The Trinitarian doctrine is a mystery and uneasy to comprehend because it is something beyond man’s nature and principles. In man’s calculation, it is either something is one or that it is two, something
cannot be one and at the same time more than one.
Many theologians in the past (e.g Arius) tried to simplify this doctrine and they ended up misrepresenting the truth.
The first question is, “How did the Church come to this belief of a Trinitarian God? Is it biblical or not?
The dogma of the Most Holy Trinity is not in any way the construction of the Church. It is not that the church created three gods out of one or something of that kind. The Church only teaches what was gradually revealed to man by God himself, with its fullest revelation brought by Christ.
There are many biblical revelations of the Trinitarian God both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. But the greatest to know is that which we see in the two most important moments in man’s
history: Creation and Redemption.
a. In the Creation:
In the account of man’s creation in Genesis 1:26, we see two indications of this Trinity. Not only that God said: “Let us make man” which implies a collaborative work of the Trinity in creating
man, but that he added “in our own image and after our likeness”. It is true that there is no mention of the Trinity but at least, it gives the idea that man’s creation is an action of more than one person.
Someone may say that God was referring to the angels or created spirits in this ‘Let us make man in our image…” But this cannot be true because it will not only deny God as the sole agent of creation but
also mean that the angels share equal power and being with God.
Furthermore, Ps 33:6 shows this creation of the world by the Father, His Word (Christ) and his breadth (the Holy Spirit). John the evangelist speaks of this creative participation of the divine Logos in the creation (Jn 1:1-4).
b. In the Incarnation: When God wants to restore his image in which he made man in Gen 1:26 but which man’s sin has distorted in Gen 3, and because he is the only one who can recreate man in that image, by restoring what man has broken, God himself decided to come to redeem man. Just as he did in creation of man,
God shows that the recreation of man (that is man’s redemption) is also an action of the three persons.
In the visit of angel Gabriel to Mary to initiate this new beginning that will usher in new creation, we see the three divine persons and their role. The Father sent an angel to tell Mary that she would conceive
the Son through the intervention of the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:26-38). The same one God but appearing in three persons.
Before Jesus began his earthly ministry, at his baptism by John, we also see the presence of the Trinitarian persons (cf Matt 3:16-17; Lk 3:21-22). During his earthly ministry, in several places, Jesus tries to teach the people this unity between himself and the Father and the Holy Spirit. In Jn 10:30, he
says “the Father and I are one”. In Jn 14:11, he says “I am in the Father and the Father is in me”. In responding to Philip’s ‘show us the Father…” Jesus says to him, “whoever has seen me has seen the Father”. Speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus refers to him as the Spirit of Father which belongs to him too (Cf Jn 14:26 and Jn 16:13-15).
In urging the disciples to go all over the world, teaching and bringing men into the Christian faith, Jesus commanded them to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19). That means, to belong to God is to confess the three persons of One
God.
What Does This Doctrine of the Most Trinity Teach us?
a. Imitation of the unity of the Trinity
In creating man, God said “Let us make man (Adam).” Some translations rightly translates “let us make human kind”. Hence, God created one humanity of which we all, though different in our persons, are members. We all have one humanity and ‘humaneness’. And if God created this humanity
in his image and likeness, then it means he created them to resemble him in being one even in their diversity of persons.
Hence, we are all one. When sin came in, the first thing it attacked was this unity of humanity. That is why, the first thing the man and the woman noticed after they disobeyed was their difference and their nothingness (Cf Gen 3:7). And from then on, a brother could kill his brother (Gen4:9) because he no longer sees him as himself but as an opponent. Without unity, there will not be love, and without love, there is no God. Jesus understands the importance of this unity, because he knows that that is the essential component of the three persons in One God.
Subsequently, when he was about to leave the world, he dedicated his final prayer, praying that the disciples be one, not in imitation of the unity according to the world’s measure, but in imitation of the Trinitarian unity. He says, “that they may be one just as we are one” (Jn 17:11; 21). To live as divine image and likeness which we are is to live this unity of the Trinity.
b. Distinction of Persons, unity of Mission
Although the Trinity is One, it is of three persons. The Catechism expresses this distinction when it says
“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”. In the economy of our salvation, though it is the work of the Trinitarian God, “each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property…the Father is he from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ is he through whom all things are; and one Holy Spirit is he in whom all things are”. Their diversity of persons does not in any way challenge or distort their unity of being, rather, it brings the beauty of the Trinity.
In the same way, although we are one humankind, we are different in our persons. This distinction is not meant to divide us nor make us foreign to one another, rather, it is meant to produce harmony in the same one piece of human music. Our differences are meant to bring richness to what we are and have in common: our humanity. In our different personalities, we all are endowed with different gifts so that as some are teachers, some prophets, some laborers, some farmers, some mechanics, some drivers etc.,
we may enrich our human community.
Do not be jealous of what you are not given or meant to be. Be happy with your person and train yourself in that which you have been given or meant to be. None of the actions of the three Persons of the Trinity is more important than the other. All of their actions aim at one thing: the salvation and happiness of man. It does not matter if it is the Son who dies on the Cross, or it is the Spirit who reveals the Son and the Father.
It does not matter if the Son is sent by the Father, or the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit. What matters is that each of those actions or sendings are for the glory of the One God and the salvation of mankind. So also, should our actions aim, not at our individual pride and selfishness but
for the glory of God and happiness of all mankind. Although we are distinct in our persons, we all have one mission: to build and not to destroy.
May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the sweet Fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with us all, now and forever, Amen,
Happy Trinity Sunday
Fr. Chukwuezugo Nnamah