Another long one...

Q. How do you guys explain the mystery of the Trinity? As in seriously. No malice intended; I don't plan to argue about it. I just want to know. Coz for all the days I used to attend Church on Sundays not once did I ever hear a sermon or homily on it.

A. That's my unfortunate experience as well... And I guess for many others.  Our Faith is celebrated more as a fix that makes you feel good or forgiven or penitential or loved rather than as a truth that makes us KNOW goodness and forgiveness and mercy and love; because this truth, this goodness, this mercy, this love IS A PERSON (cf. Jn 14:6, 1 Jn 4:8).

I know of one preacher who insists wherever he gives a homily that we are to love the Lord our God not just with all our soul, with all our heart and with all our strength, but also with all our mind (cf. Mat 22:37). We have to know as much about God as each of us can in our individual circumstances; because there can be no love where there is no knowledge, and there can be no great love where there is no great knowledge - whether in human relations or divine ones.

Q. So. Anyway. The Trinity.

A. Where do we start?

Q. The beginning perhaps? Usually a good place to start                              
A. Lol! I'll assume here you are still familiar with the terms "person" and "nature" (see Q&A 68)...

Q. A quick recap please.

A. "Nature" answers the question "what is it?" "Person" answers the question "who is it?" In Christ there are two whats and one who. In the Most Blessed Trinity there is one what but three whos. You and I have one what and one who. Animals, plants and chemicals have a what but no who.

Q. Ok. And then?

A. All spiritual beings have spiritual faculties - two in particular: the intellect by which we know and the will by which we want.

The intellect knows people and things OUTSIDE the self ("the others") but can also turn it's gaze INWARDS and know itself or its subject ("the self"). The greatest act of the intellect is to know truth.

The will (based on the information the intellect supplies) functions to want this or that or not to want at all. The greatest act of the will is to love: to choose something good it sees outside of itself that it can want and decide to give the whole self to.

God, being a spiritual being, also has an intellect by which He knows and a will by which He loves.

He knows all things including Himself. Being God, the knowledge that He has of Himself is perfect; there is nothing about Himself that He doesn't know. In our case, there are things our friends could tell us about ourselves that would surprise us - we don't know ourselves perfectly. The thought or mental image we form of ourselves is not a perfect or complete image. Not so with a perfect God. The mental image, knowledge or mental word He has of Himself has ALL the perfections that He Himself has - INCLUDING THE PERFECTION OF EXISTENCE.  That is, the mental image He has of Himself exists as much as He does. The mental image we have of ourselves evaporates as soon as we shift our attention to something else.

Q. Why?

A.  Because existence or life is not a necessary part of who I am. There was a time I did not exist. Not so with God. Existence is His very essence: "I am He who is". "Yahweh". The mental image He has of Himself exists as perfectly as He Himself does. And as distinct as you are from the mental image you have of yourself, so too is God the Father distinct from the eternal, perfect and existent mental image of Himself (the Son).

God knowing Himself we call God the Father.

God's knowledge or mental image of Himself we call God the Son. We say He is "born of the Father" or "generated by the Father" or "begotten of the Father" as opposed to "MADE by the Father". We don't make thoughts; you generate or beget thoughts. The Son is also referred to as the "eternal Word of God", the "Logos" or the "wisdom of God".

Now when the Father beholds the Son and the Son beholds the Father, each sees in the other infinite perfection, infinite goodness, i.e. all that would move the will to want to love. When we behold a perfect car or a perfect woman or a perfect friend, something similar happens to us: our will begins to want to share in that perfection. We are moved towards loving that car, woman or friend. So too between God the Father and God the Son.

Now because of their perfect nature, any love exchanged between the two would be as perfect as they are. Again, so perfect that that love also exists or also has the perfection of existence. The Love shared between the Father and the Son exists as a distinct Person: the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God or the Love of God.

Q. That's a bit dense if you ask me.

A.  Tell me about it!

So in summary:

God the Father is God knowing Himself.

God the Son is God's knowledge of Himself.

God the Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son or the love that "proceeds from the Father AND the Son".

Three Persons, one God.

25th May 2016