35. One God in three divine persons

One God in three divine persons

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 35

Ave Maria series

35.  Do we believe in one God or in three Gods?

We believe in one God in three persons (Trinity).  “God is not solitude but perfect communion.”   Pope Benedict XVI, May 22, 2005).  [232-236, 249-256, 261, 265-266]

 “THE GREAT COMMISSION”........Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.   Go, 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.   And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” --Matthew 28:18-20 …..35

Christians do not worship three different Gods, but one single Being that is threefold and yet remains as one.  We know that God is Triune from Jesus Christ:  He, the Son, speaks about his Father in heaven (“I and the Father are one”, (John10:30).  He prays to him and sends us the Holy Spirit, who is the love of the Father and the Son.  That is why we are baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).

 “Wherever there is love there is a trinity: a lover, a beloved, and a fountain of love.”  St. Augustine (354-430)

TRINITY (Latin trinitas=the state of being threefold):  God is only one, but he exists in three persons.  The fact that in English we have two terms, the “Triune God” and the “Trinity” for the same reality (one emphasizes God’s  unity, the other the distinction of persons in him) is also an indication of the unfathomable mystery of the Trinity.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?  1 Corinthians 3:16

232-236, 249-256, 261, 265-266

The Father

"IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT"

232  Christians are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"(Matthew 28:19)⁵³ 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."( St. Caesarius of Arles, Sermo 9, Exp. symb.:Corpus Christianorum Series Latinum 103,47.)⁵⁴ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

233  Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not in their names,⁽ Compare Profession of faith of Pope Vigilius I (552):Denzinger Schonmetzer 415.⁾⁵⁵ for there is only one God, the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity. --CCC

234  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".(General Catechetical Directory 43.)⁵⁶ 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".(General Catechetical Directory 47.)⁵⁷ --CCC

This paragraph expounds briefly (I) how the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was revealed, (II) how the Church has articulated the doctrine of the faith regarding this mystery, and (III) how, by the divine missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Father fulfills the "plan of his loving goodness" of creation, redemption and sanctification. --CCC

236  The Fathers of the Church distinguish between theology (theologia) and economy (oikonomia). "Theology" refers to the mystery of God's inmost life within the Blessed Trinity and "economy" to all the works by which God reveals himself and communicates his life. Through the oikonomia the theologia is revealed to us; but conversely, the theologia illuminates the whole oikonomia. God's works reveal who he is in himself; the mystery of his inmost being enlightens our understanding of all his works. So it is, analogously, among human persons. A person discloses himself in his actions, and the better we know a person, the better we understand his actions. --CCC

THE HOLY TRINITY IN THE TEACHING OF THE FAITH

The formation of the Trinitarian dogma

249   From the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the very root of the Church's living faith, principally by means of Baptism. It finds its expression in the rule of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching, catechesis and prayer of the Church. Such formulations are already found in the apostolic writings, such as this salutation taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."( 2 Corinthians 13:13; compare 1 Cor 12:4-6; Ephesians 4:4-6.)⁸¹ --CCC

250  During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify her Trinitarian faith, both to deepen her own understanding of the faith and to defend it against the errors that were deforming it. This clarification was the work of the early councils, aided by the theological work of the Church Fathers and sustained by the Christian people's sense of the faith. --CCC

251  In order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the Church had to develop her own terminology with the help of certain notions of philosophical origin: "substance", "person" or "hypostasis", "relation" and so on. In doing this, she did not submit the faith to human wisdom, but gave a new and unprecedented meaning to these terms, which from then on would be used to signify an ineffable mystery, "infinitely beyond all that we can humanly understand".(Paul VI, Credo of the People of God § 2.)⁸² --CCC

252  The Church uses (I) the term "substance" (rendered also at times by "essence" or "nature") to designate the divine being in its unity, (II) the term "person" or "hypostasis" to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them, and (III) the term "relation" to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others. --CCC

The dogma of the Holy Trinity

253  The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the "consubstantial Trinity".(Council of Constantinople II (553): Denzinger-Schnmetzer 421)⁸³ The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: "The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God."( Council of Toledo XI (675): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 530:26.)⁸⁴ In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), "Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature."( Lateran Council IV (1215): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 804.)⁸⁵ --CCC

254  The divine persons are really distinct from one another. "God is one but not solitary."( Fides Damasi: Denzinger-Schonmetzer 71.)⁸⁶ "Father", "Son", "Holy Spirit" are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: "He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son."( Council of Toledo XI (675): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 530:25.)⁸⁷ They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: "It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds."( Lateran Council IV (1215): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 804.)⁸⁸ The divine Unity is Triune. --CCC

255  The divine persons are relative to one another. Because it does not divide the divine unity, the real distinction of the persons from one another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to one another: "In the relational names of the persons the Father is related to the Son, the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to both. While they are called three persons in view of their relations, we believe in one nature or substance."( Council of Toledo XI (675): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 528.)⁸⁹ Indeed "everything (in them) is one where there is no opposition of relationship."( Council of Florence (1442): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 1330.)⁹⁰ "Because of that unity 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."( Council of Florence (1442): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 1331.)⁹¹ --CCC

256  St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called "the Theologian", entrusts this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of Constantinople: 

Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that casts down. . . the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely God. . . the three considered together. . . I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendor. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me. . .( St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 40,41: Patrologia Graeca 36,417.)⁹² --CCC

IN BRIEF

261   The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. --CCC

265   By the grace of Baptism "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light (Compare Paul VI, Credo of the People of God § 9). --CCC

266   "Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal" (Athanasian Creed: Denzinger-Schonmetzer 75; Neuner-Dupuis 16). --CCC