Mystery

By Deacon Thomas Stephenson

June 16, 2019

The celebration of Pentecost last Sunday marked the end of the Easter season. However, today and over the next few weeks, we observe a few more significant feasts. Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity; next Sunday is Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ; on Friday the 28th is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, and the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul on Sunday the 30th. These celebrations help us to reflect on, and learn more about, some essential truths of our faith.

The Trinity is the most essential truth, as well as the greatest mystery, of our faith. What does the word mystery mean in this context? The First Vatican Council document De Fide Catholica tells us: “a mystery is a truth which we are not merely incapable of discovering apart from Divine Revelation, but which, even when revealed, remains ‘hidden by the veil of faith and enveloped, so to speak, by a kind of darkness’.” Because the Trinity is such a mystery, in trying to understand it, we must be careful not to stray into error, or worse, actual heresy. We may think that the Trinity is difficult to understand, but that is not really the case – for us, the Trinity is impossible to understand. Saint Augustine spent over thirty years trying to comprehend and explain the Trinity, writing a book comprised of fifteen volumes, De Trinitate. There is a story told that he was walking by the seashore one day contemplating and trying to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity when he saw a small boy running back and forth from the water to a spot up the shore. The boy was using a shell to bring the water from the ocean and put it into a small hole in the sand. Augustine approached him and asked, “My boy, what are you doing?” “I am trying to put all the sea into this hole,” the boy replied with a smile. “But that is impossible, my dear child, that small hole cannot contain all that water” said Augustine. The boy paused for a moment, stood up, looked into the eyes of the Saint, and replied, “It is no more impossible than what you are trying to do – comprehend the immensity of the mystery of the Holy Trinity with your small intelligence.”  The Trinity was beyond the comprehension of St. Augustine, and it is beyond ours, too. We can explain to some extent what the Trinity is, and what it is not, and must then recognize the limits of our understanding.

But this does not mean that we are unable to say anything meaningful about the Trinity; it actually makes it even more important that we attempt to grasp it to the limited extent that we can. Our concept of God matters; it affects how we relate to Him; it shapes our relationship with the Lord, the Triune God, all three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Athanasian Creed, which we do not use in Mass, says in part: “And the Catholic Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost...So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not Three Gods, but One God.”

The rest of this creed more extensively describes what we believe about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is definitely worth reading (I have added it as an Appendix at the end of this document. On most Sundays, we say the Nicene Creed at Mass, and in it we profess that we believe in the Father, we believe in the Son, begotten of the Father and consubstantial with Him, and we believe in the Holy Spirit, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son. God is three distinct persons, but not three different Gods, and not just three different manifestations or facets of God. The Catechism tells us: The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons: [Father, Son and Holy Spirit]…The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God, whole and entire. (CCC, 253). God is not divided up between them; each person of the Trinity is completely, 100% God. We can use reason, Scripture, and Sacred Tradition to gain insight, but any attempt to fully define this in ways that we can understand will necessarily fall very, very short. We profess our belief in the Trinity, though it remains a mystery to us.

Today’s Gospel only gives us a small indication, but in it we can see some of the connection between the three Persons of the Trinity. Jesus tells His disciples that all that the Father has is His, and that the Spirit will glorify Him because He will take what is His and declare it to the disciples. So, what the Father has also belongs to the Son, and the Spirit will take that and declare it to the disciples, continuing the work of the Son.

St. Athanasius also says: “When the Spirit dwells in us, the Word Who bestows the spirit is in us too, and the Father is present in the Word.” The relationship in The Trinity is not just an abstract theological construct; it is truly a relationship, a loving relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons in complete unity and love. We see that it is in the very being of God to love, and to share that love.

We are meant to be in relationship, too, with God and with each other. The Catechism states: “The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. But even now, we are called to 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’”. (CCC, 260) We participate in the life of the Trinity through our Baptism, and in developing our relationship with the Lord. We are made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore the truth of the Trinity tells us something about ourselves. This includes the fact that our relationship with God also requires relationships with other people, especially other believers. We cannot have a healthy spiritual life unless we are connected to each other in the Church. We cannot be spiritual in isolation, creating a god in our own image. We need to recognize Him as He has revealed Himself, and receive support from other believers, and give them our support. Clearly we do not possess the kind of unity God does, but His unity echoes within us. As the Church, we are many individual believers, yet we are united as one body in Christ. Just as God shares His love with us, so we must share His love with others.

The Trinity is a wondrous mystery, one that we should contemplate in our prayer life, and that we celebrate in the Mass, which, among other things, is an expression of the Trinitarian love of God. Here, we are drawn into that love as a foretaste of eternal life. Let us ask God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – to give us the grace to be found worthy to share in the infinite and everlasting life of the Trinity.

Appendix A - Athanasian Creed

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all One, the Glory Equal, the Majesty Co-Eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father Uncreated, the Son Uncreated, and the Holy Ghost Uncreated. The Father Incomprehensible, the Son Incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible. The Father Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost Eternal and yet they are not Three Eternals but One Eternal. As also there are not Three Uncreated, nor Three Incomprehensibles, but One Uncreated, and One Incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not Three Almighties but One Almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not Three Gods, but One God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not Three Lords but One Lord. For, like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion to say, there be Three Gods or Three Lords. The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is One Father, not Three Fathers; one Son, not Three Sons; One Holy Ghost, not Three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is afore or after Other, None is greater or less than Another, but the whole Three Persons are Co-eternal together, and Co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting Salvation, that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man.

God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance of His mother, born into the world. Perfect God and Perfect Man, of a reasonable Soul and human Flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. Who, although He be God and Man, yet He is not two, but One Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into Flesh, but by taking of the Manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by Unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one Man, so God and Man is one Christ. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into Hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into Heaven, He sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.