The Trinity (16)

To the question “Who are you?” each of the three persons of the Trinity would give His own answer, Father or Son or Holy Spirit. But to the question “What are you?” each can only respond, “God,” because each totally possesses the one same divine nature, and nature decides what a being is. Because each possesses the divine nature, each can do all that goes with being God.

It is necessary to be accurate upon two points here. 

First, the three Persons do not share the divine Nature; it is utterly simple and cannot be divided up; it can be possessed only in its totality. 

Second, the three Persons are distinct, but not separate. They are distinct, because each is Himself; but they cannot be separated, for each is what He is solely by possessing the one same nature; apart from that one nature, no one of the persons could exist at all.

Nature answers the question—what we are; Person answers the question—who we are. Every being has a nature; of every being we may properly ask, What is it? But not every being is a person: only rational beings are persons. We could not properly ask of a stone or a potato or an oyster, Who is it?By our nature, then, we are what we are. It follows that by our nature we do what we do: for every being acts according to what it is; according to its nature. 

In Christ, Ken.

The Trinity (15)

Note that we must not say three separate persons, but three distinct persons, because although they are distinct, that is to say, no one of them is either of the others, yet they cannot be separated, for each is what He is by the total possession of the one same nature. Having talked about spirit and person, let’s turn our attention to “nature.”

My nature decides what I can do. I can raise my hand, for instance, because that action goes with human nature; I can eat, laugh, sleep, think, because each of these actions goes with human nature. I cannot lay an egg, because that goes with bird nature; if I bite a man, I do not poison him, because that goes with snake nature; I cannot live underwater, because that goes with fish nature. 

But though it is my nature which decides what actions are possible to me, I do them, I the person; nature is the source of our operations, person does them. Applying this bit of insight to God, we can say that there is but one divine Nature, one answer to the question “What is God?”, one source of the divine operations that yields what God can do (everything). But there are three persons who totally possess that one nature. 

In Christ, Ken.

The Trinity (14)

Less explicit regarding the Trinity, yet richer with insight, is this: if God is love as John the Evangelist tells us (1 John 4:8, 16) and love involves fully giving oneself to the beloved, then there had to have been someone to receive his love. Otherwise, God’s love would be imperfect, because it would not be willing the good of another person. Furthermore, if God existed as love for all eternity, the beloved must have existed for all eternity.

Then, at the very end of St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ final words reference a third person - still within the oneness: ”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.” Note that Jesus does not say “in the names of...” Three persons, but with one name, and therefore one being. 

Just as the love of husband and wife creates a new person, the eternal love shared between the Father and Son is itself an eternal person—the Holy Spirit. It is only through the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity all these insights about God fall miraculously into place.

In Christ, Ken.

The Trinity (13)

Other implicit references to the Trinity in the Old Testament include Genesis 1:26, which reads, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness." Since God was alone at the time of creation (Isa. 44:24, Neh. 9:6) with no other gods, this expression of plurality must refer to God himself. At the Tower of Babel God says, "Let us go down," yet no one else comes down with him (Genesis 11:7).

Though Jesus does not water-down the strict monotheism—He directly quotes the Old Testament saying, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God.”  - however, he is far more explicit than these Old Testament references to God being a plurality.  

Matthew (11.27) and Luke (10.22) give us this statement: “No one knows the Son but the Father; and no one knows the Father but the Son . . .”: here are two persons put on one same level.  “I and the Father are one” (John 10.30): they are two persons, yet one. And when Philip the Apostle says (John 14.8), “Let us see the Father,” Our Lord answered: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Similarly, Our Lord says that He will answer our prayer (John 14.14) and that His Father will (John 16.23); that He will send the Holy Spirit (John 16.7) and that His Father will (John 14.16). Jesus is clearly conveying that God is at least two persons in one God: Father and Son.

In Christ, Ken.