CORE OF MY CATHOLIC FAITH

The subject of the Most Holy Trinity is one that many great theologians have tried to penetrate or delve into but found very difficult to understand. A concrete example is given of St. Augustine who was reflecting deeply on this mystery while walking along the beach. The story says that he saw a little boy trying to collect the sea water with his hands into a small hole, which he had dug. St. Augustine, after a keen observation, asked the boy what he was doing. St. Augustine was bewildered and surprised by the boy's answer that he was trying to collect the entire sea water into that small hole. When Augustine expressed reservation about his intention, the little boy just responded by saying that in that same vein St. Augustine should not think he could understand the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. His small mind, which is finite, cannot fully understand the infinite mind of God.


The Trinity is a mystery and a mystery is a divinely revealed truth, unable to be rationally conceived or fully understood by the finite mind. It is something beyond human understanding. The mystery of the Trinity is explained simply that there are three Persons in one God. Some people see this teaching of the church and conclude that Christians believe in three Gods, and Catholics in particular have added a fourth one whom they call Mary, all amounting to the practice of polytheism (that is the worship of many gods). What the Church actually teaches is that God is one. He has one divine nature but there are three distinct persons in this nature. They are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Son proceeds from the Father and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. God the Father is the source and origin of the world, love and salvation. He is the creator. He was revealed to the world by the Son, Jesus Christ, who is the second Person of the Trinity.


The Son became incarnate and showed the love of God in his ministry, culminating in His painful and excruciating death on the cross for our salvation. He is the Redeemer. He has promised to be with us until we are united with Him forever. God's love comes to us everyday through

the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. He unites us into a deep and filial relationship with the Father and the Son and to one another. He is the Sanctifier. The three Persons are not three Gods but ONE and only ONE and that is where the mystery lies: how can we say the three Persons are one? This is beyond our human comprehension. It is through God's own self- revelation that we have come to know this. A very good friend was sharing with me a story from East Africa about a lay person's perception of the Trinity. She compared it to the sun which is the Father, the rays of the sun are the Son and the heat which is the effect of the rays is the Holy Spirit. It is the one and only sun, which is manifesting itself in all the various ways. I think this is an excellent analogy for the simple mind.

The three divine Persons are co-equal, none being greater than the other. They are also co-eternal in the sense that they have neither beginning nor end, they live forever. They are consubstantial which means that they have the same substance or nature. For this reason we need to give them equal respect, adoration and glory. Below is a  picture of the human imagination at work to interpret the mystery of the Trinity: three in one and one in three.

                                        The Holy Trinity, three in one and one in three.