5 June 2013 Formation of the Trinitarian Dogma From the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the very root of the Church’s living faith, principally through Baptism. It finds expression in the rule of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching, catechesis and prayer of the Church. Such formulations are already found in the apostolic writings such as this salutation taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy: ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.’ During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify its Trinitarian faith, to deepen its own understanding and to defend it against errors that were deforming it. This clarification was done by the early councils, aided by the theological work of the Church Fathers and sustained by the Christian people’s sense of the faith. The Church uses (1) the term ‘substance’ (rendered also at times by ‘essence’ or ‘nature’) to designate the divine being in its unity; (2) the term ‘person’ or ‘hypostasis’ to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them; and (3) the term ‘relation’ to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others. Ref: “Catechism of the Catholic Church”, Nos. 249, 250, 252 Believing in God Is the First Truth “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth.” This is ‘the first truth of the faith’, the first article of our Creed. Creatures give testimony of God the Creator. The more man lets himself be carried away by the eloquence of creatures, their richness and beauty, the more need to adore the Creator grows in him and ought to grow in him. On our knees before the Lord, let us prostrate ourselves and adore. These are not extravagant words. They confirm the perennial ways of the fundamental logic of the Faith and of the thought about the cosmos as well; about the macrocosmos and microcosmos. The Faith confirms itself in a particular way as ‘reasonable worship’. I ask you to think about this disproportion which really exists in gigantic areas of contemporary civilization. The better man knows the cosmos, the less he seems to feel obliged to ‘bend the knee’ and ‘prostrate himself’ before the Creator. Need we ask why? Do people think that knowledge of the world and enjoyment of effects deriving from it make man master of creation? But should men not think, rather, that what man knows, the astonishing richnesses of the microscosmos and dimensions of the macrocosmos, he finds, as it were, ‘ready-made’; and that what he produces on that basis he owes to the wealth of raw materials in the created world? Could contemporary man not think there may be a fundamental ‘injustice’ toward the Creator in the entire direction of development of his civilization and mentality? “Come let us go down on bended knees before Him who has created this.” Ref: Cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, 1984, pp112-3 Our faith rests on the Trinity Christians are baptized in the ‘name’ of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not in their ‘names’, for there is only one God, the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity. The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is central to the Christian faith and life; the mystery of God in himself. Thus, the source of all other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. The most fundamental teaching in the ‘hierarchy of the truths of faith’. The whole mystery of salvation is identical with the history of the way and means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men ‘and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin’. The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the ‘mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God’. Ref: “Catechism of the Catholic Church”, Nos. 233, 234, 237 Going (and returning) to the Trinity through Mary St Alphonsus of Liguori says that the main role Christ entrusted to Mary is the dispensing of mercy, in which service Mary employs all her prerogatives. St Josemaria Escrivá adds: “When I was young I wrote (with the conviction that coalesced around my daily visits to ‘Our Lady of the Pillar’): ‘To Jesus one goes and to him we return through Mary.’ (“Libro de Aragon”) If our welcome to divine intimacy is possible because of the Son, it is only right that in reaching the Son we return to his Mother, Mary. Neither are we surprised that Christians, who go with Mary to Jesus, also ‘return’ to him, if unfortunately they had wandered away.” (“Libro de Aragon”) In this maternal task, Mary’s mission is not to mitigate divine justice. Isn’t God always good and merciful? Our Mother’s mission, rather, is to ready our hearts to receive the graces her Son has in store for us. That is why it is always helpful to return to her when we prepare ourselves to receive the sacrament of penance. The Virgin always provides the shortest and most secure path to God; a most pleasant path that does not demand special conditions. She welcomes us in any shape, even if we can barely take a step. That is when she proves to be closest to us, ‘awakening in Christians a supernatural desire to act “as members of the household of God” (Eph 2:19)’. She bestows on us the gift of being ushered into the divine family. “Turn to our Lady -- daughter, Mother, and Spouse of God and our mother as well -- and ask her to obtain more graces for you from the blessed Trinity: graces of faith, hope, love, and contrition. ... (cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 227) Ref: F Fernandez-Carvajal, ‘et al’, “Children of God”, 1997, pp60-62 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)