Some Thoughts on the Trinity

The Trinity

The Mystery of Mysteries

When Catholics speak about mystery in reference to God it does not mean that nothing can be known about Him. He is not a nebulous cloud of Spirit that is impenetrable to human reason. It is quite the opposite, plenty can and is known about God, but we will never be able to completely understand Him and His ways. There are two ways we can use human reason to come to an understanding of the attributes of God. The first we can arrive at is through our observations of nature that surrounds us. We can use analogy to gain an insight into the nature of God. This is called Metaphysics or Philosophy. An example of this would be to see that there must be a Being that is much more intelligent and powerful than man who created the universe which surrounds us. We can come to the reasonable conclusion that this Being is not a part of creation, but is separate from it and above it, because in order to create something a being must not be a part of that which he creates. An example of this is an artist and his sculpture. The artist may create the most beautiful sculpture, but the artist remains separate from his creation and above it because he is also the source of his creation. The sculpture cannot create itself. So we can also deduce that this Being is also the Source of creation.

The main reason we know as much as we do is because God wishes us to reveal Himself to us and this is most especially true of the uniquely Christian belief in the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, Three Persons possessing the One Nature of God) This dogma of faith stands out as one of the most mysterious, but it is also the most fundamental and most central: God’s innermost secret. As with many of the characteristics of God we cannot know about this Innermost Mystery through human reason. Rather, God has directly revealed this to us in Scripture and Apostolic Tradition. (Apostolic Tradition is explained in my blog: Why Believe What the Catholic Church Teaches on Faith and Morals.) Because of the Infinite Nature of God, the limitations of human understanding, the shortcomings of human language and vocabulary which cannot accurately convey eternal truths, the best we can hope for is to use human vocabulary to give us “God is like…” analogies. The branch of science that uses human reason and intellect to penetrate those Truths revealed to us directly by God is called Theology.

About the Attributes of God
When we speak about the attributes of God it is helpful for us to understand that, unlike created rational beings (Angelic and human beings with the ability to use reason), He does not merely possess that attribute, but He IS that attribute and is the source of that attribute in all of creation. So we cannot accurately say that God is intelligent, rather the way to describe Him would be to say He is Intelligence or Intellect Itself and the source of all created intellect. The same is true for love, God is Love (1 John 4:8) and the source of all love in created rational beings. Some other attributes of God are that He is All-Knowing, or Knowledge Itself, Truth Itself, and All-Powerful. This includes the Knowledge and Truth about Himself and the power to bring about all that does not deny His nature or is self contradictory (like a square circle.) It is also important to realize that there is no division in God either, so when we say God is Love, Intellect or Knowledge He is fully all of these. He is not fifty percent Love and thirty percent Intellect and twenty percent Knowledge or anything less than one hundred percent every attribute used to describe Him.

The Nature of Love
There are many ideas about love and what it consists of, but for our discussion we must speak about the giving nature of Love. In order for love to be love it must be given FULLY and FRUITFULLY, therefore a person must have another like himself in order to be able to love. We have an example of this in the story of creation: God said "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him. So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." (Gen 2:18-23 RSV)

Adam was shown many creatures, but none were found suitable for him, and then God shows him woman and you can sense Adam's joy as he cries out "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!" What he is saying is finally someone who is like me who I can give myself to fully...someone I can truly love! For Adam, this was not possible with the animals, as there can be no intimate conversation with a bird or any non-rational being, because this requires the ability to receive and understand what is being said and the ability to communicate what has been received back to the communicator. The bird simply does not have the ability to comprehend human thought, speech, meaning, etc...
It is the same with God in relation to creation. No created being or creature can ever receive the full expression of God's Love, because in order to receive Love from the Infinite, One would have to be able to infinitely receive that Love and all creatures are finite. Scripture tells us that one of the central attributes of God is Love. So by definition God the Father, in order to be able to communicate the fullness of His Divine Love to Another, there must be Another Divine Person to receive and return The Divine Communication of Love. This brings us to the Second Person of the Trinity.

