Lead Us Not Into Temptation?
Once I had a conversation with a member of another religion and I realized our definition of God was not the same, because as a Catholic, I believe in the Blessed Trinity.
The idea of the Blessed Trinity is one that the human intellect cannot fully grasp. The word “trinity” means the state of being threefold according to freedictionary.com. We know all three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – are Divine, and yet there is one God.
When Phillip asked Jesus to show him the Father, we all understand why he was confused. It’s such a difficult truth to grasp. Because of the gift of faith and humility, Christians accept the teaching, even if it is above their full comprehension. Of course, if we witnessed the blind gaining their sight, those crippled able to pick up their mats and walk, and Lazarus rising from his grave after being dead for four days, we’d think anything Jesus said would be accepted. I guess seeing is believing, for how else can those supernatural events be explained? It is because it is.
Even after all the miracles Jesus performed, His teachings were rejected by people. Many fair-weather followers of Christ left Him after particular truths were revealed (the one that springs to mind is when Christ told His followers His flesh is real food).
Our worship is not just praising God, but it’s a memorial of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We remember what He taught us. We focus on the truth of the mystery revealed to us. If Jesus revealed this to us, then we know it is how God wants to be worshipped – as the perfect union of three distinct persons in one God.
According to the St. Joseph Catechism, a good way to understand the union of the three persons in one God is to think of a family: the man and the woman, and this union brings forth a child. For the human mind this is one way to partly grasp what is the nature of God. With the Holy Spirit’s power we can believe the words of Jesus.
When we look around at the natural world we see an ordering of it that cannot be an accident. When we think of God, we know the infinite cannot be captured in a finite mind. But through faith, we open our thoughts to accept those truths of the spiritual dimension. The Trinity is probably the greatest revelation Christ gave us.