Belief in the Trinity: Revelation or Myth?
One of the
central mysteries of our faith as Catholics and other Christians is the belief
that there is only One God who is Triune in Person. The Trinity: We believe in One God, the
Father Almighty. We believe in One Lord, Jesus Christ. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and
Giver of Life.
That God
is One is found both in the Old Testament Revelation, the writings of the
Jewish people, and in the New Testament Revelation, the writings of the followers
of Christ. The oneness of God has been
the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church from its beginning, the Day of
Pentecost, into the present moment.
That God
is triune in person is the revelation that comes to us from Jesus through the
apostles, the Fathers of the Church and, finally, the Magisterium of the
Church.
Because
ancient peoples believed in the multiplicity of gods, for the descendants of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to begin to accept that there is only one God was a
unique and long process. Even after they
acknowledged this truth through their covenant with God, they still reverted
back to worshipping different gods.
Again and again, God would send the prophets to bring them back to the
truth of his uniqueness as God, but in time they slipped back into idolatry.
Then, once
they truly professed that God was one and there was no other God, their
understanding was stretched by Jesus the Messiah. Knowing where the people were in their
belief, he gradually led them to the truth that he was truly man and truly God.
For the Jews this was blasphemy. As a
result, they sought and obtained his crucifixion by the Romans.
But the
evidence in the New Testament writings of the Apostles, the initial witnesses,
is clear. Let me cite a few:
“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, teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of
the age.” (Mt 28:19-20)
“In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. And the Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.”(Jn 1:1,14)
“I and the
Father are one.” (Jn 10:30 )
“He who
has seen me has seen the Father…I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”
(Jn 14:9; 11)
“The
Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach
you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you.”(Jn 14:26)
Thomas’s
profession of faith after the resurrection of Jesus: “My Lord and my
God.”(Jn20:28) “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” (2 Cor 13:14)
Initially,
the Apostles and Jewish converts to Christ had a hard time verbalizing what
they knew in faith. Even though the term
“Trinity” is not found as such in the New Testament writings, the concept was
present. As the early Church continued
to be taught by the Holy Spirit, like a rose bud, the fullness of the truth of
the Trinity began to unfold.
Irenaeus
who lived at the end of the 2nd century stated: “For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world, even to
the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and from their disciples
the faith in one God, the Father Almighty... and in one Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, who became flesh for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit" (Against
Heresies 1:10:1 [A.D. 189]).
As far as we can tell the first time the term “Trinity” was used was by
Tertullian in the early part of the third century. Building on the concept of “person” from the
Greeks, he wrote that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were one in essence but
not one in person, as each is a distinct person.
Then in 325 the Council of Nicea formally stated as a matter of revealed
faith that there is One God who is Triune in Person: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. This Council was convened to counteract the heretical teaching of
Arius, known as Arianism, which taught that Jesus was not divine but a
creature. The Council of Nicea formulated what is now known as the Nicene
Creed, which has for centuries and is even today recited in Mass as our
profession of faith.
From the time of Christ and the apostles till today, the Church has
believed in the mystery of the Trinity, even though it took time for the clear
formulation to be developed.
Among Christians today, the belief of the Trinity is practically
universal. Obviously, the believers in
the Jewish religion do not subscribe to this.
Nor do those who follow Islam or other Eastern religions. In the Western world, the Jehovah Witnesses,
Mormons and Unitarians do not adhere to a Trinitarian belief in God.
The Trinity is a mystery of revelation from God. When human beings try to
understand this mystery they apply categories that are limited. The famous
story that St. Augustine writes concerning the Trinity is applicable here.
One day, it is said, that Augustine was trying to understand the mystery
of the Trinity with his human intelligence alone. He happened to be walking on
the Mediterranean seashore. He noticed a little boy digging a hole in the sand
and going to the water’s edge to fill a large shell with water and pouring the
water into the hole. He did this a number of times. As fast as he poured the
water in the hole, the water disappeared. Augustine watched with amusement and
asked the boy what was he trying to do?
The boy responded that he was trying to empty the sea into the hole. To this the learned man said that it was an
impossible task for the hole is so small and the sea is so vast. To which the boy said that so it was with
understanding the Trinity: the mystery is beyond the limited capability of our
human mind.
In faith we believe and profess the mystery of the Oneness of God who is
three equal but distinct Persons related to each other in the unity of their
divine life and love.
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