What
is The Trinity?
The
word "trinity" is a term used to denote the Christian
doctrine that God exists as a unity of three distinct persons, it's
also known as the Godhead: God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Spirit. Each of the persons is distinct from the other, yet
identical in essence. In other words, each is fully divine in nature,
but each is not the completeness of the other. Each is divine, yet
they are not three gods, but one God.
Keep in mind that the
word "Trinity" is not used in Scripture. This is a term
that is used to attempt to describe the triune God or Godhead, the
fact that there are 3 coexistent, co-eternal persons that make up
God. Understand that this is NOT
in any way suggesting 3 Gods. The Trinity is One God made up of 3
distinct persons.
The Trinity is a concept that is impossible
for any human being to fully understand, let alone explain. However,
God does give us a way to understand it, "For
the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his
eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:"
- Romans 1:20. God is infinitely greater than we are, therefore we
should not expect to be able to fully understand Him. However, the
Bible teaches that the Father is God, that Jesus is God, and that the
Holy Spirit is God. The Bible also teaches that there is only one
God. Though we can understand some facts about the relationship of
the different persons of the Trinity to one another, ultimately, it
is incomprehensible to the human mind. However, this does not mean it
is not true or not based on the teachings of the Bible.
The
most simplest form I have ever learned about explaining the Trinity
is by describing an egg. An egg has three different parts, the shell,
the white, and the yolk. Each part is different, yet is a complete
egg.
Tri-Unity
(God The Father)
God
in one God, the Father Almighty, creator of Heaven and earth, of all
that is seen and unseen. These are the first words of our Creed. This
great gift of believing in God without seeing Him is the gift of our
Faith, it has been given by God Himself because all gifts come from
Him. God is the source of all things, in fact in Him we move, we live
and we have our being. "For
in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your
own poets have said, For we are also his offspring."
- Acts 17:28
God is One, but He is also three persons. God the
Father is the uncreated Spirit, infinite source of existence, eternal
being with no beginning or end, the causeless cause. He lives in
Heaven surrounded by His Majesty and perfections, He is clothed with
unreachable light. He is the Almighty, all knowing and all loving
God. He is Father of all, the Omnipotent (all powerful).
God
has spoken through the person of His Son, Who is the Word of God,
emanated or eternally generated from the Father and yet united to Him
in such intimate Love that they are always One and they are always
together.
God is not separated or divided because He is One,
He merely appears as different persons in order to express His
infinite fullness which is incomprehensible by finite creatures. Just
as a man can not divide his body from his mind, soul and spirit; God
is not divided. His works are perfect, His thoughts and ways are
above those of all His creatures, His Majesty and power is unequaled,
His infinite merciful Love is unfathomable and it is the gift by
which we are saved.
God is omnipresent, because God is Spirit;
God the Father has loved the world so much that He has given it His
only begotten Son, so that anyone who believes in Him can be saved.
"For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life."
- John 3:16.
Jesus
(God The Son)
God
in Jesus in the flesh, His Infinite Love seeing the misery of His
creatures, has condescended to redeem us from this curse and in the
Person of His Son has taken upon Himself the punishment due for our
sins. In order to save us, He has offered His works, His body, His
sufferings and His life as a sacrifice in atonement for our sins so
that in Him we can find eternal Life. "Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus
Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith."
- Galatians 3:13-14.
God spoke through the prophets and
foretold a liberation for all His people, He promised a new way of
life, something similar to the first liberation of the Israelites
from the slavery of the Egyptians. When the time had arrived
according to the Divine Providence the awaited Messiah came into the
world, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary and conceived by the Power of
the Holy Spirit.
Jesus, God the Son has come to save the
humble, the poor, those who accept His Wisdom and not that of the
world. He has come to those who accept that they are sick and need
his healing, He has come silently to those who reject the world and
decide to come to Him, He has come to those who accept His humanity
as well as His Divinity. He came proclaiming the Good News of the
Kingdom of Heaven, asking everyone to repent, to turn away from evil
and to come to God through Him. He said: no one can come the Father
except through me. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. As a great
teacher, He taught us how to live for Him and how to love God by
loving others.
