The Most Holy Trinity. 2023/2024.

TRINITY A.

1.Introduction.

“Christians are baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit”. Before receiving the Sacrament, they respond to a three-part question when
asked to confess the Father, the Son and the Spirit”: I do. The faith of all Christians
rests on the Trinity. “(CCC. 232).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms: “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity
is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It
is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens
them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the "hierarchy of the truths
of faith". The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the
means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to
men "and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin" (CCC.
323)

These truths may be grouped under four basic heads: (The hierarchy of Truth)

1. the mystery of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Creator of all
things;
2. the mystery of Christ the incarnate Word, who was born of the Virgin Mary,
and who suffered, died, and rose for our salvation;
3. the mystery of the Holy Spirit, who is present in the Church, sanctifying and
guiding it until the glorious coming of Christ, our Savior and Judge; and
4. the mystery of the Church, which is Christ’s Mystical Body, in which the Virgin
Mary holds the preeminent place" (General Catechetical Directory, no. 43).

“The ‘hierarchy of truth’ does not mean ‘a principle of subtraction,’ as if faith could be
reduced to some ‘essentials’ whereas the ‘rest’ is left free or even dismissed as not
significant. The ‘hierarchy of truth is a kind of principle of organic structure.’ It should
not be confused with the degrees of certainty; it simply means that the different
truths of faith are ‘organized’ around a center" (Cardinal Schoenborn).

This doctrine of the Trinity is so strategic and fundamental that it can be placed
either at the beginning or the end of a comprehensive statement of Christian faith. At
the beginning it anticipates the exploration of the whole theological terrain and
provides the inquirer with a view of what is to come. At the end it summarizes and
synthesizes what has preceded it and provides the inquirer with a substantial review.

Pope Leo X111 in his encyclical “Divinum illud munus” (1897) called the mystery of
the Holy Trinity: “the substance of the New Testament”. It is found at the centre of
the Gospel. It is the essential reality of the Gospel; the very object of faith, hope, and
charity. It is indeed the greatest of all mysteries, since it is the fountain and origin of
them all. It constitutes the heart of the Christian faith.

Faith in the Trinity is totally distinct from the experiences that begin by observing
nature or studying cultural phenomena or experiences or solutions that start from
arguments or human introspection or arrived at after some scientific postulations. It
rather rests exclusively on the gift that God makes when he enables believers to
know him in faith. That is why Faith is a gift of God himself.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church

2. J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrine, London,1977.

3. Richard P. McBrien; Catholicism, Winston Press, Washinton,1981

4. J. Neuner S.J. and J. Dupuis S.J. The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal
documents of the Catholic Church. Sydney, 2001.

5. The Catholic Encyclopedia

6. Khaked Anatol, Retrieving Nicaea, The Development and meaning of

Trinitarian Doctrine, Baker Pub. Grand Rapids, 2011.

7. Giles Emery , The Trinity: An Introduction to Catholic Doctrine on the

Triune God, Catholic University of America Press, Washington, 2011

8. Yves Congar; I believe in the Holy Spirit, Vol. 11, G. Chapman,

London,1983.

9. Karl Rahner: Theological Investigations Vol. XV1,Cross Roads, New York,

1979.

10. Robert Letham: The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and
Worship.

11. Pope John Paul 11, Dominum Vivificantem, encyclical letter

12. William J. La Due; The Trinity Guide to the Trinity, Trinity Press,
Pennsylvania, 2003.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that: “The Trinity is a mystery of
faith in the strict sense, one of the "mysteries that are hidden in God, which can
never be known unless they are revealed by God". To be sure; God has left traces of
his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old
Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to
reason alone or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of God's Son and the
sending of the Holy Spirit”. (CCC. 237).

To help us have a kind of understanding of our topic, The Church Fathers made
some distinctions which is quite relevant:

Theologia and Oikonomia.

Theologia (Theology), refers to the mystery of God’s innermost life within the
Blessed Trinity.

Oikonomia: (Economy), refers to all the works by which God reveals Himself and
communicates his life.
Through his works, God in himself is revealed. That is to say, through the
Oikonomia, the Theologia is revealed. Theologia illuminates the whole Oikonomia. In
other words, it is by God’s work in creation, that we come to know him. For a person
discloses himself in his actions. The better we know a person, the better we know his
actions.

