Today our church family celebrates the central and foundational mystery of her faith -- the feast of the Blessed Trinity. Like the terms Purgatory and Incarnation, the term Trinity is not found in the Bible. It is a term coined by some teacher(s) of the Church in the early centuries as they grappled to explain the mystery of three persons in one God. The term Trinity is a composite of two Latin words: Tri = three and unius = one. So, the term Trinity speaks of a reality where there is three in one.

We say that the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity is a mystery. When we say something is a mystery, we are not saying it makes no sense at all, that it is total darkness. Rather, we are saying that something is so profound in meaning that it can never by fully understood. A mystery is somewhat like a vast continent that we can explore and explore, always discovering new wonders about it but never fully exhausting its richness.

In his book Christ Among Us, Anthony Wilhelm writes:

Reflecting on Christ's revelation, the Church slowly penetrated into the mystery of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As Christianity developed, scholars and ordinary people alike tried to understand Christ better and his relationship to the Father and the Spirit. Guided by the Spirit, some facets of this mystery began to emerge and were proclaimed by the Church in several councils.

There is but one God; but, in God, there are three divine, completely equal Persons. This is the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Each of the Three Persons is really distinct from the other Two. Each is wholly God, equal to the other Two. One did not come before the others. Yet there is only one God.

Insights from Fr. McBride

Fr. Alfred McBride, author of the book on Church History that we were selling last Sunday, has written several books on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In his book College Catechism, Fr. McBride speaks about the Trinity in this way:

Is God One Person or Three Persons?

Some say.... God is one person. To say otherwise is to retreat to the polytheism that preceded the rise to monotheism. As Scripture itself testifies, the ancient world was filled with many gods. The journey to the purest and highest religion meant discarding the simplistic gods that were identified with the sun and moon, stars, skies, rain, trees, rocks, lightning and mythical dragons.

God revealed himself to Abraham and Moses as a divinity who was personal and one. God is an "I" a personal divinity. God has a name. He is not an anonymous force. In disclosing his name, God became accessible, capable of being known and addressed personally.

The most powerful act of faith among the people of Israel professes the oneness of God. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." The expression "one" refers both to the uniqueness of God-meaning there is no other god- and to the truth that God is one person.

The biblical history of God's people is filled with stories of their going after other gods. They were tempted time and again to worship idols made of gold and silver. Through the prophets, God taught the people to return to him who is the one and only God-and the one divine person in whom they could rely.

The Catechism teaches ... God is One. Scripture is clear about the oneness of God. "I am God, there is no other!" (Is 45:22) The creed always begins with our faith in the oneness of God. "I believe in one God." This means thee are no competing gods. They do not exist. Gods made of wood and stone, silver and gold are illusions. Gods identified with trees, mountains, caves, or cosmic realities are purely imaginary. Contemporary gods of sex, money and power are fools' gold. There is only one God. All others are false.

What shall we say of this one and only God?

1) God is MYSTERY. At the burning bush God revealed his name. "I AM." This mysterious name tells us several truths about God.

a) God is living and personal.

b) God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. No one could be more intimate with us than God who creates, sustains, and loves us. At the same time, God is "totally other," divine, grand, magnificent, mysterious, and infinite in all directions. We cannot domesticate God. We cannot capture God in our concepts and images of him.

c) God communicates himself to us through our experience of created things or particular persons. "The heavens declare the glory of God." (Ps 19:2) God also lets us know about himself through revelations to prophets, saints, and other outstanding people of faith.

d) Finally, God speaks to our hearts. Scripture mentions the heart over a thousands times. It is in our hearts, the source of loving and being loved, that we encounter God most warmly and personally. We are driven to love and be loved. In that sacred act we have an opportunity to be touched by God.

2) God is TRUTH. This means God tells us the absolute truth and never lies to us. Such truth is more than abstract ideas. God's truth also implies utter fidelity to us. So God will never betray us or let us down. God is loyal and acts out in truth and faith, we can be that way too. God is the origin and source of truth and fidelity.

