Resurrection. However, if Jesus is not in fact God, then ultimately we find ourselves cut off from God. For Jesus is the God who meets us and guides us. If he is only the greatest man, the highest of the Saints, then we are isolated from God, reduced to the Communion of Saints as our only access to the divine.

As mentioned previously, I come from a position of belief. My inquiry, using logical and scientific means, have led me to a belief in Christianity, including a belief in Jesus’ divinity. The Trinity holds Christianity together. Some of these other views of Father, Son and Spirit seem attractive, but if I dispense with the dogma of the Trinity, the rest of Christianity begins to unravel. The Trinity itself may not appear entirely logical, and cannot be proven through argument. But when it is married to the rest of the faith, it is supported by other dogmas and teachings which are logical and intuitive. Believing in the Trinity is the point at which faith is demanded. We observe God’s love, but he also requires us to accept his mystery.

LOVE IS ACT & GIFT

So what is the Trinity? The Trinity is love. It is a God who is both individual being, and relationship within himself, thus being both the act of loving and being loved in one, perpetually existing as the completeness of love.

“Oh Eternal Light, Thou only dwell’st within
Thyself, and only thou know’st thee; Self-knowing,
Self-known, lovest and smilest upon thyself!
That circle—which begotten so, appeared
In thee as light reflected.”
Dante: Paradiso XXXIII

God contains the completeness of parenthood, the completeness of childlikeness, and the complete spirit of Truth within himself. God is love, and love is gift. God is perpetually in a state of giving life and love, not only to us, his creation, but to himself through the unity and relationship of Trinity. This is how the Father begets the son, while still one in being, and how the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Pope Benedict XVI identifies the names of the “persons” of the Trinity in relation to this giving love. Father and Son describe God as an act, not as a stable state. God is Father in the act of self-giving. God is Son in the act of being given. The “begetting” of the Son is not contained by time, but is a constant state of gift. (Ibid. 1,V,2,b)

Love is gift. The blood of the cross is the greatest gift which God has given us. It is this act of love whereby Jesus redeems our sins and requires us to take part in our own redemption, by following his example of love for one another. Through the Eucharist we are made one with Christ’s sacrifice, and our redemption is achieved through his love. Furthermore, seeing the Trinity as an acting embodiment of the fullness of love, Jesus had to rise from the dead, else love in the Godhead would no longer have been complete.

There is no love where there is not act and gift. Love is most truly manifested in the action of giving oneself to the beloved. This is God’s gift to us through Jesus Christ. Only if Jesus is Very God, equal to the Father, does this gift constitute true and perfect love.

God reveals his love to us through countless actions and gifts. We can see the Father’s action and gift profoundly in the beauty and blessings of our world and our lives therein. We see the action of Jesus through his life and ministry, and his gift in his loving death. The Holy Spirit enables our action, and our gift.

GOD’S THREEFOLD LOVE

God has blessed us with three ways of interact-ting with creation. He interacts with us in his fullness as Creator, Companion, and Confidence.

As Father Creator, God breaths life into us, and gives us the phenomenal bounty of his gifts. God, as parent, is in a perpetual state of giving, pouring the totality of himself into every corner of the world. God’s love was so great that creation burst out from that love, and we are the unworthy recipients. Our Creator interacts with us through love, through gift, through beauty, and through grace. Our Creator contains the fullness of parental love, both fatherhood and motherhood. The Creating Love is the first essence of the Trinity.

God also chose to walk among us as our Companion. Jesus took on the humanity of his own creation, experiencing not only the joy of created life, but also the pain, sorrow and suffering. Through Jesus we know that God is always with us, helping us, guiding us through the twisted journey we call life. The profound blessing of Jesus is to know that our God has empathy for our struggles, having lived them himself. Knowing that he is fully God enlivens and sweetens his sacrifice and his example. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15) The second essence of the Trinity is Jesus, our Companion.

But unable to walk with us forever as a man, God sent the comforting Spirit of Truth into our hearts. The Holy Spirit enables us to know God’s truth, to confidently interpret Scripture, speak of our faith, and witness it to the world. “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” (Is. 11:2) We can be assured of the true development of Christianity over the ages, through the guidance of the Spirit. He is more than truth; he is also our Comforter, with us through our trials, gently assuaging our fear. God is intimately with us every day, both as an inspiration to know the truth, and as a comfort when life is too much to bear alone. The third essence of the Trinity is our Confidence, and our Comforter.

The Trinity gives us a glimmer into the breadth of God’s love for us, his creation. God is beyond our comprehension, and we do our best to understand with conceiving of three essences that describe God’s manifestation to the world, but our minds will never be able to fully comprehend God’s love. For love is so complete that it encompasses the entire world and every substance therein. God’s love is present in everything. We see that love manifested sometimes as Creator, sometimes as Companion, and sometimes as Confidence. In the words of St. Augustine, “In that simple and highest nature, substance should not be one thing and love another, but that substance itself should be love, and love itself should be substance, whether in the Father, or in the Son, or in the Holy Spirit.” (De Trinitate, XIX, 29)

Let us embrace God as the mystery which is the Trinity, and trust that the Holy Spirit has given for our knowledge that which we need to understand. Above all, let us see the Trinity as God’s incomprehensible love, pouring out to us as the Creator whose very love necessitated gift, as our Companion, who loves us so much that he walks with us through life, even to death, and even beyond the gates of hell, and as our Confidence to know and proclaim the truth.