How often do we think about the Trinity? How often is it central to our thoughts about God, or our Prayer? Yet it is this mystery - The Most Holy Trinity - that the Catechism says, “is the central mystery of the Christian Faith and of Christian life.” – God is three – Father, Son, and Spirit – yet one – Three persons, one God - A mystery – a mystery that we cannot comprehend – a mystery that is not solvable.
Yet many have tried to “solve” the mystery – but their solutions all miss the point – it leads to something that is anything but central – one or two chapters in a theology textbook, solve the logical problems and then move on to other things. The Trinity is pushed to the side.
In Religious Ed, teach some facts, - By the Blessed Trinity I mean one God in three Divine Persons. - the three Divine Persons are one and the same God, having one and the same Divine nature and substance. There might be a couple of classes about the Trinity – learn to repeat. – But where is the Trinity in the rest of the classes? If this is what the Trinity is, How is the Trinity the central mystery? – It is that it is not a mystery to be solved, but one to be contemplated – for there is something beyond what the human mind can comprehend.
GK Chesterton once noted, “The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.” - And I would add, if his head does not split, it is because he put something other than the heavens into his head. Any “solution” to the trinity that makes God fit neatly into a box – well that is not God – and that is not the Trinity.
But if we just put our head into the heavens for a moment – We can see the Trinity is nothing other than the inner life of God! We might think of God as many things. We might think of Christ’s love for us, sacrificing on the Cross. We might think of God as the unchanging rock. We might think of God as the all-powerful creator of all things. We might think of the Holy Spirit, guiding us. There are many images of God, add your own – and these are a few of them, and they can be good images. They are not wrong images (in general)
However, these are images of Gods relationship with creation and with us. God is unchanging – God is all powerful. – God is all knowing. However - here God can seems alone – separated in a way from all creation– yet the Trinity shows something different.
The doctrine of the Trinity is about God’s inner life – there is a inner life – a dynamism. There is one God, – but there are three persons. God is a unity, but there is a plurality. God is communion. What defines these persons is there relations with the others – God is relation – To borrow the language of theology - The Son is eternally begotten by the Father, the Father giving to the Son, the Son loving the Father – the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son – The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all perichoretic, giving and receiving – all sorts of fancy theological language may be used – … -but it comes down to this – the inner life of God is dynamic - vibrant – It is relationship – God is love – love as a verb – action.
And the goal of the Christian life is nothing other than a participation in the dynamic life of the Trinity – “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” - Christ is the Son, one of the Trinity, and, came that we might have eternal life. – This eternal life is nothing other that participation through Christ in the inner life the trinity -Thus putting the Trinity right at the center of the Christian faith – something that is reflected in our prayer and the Christian life.
We start most prayer with the sign of the Cross – “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” – The Collect at Mass always ends with a doxology invoking the Trinity – the exact form depends on which person the pray is addressed to, but for those direct to the Father, such as todays, ends with “Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, God, Forever and ever”
The Mass itself is offered in a similar way – The Sacrifice of the Mass is offered to the Father – The Eucharistic prayer is address to him – but though Son, for the Mass is the representation of his sacrifice on Calvary – and it is in the unity of the Holy spirit – for the Holy Spirit is called upon during the epiclesis at mass, shortly before the consecration – this is summed up a the end of Each Eucharistic prayer, each using the exact same words each time - Through him and with him and in him – that is Christ – O God almighty Father, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, All glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever.
The Church’s prayer puts the Trinity right at the center of the Christian life. Not just in our prayer, but in all the Christian life. We are made in the likeness and image of God – that means of the Trinity – we are made for relationships – it is not good that one be alone – for God is a community. – It is the trinity that lets us say that God is Love – not merely has love.
But how much do we live this reality of the Trinity? This mystery that is in many ways beyond our comprehension? We pray, we try and imitate Christ – but in prayer, who is thinking about the Trinity? The inner life of God? We might pray for others, we might ask God for help, or pray in repentance. We might even pray in thanksgiving for what God has done. But does contemplation of the God in himself, the Trinity, come to mind?
We make the sign of the Cross often, at least when we do that – can we slow down for one second and contemplate what that really means, the mystery of the Trinity – and give thanks that we are invited to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirt, to participate in the Trinity.