3) God is LOVE. As we experience the unfolding of the biblical story of God's saving acts, it becomes clear that love is his motive for saving us from our sins and giving us divine life. Scripture compares God's love to a father's affection for his daughter, a mother's love of her son, a bridegroom's passionate commitment to his beloved. God's love is stronger than any of our infidelities. St. John summarizes all this with his eloquent statement, "God is love." (1 Jn 4:8) As we now turn to God as Trinity, we may note that God is an eternal exchange of love among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God has destined us to participate in that exchange.

God is Trinity. All Christians are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity. This is the most ancient and deepest of all the mysteries of faith. How was the mystery of the Trinity revealed?

The Old Testament called God father inasmuch as he is the creator of world. "Is he not your father who created you?" (Dt 32:6)

God is also father due to making a covenant with his people. "Israel is my son, my first-born." (Ex4:22)

Lastly, God is father of the poor, the orphan, and the widow. "The Father of orphans and the defender of widows is God." (Ps 68:6)

Jesus revealed God as father in a new sense. God is father in relation to his only Son, Jesus. In the Last Supper discourse (Jn 13-17) Jesus calls God "Father" forty-five times. The Son is as divine as the Father. "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one know the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him." (Mt 11:27) The Father testified to the divinity of his Son at the Baptism and Transfiguration. "This is my beloved Son." (Mt 3:17; 17:5) In the creed, we state that we believe in Jesus Christ as God's only Son and Lord.

Before his passion, Jesus promised that he would send the Holy Spirit to the apostles and disciples. The Spirit would abide with them, teaching, guiding, and consoling them and giving them the courage to be witnesses to the Gospel and the Kingdom. The revelation of the Spirit at Pentecost and in the young Church in action throughout the remaining pages of the New Testament gives ample evidence of his distinct personal and divine nature. The Spirit's appearance and acts reveal the reality and work of the Father and the Son. In the creed we affirm, "We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life."

How did the Church proceed to articulate the doctrine? Baptismal faith from apostolic times drew attention to the mystery of the Trinity. As time passed the Church needed to clarify her understanding of the mystery especially when faced with those who denied or deformed it.

Theologians borrowed three terms from philosophy to help her with this task. They used substance or nature to speak of the unity of God. They applied the terms person or hypostasis to Father, Son and Spirit to illustrate the real distinctions among them. They chose the concept of relation to illustrate the truth that their distinctiveness lies in their relationship to one another.

Thus the doctrine of the Trinity includes three truths of faith:

1) The Trinity is One. We do not speak of three gods, but one God. Each person is fully God. All three share the same divine nature or substance.

2) The divine persons are truly distinct from one another. Father, Son, and Spirit are not just three shapes or modes of God, but three real identifiable persons. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Father. The Holy Spirit is neither Father nor Son.

3) The divine persons relate to one another. Because of the manner in which they relate, we can identify each person by that relationship.

What are the missions of the persons of the Trinity? God's loving plan to save us is the common work of the three divine persons. Each divine person performs this common mission in a unique manner. We speak of the Father as Creator, the Son as Redeemer, and the Spirit as Sanctifier, even though all three work together in these missions. When we glorify and praise one person, we praise all three.

What are some implications of faith in the one God?

"It means living in thanksgiving: if God is the only One, everything we are and have comes from him: "What have you that you did not receive?" (1 Cor 4:7) "What shall I render to the LORD for all his bounty to me?" (Ps 116:12)

"It means knowing the unity and true dignity of all men and women: everyone is made in the image and likeness of God." (Gen 1:26)

"It means making good use of created things: faith in God, the only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him."

2. How may we speak of the Trinity?

"The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

3. What is the relationship of baptism and faith in the Trinity?

"By the grace of Baptism 'in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,' we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light.

Cassie Bernall, who was killed at Columbine High School for her faith in Christ wrote the following testimony of faith, the Sunday before she was killed:

"Now I have given up on everything else-I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to die with him. So, whatever it takes, I will be the one who lives in the fresh nearness of life of those who are alive from the dead."

Prayer

Loving God, you are one in nature and substance. You are the only true God. At the same time, I praise you for revealing that you are also three persons involved in a relationship of infinite love. I thank you for the revelation and for the graces of faith that enable me to acknowledge such richness and depth in your inner life. I give you glory for the outpouring of your love as Father, Son and Spirit, creating, redeeming and sanctifying me and the world. Holy, Holy, Holy are you, Lord God almighty!