The Perfect Idea
In the human intellect an idea, no matter how well thought out, is always imperfect. A human idea is our attempt to conceive of an object or concept in our mind. For example an architect can conceive of a beautiful Church and in his mind start to build and add detail to the idea of that Church. However, no matter how intelligent the architect is he is not able to perfectly conceive of and hold every single detail required to build that Church in his mind. This is not true of God as He is Intellect and Knowledge and thus has a perfect Knowledge of Himself and thus this perfect Idea of Himself contains all that is God.
So, God the Father is all-Knowing and this perfect Knowledge also includes Knowledge of Self and He has an Idea about Himself that is perfect. Since God is also All-Powerful He is able to make this Idea of Himself into a Reality in the "begetting" of a Son. (This is an example of how human vocabulary that is bound by the experience of time falls short of giving us an accurate understanding of Eternal Truths.) The only way this Son could be the Son of the Father is if He possessed ALL of the attributes of the Father and the only way this can be true is if the Son is God as well. The Son is the Second Person of the Trinity.
The closest human idea we have to help explain this Divine "event" is a blending of the human generation of a child through the marital embrace and the concept of cloning (the copying and growing of a fully adult creature.) God the Father is pure Spirit and thus has no physical parts, so when He generates a Son from the Divine Idea of Himself this more resembles cloning than the marital embrace, as the Son is an exact “copy” of the Father. However, it is also like the human generation of a son in that the Son receives His Divine Nature from the Father as a human son receives his nature from his parents. (Human parents beget human children with human natures, not puppies or kittens.) God the Father generates God the Son who possesses all the Father has including the Divine Eternal Nature, so God the Son is a true Son and true God. This Divine Generation of the Son is like both human procreation and cloning in that God the Son is a Person distinct from the Father just as a human person is distinct from his parents or his clone. It is different in that the distinct Person of the Son FULLY possesses the SAME Divine Nature of the Father, whereas a human person is distinct, but possesses a SEPARATE human nature.

So the Son is in Full possession of the Divine Intellect, Love, Power. Presence, etc... God the Son along with God the Father is the "Supreme All-Everything." If God the Son did not possess ALL that the Father possesses then the Son would be unable to be Loved fully and fruitfully by the Father and be able to give back ALL that He has received. The Son would not be God. Indeed, if the Son lacked the FULLNESS of ANY of the attributes of God, He could not be God. A way to conceive of God is as the possessor of “All-Everything that is True, Good, and Beautiful” we can see if there is a being that does not possess the “Supreme All Everything…” attributes of God he must be less than God. On the other hand we can analogously understand that there can only be one who is the best. There can only be ONE person who is the most intelligent, the best free throw shooter, the greatest classical artist, the best violinist, the greatest architect, etc… With God it is the same in that the can only be ONE who Nature is the “Supreme All Everything…”

The Spirit of Love
God the Holy Spirit "came in Being" in a different manner. Whereas the Son was generated in the "mind" of God, the Holy Spirit is the impulse of Love flowing from the Father to the Son and the Son back to the Father. The Love of the Father was poured into the Divine Idea that is the Son and the Son gave the Love He received from the Father back to the Father. The Love of God that flows between God the Father and God the Son carries the fullness of the Divine Being with Him. He is God the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity and He too is the "Supreme All-Everything..." In order for the Son to receive the fullness of the Love of the Father what is received must be God as well for it has already been revealed that God is Love. Here we can again see a different aspect of the analogy of the marital embrace. When husband and wife come together they become a gift of love for each other and this exchange of love sometimes bears the fruit of a child. In God, this eternal exchange of Love is eternally fruitful and is called God the Holy Spirit.

