5 June 2012: The dogma of the Holy Trinity

‘The Trinity is One.’ We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the ‘consubstantial Trinity’. The divine persons do not share the one divinity but each of them is God whole and entire: ‘The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, ie, by nature one God.’ The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) declared, “Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz, the divine substance, essence or nature”. “The divine persons are really distinct from one another. God is one but not solitary. ‘Father’, ‘Son’, ‘Holy Spirit’ are not names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: ‘He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son.’ They are distinct in their relations of origin: ‘It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds. The divine unity is Triune.’ ‘The divine persons are relative to one another.’ It does not divide the divine unity. The real distinction of the persons from one another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to one another: ‘In the relational names of the persons the Father is related to the Son, the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to both. While they are called three persons in view of their relations, we believe in one nature or substance.’ Indeed ‘everything (in them) is one where there is no opposition of relationship. Because of that unity the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son.’ Ref: “Catechism of the Catholic Church”, Nos. 253, 254, 255 The divine works and the Trinitarian mission ‘O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!’ God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the ‘plan of his loving kindness’, conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: ‘He destined us in love to be his sons’ and ‘to be conformed to the image of his Son’, through ‘the spirit of sonship’. This plan is a ‘grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began’, stemming immediately from Trinitarian love. It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church. The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For the Trinity has only one and the same nature; only one and the same operation: ‘The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle.’ ... each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, one God and Father ‘from’ whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, ‘through’ whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit ‘in’ whom all things are. It is above all the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine persons. As a common and personal work, the whole divine economy reveals what is proper to the divine person, and their one divine nature. Hence, the whole Christian life is a communion with each of the divine persons, without in any way separating them. Everyone who glorifes the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him. The final end of the whole divine economy is entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. Even now we must be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: “If a man loves me”, says the Lord, “he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.” (Jn 14:23) “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. “Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance, for the person of the Father is one, the Son’s is another, the Holy Spirit’s another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty co-eternal. (“Athanasian Creed”) “Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Ref: “Catechism of the Catholic Church”, Nos. 257-260, 265-267 The Mystery of the Trinity “O Lord our Lord, how glorious is your name over all the earth.” (Ps 8:2) These words bring us trembling and adoring before the great mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity. Before him, we must more than ever humbly accept the call of the wise man when he says: “Never be rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be quick to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few.” (Eccl 5:2) God is the only reality beyond our powers of measuring, observing, controlling, gaining exhaustive knowledge. That is why he is God. If this be true for the Godhead in general, it is all truer for the mystery of the Trinity, of God himself. But it is not a matter of three separate Gods (a blasphemy), nor of simply diverse impersonal modes of presenting himself on the part of one Divine person. This would mean radically impoverishing the richness of his interpersonal communion. This Christian novelty: ‘the Father’ loved us so much as to give us his Only Begotten Son; through love, ‘the Son’ poured out his blood for our sake; and ‘the Holy Spirit’ was actually “given to us” in such a way as to bring into us that same love with which God loves us. (cf Rom 5:5) Ref: Cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, 1984, pp445-6 • The chronicle relates that in the year 1428, Our Lady of Haut, in Hainault, restored a child to life, who had been dead several days, that he might receive baptism; that he lived five hours after receiving that sacrament, and then melted away by degrees, like snow, in the presence of seventy persons. — Justus Lipsius (History of Our Lady of Hal, ch. 21). (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com) • Our Lady of Haut, Hainault, France (1428). (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html) • Another feast of Our Lady of Haut (in Hainaut, France). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)