A closer look at Our Lady's Nov 2 message to Mirjana.
Our Faith In The Trinity
Photo By: Flickr/PROFr Lawrence Lew, O.P.
THE TRINITY
The Faith of all Christians rest on the Trinity – CCC
If we profess to believe in God but not Jesus, the Word Made Flesh or if we profess to believe in God but not The Holy Spirit, our guide and our comforter then we are professing a belief in an incomplete God.
Christians are to believe in one God and only one God. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD;and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." Deuteronomy 6:4-5
As Christians we appreciate the 3 distinct persons of God in the Trinity. When we watch a beautiful sunset or walk in the falling snow, or stare up at the stars on a very dark, clear night, we know and understand that God, our creator gave us all this wonder and beauty. When we receive Holy Communion we know it is really and truly Jesus, we know we are receiving Jesus and with great love and joy we receive the Lamb of God into our very being. We receive Jesus, the 2nd person of The Holy Trinity, Our Lord Jesus Christ. And when we need the gifts given to us at baptism, we call upon the 3rd person of God in the Holy Spirit, our Counselor, our Comforter, for strength, wisdom, understanding and more. The Holy Spirit also gives us virtues to help us do the will of God. God is all knowing, all powerful, always was and always will be. God is complete. God is complete perfection. God is complete perfection in the Trinity.
The idea of three persons in one God which we profess in the Trinity is a mystery that we accept on Faith.
St. Gregory of Nazianzus the theologian, summarized Trinitarian faith for catechumens of Constantinople: “Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way . . . the three considered together. . . I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendor. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me.”
God reveals these truths to us through creation and through Holy Scripture. Everyone is given an opportunity to know God but the concept of the Trinity is hard. I think about the Holy Trinity a lot. I accept this mystery on faith but I still try to understand. Sometimes I feel like I almost understand but then…no… I don’t! It’s impossible for us to comprehend this great mystery of the Holy Trinity. So why do we try so hard to understand the mystery of the Trinity when we cannot? Think about this. God is wonderful, powerful, grand. God exists in magnificent glory. We cannot simplify God. By trying to understand the Trinity we try to simplify our God. Our great almighty God although constant is so so complex. I would not expect less from such a powerful wonderful and mysterious God. God demands faith from us, great faith, so great a faith that nothing can keep us from belief in The Trinity, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Writings of Saint Augustine on the Trinity:
"All the Catholic interpreters of the divine books of the Old and New Testaments whom I have been able to read, who wrote before me about the Trinity, which is God, intended to teach in accord with the Scriptures that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are of one and the same substance constituting a divine unity with an inseparable equality; and therefore there are not three gods but one God, although the Father begot the Son, and therefore he who is the Son is not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son but only the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, himself, too, coequal to the Father and to the Son and belonging to the unity of the Trinity" (The Trinity1:4:7 [A.D. 408]).
Confusing yes. Impossible to believe no. God’s grace is enough for us.
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About the Author
Years ago, I suffered from severe anxiety and had many worries. I suffered and was distant from God for almost two years. Finally, I accepted the grace God had been giving me. Jesus loves me unconditionally. I need to love Him unconditionally as well. Jesus and I made a covenant a few years ago when I accepted Him back into my life. I made a promise never lose sight of Jesus again, to keep Him in my life forever. Jesus to help me keep my promises by giving me reminders. Now I’m happy. I understand that every challenge God placed in my path has been for my benefit. There are no obstacles in my path to heaven, unless I choose to take what God gives me and turn it into an obstacle. And though I’m not completely where I need be in trusting Providence and in doing God’s will, this is my life goal. Everything makes sense with God. I desire to share the joy I have in knowing Jesus with others.