The revelation of the Trinity takes place in events manifested to human eyes. In these
events, God himself comes. God is not only at the origin of these events, but in the
incarnation the Son of God in person becomes human and by his life and his offering on the
cross, he obtains salvation through love of his father and through human kind. Similarly, at
Pentecost, the Holy Spirit in person is given and comes to dwell in the heart of believers.
When by the grace of the Holy Spirit believers receive Jesus as the Son of God, the Father
himself comes to dwell in their hearts, as Jesus promised: “If a man loves me, he will keep
my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him”
(Jn 14:23).

St Peter in his exhortation, asks Christians: “always have your answers ready for people
who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have” (1Peter.3:1). Hope in this exhortation
is equivalent to faith. It is therefore a matter of rendering an account of faith. The task of
theology is to render an account of faith and hope.

Our faith in God always rests on God’s revelation of himself in the economy of
salvation. We do not have access to the Trinity outside of what God himself revealed
to us by sending his own Son and giving us his Holy Spirit.
3. THE REVELATION OF GOD AS TRINITY.

238 Many religions invoke God as "Father". The deity is often considered the "father
of gods and of men". In Israel, God is called "Father" inasmuch as he is Creator of
the world. Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law
to Israel, "his first-born Son". God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most
especially he is "the father of the poor", of the orphaned and the widowed, who are
under his loving protection.
Unfortunately, the concept of a triune God was not anywhere near the faith of Israel.

By calling God "Father", the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is
the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same
time goodness and has loving care for all his children.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “God's parental tenderness can
also be expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes God's
immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus
draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first
representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents
are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought
therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He
is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and
motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is
Father” (CCC239).

The revelation of the Trinity is accomplished by the coming of God himself into
human history.

It is this Jesus the only Son of God and the “image of the Father “, that has revealed
what we know of the Trinity in himself.

Our faith in God rest on God’s revelation of himself in the economy of salvation.
Jesus Christ is the synthesis of the “iokonomia”
We do not have access to the Trinity outside of what God revealed to us by sending
his own Son and giving us his Holy Spirit.

Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in
being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son
only in relation to his Father: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one
knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal
him. ("CCC. 240)

For this reason, the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: "In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; as "the image of the
invisible God"; as the "radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of his nature"
(CCC.241)

Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of "another Paraclete"

(Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having previously "spoken
through the prophets", the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them
and guide them "into all the truth". The Holy Spirit is thus revealed as another divine
person with Jesus and the Father. (CCC. 243)

The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission in time. The Spirit is
sent to the apostles and to the Church both by the Father in the name of the Son,
and by the Son in person, once he had returned to the Father. The sending of the
person of the Spirit after Jesus' glorification reveals in its fullness the mystery of the
Holy Trinity (CCC 244).

All three figures and voices in the history of revelation remain distinct and related
intimately to one another, working along with one another yet all taken together are
what we call God- the Triune God.

The apostolic faith concerning the Spirit was confessed by the second ecumenical
council at Constantinople.381 (CCC. 245)

"We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from
the Father."

By this confession, the Church recognizes the Father as "the source and origin of the
whole divinity".72 But the eternal origin of the Spirit is not unconnected with the Son's
origin: "The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is God, one and equal with the
Father and the Son, of the same substance and also of the same nature. . . Yet he is
not called the Spirit of the Father alone,. . . but the Spirit of both the Father and the
Son."73 The Creed of the Church from the Council of Constantinople confesses:
"With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified.”(245)

The Latin tradition of the Creed confesses: that the Spirit, “proceeds from the father
and the Son(filioque)

From the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the image of the invisible God,
we summarize the Trinity thus:

They take as fundamental the Hebrew profession of faith in a single God (Deut6.4)
and “have no other god besides him” (Ex 20.3). With Jesus they call this
transcendent ultimate divine mystery whom no one can define or imagine by the
name Father.

In the Risen Jesus, proclaimed by the witness of his disciples to the world, they see
one who makes God personally present and visible today enabling them grasp fully
the identity of Jesus to walk with him on his way to the father. “No one can say Jesus
is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (I Cor. 12.3).

The events of Easter and Pentecost are the beginning of a new depth of human
awareness or consciousness of God, transcendent ineffable reality and meaning
working in history to save us from self-destruction.
For these, Christians affirm these 3 distinct ways our forebears have used for
conceiving God, working are taking together.

God is the invisible presence in the burning bush; on top of Mt Sinai; who guided
Israel throughout its history; whom Jesus spoke to as his father.

God is the Rabbi from Nazareth who proclaimed the Kingdom, who was crucified;
raised from the dead; whom the apostles recognized as Lord.

