Gospel of John, Chapter 16:15

Here’s what my Christian teachers have taught me about the Trinity:

The theological problem the Trinity is meant to address is that the single word “God” is not thick enough, rich enough, nuanced enough, or true enough to begin to capture the mystery of the Deity. In the Hebrew Bible, there are three main names for God: elohim, el shaddai and the unpronounceable tetragrammaton, YHWH. The faith of the apostolic Christian Church, as it is taught in the three Ecumenical (Universal) Creeds: Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasius, states that there is only one true God, and yet in this one God there are three persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit.

This means what is says; namely, that there is one God, within which there are three persons. It doesn’t mean that there are three gods. Each of the persons in the Trinity is completely God and yet they are distinct. The great problem is in understanding what it means that there are three persons inside of one substance or nature. This is the task of the Athanasius Creed that includes this teaching:

“We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost is all one: the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.”

The Trinity ought not to confuse you into thinking that it is a belief in plural Gods. What remains true for all Western faiths is that the mystery of God is far too rich and complex to allow it to be understood the way we understand anything else.

Rabbi Marc Gellman

Comment:
Rabbi Gellman draws an interesting comparison between the three Hebrew names for God, and the three persons of the Trinity in the New Testament. The Trinity is a mystery which cannot be comprehended by the human mind, but it can be appreciated when you are open to the influences of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in your lives. For a further appreciation of the mystery of the Trinity, please read my blog, Trinity, which you can find by scrolling down the archives section to the right of this page.

Fr. Hugh Duffy