The Holy Trinity: An Invitation into a Communion of Love

Divine Essence

God reveals Himself to us as three distinct persons in one God with one intellect and will.  This profound mystery called the Trinity is articulated in three terms:  SUBSTANCE which is His essence or nature; answering what God is—"the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end.” (CCC 212)  The term, PERSON revealing who God is—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each truly distinct; and the term RELATION for how their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others. (CCC 252) Hence, the one true God is fully revealed as three Persons in the one Divine Being—unified and not divided in any respect—working in perfect unity of purpose.

While beyond full human comprehension, belief in the Trinity is foundational to Christianity.  Some profess to hold the faith of Abraham, or to follow Christ, but do not confirm the Trinity.  By denying the divinity of Christ or collapsing/confusing the persons, they blur revealed truth and obscure the image of God.  

The Trinity and the three persons are clearly revealed in scripture. After creation of the heavens and the earth by the father, the Holy Spirit is revealed: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was moving over the waters.” (Genesis 1:2)   And the Trinity, at the creation of man: “Let US make man in OUR image” (Genesis 1:26)

At the baptism of Christ, all three persons are present when Jesus came up out of the waters, “suddenly the heavens were opened and…the Spirit of God [was] descending like a Dove” and the Father’s voice declared: “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:16-17)  

Foreshadowing Pentecost, Jesus promises: the Father…will give you another counselor to be with you forever. (John 14:16–17; 14:26; 15:26)   And at Pentecost, “…suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rush of a mighty wind and…there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit,” (Acts 2:1–4)

The Trinity is also acknowledged by the Early Church and Fathers. St. Athanasius in his First Letter to Serapion states:  “We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect …”   The Nicene Creed proclaims, the Son is “begotten, not made.” He is eternally generated by the Father and of the same divine essence: “God from God.”  The Father radiates the Son and He, in turn, illuminates the Father: “Light from Light.”  And He is “consubstantial”: “True God from True God.”  From which the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds and “with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified.” 

This Divine Communion of Love is the one and only true God of the universe who remains a mystery, and yet accessible.  Termed “Transcendent Immanence,” God surpasses all earthly limitations, yet remains immanent – present and active with His creation. 

Delving further into the mystery of the Trinity, mankind can partake in the Divine Nature of God in a process called “Deification” or “Theosis.”  We are made in His image and likeness and, by cooperating with His Grace and through the Sacraments, God perfects us.  With the work of the Holy Spirit who renews, animates, and perfects our soul, we are sanctified and transformed. 

Especially in the Liturgy, when the Son is offered to the Father “Though Him and with Him and in Him. O God Almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,” we are invited into the Divine Life and Love of the Trinity by partaking of the Eucharist. 

All the members of the Mystical Body of Christ are called into this cosmic liturgy of praise and worship. The liturgy of heaven on earth, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, unites the Church Triumphant in heaven with the Church Militant on earth. Through the Incarnate Son, creation is offered back to the Father. Led by the Holy Spirit, all creation joins in one prayer of glory to God.  Together, we share in the eternal communion of Father, Son & Holy Spirit.

Divine Simplicity

God reveals His name as: “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14), for He is His attributes—eternally immutable.  This concept referred to as “Divine Simplicity” recognizes God as pure and foundational—the one source of all reality.  God is Pure Act — fully and eternally actualized — lacking nothing, and therefore the necessary first and eternal cause of all things. 

As God’s attributes are perfected in His essence.  He is not only wise, but Wisdom itself; not simply Good, but Goodness itself; not just Love, but Love itself.  Because He is perfect in all His attributes, He is absolutely sovereign by nature. 

Being Wisdom, God knows Himself perfectly.  As the first principle, the Father, as He eternally reflects upon Himself, radiates His Son.  Like a mirror, the Father acknowledges His own Goodness as He sees His Son reflecting that same Goodness, in mutual Admiration and Love.   Because the Father’s love is perfect for His Son; and the Son returns perfect Love.  From that Perfect Love between them, infinite and eternal, “spirates” the Holy Spirit. 

As Love defines God’s internal life, the Father is never solitary. Before creation, the Father eternally knew and loved the Son—“the Word” who was “with God” and who “was God” (John 1:1).  Jesus speaks of the glory and love He shared with the Father “before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).  Hence, the Trinity is an eternal communion of Love, sharing one perfected essence equal to all of God’s attributes.  By this Love, God eternally formulated His Plan for Humanity. 

Divine Plan and Reason

By His divinity, God is All-knowing (Omniscient), All-powerful (Omnipotent), and everywhere (Omnipresent). He is capable of anything He wills that rightly aligns with His Divine Logic. Therefore, by His will, God executes His divine plan perfectly within all time and place. 

With great providence, God made us to be loved by Him and He is perfectly faithful. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful - for He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13)   When we align with His will which He makes known to us through the gift of grace, we can be assured to share in His eternal love.  When we turn from Him in sin, still then, we are assured of His Mercy through the perfect sacrifice of the Son. It is through this sacrifice that we can acknowledge His Love for us, and His Justice.  For everything good and just is from God. It is only in separation from Him, we are lacking.

Our very reality is of God, our creator.  He breathed the “Breath of Life” to create man.  He alone creates and sustains.  The sun rises and sets by His power; our hearts beat by His Will.  He lovingly sustains us. 

God is the immutable source and standard of all reality. Therefore, there is only one Truth: God, made known to us through the God-man Jesus Christ: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6). When we follow Jesus, we live in Truth recognizing Him as the “Logos”—a Greek term translated as Word or Logic, and having the deeper meaning of Divine Reason. And by our own reason, we acknowledge that truth is objective, independent of the human mind, configured by Divine Order, and we recognize a universe of intelligent design. God is all Truth, all Reason, and the Source of all Life.

As the Catechism declares: “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in Himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to share in his own blessed life.” (CCC 1) He outpoured His Love, and created each of us in His image, as a being with our own intellect and will.  

We need only to cooperate with the His grace to share in God’s eternal love and to know all His attributes.  And to know His attributes is to know God; to understand His infinite perfection and goodness; to trust in His Love, Justice, and Mercy.  And to know God is to Love Him.  As we submit to His Will and cooperate with His Plan, we assure our own longing to partake in His Divine Life and Love.  Amen.