We must see the Holy Trinity's role in God's Forgiveness

We must see the Holy Trinity’s role in God’s Forgiveness?  

This becomes a matter of understanding the description of God as Three divine persons.  Once I had a person ask me to whom they should direct their prayers to; the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit?  Here we see that many people do not understand the essence of the Holy Trinity. Their mind-set sees the three persons of the Trinity as distinctly three individual persons with each having a separate mind, will, and position with a subservient attitude all their own.  

Like a board meeting of specific heads of departments making a decision on a particular issue once they can agree collectively on its final conclusion.  

One idea that may present itself is the statement; “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”  (Gn 1: 26).  To the misinformed it’s as though the three individual persons are in a meeting after the creation of man and deciding on the best way to treat him.  Without attempting to describe the Holy Trinity in human terms, which cannot be done, we must accept that the three persons are one God with individual facets of creation, forgiveness, and guidance throughout the life of man.  When one divine person makes a decision, it is all three because when God does this, it is all three persons speaking the same pronouncement as one God.  

That person who asked to whom they should pray learned that whichever name they prayed to it is still the same God that hears and answers in his time for the benefit of the person seeking a hearing.  If you decide on addressing your prayer to Jesus, the Holy Trinity hears it and responds accordingly.  

The Trinity is One.  We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the “consubstantial Trinity.”  The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire:  “The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e., by nature one God,” In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215): “Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz, the divine substance, essence, or nature,”  (CCC 253).

When we as human persons sin against God, it is the three persons who are one God.  Each time we ask for forgiveness from God, it is the three persons who are one God.  As soon as we receive mercy from God, it is the three persons who are one God.  What makes this grammatical theme seem incorrect is the fact that in spite of three persons being the same God, there is no simple way to make it sound like an English pronunciation that a teacher would approve of.  Leave this thought as it is.  

Remember Augustine’s encounter with a child pouring water from a pail into a hole in the sand.  His explanation to Augustine was he was emptying the ocean into this hole.  When Augustine told him he couldn’t do that, the child, an angel, answered, “and you Augustine will never figure out the Trinity.” 

Ralph B. Hathaway