God as Father
There are two understandings of God revealed to us as Father. The first and more obvious one is that all creation came from Him. This was the Jewish understanding of God as Father. We can again touch on the marital embrace to shed light on the relationship between God and His creation. God is akin to the husband in this analogy and the wife is akin to creation. In the marital act the seed for procreation of the child issues forth from the husband and the wife receives this gift. This is similar to God issuing forth the seed of all creation and the universe can only receive this gift from God, it cannot bring itself into being, just as the wife cannot bring forth life without the gift from the husband.
The other understanding concerns the life and relationships within the Trinity. A proper understanding of each of the three Persons of the Trinity is that all of them possess the Eternal Infinite Nature of God and each has always existed. For us who have only experienced time, we can only get a glimpse of what Eternity is like. It stands outside the bounds of time. Eternity has no past and no future.
So God the Father is eternal, God the Son is co-eternal with the Father, as is God the Holy Spirit. However the relationship WITHIN the Trinity is one of procession and reception. God the Father is the Origin of the Divine Nature and since the essence of the Divine Nature is Love, God the Father had to have another Person with a Divine Nature to give His Love to. He did not have a choice to "beget or not to beget," since the essence of love is to give itself fully and fruitfully. Therefore the Son possesses the RECEIVED the Eternal Infinite Nature of God from the Father. The Father possesses the UNRECEIVED Eternal Infinite Nature and both are fully the Divine Nature of God. It can also be stated that the Son proceeds from the mind of the Father. The Holy Spirit RECEIVES His Eternal Infinite Nature from the eternal exchange of Love between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, so all procession within the Trinity also originates from the Father.

© Copyright Chip Awalt 2012 

Chip Awalt graduated Cum Laude from Ave Maria University's Institute for Pastoral Theology with a Masters in Theological Studies degree.

The Lessons Learned from The Catholics Come Home National Ad Campaign

 

    The Catholics Come national ad campaign that ran from December 12, 2011 to January 13, 2012 spotlighted a seeming blind spot in the way the Church evangelizes today. It was fifty years ago the the Vatican II council spoke about using the modern forms of media to reach the culture in the document Inter Mirifica. With the advent of EWTN the Church finally had a voice on the airwaves that people could tune in to. This has spurred Catholic radio stations across America who are faithful to the Church's teachings and for many Catholics has been a Godsend, including the author of this post.
    This question of evangelization is one of the primary issues addressed by the successors of Peter and the Apostles at The Second Vatican Council and this topic is present in all sixteen documents of Vatican II. All the successors of Peter since then have written or spoken about it extensively. This even includes Pope John Paul I! In his very first radio address to the world the day after being elected pope; He said “We wish to remind the entire Church that its first duty is that of evangelization.” Pope Paul VI in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi writes to all the faithful of the whole world "We wish to confirm once more that the task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church." Pope John Paul II writes in Mission of the Redeemer. “The Church is missionary by her very nature, for Christ's mandate is not something contingent or external, but reaches the very heart of the Church.” And finally Pope Benedict XVI in his homily at the opening of the recent Synod on evangelization remarks very simply and directly “The Church exists to evangelize.”
    We should celebrate success of the EWTN network and Catholic Radio, however Catholics and non-Catholics still have to choose to tune in. This misses the vast majority of fallen away Catholics. Given the poor evangelization effort combined with the poor catechesis over the last fifty years the average fallen away Catholic has little to no interest in rehashing that which they think they already know. I have often heard "I went to Catholic School for twelve years" to which I reply "Now I understand why you no longer practice" and then go on to explain that I too went to Catholic Grade school and High School and I got the list of rules and regulations, but there was little explanation about why the Church does what she does or what she teaches.
    This is where utilizing the SECULAR media can stand in the gap. Every diocese and Archdiocese needs to produce quality commercials designed to air on national, regional, and local TV and radio stations.
These commercials must reflect the humble pastoral nature of the Church without compromising the Truth in any way. This is a big component of the New Evangelization, as it represents a very effective tool for reaching the souls of fallen away Catholics as well as refuting much of what the mainstream media puts forth as Catholic teaching. We already know that the Church will suffer persecution, but let's suffer for what we actually believe and teach instead of how the mainstream media portrays us.
    This will require an ongoing interior conversion of the hierarchy as well as the laity and the recent Synod on evangelization has proposed a reform of hierarchical structures in order to implement the New Evangelization. I am aware that finances are an issue as well , but Pope John Paul II said "I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church's energies to a new evangelization." The reorientation of funds and energies as well as the excitement a commercial campaign this will produce within the Catholic community should allow for the implementation of the all aspects of the New Evangelization.
    Perhaps we can view the HHS mandate and other serious government intrusions as a strong encouragement from God to radically reorient the Church's focus back to her primary mission and leave the rest to God. After all the power of the Gospel message is the one thing the government cannot take over, imitate, or take away from Christ's Church!