God is the sudden irresistibly powerful Spirit of Pentecost and of continuing life of the
Church, the interior advocate sent by Jesus from the Father (Jn. 15.26) to bear
witness to him and to guide his followers into all truths.

Let us have a cursory look at the development of this doctrine

4.1. The Doctrine of the Trinity from Scripture

Old Testament

“I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other god except me” (Ex. 20:1)

There is Only One True God

This uncompromising monotheism, which is the teaching that there is only one, true
God that characterizes the whole of the OT is the important place to begin. The Old
Testament “drives home” the truth of the unity of God from the opening pages of
Genesis to the last words of the Prophet Malachi. The Lord is God, and there is no
other. This is an essential point to make, because in breathing out the Old
Testament, the Lord has left absolutely no room for the idea of polytheism, or the
belief in many gods.
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 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

Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: “I am the
first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let
him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare
what is to come, and what will happen. Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of
old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no
Rock; I know not any.” Isaiah 44:6-8

a) Hints of Plurality within the One True God

However, despite this unity of God, there are at the same time hints throughout the
OT that, within this one-and-only true God, there exists a plurality. Consider these
passages in which God seems to be having a conversation within Himself:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock
and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”( Genesis
1:26)
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good
and evil. (Genesis 3:22)
And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and
this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now
be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they
may not understand one another’s speech.” (Genesis 11:6-7)

b) Theophanies: - God Appearing as a Man

There are a handful of mysterious events described in the Old Testament in which
God is said to appear to men in the form of a man. As we consider the Trinity in the
Old Testament, the most important of these “theophanies,” as they are called, is the
encounter between God and Abraham in Genesis 18. Here, God is said to appear to
Abraham, but in the form of three men. Though we may not be able to understand
exactly what is taking place here, the point remains that God presents Himself in a
way that poses questions.” (Robert Letham, 24)
And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his
tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men
were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet
them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your
sight, do not pass by your servant.” Genesis 18:1-3
The same applies to the Angel who appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Ex. 3:2).
c) The “Angel of the Lord”
There are numerous passages that speak of the “Angel of the Lord,” who speaks
as though He is God; or is addressed by others as God, and who sometimes
receives the worship of God without issuing rebuke. Here are three examples:

i. When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and
behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand.
And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our
adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the
LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and
worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” And
the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your
sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And
Joshua did so. Joshua 5:13-15

ii. Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I
brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to
your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make
no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’
But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I
will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides,
and their gods shall be a snare to you.” (Judges 2:1-3)

iii. The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife.
Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. And Manoah said
 to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” (Judges 13:21-
22)

There is the case in Genesis of a divine Messenger of Genesis that met

Hager the slave girl of Sarah near the spring in the wilderness (Gen. 16:7);

The angel that spoke to Jacob in a dream (Gen, 31:11);

d) Personification of divine attributes

The Word, (dabar); Wisdom (Logos) and Spirit of God (Ruah)

Finally, there are numerous passages which speak of the Wisdom of God, the Word
of God, and the Spirit of God. Often, the Bible speaks of the Word, Wisdom and
Spirit of God not in abstract terms, but in personal language, as though they were
separate persons with their own identities. Here are just a few examples:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and
void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over
the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Genesis 1:1-
3

For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.He loves
righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the
word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their
host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. Psalm 33:4-9

“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.Ages ago I
was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.When there were no depths I was
brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.Before the mountains had
been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth,before he had made the earth with its
fields, or the first of the dust of the world.When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,when he made firm the skies above, when he
established the fountains of the deep,when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the
waters might not transgress his command,when he marked out the foundations of the
earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman,and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of
man. Proverbs 8:22-31

But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit;therefore, he turned to be their
enemy, and himself fought against them. Then he remembered the days of old,
of Moses and his people.Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with
the shepherds of his flock?Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy
Spirit,who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses,who
divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, who
led them through the depths?Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble.
Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them
rest.So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name. Isaiah
63:10-14.
 e) Promises of the Coming Messiah
Perhaps the most famous passages that hint at plurality within the One, True God
are those promises of a coming Messiah who would come to save God’s people. At
times this Messiah is described in strictly human terms as a descendant of David.
But at other times, he is identified with God himself, as in the examples below

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace”. Isaiah 9:6

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from
you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of
old, from ancient days”. Micah 5:2

“The Lord himself therefore will give you a sign. It is this: the maiden is with child and will
soon give birth to son, whom she will call Immanuel” (Is.7:14).

