Catholic theology starts with the premise that God is one. God has one, indivisible nature. At the same time, we also believe that God has three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are distinct from each other and yet share that one indivisible nature. We do not have three Gods, but only one. At the same time, the three persons of the Holy Trinity are not merely modes of expression in God, but are actual persons. So God is both indivisibly one and yet has three distinct persons.
One way to try to conceptualize the mystery of the Holy Trinity is to start with the premise that God is infinite love. Love, by its very nature, requires a love dynamic. In God, there is the Father, who is the One Who Loves. His love is received and reciprocated by the Son, who is the Beloved. The love that exists between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is an eternal exchange of infinite love, which is not bound by time, but takes place in the eternal timeless now of God’s infinite nature.
The fullness of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity was not revealed until the New Testament era, but the Old Testament already contains numerous intimations of the Trinitarian mystery. The Book of Proverbs in particular depicts the Wisdom of God, whom the Church Fathers identified as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity - Christ himself. Christ did not come into being when he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Christ has existed for all eternity and has no beginning or end. When he was conceived by the Virgin Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ became incarnate, taking on a human nature. He humbled himself by becoming one of us. He became human without in any way losing or changing his divinity.
Through the incarnation, Christ established the closest possible union between himself and creation, between the Creator and all of created reality. By being baptized into Christ, we are invited to enter into this most profound, closest possible union with God. Through Christ, the door is open for us to enter into the inner life of the Holy Trinity, the eternal, infinite exchange of love that that transpires unchangingly in the very heart of God.
That is the state of being for which every human heart yearns. We are incomplete without God's infinite, eternal Trinitarian love filling every aspect of our existence completely. Only when we fully accept God's love for us and requite his fathomless love with all our being - only then can we find true fulfillment as human beings.
In The Book of Revelation, we see images of the heavenly court of Christ, where all of the heavenly hosts find their fulfillment by worshipping Christ ceaselessly, accepting his love and giving him all of their love in return. We also see in these images the reuniting of humanity through Christ. The divisions, the animosity, the vengeful rivalries that have characterized human history will have all fallen away. Humanity will be healed and will be made one through the love of Christ.
Before we reach that blessed state of peace, however, we must still complete our earthly journey, with all the vicissitudes that this temporal life imposes upon us. As the Second Reading, taken from the Letter to the Romans, shows suffering is very much a part of our earthly experience. Just as Christ suffered during his earthly life, so must we also. Our suffering is not meaningless. We are to offer up the spiritual value of our suffering for one another. Just as Christ died on the Cross for us, we are to pour out our lives for one another daily in both small and significant ways. Only then will our love be truly like the love of Christ. Only then can we enter into the eternal, infinite love dynamic of the Holy Trinity.
||
The readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Sunday, Cycle C, are:
Proverbs 8:22-31
Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: The Holy Trinity, from Wikimedia Commons.
