“IN CHRIST”
Saint John 3. 1-15
The Feast of The Holy Trinity: 11 June Anno Domini 2006
Fr Watson
The blessed Saint Philip Melanchthon wrote: “it is better to adore the Divine Mystery than to try and explain it.” He is correct. But, after Confessing The Faith in the words of the Athanasian Creed, some commentary is necessary. And definitely some good news about your Lord is needed.
To doubt the Lord is sinful. Sin leads to death as work leads to wages. To think that you can “solve” God or control, manipulate, circumscribe, analyze and contain God is sinful. There is no shame in being the creature; your creator is love. There is no disgrace in being a lamb (even a dumb sheep); your Shepherd is good. But, to be preoccupied with “understanding” the Trinity can lead to both pride and doubt. You follow your father Adam enough in daily sins of the flesh. Do not imitate your first parents in attempting to plumb the mind of the Infinite “Three-in-One.” Rather let the Holy Word show you, lead you, sustain you and protect you.
He tells you in Genesis, both in the translated English and in the original Hebrew that “us” make you in “our” image. The plural reflects the truth of the triune nature of the Godhead. God tells Moses that His Name is “Adonai,” “I AM, that I AM.” God is One. The three Persons of the Trinity are distinct Persons, yet of the same Essence. What seems a self-contradictory, self-evident impossibility or non-truth, is believed, taught and confessed by the Church Catholic and by you.
Jesus prayed to the Father on numerous occasions, taught His own Disciples to address God as Father used the term when disputing with the Pharisees and agonized with the Father during His Gethsemane passion.
The Holy Ghost is referred to as God multiple times in Saint Luke’s Book of Acts. Scholars even mention that a suitable name for the Book is really “The Acts of the Holy Spirit Through the Apostles.”
There have been many human attempts over the centuries to help people understand something of the nature of the Trinity. Most of these examples fail; they either minimize the unity leading to tri-theism (the idea that there are three Gods sharing respective duties) or they minimize the distinct personalities leading to modalistic Unitarianism (the idea that there is just one God “person” who takes on three different “role” in dealing with nature). Saint Patrick meant well but his three-leaf clover fails as miserably as does an equilateral triangle. The recent most horrendous visual aid was actually produced by AAL using an apple to represent the Trinity. It was cute but heretical.
It is our blessing to confess God, not to dissect God. It is our Grace to receive His revelation from His Word. We are correctly called, and claim for ourselves, the title of “confessional” not because we make confession during the opening of our Mass, or to our pastors in private (although we do), but rather because we “confess” the Faith of our hearts with our lips. The Biblical word which is so translated as “confess” literally means “same words.” You say back to God the words which He has first spoken, given, and placed into you. Our own Lutheran “confessions,” as contained in the Book of Concord, are merely restatements and commentaries (expositions) on Holy Scripture. They help us and our adversaries better understand what it is that we “believe, teach, and confess.” One of our “confessional” documents which is not a product of the 16th century Reformation is the Athanasian Creed. And whether it is understood or not, this Creed is nevertheless the truth of the Bible; the truth of the God/Man Jesus; and the truth of the ineffable Holy Trinity.
It was not good for man to be alone said the Lord after Adam was breathed out of the dust. Why? Being alone is not God’s way or His nature. God is Triune. Within the Godhead Itself there is communication, sharing, interaction and love; there is eternal begetting and eternal proceeding. To be made in God’s image is seen in the fact that God didn’t just create Adam; He also created Eve. And, not just the two of them, but a way for them to come together, to know one another intimately and to be joined by their children, their family, the fruit of their love.
Saint Philip’s question and the Lord’s answer in the Gospel according to John is the best way to truly “understand” the Trinity. Phillip said to Christ, “Show us the Father.”
The Lord’s response to the Galileans is His response to you and all His lambs: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” If was easy for Philip and John to stare directly into the Face of Our Lord, for there He was sitting or standing right in front of them. The same Lord makes His “face” visible for you as well. He shows Himself by way of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit gives you the Christ in His Old and New Testaments. The Spirit washes Christ over you and in you in + Rebirth. The Spirit reveals the face of the Son in His Body and Blood.
Let go of inner struggles to intellectualize and systematize with theories, proofs and “handles” for the Trinity. For God, the Father, so loved you, you, that He gave you the Lord Jesus, the Son, that as you believe in Him, which you do by the Gift of the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, you have forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. You wear the Trinity as you wear Jesus’ name; as you eat and drink Jesus.
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost