Relation in the Trinity

Gospel Reflection for Wednesday May 28th, 2025

Today’s Gospel continues the Last Supper narrative according to St. John. This section continues the discourse on the Holy Spirit and His relationship to the Father and the Son. When today’s Gospel is taken with yesterday’s, the Church’s Trinitarian Theology is beautifully confirmed.

“But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason, I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16:13-15

Here, Our Blessed Lord confirms His equality with the Father in saying that everything that the Father has is mine. This is not to be taken as a mere materialistic possession. That is far below the divine. Instead, this is an affirmation that the same divine nature and being that the Father has also belongs to the Son. This divine nature is communicated to the Son by the Father, and thus we can say, with the Creed, that the Son is God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God. Whatever is possessed by the Father according to His being is also possessed by the Son according to His being.

This is also extended to the Holy Spirit, who will take from what is mine and declare it to you. The Holy Spirit also possesses the same divine nature as the Father and the Son. He, who is the love of the Father and the Son, is sent to the Church to teach us all things. Again, the possession and giving of what is mine imply equality in the person of the Blessed Trinity. There is no distinction in nature in the Trinity. The only distinction that exists in the Trinity is that of relation. The Father is Father because He has a Son. The Father does not have a Father and so cannot be called Son. The same premise applies to the Son and the Spirit as well. The Son is known as Son through His relationship to the Father. He is the one begotten. The Spirit, likewise, as the love of the Father and Son, is known through His relation to the Father and the Son. He is the one Spirated.

The beauty of this discourse is found in the sublimity of the teaching that comes from Christ, He who became man in order to reveal the Trinity to mankind. Only He has seen the Father, and only He knows the innermost relation of the Blessed Persons. It is through this relation that the Incarnate Son can show us the face of the Father.