One God, Three Persons

Reflection on John 16:12-15

Faith in the Blessed Trinity is central to the Christian religion. It is impossible to be a Christian and not believe in the Trinity. But the Trinity is a profound mystery, perhaps the most sublime in all of Christianity. The word mystery suggests that we do not know and we cannot know an awful lot about the Blessed Trinity. One thing we do know is that there are three Persons in One God. Jesus revealed that to us in several texts of the Gospels. The Apostle Paul teaches extensively about it. One thing we do not know and we cannot know is how there are three Persons in One God. Therefore, whereas we know that, we do not know how. Therein lies the mystery of the Blessed Trinity.

Mystery though the Trinity is, we do have some very profound lessons to learn from it. The first lesson is that God is community. God is not individualism or isolation. God is a community founded on love. The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father. Their love is not a sterile one. Out of it proceeds the Holy Spirit. The Father and the Son then love the Spirit, and the Spirit loves them both. Their mutual love is so strong, so compelling that it ensures their unity in the one Godhead. The strength of their love is such as to ensure that the three Persons are but one God, not three gods.

The Trinity is a unity in diversity. The Father is distinct from the Son, the Son is distinct from the Father, and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. Each retains his identity in the one Godhead.

Jesus prayed that his followers would be one as he and the Father are one (John 17:11,21). Therefore, the Trinity was to be the model of the unity of his followers. In that case, we can deduce that Jesus intended his followers to be a community of persons. That is what we call the Church. They were to be a community founded on love. Any attempt to base the unity of the Church on grounds other than love, such as doctrine, laws, rules and regulations would run counter to the will of Jesus. Of course, there would be doctrines, there would be laws, rules and regulations. But these would not be the basis of the unity of the Church. The only valid basis is love.

The Church would also have to be a unity in diversity. The Church's unity should not mean uniformity. That is to say, there should be room in the Church for legitimate differences in expressing and living the same faith. The faith (Creed) would be the same, but people's expression and living of it might differ from one culture to another, from one generation to. another. In other words, while there would be oneness, in essentials, there could be legitimate differences in non-essentials.

All these things are the basis of the Church's teaching on a wide range of subjects, like Church unity, Ecumenism, and Inculturation, among others. Our understanding of the Blessed Trinity is at the root of them all.