God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the "consubstantial Trinity.”
YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson
39
Ave Maria series
39. Is Jesus God?
Does he belong to the Trinity?
When we pray “In the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit (Matthew
28:19),” Jesus of Nazareth is the Son, the second
divine person mentioned. [243-260]
Jesus was either an imposter who made himself Lord of the
Sabbath and allowed himself to be addressed with the divine title “Lord”—or
else he was really God. The scandal came
when he forgave sins. In the eyes of his
contemporaries, that was a crime deserving death. Through signs and miracles, but especially
through the Resurrection, his disciples recognized who Jesus is and worshipped
him as Lord. That is the faith of the
Church.
And behold a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved
Son, with whom I am well pleased”. (Matthew
3:17)
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other
name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts
of the Apostles 4:12)
243-260
The
Father and the Son revealed by the Spirit
243 Before his Passover, Jesus
announced the sending of "another Paraclete" (Advocate), the Holy
Spirit. At work since creation, having previously "spoken through the
prophets", the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them
and guide them "into all the truth".(Compare Genesis 1:2; Nicene Creed (Denzinger-Schonmetzer
150); John 14:17, 26; Jn 16:13.)68The Holy Spirit is thus revealed as another
divine person with Jesus and the Father. –Catechism
of the Catholic Church, Second Edition
244 The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is
revealed in his mission in time. The Spirit is sent to the apostles and to the
Church both by the Father in the name of the Son, and by the Son in person,
once he had returned to the Father.( Compare John 14:26; John15:26; Jn 16:14.)69 The sending of the person of the
Spirit after Jesus' glorification (Compare John 7:39.)70 reveals
in its fullness the mystery of the Holy Trinity. –CCC
245 The apostolic faith concerning the Spirit was
confessed by the second ecumenical council at Constantinople (381): "We
believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the
Father."( Nicene
Creed; see Denzinger-Schonmetzer 150.)71 By this
confession, the Church recognizes the Father as "the source and origin of
the whole divinity".( Council of Toledo VI (638):
Denzinger-Schonmetzer 490.)72 But the eternal origin
of the Spirit is not unconnected with the Son's origin: "The Holy Spirit,
the third person of the Trinity, is God, one and equal with the Father and the
Son, of the same substance and also of the same nature. . . Yet he is
not called the Spirit of the Father alone,. . . but the Spirit of
both the Father and the Son."( Council of Toledo XI (675):
Denzinger-Schonmetzer 527.)73 The Creed of the Church
from the Council of Constantinople confesses: "With the Father and the
Son, he is worshipped and glorified."( Nicene Creed; compare Denzinger-Schonmetzer
150.)74 –CCC
246 The
Latin tradition of the Creed confesses that the Spirit "proceeds from the
Father and the Son (filioque)". The Council of Florence in
1438 explains: "The Holy Spirit is eternally from Father and Son; He has
his nature and subsistence at once (simul) from the Father and the Son.
He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one
spiration. . . . And, since the Father has through generation given
to the only-begotten Son everything that belongs to the Father, except being
Father, the Son has also eternally from the Father, from whom he is eternally
born, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son."( Council of Florence
(1439): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 1300-1301.)75 –CCC
247 The affirmation of
the filioque does not appear in the Creed confessed in 381 at
Constantinople. But Pope St. Leo I, following an ancient Latin and Alexandrian
tradition, had already confessed it dogmatically in 447,( Compare Leo I, Quam laudabiliter (447):
Denzinger-Schonmetzer 284.)76 even before Rome, in
451 at the Council of Chalcedon, came to recognize and receive the Symbol of
381. The use of this formula in the Creed was gradually admitted into the Latin
liturgy (between the eighth and eleventh centuries). The introduction of the filioque
into the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed by the Latin liturgy constitutes
moreover, even today, a point of disagreement with the Orthodox Churches. –CCC
248 At the outset the Eastern
tradition expresses the Father's character as first origin of the Spirit. By
confessing the Spirit as he "who proceeds from the Father", it
affirms that he comes from the
Father through the
Son.( Compare
Leo I, Quam laudabiliter (447):
Denzinger-Schonmetzer 284.)77 The Western tradition
expresses first the cosubstantial communion between Father and Son, by saying
that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque). It says
this, "legitimately and with good reason",(Council of Florence (1439):
Denzinger-Schonmetzer 1302.)78 for the eternal order
of the divine persons in their consubstantial communion implies that the
Father, as "the principle without principle",(Council of Florence (1442):
DS 1331.)79 is the first origin of the Spirit, but also
that as Father of the only Son, he is, with the Son, the single principle from
which the Holy Spirit proceeds.( Compare Council of Lyons II (1274): DS 850.)80 This
legitimate complementarity, provided it does not become rigid, does not affect
the identity of faith in the reality of the same mystery confessed. --CCC
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 13:14; 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
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-Schonmetzer 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): DS 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):
DS 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): DS 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):
DS 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): DS 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): DS 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
257 O blessed light, O Trinity and first
Unity!"( Liturgy of the Hours, Hymn for Evening Prayer. )93 God is
eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life.
Such is the "plan of his loving kindness", conceived by the Father
before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: "He destined us in
love to be his sons" and "to be conformed to the image of his
Son", through "the spirit of sonship".(Ephesians 1:4-5,9; Romans 8:15,29.)94 This
plan is a "grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began",
stemming immediately from Trinitarian love. (2 Timothy 1:9-10.)95 It
unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall,
and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission
of the Church.( Compare Ad Gentes 2-9.)96 –CCC
258 The whole divine economy is the common work
of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same
nature, so too does it have only one and the same operation: "The Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one
principle."( Council
of Florence (1442): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 1331; compare Council of
Constantinople II (553): DS 421.)97 However, each divine person performs
the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the Church
confesses, following the New Testament, "one God and Father from whom all
things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one
Holy Spirit in whom all things are".(Council of Constantinople II: DS 421.)98 It
is above all the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the
Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine persons. –CCC
259 Being a work at once common and personal, the
whole divine economy makes known both what is proper to the divine persons, and
their one divine nature. Hence the whole Christian life is a communion with
each of the divine persons, without in any way separating them. Everyone who
glorifies the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who
follows Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him.( Compare John 6:44; Romans 8:14.)99 --CCC
260 The ultimate end of the whole divine economy
is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity.( Compare John 17:21-23.)100 But
even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: "If a
man loves me", says the Lord, "he will keep my word, and my Father
will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him"( John 14:23.)101 --CCC
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely
so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were
already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave
you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your
mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and
the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there,
whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly
given over to your creative action.( Prayer of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity.)102 --CCC
Jesus Christ is in Nunawading
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