    A hearty thanks must go to Catholics Come Home for shining a light into the darkness and giving us a key component of the New Evangelization. The additional benefit of the New Evangelization is that it will go a long way to addressing the wider societal and political issues of our time.

© Copyright Chip Awalt 2012

Why should we listen to the Catholic Church?

Year of Faith

Article 1

Why Believe What the Catholic Church Teaches on

Faith and Morals

            As we begin this Year of Faith that Pope Benedict has called for it is important for us to go back to the beginning and start again, keeping foremost in our minds the "Source and Summit" of our faith. The poor evangelization efforts over the last fifty years of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ and poor catechesis, which is the process of teaching the faith, demands that we re-present the faith to those who were the recipients of that failed effort to faithfully pass it on. One of the first questions that needs to be addressed is: Why should we listen to the Church at all on matters of faith and morals? What is different about the Catholic Church that should cause me to listen to her?  While not immediately apparent the answer is Jesus.

            We first must establish what we believe about Jesus. Jesus Himself explicitly claimed to be God. They Pharisees tried to kill Him in John 8:58-59 when Jesus said to them "'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am*' So they took up stones to throw at him…" This I am that Jesus uses here to describe Himself is the same I am that God uses in Exodus 3:14 when God gives Moses His name from the burning bush on Mount Horeb. This is again seen in John 10:30-33 when Jesus said to them, "'I and the Father are one.' The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, 'I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?' The Jews answered him, 'It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.'" Jesus again is explicitly saying that He is God and the Pharisees knew exactly what He was saying. There are a tremendous amount of other examples in the Gospels of Jesus' claim to divinity, such as His claim to be the One who will judge all mankind, presenting Himself as the Giver of a New Law that is superior to the Mosaic Law, and His insistence that the Jews believe in Him. All of these are proper to God alone and only God can make these assertions, so how can Jesus make these claims?

            Jesus’ claim to Divinity is also unique in history. He is not just another founder of a great natural religion like Confucius, Mohammad, or Buddha as not one of those men dared to make claims for their divinity. So how does Jesus prove that His claim to Divinity is authentic? In the Gospels there are thirty seven miracles recorded that Jesus performed and many more are alluded to; so much so that John, in his Gospel, speculated that "…there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."

            In addition, unlike the Old Testament where the prophets would invoke God to perform miracles, Jesus would perform miracles in His own name. Such as when He cures the leper in Matthew 8:2-3 "and behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." And he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, 'I will; be clean.' And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." Jesus does not invoke God, but heals the leper by His own power. Likewise, in the healing of the paralyzed man in Luke 5:18-24 not only does Jesus heal the man, but also in doing so provides another proof of His Divinity by forgiving the man's sins as well. In this case it is the Pharisees and the teachers of the law opposing Jesus who unknowingly testify to His Divinity. It is written "And behold, men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed,…and let him down with his bed through the tiles [in the roof] into the midst before Jesus. And when He saw their faith He said, 'Man, your sins are forgiven you.' And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, 'Who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?' When Jesus perceived their questionings, He answered them, 'Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, `Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, `Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins' -- He said to the man who was paralyzed -- 'I say to you, rise, take up your bed and go home.'" In all of the recorded miracles Jesus never once invoked God; instead performing the miracles on His own authority and power, because He was God. Unlike the Pharisees, however, the Apostles gave direct and deliberate testimony to the Divinity of Christ.

            A powerful witness to the Divinity of Jesus was the behavior of the Apostles after the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. In Acts 3 and 5 Scripture records that the Apostles were performing miracles healing the sick in Jesus' name such as in Acts 3:6 where Peter heals a crippled man. “But Peter said, ‘I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Eventually Peter and the Apostles were arrested by the Jewish authorities. In response to the desire of some of the authorities to kill the Apostles one of the prominent Pharisees, a Jewish Rabbi named Gama'li-el, had this to say in Acts 5:35-39 "…'Men of Israel, take care what you do with these men. For before these days Theu'das arose, giving himself out to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was slain and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!'" Then they brought back in the Apostles and instead had them beaten and let them go. Now you would think that after being beaten the Apostles would be disheartened, but the opposite was true: Acts 5:41 "Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name [of Jesus]." Every Apostle except one was martyred for their belief in Jesus' Divinity.

