The Holy Trinity

RCIA - 2012

With the whole Church today we stand before the ineffable majesty of the Trinity. We fall on our knees, we prostrate, to confess that the Most Holy Trinity is the living and true God. He is the God " who dwells in unapproachable light" ( 1 Tm 6:16) and is infinitely beyond all creation in his divinity. He is infinitely beyond even what man, With his created intellect, can understand and express about God. (Bl John Paul II, Homily 2 June 1985)

"I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. (Exodus 20:2-3)

Jesus frequently calls God “Father” in the Scriptures, and this usage implies a loving God active within His creation. God the Father is the first person, or distinction, within the Godhead. The Father is in a sense the "origin" or “source” of the Blessed Trinity. God the Father is often called “God Unbegotten” in early Christian thought.

One God

Holy Trinity One God – One divine Substance, one divine nature, One divine Center of Consciousness

Three Persons – Distinct members who act in a singular unity sharing one divine consciousness

Three Missions: • God the Father – Creation • God the Son – Redemption • God the Holy Spirit: Sanctification

Love

Lover

Beloved

One

Trinitarian Images

Trinitarian Images 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh‘? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.“ (Matthew 19:5-6)

Love

Lover Beloved One

…. husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.“ (Ephesians 5:28-31)

IN the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:1-3)

IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. … The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man's decision but of God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5, 9-14)

One God, Three

Persons

My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one.” The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him. Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” The Jews answered him, "We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods"‘? If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated * and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God‘? If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize (and understand) that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

John 10:27-38

The hand of the Son is spoken of as the hand of the Father, to let you see, by a bodily representation, that both have the same nature, that the nature and virtue of the Father is in the Son also. (St Hillary)

One God

Matt 3:16-17 - After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened (for him), and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (and) coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” John 1: 32-34 - John testified further, saying, "I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the holy Spirit.’ Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

Trinity

Father

Holy Spirit

Son

The Trinity is One. We do not confess

three Gods, but one God in three persons

The divine persons are really distinct from one another. "God is one

but not solitary.” "Father," "Son," "Holy Spirit" are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another… The divine Unity is Triune.

One nature or substance. While they

are called three persons in view of their relations

Unity (Inimate Relation): the Father is

wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son.”

• The mystery of one God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. • The revealed truth of the Holy Trinity is at the very root of the Church’s living faith as expressed in the Creed. • The mystery of the Trinity in itself is inaccessible to the human mind and is the object of faith only because it was revealed by Jesus Christ, the divine Son of the eternal Father.

(CCC Glossary)

God’s grace brings us into the inner life of the Holy Trinity, into the exchange of love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It makes us capable of living in God’s love and of acting on the basis of this love. [1999-2000, 2003-2004, 2023-2024]

The Inner Life of the Holy Trinity

God: The infinite divine being, one in being yet three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God has revealed himself as the “One who is,” as truth and love, as creator of all that is, as the author of divine revelation, and as the source of salvation (198, 279

God the Father. Jesus revealed that God is Father in a unique way… as eternal Father in his relationship to his only Son, who is eternally begotten of the Father and consubstantial with the Father (240, 242).

God the Son: Son of God in reference to the Eternal Father. The revelation of his divine son ship is the principal dramatic development of the story of Jesus of Nazareth (441-445).

Holy Spirit: the personal love of Father and Son for each other. Also called the Paraclete (Advocate) and Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit is at work with the Father and the Son from the beginning to the completion of the divine plan for our salvation (685; cf. 152, 243).

Person: Hypostasis in Greek; the term used to describe the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in their real relation to and distinction from one another within the unity of the Blessed Trinity. Each of the three divine Persons is God (252).

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the holy Spirit be with all of you. (2 Cor 13:13)

“God is not solitude but perfect communion.” (Pope Benedict XVI, May 22, 2005).

Economy: The many works through which God is revealed and communicates divine life

Thinking about God …. Father and Son

Theology: refers to God’s inner life as Trinity

Father and Son are One: • Light from Light • True God from True God • Begotten not Made • Consubstantial with the Father

How do we see Ourselves?

Images

How do others See Us?

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

The Creed

Background The Nicene Creed is a most wonderful summary of our Christian Faith. It outlines the theological, dogmatic, and historical building blocks upon which our Faith is built. Sadly it has also been a major cause of division within the Church. The formulation of the Nicene Creed began during the First Council of Nicea in 325AD. It was revised and expanded by the Bishops who attended the First Council of Constantinople in 381AD and it was here a final version was agreed upon. Even so, to this day, the Nicene Creed, in it's various forms, is revered and recited by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and a large number of the Protestant Churches.

Whmm … 1. What does the doctrine of

the Holy Trinity reveal to you about God? About reality? About your own life?

2. In your prayer life, how do you relate to each person of the Trinity?

ACT OF FAITH O MY GOD, I firmly believe that Thou art one God in Three Divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I believe that

Thy Divine Son became Man, and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I

believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who

canst neither deceive nor be deceived.

The Holy Trinity

RCIA - 2012