Religion : TRINITY

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TRINITY

Although there is no developed or systematic doctrine of the Holy Trinity in the Bible, yet the holy scriptures, especially the New Testament, bear witness to the self-revealing mystery of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as distinct and yet inseparable persons acting for the life, salvation* and glorification of all humanity and of all creation.* In this respect, all the individual biblical references to God,* the Creator of heaven and earth, to his eternal Word and his eternal Spirit, from the beginning of the book of Genesis till the end of the book of Revelation, find their coherence and focus in the mystery of the incarnation* of Jesus Christ* (1 Tim. 3:16) and in its ultimate goal: the participation of the whole creation in God's kingdom* (Rev. 21:1-3). The mystery of the cross of Christ and of his resurrection* is the window and light through which the church* experiences the mystery of the divine Trinity as eternal love and sees the inner coherence and unity of the otherwise apparently diverse biblical witnesses related to the mystery of the Triune God.

Shortly before his crucifixion, the incarnate Word of God gives account to his eternal Father of his mission in the world, saying that he revealed to his disciples the very name of God, i.e. Father, and the eternal love of the Father for his only begotten Son (John 17:6-26, also 1:14), with whom the Father shares the same glory before the existence of the world (John 17:5). It is for the Father's eternal Son and through him that the world was created (John 1:1-3; Col. 1:15-20) and the church comes into existence (John 17:9-26; Eph. 2:19-22, 4:9-16; Col. 1:17-18). The very purpose of the Son's incarnation was to reveal to the world not only the love of God for his eternal Son but also God's love for the whole creation, and to inaugurate its participation in the eternal life of God (John 3:16), liberating the world from sin* and death (Matt. 26:28; John 6:51-58; 1 Cor. 15:20,26). The incarnate Son reveals also the identity of the Holy Spirit* as an eternal person distinct not only from the Father, from whom he proceeds, but also from the Son, to whom he bears witness (John 14:26, 15:26). The Father and the Holy Spirit not only confirm the very identity of Jesus Christ as being the only begotten, eternal Son of the Father, upon whom rests the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17 and par.; John 1:29-34), but they are also united with the Son, cooperating permanently with him, being present in him even in or since the very moment of the Son's incarnation, although the Son alone became man (Luke 1:35).

This differentiated yet indivisible action of the three distinct and inseparable divine persons revealed through the mystery of the incarnation of Christ is in fact present in the whole economy of salvation and consequently in the whole life of the church, pointing to the kingdom of God as being the kingdom of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This life and activity of the Holy Trinity is an eternal and perfect communion* of love, a permanent movement of mutual and fully free self-offering of each person* to the others and of all of them to the world (John 10:17-18, 17:4; Phil. 2:6-11; Heb. 9:14). The Trinitarian revelation shows that ultimately the truth, life and unity in God are identical with koinonia*/communion.

The Father and the Son sent the Spirit into the world (Luke 4:18) in order that the Son may reveal to the world the love of the Father for it and the future action of the Spirit, who by his personal dwelling in the believers enables them to participate in the eternal love and glory which unite the Father and the Son (John 14:15-26, 15:26, 16:14-15). It is precisely by the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in those who believe in Christ that they can truly confess Jesus Christ as Lord (1 Cor. 12:3) and call God “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15-16), for the Spirit alone knows and declares all that the Father possesses and has given to the Son (John 16:13-15).

There is no confusion or subordination among the persons of the Holy Trinity but only mutual self-giving, each person glorifying the others. In fact the unity of the Trinitarian life lies in the movement of perfect mutual self-giving. This Trinitarian unity affirms the communion and distinctiveness of the persons.

The fact that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father (John 15:26) and rests upon the Son or is received by the Son from the Father (John 1:32; Luke 4:18; Acts 2:32-33) allows him to be called the Spirit of God the Father (1 Cor. 2:12, 3:16) and the Spirit of his Son or the Spirit of Christ (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:9). Since the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, he is called the Spirit of God, but he is also called the Spirit of the Son, since he is received by the Son and sent by the Son from the Father, or by the Father in the name of Christ and at the request of Christ (John 14:26, 15:26). Being in a distinct manner the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of Christ, the one Holy Spirit bears witness to the other two distinct persons in their irreducible distinctiveness: the Father and the Son.

At the same time, the Holy Spirit enables those who believe in Christ to be baptized in the koinonia of the one body of Christ, while preserving their unique identity (1 Cor. 12:13) and helping them to have access to the Father (Eph. 2:18) and to live within the world as adopted sons and daughters of the Father, receiving the same glorious gifts which the risen Jesus Christ received from the Father (Rom. 8:14-18). These gifts of the Father are communicated by the Spirit to those who believe in Christ in order that they may become like his Son, so that the Son should be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Rom. 8:29). Those who receive the Holy Spirit know the love of the Father as the Son knows it (John 17:25). In this way the Holy Spirit builds up church life and unity* through the participation of human beings in the life and koinonia of the Holy Trinity. Therefore all sacramental life of the church is accomplished through the action of the Holy Spirit and bears witness to the saving presence of the kingdom of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit within the world, thus preparing believers to long for the revelation of the glorious freedom of the children of God, for which in fact the whole creation is longing (Rom. 8:18-25).

For this reason, the apostolic church early identified baptism* with sharing in the mystery of the cross and resurrection of Christ (Rom. 6:3-4) and in the eternal Trinitarian communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). The same church experienced in the whole ecclesial celebration both the distinctiveness and the indivisibility of the divine Trinitarian love for humankind (2 Cor. 13:13: “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit”). To early Christians, this experience of the living presence of the Holy Trinity in church life was so deep and self-evident that they could easily grasp the fact that “the church is full of Trinity” (Origen).