June 4, 2023 (Year A)
Today we observe the Feast of the Holy Trinity, the celebration of three persons in one God. We take it for granted every time we make the Sign of the Cross, “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” But there are others in the world who look upon the belief in the Trinity as a sin against God by proclaiming polytheism. This is because they do not understand the history of the development of the Trinity.
It is hard to find evidence of the so-called “Trinity” in the Old Testament because it was not defined with such language until much later. In the Old Testament God was one being acting as a Father to the Israelites. In speaking to Moses and trying to get him to confront the Pharoah for the release of the Israelite slaves, God instructs Moses to say, “Thus says the LORD: Israel is my son, my firstborn.” (Exod. 4:22)
We don’t hear the name “Jesus” in the Old Testament because he had not yet been incarnated. But He is represented by ideas such as “wisdom” and the “Word.” John recognizes this in his prologue where first introducing Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. This is one of the first concrete witnesses to the second person of the Trinity.
We do see more examples of the Spirit in the Old Testament. The Spirit especially appears as theophanies of God, visible signs in nature, like wind, fire, and smoke. We hear that God was with the Israelites throughout their time in the desert. The Spirit was the physical manifestation of God in the Old Testament and the third person of the Trinity.
In the New Testament we begin to see more concrete examples of the Trinity. Yet there still is no explicit use of the word “Trinity” nor explanation of the relationship between the three persons. Some of the examples that we see are in todays’ readings. For example, from Paul we hear, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2Cor. 13:13). And in the Alleluia acclamation, “Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; to God who is, who was, and who is to come” (Rev. 1:8). The most well-known comes from Matthew in the commissioning of the disciples when Jesus tells them, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 28:19). Any Catholic today who sees these verses instantaneously recognizes a reference to the Trinity.
However even with these examples there remained much conflict in the early Church with the attempt to define the Trinity and the idea of three persons in one God. It took several years and many church councils for the definition to be clarified.
Even with all of this scriptural evidence describing the persons of the Trinity, its recognition showed cause for numerous debates and heresies in the early church. First there were those who followed Arius, a monk of the 4th century who debated the dual nature – divine and human – of Jesus. He taught that Christ was merely a created human being. This escalated into a situation where rival bishops were in deep conflict. Finally, in 325AD, the emperor Constantine called together the Council of Nicaea which declared that the Father and Son were of one substance, but distinct persons, thus confirming the dual nature of Christ.
Toward the end of the 4th century, it became necessary for the Church to reaffirm the teaching of Nicaea because rival bishops following Bishop Arius were once again taking sides over the nature of Jesus, with the opponents once again denying the divine nature of Jesus. This resulted in the Council of Constantinople in 381AD which added statements to the creed of Nicaea professing that Jesus was “born of the Virgin Mary and became man… was crucified under Pontius Pilate and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” Here those who opposed the Arians affirmed the equality of the divine nature of Jesus by saying that Christ was not a created creature, but rather “begotten, not made.” They also defined certain aspects about the Holy Spirit, stressing that He, too, is God and along with the Father and Son is worshipped and glorified.
In 431AD the debate once again arose with the followers of the bishop Nestorius, who said that Christ had two natures that were distinct from one another such that he was only human when he walked the earth and only divine after the resurrection. Thus, they declared that the child born in Bethlehem and the man who died on the cross were not God, but only human, making Mary the Mother of Christ, not the Mother of God. The resultant Council of Ephesus which was convened determined that Christ was both a man and divine at the same time and also upheld the identity of Mary as the Mother of God.
Finally, a heresy known as “Docetism” developed, which was contrary to Arianism, saying that Christ had only one nature which was divine and that he had only seemed to be human while on earth. The Council of Chalcedon in 451AD was convened and once again reaffirmed the teaching of Nicaea and the dual natures of Christ.
Thus, within the span of a century the early Church had taken the concept of the Trinity which was found in scripture and defined that which was only inferred about the nature of Jesus. They thereby developed a set of beliefs, the Nicene Creed, which we pray every time we say Mass. Here we declare that the “Son of God was begotten, not made, consubstantial (of one substance) with the Father.” And “we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.”
We are so accustomed to saying this prayer that we probably don’t really take the time to consider what the words really mean. And there is a lot of theology here which might help us to understand the Trinity – three persons of the same substance but one God. Yet this dogma still remains a mystery to us.
Moreover, left out of this discussion is a more misunderstood, complex doctrine. That is, how do the three persons of the Trinity relate to and communicate with one another if they are three but one? Perhaps, this is something that God did not intend for humans to understand. It’s just something to take on faith. In fact, St Augustine said of the Trinity, “If you have understood, then this is not God. If you were able to understand, then you have understood something else instead of God.”
