The Trinity - Part 1

21 Q. Is there but one God? A. Yes; there is but one God.

22 Q. Why can there be but one God? A. There can be but one God because God, being supreme and infinite, cannot have an equal.

"Supreme," that is, the highest. "Equal," when two are equal one has everything the other has. You could say one pen is the equal of another if it is just as nice and will write just as well; one mechanic is the equal of another if he can do the work equally well. Two boys are equal in class if they have exactly the same marks at the end of the month or year. You could not have two persons chief. For example, you could not have two chief generals in an army; two presidents in the nation, or two governors in a state, or two mayors in a city, or two principals in a school, unless they divide equally their power, and then they will be equals and neither of them chief. God cannot divide His power with anyone—so as to give it away entirely—because we say He is infinite, and that means to have all. Others have only the loan of their power from God. Therefore, all power and authority come from God; so that when we disobey our parents or superiors who are placed over us, we disobey God Himself.

23 Q. How many persons are there in God? A. In God there are three divine persons really distinct and equal in all things—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

"Distinct," not mingled together. We call the first and second persons Father and Son, because the second is begotten by the first person, and not to indicate that there is any difference in their age. We always see in the world that a father is older than his son, so we get the idea perhaps that it is the same in the Holy Trinity. But it is not so. God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost existed from all eternity, and one did not exist before the other. God the Son is just as old as God the Father, and this is another great mystery. Even in nature we see that two things may begin to exist at the same time, and yet one be the cause of the other. You know that fire is the cause of heat; and yet the heat and the fire begin at the same time. Though we cannot understand this mystery of the Father and Son, we must believe it on the authority of God, who teaches it. First, second, and third person in the Blessed Trinity does not mean, therefore, that one person was before the other, or brought into existence by the other.

The Trinity

A few ecclesial bodies of Christians (a small minority) reject the idea of a Trinity, or at least say that the word “trinity” itself is a made-up word. They have a point, insofar as we had to come up with a word to describe God as three-in-one. It is quite a mouthful to say the Athanasian Creed every time as it pertains to the One God in Three Persons:

Now the catholic faith is that we worship One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is One, the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal.

Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit; the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated; the Father infinite, the Son infinite, and the Holy Spirit infinite; the Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet not three eternals but one eternal, as also not three infinites, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated, and one infinite. So, likewise, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty; and yet not three almighties but one almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God; and yet not three Gods but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; and yet not three Lords but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by Christian truth to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be both God and Lord; so are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say, there be three Gods or three Lords.

The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and the Son, not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding. So there is one Father not three Fathers, one Son not three Sons, and Holy Spirit not three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or less, but the whole three Persons are coeternal together and coequal.

So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity is to be worshipped. He therefore who wills to be in a state of salvation, let him think thus of the Trinity.

So there is One Father, not Three Fathers; one Son, not Three Sons; One Holy Ghost, not Three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is afore or after Other, None is greater or less than Another, but the whole Three Persons are Co-eternal together, and Co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the Trinity. (Source: EWTN.com)

This is the answer I give when someone asks me to explain the Trinity, because I prefer not to fall into heresy. It would not be very Dominican of me to do so. So, how about something a little simpler?

A Shield Against Evil and Error
Source: Wikipedia, Public Domain.

There, that’s better. Well, it’s simpler, at least. But it is a wonderful depiction, at least an excellent attempt, at explaining the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. These kinds of “trinitarian shields” seem to have arisen in Europe somewhere in the 11th century, and would come to be popularized by a French Dominican, Fr. William Peraldus, OP, in the middle of the 13th century. In his Summa Vitiorum (Summa of Vices), we find:

Source: Wikipedia, Public Domain.

