SOLEMNITY OF THE HOLY TRINITY.

Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday. And before that we celebrated Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. Today, having collected all three Divine Persons, The Father, Son and the Spirit, we celebrate in one celebration. The dogma of Trinity is perhaps the most difficult dogma in Christian theology to explain. But this is the most sensible one.

To start with, in the OT God revealed himself as one God but at times he used different forms in revealing himself. Up until 2nd century the Jewish Rabbis accepted that there are two powers in heaven. But when the Christian doctrine of trinity came the Jewish rabbis went back to Unitarian monotheism.

The Christian teaching is that though the Bible speaks of God as ONE, he revealed himself in three different persons. Jesus claimed his oneness with the Father in John 10:30 - I and [my] Father are one. The Son of God was the Word of God and He became flesh. The Spirit of God is mentioned by Jesus as Another Paraclete whom he will send from the Father.

1 John 5:7 says: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” And Mathew 28:18-20 speaks of God in one Name and not names: In the NAME of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

According to Richard of St. Victor, God has to be trinity: “For God to be good, God has to be one. (Jesus said, There is only one who is good Mk. 10:18). For God to be “loving”, he has to be two, because love is always a relationship. The oneness of God stirs with the motion of love.  Love gives birth. And, for God to be Supreme joy and happiness, God has to be three”. Lovers do not know full happiness until they both delight in the same thing, like new parents with the ecstasy of their first child.

So our concept of trinity is: The Father uncreated; the Son uncreated; and the Holy Ghost uncreated. The Father unlimited; the Son unlimited; and the Holy Ghost unlimited. The Father eternal; so is son and Holy Spirit. And yet they are not three eternals; but one eternal. As also there are not three uncreated; nor three infinites, but one uncreated; and one infinite.

So likewise the Father is Almighty; the Son Almighty; and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties; but one Almighty. So the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods; but one God.

G.K.Chesterton said: Islam has a lonely God. Islam’s Unitarian monotheism is that Allah is a solitary, lonely God. Before the creation of the world Allah would have been lonely and hence, no true divine attributes like, merciful or loving, could be applied to him. How could he have been merciful or loving if there was nobody else besides him to love or be merciful? So Allah needed a creation to become loving and merciful. Until then there was nobody he could be merciful to. So, it was his need to create the world. A Unitary concept of God would be incomplete without the creation. This is also the different in the concept of God’s relation to man. For Allah the human beings are slaves. But for Christians human beings are God’s children. A master dictates to his slaves and a father lovingly advices his children. Allah says to kill all those who do not accept his dominion, do not profess his name, but the father waits for the return of the prodigal rebellious son.

God is a community in the form of human relationship; and God created man in his own image and likeness. Jesus’ relationship with the Father is not biological relationship but a relational one. God the Father’s relationship with His Son and vice versa cannot be biological because God is Spirit. If it is biological the Son and the Spirit could not be co-eternal with the Father. One person can have several relationships. A person can be a father, son and brother at the same time. God is Father in his relationship to creation, since God created the world apart from himself.

Most things in the world have three dimensions. For instance, Time: past, present, future. Measures: Three dimensions: length , width and height. Language:1st person, second person and third person.

Many things in the world have three forms: Water: Ice and steam. Sun: light, heat. Candle: flame, light and heat.

It is not easy to grasp and explain the mystery of the trinity. If one can fully grasp this mystery then God would not be God because God is infinite and finite minds cannot at any time can grasp the mystery of God. That is why Jesus said: No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him (Mt 11:27).

Jesus’ identity with the Father is again mentioned in Jn 1:18; No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Jn 14:23). As we celebrate this solemnity let’s realize that we are not alone but the trinity lives in us and loves us. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.

1 jn:4:9 says: We love because he first loved us. We are able to love only inasmuch as we have received, as a grace, a share in the very life, energy, and nature of God. Let the celebration of this feast inspire us to love and share like God the trinity among each other.