Trinity

 The Father’s House: Discovering Our Home in the Trinity (Kindle Edition)

 

OP James Dominic Brent

                                        

Strange as it may seem, this book was good, even though I gave it an average rating.  The fault is mine, not the book's.  This type of book is to read on retreat, or in Adoration, or actually any kind of quiet space.

    Unfortunately, I read this waiting in a pick-up line, to pick up my grandchildren.  Sometimes I read while waiting for an appointment.  IOW, the atmosphere was not ideal.

   Even so, I could see how this book would bring you into a deeper understanding, and following that, an intense relationship with God, the Blessed Trinity.

   It's a small book and easily understandable.  I recommend it.

Trinity

 Where did the idea of God being Three Persons, come from?  It came from Jesus.  Matthew 28: 19.  

New International Version

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

I picture this Andrei Rublev icon.

When I pray, I just take a seat at the table and start talking.

Hospitality

LECTIO:

Reading 1GN 18:1-10A

The LORD appeared to Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre,

Many times hubby has remarked that company should come over more often because that's the only time the house gets thoroughly cleaned.  I won't admit that there's any truth to that statement, at all!  But you get the point.  

Are we hospital to everyone or only a select few?  We should behave like Abraham and go all out for others.

ORATIO:

Lord, help me to be more gracious and welcoming to all.  Help me understand their needs and try to fulfill them.

CONTEMPLATIO:

In what ways can we exercise welcome for those in need?  Help me to see and understand, especially regarding the crisis of immigration. I am open to help where I can.

RESOLUTIO:

I think I will prepare more food than needed when I make my family's meals and bring the extra to my friend, Donna.  That way, whenever someone unexpected shows up, I'm ready.

Ta Da!

Yesterday we gave a presentation on the Trinity.  Our final demonstration was a big hit.  Our thesis was that the Father was the Lover, the Son was the Beloved, and the love between was the Holy Spirit.  We stressed that Love was an action verb.

Then we took some vinegar and called it the Father.  We poured it into a glass bowl that had half a cup of baking soda, calling it the Son.  When we poured the vinegar into the baking soda, it exploded.

Ta Da!  Ladies and Gentlemen!  I present to you the Blessed Trinity.

Everyone sat up straight for that.  When the fizz spilled over the bowl, I pointed out "And the Mystical Body of Christ."

Argument over a Discussion of the Trinity

Meditating for ten minutes on the weather and listening to raindrops ping antiphonally on the tin roof has culminated in an argument.

Q.  Is it meditation or wasting time?
A.  Well, that’s a meditation in itself.
Q.  Ugh.  You’re impossible.  Aren’t you just excusing your laziness?
A.  Define Lazy.
Q.  See?  Snap out of it.  Sit up straight and get your act together, and tell me about the Trinity.
A.  Can’t.  And you know it.  Didn’t Duff and I write a formation module trying to define it?  And don’t ask me what happened to it, because I don’t know.  It was probably rejected and thrown away.  It was all straw, anyway.
Q.  What do you think about the Trinity, right this moment?
A.   Well…the first thing that comes to mind is that John Tauler said that to feel the Blessed Trinity is the sweetest experience.  And I was just wondering how does one “feel” the Trinity.
Q.  Didn’t you say, just the other day, that Mary experienced the Trinity; she felt the Father’s love, received the Holy Spirit, and conceived Jesus. 
A.  I vaguely remember.  Who was I talking to?  Father Joe?  My “cloistered brothers”?  Sister Ann?  Did I write it?  Ugh…don’t bother an old lady.
Q.  It doesn’t matter who or when or how.  We’re discussing the Trinity.
A.  You’re a haunt.  Leave me alone.
Q.  No.  Go on.
A.  Wait a minute.  I was on the verge of nodding off, pleasantly listening to the music of the rain, and you come barging in making demands.  You want to talk.  About the Trinity, of all things!!!!
Q.  Yes…and your point?
A.  Okay.  I’m awake, alert, and able.  I really wanted to say pissed off, but the alliteration was calling me.
Q.  Don’t wax poetic on me.  And don’t be coarse. 
A.  You don’t like my poetry?
Q.  I love your poetry and I think it’s very appropriate for the subject at hand—the Blessed Trinity.
A.  The Trinity can probably be best expressed in poetry.
Q.  For sure.
A.  We were made in the divine image, weren’t we?  Maybe Tauler was right after all? 
Q.  Think it over, Faith.  Keep at it.  Why don't you put it in a poem?

What's the Trinity?

La Trinite, sculpture Joseph Pyrz

Last night, a book club member asked me a question that shocked me.  Not surprised, but shocked me.  I was showing the book club, my pictures from Besancon, France.  When a picture of this sculpture of the Trinity, by Joseph Pyrz, came up, she asked me in a voice only I could hear, "What's the trinity?"

