The Most Holy Trinity

The Divine mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is a spiritual search for the believer on both an intellectual endeavor and a journey of faith. One can never fully grasp the Trinity, One God in three persons – each their own persons and at the same time fully God – one God. Yet, this should not discourage us from delving into the Divine mystery of the Trinity. We should always be asking ourselves, how can such a thing work, how can I explain it to those who question it, and most importantly what does it mean for me on a personal level to believe in a Triune God?

One thing we must definitely avoid is to simply say, “It’s something you must accept on faith and leave it at that.” St. Peter tells us we must always be ready to give an account of our faith. That means we must have at least a decent understanding of what it means, otherwise the person questioning will think we are just hiding behind “Divine mystery” for any tough questions they pose.

We can see in Sacred Scripture that Jesus himself is God, c.f. John 1:1-3. Many times Jesus worships and prays to the Father, therefore he is praying to another person and since we only pray to God, it is God he is praying to. In those cases he is praying to his Father, who is also God. Jesus speaks, especially in the Gospel of John, that he will send the apostles the Holy Spirit, this Holy Spirit is referenced throughout Scripture, even from the very beginning, c.f. Genesis 1:1-3. Jesus speaks of a third person, this Holy Spirit who will bring the Apostles grace, truth, and salvation, all the things that only God can provide. Go therefore and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. (c.f. Mt. 28:19) This is just a brief and simple explanation, yet each and every Christian should be able to do it.

In terms of how it actually works, the Trinity that is, that is a little more difficult to explain and understand. We base everything on experience and there is nothing in this world that fully equals the Trinity, we know of no being on earth that is at the same time three distinct entities (persons) and also one, so we have nothing to compare it to. We do compare our natural experiences to the Trinity, but only in analogous terms. For instance with children we may use a three leaf clover. With adults we may use St. Augustine’s example, The Father is love, Jesus is the lover, and the Holy Spirit is the love shared between them. Or something more from Thomistic (St. Thomas Aquinas) theology, such as God the Father is the mind (or self awareness); Jesus is the Word\s that comes from the mind, and the Holy Spirit the joy or love that is shared between that knowledge of the mind and spoken word. That is a very simple way of describing Thomas’ understanding. You can see that the “how” is much more difficult to understand but nevertheless exciting to delve into. There have been further developments on the understanding of the Trinity as all doctrine develops, but Augustine and Thomas are excellent starting points.

The most important aspect of the Trinity is what does it mean for me? I cannot answer that question for you, but I know two basic things that can get you pointed in the right direction, 1) read Sacred Scripture and 2) PRAY!

Fr. John P Picinic