Notice the valiant knight preparing to do battle against the Seven Deadly Sins? He is protected by the Armor of God, which includes the shield of Faith (cf. Ephesians 6:10-17), and the Faith we profess is that of the Holy Trinity. This belief in the One God in Three Persons, that most Holy Trinity, is the keystone of our Faith, which cannot be known by reason alone, but only by Divine Revelation. The First Vatican Council defined that, “we know at the one level by natural reason, at the other level by divine faith. With regard to the object [God], besides those things to which natural reason can attain, there are proposed for our belief mysteries hidden in God which, unless they are divinely revealed, are incapable of being known. we know at the one level by natural reason, at the other level by divine faith… Now reason, does indeed when it seeks persistently, piously and soberly, achieve by God’s gift some understanding, and that most profitable, of the mysteries, whether by analogy from what it knows naturally, or from the connexion of these mysteries with one another and with the final end of humanity; but reason is never rendered capable of penetrating these mysteries in the way in which it penetrates those truths which form its proper object. For the divine mysteries, by their very nature, so far surpass the created understanding that, even when a revelation has been given and accepted by faith, they remain covered by the veil of that same faith and wrapped, as it were, in a certain obscurity, as long as in this mortal life we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, and not by sight (2 Cor 5, 6-7).” (First Vatican Council, Session III, Chap. 4, 3-4).

The Importance of the Trinity in Belief, and in General

To many modern minds, statements about the Trinity appear to be simple theological-speak, without any real world application, and so they will tend to then think less of God, or at least think less of the life and teachings of Christ, and therefore the authority He gives His disciples to, “[g]o, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a). A weakening in belief in the Trinity, or worse, a denial, serves only to loosen and sever the bonds that unite Christian believers and sicken the Body of Christ, the Church. The Second Vatican Council tied this Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity into the life of the Church, teaching, “This is the sacred mystery of the unity of the Church, in Christ and through Christ, the Holy Spirit energizing its various functions. It is a mystery that finds its highest exemplar and source in the unity of the Persons of the Trinity: the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit, one God” (Second Vatican Council, Unitatis Redintegratio [Decree on Ecumenism], 2).

The Trinity in the Sacred Liturgy

Following that ancient liturgical law of Lex orandi, lex credendi (“The law of what is prayed is the law of what is believed,” showing the integrity of liturgy, prayer, and theology), we therefore see the importance with which the Church esteems this Mystery in her sacred Rites and prayers. Every single Sacrifice of the Mass is offered to the Father, through the Son, and with, and in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, even to the time of the Arian controversies in the 4th century, the more common Doxology (Glory Be), was “Glory to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit,” reflecting the liturgy and the action of the People of God in relation to the Trinity in the Sacrifice of the Mass. The “Glory Be” we know today was also in use, but since this one was more explicit in proclaiming the unity of the three Persons, it became the more universal norm (cf Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913, “The Blessed Trinity”).

This is the reason why we don’t have an explicit Votive Mass of God the Father. It’s not an oversight — it’s the structure of every liturgy! All other Mysteries of our salvation have been revealed by the Father through the Son and Holy Spirit (whom Our Lord Jesus promised to send upon the Apostles to confirm and strengthen His teaching from the Father), and all worship returns to God the Father, the source of all grace and blessing. The Baltimore Catechism (version 3, not the version 4 we are using), teaches that: “The principal priest in every Mass is Jesus Christ, who offers to His heavenly Father, through the ministry of His ordained priest, His body and blood which were sacrificed on the cross” (no. 359).

Notice that every Eucharistic Preface at every Mass begins the same: “It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.” The Eucharistic Preface of the Holy Trinity specifically continues with, “For with your Only Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit you are one God, one Lord: not in the unity of a single person, but in a Trinity of one substance. For what you have revealed to us of your glory we believe equally of your Son and of the Holy Spirit, so that, in the confessing of the true and eternal Godhead, you might be adored in what is proper to each Person, their unity in substance, and their equality in majesty.”

While the other Eucharistic Prefaces we use during Ordinary Time are just and beautiful in their own right, my own personal belief is that we should bring back the use of the Preface of the Holy Trinity as it was before the Second Vatican Council, to all the Sundays of Ordinary Time (that is, outside the privileged liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter), since I believe we have greater confusion in our days of both the Trinity and the place of the Trinity in Liturgy, but that’s just one friar’s opinion. Still, even if we do not explicitly use the Preface of the Holy Trinity at every Mass, this is the action and Mystery of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved

Note from the Director

Dear faithful supporters of the Rosary Center & Confraternity, THANK-YOU! to all who have already donated to help us. We cannot do this without you! We rely on your ongoing support. May God bless you for your generosity!
Fr. Dismas Sayre, O.P.

DONATE