Jesus is our Lord, our God, our Savior, The
Messiah, the Redeemer, The King of Kings, The Alpha and the Omega,
the Good Shepherd and much more. Jesus is God, Jesus reigns, Jesus is
Alive.
Holy
Spirit (God the Holy Spirit)
The
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, it is God, it is His powerful
action that permeates creation with Love and Life. It is existence
itself. We know Him also as the third person of the Holy Trinity.
As we look at the attributes of God, who is One, we may say
that God the Father is the Absolute Power and Will, God the Son is
His Word and command, God the Holy Spirit is the action of God which
is Love. The Holy Spirit is a fire of Divine Love that comes to touch
us and refine us in an ardent desire to possess God. It gives us a
passion for God, it destroys all the earthly affections because it
opens our spiritual eyes to see how precious God is.
The Holy
Spirit (Holy Ghost) is the Spirit of God the Father and of God the
Son, so it moves us to cry Abba which means "daddy" and as
children of God we come to trust God more than we have known to trust
Him before, it also moves us to accept Christ in our lives as our
model, way, truth and life. The fire of the Holy Spirit kindles the
little flame of Love that is in every heart, it raises the soul to
soar in the freedom of God, it feeds the soul with food from Heaven,
it gives courage to overcome all human weaknesses, it grants complete
trust in God so that we can say with St. Paul, it is no longer I who
lives, but Christ who lives in me.
The Holy Spirit is not
visible to our eyes, but we can feel His Presence within us, He
grants Peace, Love and Joy to our hearts and by His action we learn
to recognize Him. No one can say that Jesus is Lord unless He is
moved by the Holy Spirit “Wherefore
I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God
calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the
Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”
- I Corinthians 12:3”. So this Spirit abides in every one who
acknowledges that Jesus is Lord, but this doesn't guarantee that that
person is holy, it merely activates his faith by that conviction, so
we still need a continuous guidance of the Holy Spirit to attain
holiness. We must be born of the Spirit to become spirit, and we must
let Him come like a gentle breeze and bend our wills to His holy
inspirations, “The
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is
every one that is born of the Spirit.”
- John 3:8.
What is born of the flesh is flesh, but what is
born of the Spirit is Spirit, “That
which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit.”
- John 3:6, so in baptism we are born of the Spirit and we are
challenged to prove that we are Spirit. The Holy Spirit will teach us
what we need to say, He reveals the Wisdom of God, because He reveals
the teachings of the Word of God into our hearts, He is also
described as the Counselor and Advocate or The Comforter, “But
the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in
my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
- John 14:26. No one can become holy on his own so he needs the
influence of the Holy Spirit, He is like a gentle dove that gets
scared at the least movement of sin. So we must be very gentle in the
Presence of God who has vouchsafed to come to dwell in us.
We
have to deny ourselves the influence of our own human spirit in order
to allow the Spirit of God to take control of our lives, this is only
achieved by a life of prayer and detachment. We must yield humbly to
the powerful Holy Spirit in order to correspond to His Grace, we must
make a decision to lead an interior life where we give up our private
judgment, the light of reason in exchange for the Light of God which
comes only through faith. Only through this complete annihilation of
the self can we allow the Spirit of God to possess us; to think
otherwise is only presumptuous, because our pride will always desire
praise for our works, but God's work in our souls is the only way to
make us holy.
The
spiritual man is also called a man of God, because he truly belongs
to Him, He doesn't look for personal rewards, He doesn't resist God's
Will whether that may bring him trials, temptations, contradictions
or humiliations. God knows best, so the man of God yields completely
to Him just like Job. Any temporal gifts are for the Praise and Glory
of God not for his own, when any gifts material or spiritual are
taken away from him, He will gladly accept God's will, “Naked
came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the
LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the
LORD.”
- Job
1:21. He will live his life in the example of Christ who always
yielded to the Will His Heavenly Father, “Father,
if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my
will, but thine, be done.”
-
Luke 22:42.
