In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost

Gospel Reflection for May 26, 2024, Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity - Matthew 28:16-20

And the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them.

And seeing him they adored: but some doubted.

And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.

Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. (Matthew 28:16-20 DRA)

Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the central mystery of the Christian faith. This truth of the nature of God as three Persons sharing one divine substance is wholly unique, knowable only through the revelation of the Gospel and, as transcending (without contradicting) human reason, only believable through grace, is frequently overlooked by Christians. Especially for those who are raised in the Faith, the doctrine of the Trinity often becomes so familiar that its true depth and wonder can be forgotten. One of the purposes of this feast day established in the 1300s is to help remind Christians of the centrality of the Trinity in our faith, that authentic Christianity is necessarily Trinitarian.

A side-effect of this familiarization with the Trinity is that many Christians do not understand precisely what it is they believe. Some treat the divine Persons of the Trinity as three distinct gods, as though Christianity was polytheistic; others, however, go to the opposite extreme and fail to distinguish them altogether, describing them as just three facets or progressive revelations of the same singular Person. Others believe that the Word of God did not become the Son of God until the Incarnation, or that the filioque clause in the Latin creed, that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father “and the Son,” causes the faith of the Catholic Church to be somehow defective and fundamentally opposed to the faith of the Eastern Orthodox, whose creed does not include this phrase. Some, like Muslims, have even believed that the Trinity is God the Father, Jesus and the Virgin Mary, completely missing the point of this doctrine. These errors and others can leave Christians confused and unable to explain what they believe about God, thus making them vulnerable to false teachings or even doubts about the Faith when dialoging with others.

It has always been common, and helpful to some extent, for Christians to use analogies when explaining the Trinity, but this can also cause problems when the analogies inevitably break down or lead to flawed conclusions. When contemplating and explaining the Trinity, it is important to know that Christians still hold to the monotheistic faith of Israel; we believe in the one God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not three gods. The Persons of the Trinity have all existed from eternity as one God: there was never a time when any of the Persons did not exist, and each one possesses the fullness of the divine nature in equality with the others.

The distinction of the Persons comes entirely from their “origin” or procession within the Godhead; this is not a movement, as in the parts of a body, nor an origin in time, but two eternal processions within the inner life of God. Since God is divine, the infinity of Being possessing all perfections in His essence, He is also communal, being-in-relation, since being is not static but dynamic and fully active. God is the supreme intensity of activity; He does not merely “exist,” as a kind of permanent stasis, contrary to more modern conceptions, but is charged, concentrated, glorious. He is overflowing with perfection, communicating Himself in love not only in Creation, which is just a partial and reflective participation of His infinity, but first and foremost within Himself, existing as a self-communicative relationship for all eternity. While the precise character of the processions within God are only known through the revelation of the Gospel, it is also perfectly rational and in fact makes sense of all things, illuminating the substance-in-unity nature of all being.

Since the Father, called such because He is the unoriginated generative source of the Godhead, is divine, His interior self-communication is not just one part toward another part, as when humans know ourselves or love ourselves. Rather, these movements within God impart the fullness of the divine substance, conferring the divinity which is intrinsically personal and communal in its essence. As such, when God knows Himself, this knowledge does not produce a merely partial idea within God but an exact image of Himself which is equal to the original: this image is the Son or the Word, called such analogously with human processions. He is the Son because He is a perfect reflection of the Father, just as children reflect their parents, and so this procession is also called filiation; He is called the Word because, like the words in our mind, He encapsulates and expresses the mind of God.

Similarly, the Holy Ghost is the personified love of God for Himself, specifically the love between the Father and the Son. This procession, like God’s self-knowledge, is whole and complete, thus producing a Person who is equal in divinity with the Father and the Son and distinct from them only in origin, sharing fully in the same divine essence. His procession is called “spiration” because He is breathed forth or “inspired” from the Father and the Son. Although the East and West express this differently, they share the same faith codified, perhaps inadequately, by the filioque, that the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son. In this way, both lungs of the Church share the same breath, even if we do not always breathe in harmony.

As this brief catechesis on the Trinity shows, this doctrine is infinitely complex and mysterious, ultimately beyond our comprehension, even if Christ has made it possible for us to know it well enough to satisfy human reason in this life and reassure our faith. A proper understanding is important to help us defend the Faith against doubts and errors, both from others and within ourselves, which can distort this doctrine. In truth, the Trinity is a wonderful revelation that God is not alone – He is the most perfect family and community, enlivened by a love which desires to share Himself with others. This is the motive for Creation and the meaning of life; it is also why He created both angels and humans as persons, so that we can reflect the Trinity and love as He loves in interpersonal communion, to give ourselves fully to one another and to Him just as He gives Himself fully within the life of the Trinity. This is the apostolic mission to which Christ calls all Christians in the Great Commission in this gospel reading, to share the Good News of eternal and divine life which subsists in the Blessed Trinity by baptizing all the world into the singular name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, so that we may be adopted as children of God and receive the inheritance of Christ.