I couldn't answer appropriately.  In fact, how could I explain it. But I was addressing the group and couldn't take the time that was needed.  All she wanted was a quick response.  And she tried to answer it herself, since I was busy lifting my jaw up off the floor.

"Is it Jesus and Mary and ....and...and..."

Finally, I said, "No, no, it's the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."  And I continued on with my explanation of the pictures I was distributing.

I should have explained that these three persons are separate but unified, co-equal, co-eternal, and consubstantial, IOW, one being.  One God in three persons.  Each of the three is God yet separate.  Look at the sculpture.  It's one sculpture.  Maybe an egg would have helped, i.e., yolk, albumen, and shell.  It's not a perfect explanation, but what is?

I guess I " shoulda, coulda," done any number of things, but I failed again.

How could anyone not know about the Trinity?  Ok, so she's Jewish, but hasn't she ever heard of the term, before?

Guess not.  I'm the dumb one for not realizing how hard to understand the Trinity is.  Being born Catholic is growing up with the Trinity.  From a child's understanding of faith, to an adult's concept of the Trinity, was just a maturation process.

  I needed to be reminded that not everyone is so blessed.

The Mystery of the Trinity

Image via Wikipedia

Trinity Sunday is my feast day.  My religious name is Sister Faith in the Blessed Trinity.  I love that name because people use it all the time, every time they pray, "In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Non-believers may ask, "I thought you believers believed in one God?"  "We do."

Of course, this line of thought leads to an explanation of the Trinity.  No explanation can do justice to the reality of God being three unique Persons, and at the same time One Person.  One can try to explain the Trinity by referencing the Bible, but the word, Trinity, as such, is not mentioned in the Bible.  There is no verse that says "God is a Trinity."  But this doesn't prove anything.  There are many words and phrases that Christians use, which are not found in the Bible.  The word "Bible" is not found in the Bible.  But the term "Holy Trinity," has been used for centuries by Christians to embody the concept of Trinity, which is presented as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Many have tried to explain the concept of Trinity.  Sometimes they help to understand, but they all have their limitations.  I have encountered "1x1x1=1."  The Trinity is like "ice" also "water" and also "vapor,"  but all are H2O.  And then there's the egg: shell, white, yolk.  Another example is the Shamrock, i.e., three leaves but one flower.  The triangle consists of three sides, yet one triangle.  At the Quantum physics level, there are particles that are fundamentally three and one at the same time.

All explanations fall short, hence the Trinity is a mystery.

The Athanasian Creed from the fifth century states: "The Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Spirit is God.  But there are not three gods, only one God."  The concept is a Christian revelation -- a mystery.  It's impossible to understand.  That's why faith is called a "gift."  Those that believe have the gift.  And for those of us who have this gift -- this faith, are all the richer for it.

After all, we don't understand how our thoughts become words, or how gravity exactly works.  These are physical manifestations that all humans experience, yet don't understand.  Why would anyone expect to understand Divine mysteries?  We accept the Trinity by faith.

Did the Trinity Exist Before Creation?

Do you want to know how impossible it is to answer that particular question?  Read Ecclesiastes 3:11, which states that God "...has put eternity into man's mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end."  IOW, there's no way any human being can know what God has done.

    Additionally, since God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and there's no way we mere humans can ever comprehend him, then what he has created is beyond our human ability to comprehend.  Revelation 1:8, 21:6, and 22:13.

Comparing God with Ourselves

I'm reading Summa Theologica, again.  I'm still in Part 1 and will probably be there for the rest of my life.  I'm particularly focusing on what AQ says about the Trinity.  (Yes, I'm still working on that Formation Module.)  I got a little sidetracked (And you thought web surfing was bad.)  and got involved in reading about the relationship between God and ourselves.  And you know what?  We ain't so hot.

God                                                       Humans

Free                                              All kinds of hang ups

Complete                                      Still growing and learning

Omnipotent                                   Have various degrees of helplessness

Omnipresent                                  Live moment to moment

Omniscent                                     Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest

Infinite                                           Finite

Lives in perfect love                       Only occasionally

That’s enough.  The list is depressing/awesome/amazing/fearsome/ and in the least, impressive.  The only thing I can add is that I’m omnivorous, and God’s not. ;-)

Well, I come to the same conclusion as AQ, thinking about God tells me more about me, than about God.  But I am a “chip off the old block,” or “an apple off the same tree.”  God must love us very much to even bother with us, never mind send His Son to save us.   

Where does "Trinity" Come From?

The term, “Trinity” was used by St. Theophilius of Antioch, in the year A.D. 180.  He wrote in his epistle to Autolycus, a pagan critic of the Catholic Church, that God, His word, and wisdom are a trinity (Greek:triados).

