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Before I signed on, Jessica did an interesting series on that most mysterious of doctrines, the Trinity. We recently had a short series at chapel on ‘the fundamentals of the faith’ and I thought it might be interesting to share part of it with the audience here.
I start with this definition (James White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1998), 26.)
“Within the one Being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
To those who say it is unscriptural I respond that it is the only logical deduction from three lines of argument in the Bible:
1. There is one God (Deut. 6:4; 1 Tim. 2:5; James 2:19).
2. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God (John 8:58; Acts 5:3-4; 1 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 4:30; Col. 2:9; 2 Peter 1:17).
3. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons (Matt. 3:15-17; Matt. 28:19; John 16:13-15; 2 Cor. 13:14).
To quote Kenneth Samples:
God is Triune: “He exists eternally and simultaneously as three distinct and distinguishable persons (though not separate): Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three persons in the Godhead, or Divine Being, share equally and completely the one divine nature, and are therefore the same God—coequal in attributes, nature and glory. God has revealed himself as one in essence or substance (being), but three in subsistence (personhood). In terms of what God is (essence), God is one; in terms of who God is (subsistence), God is three.”
Or in the words of the Athanasian Creed:
“We worship one God in the Trinity, and the Trinity in unity; we distinguish among the persons, but we do not divide the substance…The entire three persons are coeternal and coequal with one another, so that…we worship complete unity in Trinity and Trinity in unity”
The Trinity can thus be defined as three persons in one divine essence or as one divine essence subsisting in three modes, the unity of essence being guaranteed by the consubstantiality and coinherence of the persons, the distinction of persons being manifest in their relations.”
It is correct to say “Jesus is God” but not “God is Jesus.” Why? Because to say “Jesus is God” is to predicate to Jesus the whole of the divine nature which two other Persons posses: the Father and Holy Spirit. But to say “God is Jesus” in terms of the “is” of identity is incorrect because Jesus does not exhaust what it means to speak of God. Therefore, logically speaking, we can affirm: First, “The Father is God,” “The Son is God,” and “The Holy Spirit is God” using the “is” of predication. Second, “The Father is not the Son,” “The Son is not the Spirit,” and “The Spirit is not the Father,” using the “is” of identity. And third, “God is the Trinity” and “The Trinity is God” using the “is” of identity.
All of which is what the Cappadocian Fathers said many centuries ago. But in an era when men seem inclined to forget that there is a doctrinal content to our Faith, and when some question the very notion of the Trinity, it cannot be asserted often enough that our God is a Trinity of Persons.
All Along the Watchtower 
One Catholic formula to describe the Trinity is “Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier”. This is an attempt to describe the mysterious complexity of the Trinity in terms of function.
It is of course wrong to use this formula in the Rite of Baptism. One can only be Baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit(Ghost).
Another thought that occurs to me is that a “person” is someone that a human being can have a relationship with, as opposed to a “thing” which one can only have a relationship to.
Sadly, I think a lot of bad religion stems from treating God as a thing rather than as a person.
Christ came to put that right, though, alas, the error persists. Human beings commonly remain in love with things. They are called idols.
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Good point. If we begin by understanding that God is a relationship between the persons of the Trinity, we avoid that odd notion that God is a ‘thing’.
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St Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians gives us a profound image of the Blessed Trinity that powerfullly speaks to many believers. (Ephesians 4:4-6)
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism,one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
The Father – over all,
The Son – through all,
The Holy – Spirit in all.
Fr Thomas Merton, my favourite mystic, says –
In the Father the infinite love is always beginning, and in the Son it is always full, and in the Holy Spirit it is perfect and it is renewed and never ceases to rest in its everlasting source. (Seeds of Contemplation)
The Seeds of Contemplation is one of the most important books I have ever read and I always keep it near at hand.
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I find your love of Fr. Thomas Merton interesting and must confess that of the Catholic Contemplatives he probably ranks at the bottom of my list especially once he started synchronizing Buddhist thought with Catholic theology. I far prefer St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, Dom Marmion, Fr. Dubay and many, many others. At least you referenced one of Merton’s earlier works that did not go off the reservation as many of his later works did. I guess we all have our favorites and read these writers through the eyes of our own experiences in life and thereby see much different things in their words. Just a thought.
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Servus Fidelis
I should have said contemporary mystic. My favourite all time mystic is Mother Julian of Norwich.
I read Merton’s Seven Story Mountain when i was an undergraduate and it was marvellous. I’d never read anything like it before. I also loved his two books “The Sign of Jonas”. and “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.”
Did he synchronize Buddhist thought with Catholic theology? It depends how you read his writings. I quite enjoyed his Asian Journal and Zen and the Birds of Appetite. Some have said that St John of the Cross has Buddhist ideas. .
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I like that very much Malcolm. I have not read much Merton, and you encourage me to do something I have meant to do for a long time.
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Geoffrey Read “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.” Its a wonderful book and full of a genuine love of God and humanity. I have most of his important books. Yes he was interested in Buddhism and understood it.Dont’t let that put you off. Merton like Fr Pierre Teilhard de Chardin are creative writers of great stature. I love de Chardin.
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Thank you, Makcolm. I am not worried by his interest in other faiths. I shall start where you suggest.
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Can of worms time again ? LOL
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Jabba, you are perfectly entitled to your view. I beg to differ. POFL
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I meant to say ROFL
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Geoffrey, I’ve always believed that having an open mind is important for us as Christians. Thomas Merton has been a great help to me in my pilgrimage to the absolute. In many ways he was a flawed individual which is perhaps one of the reasons I love him Yes he did wander into Buddhism, but creatively so.
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Fr Thomas Merton’s Epiphany Experience
“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.
” It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud… I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”
Its in his Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.
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PS, If folk don’t like Merton, that’s their loss.
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Blessed Julian of Norwich received the great Epiphany which brings Joy to all Christian’s hearts.
“…and all manner of thing shall be very well”.
My reading of this is that no matter how dire everything seems to be, God is in charge, and everything is going according to His plan.
We acclaim this in the Lord’s prayer when we say “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done…”
In the RC Mass, we pray “Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.”
and:
“Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles: I leave you peace, my peace I give you. Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom where you live for ever and ever.”
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