“For there is a child born for us , a son given to us and dominion is laid on his shoulders and
this is the name they give him Wonder- Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal –Father , Prince of
Peace”(Is. 9:5-6).

In the Old Testament, there is no specific indication of the doctrine of the Trinity.
Although in the OT, there are passages that depict God as Father of Israel and
there are places where it employs words that tend to personify God like: Dabar;
Logos; Ruah (Spirit); Wisdom; Shekinah (Presence). In spite of these they are not
intended to mean the Trinity.

Some Fathers of the Church no doubt held that, when the inspired writers speak of
"the Spirit of the Lord", the reference was to the Third Person of the Trinity;
(Irenaeus, Against Heresies II.30.9; Theophilus,

The reference to hypostatic wisdom of the Sapiential books e.g “she is the breath of
God of the power of God, pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty”,(wisdom 7:25-
26) refers not to the Son but to Holy Spirit. To Autolycus II.15; Hippolytus, Against
Noetus 10)

In higher form of preparation is found in the Sapiential books in Divine wisdom. In

Proverb 8 Wisdom is personified in a manner which suggests that the sacred author
was not employing a mere metaphor, but had before his mind a
real person (cf. verses 22, 23).

Similar teaching occurs in Ecclesiasticus 24, in a discourse which Wisdom is

declared to utter in "the assembly of the Most High", i.e. in the presence of
the angels. This phrase certainly supposes Wisdom to be conceived as person.
The nature of the personality is left obscure; but we are told that the whole earth is
Wisdom's Kingdom, that she finds her delight in all the works of God, but
that Israel is in a special manner her portion and her inheritance (Ecclesiasticus
24:8-13). “From eternity, in the beginning he created me and for all eternity I shall
remain..”

In the book of Wisdom, we find a still further advance. Here Wisdom is clearly
distinguished from God: "She is . . . a certain pure emanation of the glory of
the almighty God. . .the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror
of God's majesty, and the image of his goodness" (Wisdom 7:25-26. Cf. Hebrews
1:3).

She is, moreover, described as "the worker of all things" (panton technitis, 7:21), an
expression indicating that the creation is in some manner attributable to her. Yet in
later Judaism this exalted doctrine suffered eclipse, and seems to have passed into
oblivion. Nor indeed can it be said that the passage, even though it manifests
some knowledge of a second personality in the Godhead, constitutes a revelation of
the Trinity.

There is nowhere in the Old Testament do we find any clear indication of a

Third Person. Even though mention is often made of the “Spirit of the Lord”, there is
nothing to show that the Spirit was viewed as distinct from Yahweh Himself. The
term is always employed to signify God considered in His work, whether in
the universe or in the soul of man.

The matter seems to be correctly summed up by Epiphanius, when he says: "The

One Godhead is above all declared by Moses, and the twofold personality (of Father
and Son) is strenuously asserted by the Prophets. It is only in the gospel that the
Trinity is made known" ("Haer.", lxxiv).

Conclusion
These collections of Old Testament passages though are very significant, they do
not as yet present any coherent doctrine of the Trinity. Trinity was a concept that was
not yet in the consciousness of Israel. No one reading the Old Testament by itself
would be able to arrive at the fully-developed doctrine of the Trinity.

This statement is no slight on the Old Testament; the Triune God however, presents
Himself in misty fashion in the OT by design. It is not until the fullness of time that the
Triune God reveals himself most fully, speaking not in shadowy figures by his
prophets but fully and finally by His Son. (Heb. 1:1-2; cf. John 1:14)

It is not until the Word of the Father takes on flesh and dwells among us that the
doctrine of the Trinity is brought into dazzling light.

But looking back at these Old Testament passages after the resurrection, and the
day of Pentecost, we can easily see how the way God was revealing himself.
We may say that the revelations in the OT was like preparing the hearts and minds
of his people for the full revelation of the Trinity in the NT.

When Christ comes and reveals the Father, suddenly the questions about God’s
unity and plurality that were raised by the passages above, are answered. Now, we
are able to look back on all the passages in the Old Testament that speak to us
about the Lord God with the knowledge that these texts are speaking about the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

However, these exalted titles in the Old Testament did not lead Israel to recognize
that the Saviour to come was to be none other than God Himself. It needed the
gospel revelation in order to render the full meaning of the passages clear. They
were still very relevant in the sense that they are regarded as preparatory to the full
Trinitarian context.