Some year later,  Tertullian, (A.D. 160—circa 250) a Latin theologian, coined the Latin term for trinity (trinitas), in his work “On Modesty.”  He wrote about the trinity of the One Divinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  In addition, he explained more specifically that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were of “One in essence—not one in Person.”  (Ante-Nicene Fathers 3.621; circa 213 A.D.)

The early church writers drew upon many biblical references to God’s unity and transcendence as well as old testament episodes, known as “Theophanies”—mysterious appearances of one or more persons of the Trinity.[i] 

Examples of theophanies and mysterious appearances, and sometimes implicit references to the three persons in the Trinity are Genesis 1:26, (where God speaks of Himself in the plural form), Genesis 3:22, 11:27, Psalms 2:7, 109: 1-3; Isaiah 7:14 (Emmanuel is the name prophesied for the miraculously-conceived child of a virgin.  It means “God is with us”): Isaiah 9:6, 11:2, and 8:22-31, Wisdom 7: 22-28, 8: 3-8, Ezkiel 11:5, 36:27, Joel 2:28, and Malachi 3:1.

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You Can't Make This Stuff Up.

      The Trinity has a great impact on Catholics.  We begin our prayers with “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  Non-believers may ask, “I thought you believers believed in one God?” “We do.”

    Of course, this line of thought leads to an explanation of the Trinity.  No explanation can do justice to the magnificent reality of God being three unique Persons, and at the same time One Person.  One can try to explain the Trinity by referencing the Bible, but the word, Trinity, as such, is not mentioned in the Bible.  The term “Holy Trinity,” has been used for many centuries by Christians to embody the  concept of Trinity, which is presented as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  

      Many have tried to explain the concept of the Trinity.  Sometimes they help to understand, but they all have their limitations.  I have encountered “1x1x1=1”.  The Trinity is like ice to water to vapor, but they are all H2O.  Also there is, the egg is a shell, whites, and the yolk, but one egg.  Of course, there’s St. Patrick’s famous shamrock, made up of three leaves, but one clover.  There’s even the novel, The Shack by William P. Young.  The author has the Trinity as:  Father a black middle aged female, Son a young  Arab, and the Holy Spirit as some sort of electric current.

      All these explanations fall short.  The Trinity is a mystery.  One argument that has some merit includes a view of other religions that don’t have the Trinity.   Some of these religions seem to cater to man’s desires.  They fulfill man’s wishes.  For example, the Muslims picture heaven as being inhabited by young beautiful virgins.  Obviously, a paradise created for man.  The Hindu reincarnation may be an expression of man’s desire to live forever.  One can see that these expressions are fulfillments of man made dreams.  Then where did the idea of the Trinity come from?  What man could have ever conceived of such an idea?  

Divine inspiration can not be ruled out.

The Father in the Trinity

Duff and I are writing a formation module on the Trinity.  Who said we're not ambitious?  Duff is the brains and I'm the legs.  Fingers, too because I'll type.  IOW, I'm the grunt.  So Duff has assigned me to look up the documents from Vatican II.  I did.  I have 16.  I don't think any of them are applicable.  Maybe Dei Verbum can be used.  That's the dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation; but I haven't read it, yet.

He also told me to  write on Fatherhood in the Trinity.  I'm glad.  I'm very comfortable with the image of God as a Father.  And I can find lots of scripture to quote God as Father:

Phil. 1:2     God our Father        Sirach 23: 1, 4     Lord, Father, and God  

and think of all the times Jesus prayed to the Father:

Matt. 6: 9-13     The Lord's Prayer           Luke 6: 36    Be merciful as your Father
and all of John 17 is a prayer addressed to the Father.

Jesus also taught about the Father by way of parables:

Luke 15: 11-12      Prodigal Son      Matt. 18: 23-35      Unforgiving servant.

And don't forget Jesus as the snippy adolescent who told His mother that He must be about His Father's business.  (Nevermind what Mary and Joseph must have said and did--that's for another time.)  Make note that even at this age, Jesus knows that He came to do the work of His Father.

Another good one is James 1:17, "Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."  St. James tells us that God the Father is the source of all good things, and that's why I love God as Father.

The Pelvic Trinity

I'm still thinking, researching, and praying about and to, the Trinity. And this morning I've come across fellow blogger's Eric Sammons' site, The Divine Life. I'd like to give him a hat tip. His posting was my meditation this morning. Eric sets the scene by talking about my patron saint for this year, St. Nicholas. It's a cute story about jolly ole St. Nick punching Arius in the nose. :-0

This is how emotions flared over religion and politics. Well, you know, or can imagine. Eric segues into today's heresies, which he names as the Pelvic Trinity: abortion, contraception, and homosexuality. Eric says, "This unholy trinity of issues are of course interrelated and they all revolve around our “right” to engage in sexual activities with no consequences. But these issues go even deeper, as they touch whether we have the right to define morality as we see fit, or if there is One above us who makes those determinations. Ultimately, it comes down to the question of who is in charge: us or God."