            So now we return to the original questions… why should we listen to the Church at all on matters of faith and morals? What is different about the Catholic Church that should cause me to listen to her? The factor that makes the Catholic Church different from all other Christian Church's or church communities (denominations) is that Christ came to build One Church upon the earth. In Matt. 16:18 Jesus says "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it." So Jesus' intention is to build His Church here on earth on the rock of Peter. Jesus was speaking to Peter in a way that was unique among the Apostles as Peter was the only one who was given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven as we read in the following verse "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." With the giving of the keys Jesus was making Peter His "Prime Minister" or the man in charge of the kingdom behind Jesus Himself. We see this elsewhere in Scripture in Isaiah 22:20-22 where the king of the Jews in the Davidic line, King Hezeki'ah, makes Eli'akim his "Prime Minister" replacing Shebna. King Hezeki'ah says "In that day I will call my servant Eli'akim…and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. We can see that the language used in Isaiah is almost exactly the same as in Matthew. The significance of the house of David is that the promised Messiah was to be a descendant of King David and only a descendant of David could be the true king of the Jews. Jesus is both descended from David and is God so He is the ultimate Davidic King, not only for the Jews, but for the entire world. This passage also uses the word father to show what kind of man Eli'akim will be to the nation of Israel. He will be a father. The word pope means father in Latin. So Jesus is installing Peter as the first Pope to rule over His Kingdom, the Church, here on earth.

            We also see that Peter received the authority to bind and loose, which Jesus also gave to the other Apostles as well. Speaking to the Apostles in Matt. 18:15-18 Jesus says "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." As the first bishops of the Church, Peter and the Apostles have this authority of binding and loosing. So we see Jesus puts the bishops of His Church into place and after teaching them for three years what they must do to bring about the Kingdom here on earth gives them the mission to bring the Church to all nations.  

            So how does this translate to the Catholic Church of today? We once again look to Christ's words in Scripture. In John 14:25-26 and 16 Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to the Apostles saying: "These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" and "be with you for ever." Jesus also reminds the Apostles of their authority and gives them His final instructions before He leaves the earth. Matthew 28:18-20 states "And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority 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.'" Then in John 20:21-22 Jesus reveals a key aspect of the authority that has been given to Him, appearing to the Apostles He says: "'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.' And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" Jesus received "all authority on heaven and earth" from the Father and passes it on to the Apostles. This authority given to the Apostles includes the authority to pass it on just as Jesus has passed it on to them when He said “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” This passing on of the authority given to the Apostles is called Apostolic Succession. Along with the passing on of authority, Jesus commands the Apostles to teach “them [the nations] to observe all that I have commanded you." This is the guarantee that the teachings we have today have been handed down to us from Christ through the Holy Spirit and we must understand that the bishops have been commanded by Christ to teach us all that has been given to them.

            The first instance in Scripture we have where Peter exercises his authority as pope is when he stood up and gave us the first example of Apostolic Succession. Peter determined that someone needed to take the place of Judas. In Acts 1:20-22 Peter states "For it is written in the book of Psalms…`His office let another take.' So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us -- one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection." We see a further example of this in 2 Tim 2:2 when Paul writing to Timothy states: "and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Paul is instructing Timothy, whom he had appointed the bishop of Ephesus, to find others that the faith can be passed on to. This shows the first four generations of succession: Paul, Timothy, those appointed by Timothy, those appointed by those appointed by Timothy. This line of succession continues down through time to the bishops of today, most especially the bishop of Rome (The Pope). They have received their authority from Christ.

            So the reason we should listen to the Church on what she has to say on the matters of faith and morals is because God (Christ) came down to earth, set up His Church, imbued it with His authority, taught and installed the first pope and bishops, and guaranteed that His teachings would be faithfully passed on down through time through the action of the Holy Spirit. Only the Catholic Church has this guarantee as only the Catholic Church has maintained the Apostolic Succession of all the bishops, most especially from Peter the first Pope down to the present day Pope.

*[all italics in this document are mine]

© Copyright Chip Awalt 2012