The poster child of this line of thought is disgraced Catholic priest Fr. Alberto Cutié, who left the Catholic Church to become Episcopal after being caught with his mistress last year, has adapted his own views on sexuality to be more in line with his new ecclesial communion. He was recently ordained an Episcopal priest and now he is admitting that he had struggles with the Catholic Church’s position on the pelvic trinity."

I wish St. Nicholas were around now.

Defining the Trinity

My "cloistered brother", Duff, and I are writing an adult formation module on the Trinity. Where do we get the chutzpah to do this? We figure it this way. We're writing something people can read, will want to read, and should read. There are plenty of books written on the Trinity, written by theologians. How many have you read? See; I rest my case.

We've made a tentative outline to propose our subject.

Defining the Trinity:
*Where does the word "Trinity" come from (History)?
*The first known existence of a family/community -
*How can we understand the Trinity?
*Who are the members of the Trinity?

Understanding the roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
*What is the role of God the Father?
*What is the role of God the Son?
*What is the role of God the Holy Spirit?

How does the Father, Son and Holy Spirit function as One?

How can we apply the understanding of the Trinity to the life of the Lay Dominican?
*Dominican Spirituality
*Modern times/culture

How can we present the Mystery of the Holy Spirit to other faiths, who do not believe in the Trinity?
*
*

What do you think? Any suggestions?

Some are called to teach. We are all called to preach.

Trinity Sunday

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is pretty special to me. In fact, the name I chose to inspire and dedicate myself to is the Blessed Trinity. My religious name is Sister Faith in the Blessed Trinity. Coincidentally, I recently learned (thank you Sister Vivian, RJM)that my great Aunt Blanche's religious name was Mother Mary of the Trinity.

I love the fact that we are celebrating a doctrine and not an event or a saint. That makes it a special day. Today we honor God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

History shows us that the Trinity is controversial. Not every religion is Trinitarian. And I can see that the concept of three distinct persons into one is mind boggling. But so is quantum physics. What of it? What good would be a religion without mystery. And by mystery, I don't mean puzzle, but rather beyond comprehension. If you understood God, would He still be God?

It has been said that mystery is not a wall to run up against, but an ocean in which to swim. The common wisdom is that if you talk about the Trinity for longer than a few minutes you will slip into heresy because you are probing the depths of God too deeply.

The Trinity is defined in the Nicene Creed. Basically the Trinity is the belief that God is one in essence, but distinct in person. He is an individual reality. We believe that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are somehow distinct from one another (not divided though), yet completely united in will and essence. How can this be? Well, think of the sight of two eyes. The eyes are distinct, yet one and undivided in their sight. Another illustration to explain the Trinity is St. Patrick's description of the three leaf clover. One flower made up of three separate leaves.

The Nicene definition of the Trinity developed over time, based on Scripture and Tradition. The Scriptures call the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit "God," yet the three are also clearly distinct. For instance, St. John gives Jesus the titles theos and monogenes theos (God and Only-Begotten God) and has Jesus saying that the Father and Son are one, yet in his gospel Jesus also states that the Father and Son are not one witness, but two (John 1:1, 18; 8:17-18; 10:30). So John tells us that Jesus is God but not God the Father? Jesus is one with the Father, but they constitute two witnesses? It is scriptures such as these that led to the development of the Trinity doctrine. The Church had to reconcile the Divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit with Jewish monotheism. Over time, and with the aid of the Holy Spirit, the Church reflected on the implications of God's nature, and even began using the word Trinity by the middle of the 2nd century to describe the relationship between the Father, Son, and Spirit. When in the 4th century a presbyter named Arius denied the Father and Son were both true God and co-eternal, his bishop Alexander of Alexandria challenged him and deposed him. Eventually the Arian controversy spread, and the emperor Constantine, newly fascinated with Christianity, convened a council of bishops in AD 325 in Nicaea to deal with Arianism. It is there that the Church drew up the beginnings of the current Nicene Creed. In the latter half of the 4th century the Church dealt with those who specifically denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit, adding more text to the creed.

The implications of believing in Arius' God, a God unwilling to involve himself in our redemption, but who instead sent an angel of the highest order, did not escape the earliest Christians. As St. Athanasius was fond of saying "that which has not been assumed has not been redeemed," meaning that unless God truly became completely human, we could not be fully redeemed, because only God Himself is capable of truly redeeming humanity; an angel does not have this ability. Thus, the Trinity is not about Greek philosophy or pointless metaphysical speculation, but about the heart of our salvation.

I repeat: "The Trinity is not about Greek or pagan philosophy, or pointless metaphysicl speculation, but about the heart of our salvation." Amen!
(Info from Churchyear.net)