Who is God?

Details: 22 June 2012

Into

It has been pointed out that the Greek preposition used in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, (Matthew 28:19) , recounting Christ’s final instructions to His Apostles about baptizing, is really "into" and not just "in". In other words, our Lord said that His future disciples were to be baptized "into" the name of the Most Blessed Trinity, that is, into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Since sanctifying grace, the created share in God’s own life which is infused into a human soul at Baptism, makes one a partaker in the nature of God Himself, (2 Peter 1:4), it was most suitable that Jesus would reveal something that we could not possibly have even suspected, had He not told us, about that divine nature into which Baptism plunges us, namely, that in one God, utterly simple, Pure Spirit, undivided and indivisible, there are three divine Persons. God is one but God is also a Trinity. That there are three Persons in God is and must ever remain a most sacrosanct mystery, which human reason cannot fathom, a mystery which does not contradict human reason, but which totally surpasses its ability to grasp. It is only through divine revelation that we can know of the immanent process of generation and spiration which underlies the real distinction of three Persons in one Godhead. The oneness of God, His unity and unicity are as essential to the revealed dogma of the Holy Trinity as is the dogma of the Trinity in Itself. Because no theistic philosophy is able to approach this dogma with unaided human reason, a believing Catholic is compelled to accept and believe it completely by obediently adhering, with the help of supernatural actual grace, to the teaching of the Church which Christ founded (Matthew 16:18-19). Only then, may one inquire further about this revealed mystery and examine it.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux wrote: "To wish to fathom the mystery of the Holy Trinity is boldness, to believe it is happiness, and to realize it is everlasting life." Saint Francis of Assisi, one time after reciting the great doxology ("Glory be to the Father, etc.), exclaimed" "My God, how small You would have to be if we were able to understand You!" All the official prayers of the Catholic Church always begin and end in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, as do most of the private prayers of devout Catholic people. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in Himself. It is, therefore, the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching of Christianity."

Athanasian

All the known official creedal statements of Christianity from the earliest antiquity contain a profession about the Triune Godhead. One of the better known of these goes by the name of the Athanasian Creed. It carries the name of Saint Athanasius, the heroic defender of Christ’s divinity in the Council of Nicea (325 A.D.), which was the first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church. It contains his expressions and some of his very words, embodying his thought, but was written some time later in Latin (Saint Athanasius spoke and wrote only in Greek.), probably by Saint Ambrose, the Archbishop of Milan in the 4th century. The Athanasian Creed was regularly recited every Sunday in the Liturgy of the Hours until recent changes in the Divine Office. It goes by its first word in Latin "Quicumque" ("Whosoever"), and is still an important and valid expression, used in our time too, of the orthodox Catholic Faith.

"Whosoever wishes to be saved before all things must profess the Catholic Faith, which Faith, unless it is kept by one whole and undefiled, without a doubt that one will perish eternally. Now this is the Catholic Faith: We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the Persons nor dividing the Nature. The Person of the Father is distinct. The Person of the Son is distinct. The Person of the Holy Spirit is distinct. Yet the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit possess one Godhead, equal glory, and co-eternal majesty. As the Father is, so is the Son, and so also is the Holy Spirit. The Father is Uncreated, the Son is Uncreated, the Holy Spirit is Uncreated. The Father is Infinite, the Son is Infinite the Holy Spirit is Infinite. The Father is Eternal, the Son is Eternal, the Holy Spirit is Eternal. Nevertheless, there are not three Eternals, but one Eternal, even as there are not three Uncreateds, but one Uncreated, and one Infinite."

"So likewise, the Father is Almighty, the Son is Almighty, the Holy Spirit is Almighty. And yet there are not three Almighties but only one Almighty. So also the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. And yet, there are not three Gods, but only one God. So too, the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord. And still, there are not three Lords, but only one Lord. For just as we are compelled by Christian truth to profess that each Person is individually Lord and God, so also are we forbidden by our Catholic Religion to hold that there are three Gods or Lords."

"The Father was made by no one, being neither made, nor created, nor begotten. The Son is from the Father only, being neither made nor created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, being neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. Consequently, there is one Father, not three Fathers; there is one Son, not three Sons; there is one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. Furthermore, in this Trinity there is no "before" or "after", no "greater" or "less" for all three Persons are eternal and co-equal. In every respect, therefore, as has already been stated, Unity must be worshipped in Trinity and Trinity in Unity."

Nicene-Constantinople

On each Sunday, Holy Day, and Liturgical Solemnity in the Latin Rite, we recite at Mass the Nicene-Constantinople formulation of our Catholic Creed, which, of course, contains the same trinitarian realities as the Athanasian Creed. Those words which we use were given to us by two Ecumenical Councils, that of Nicea (325 A.D.) and that of the First Council of Constantinople (381 A.D.). The words were forged mostly in various anti-heretical polemics, in which the Catholic Church had to find and use exact expressions in her journey through history, as she exercised her Christ-given duty to maintain intact and undiluted God’s divine revelation bestowed on humanity and found only in its complete and correct form in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, as properly guarded and interpreted by the Church’s Magisterium (Teaching Authority).

An old Latin hymn exclaims: "Three Persons, one Immensity encircling utmost time and space! One Greatness, Glory, Sanctity, one everlasting Truth sublime!" The Byzantine Liturgy has the exclamation: "The Father is my trust, the Son is my refuge, and the Holy Spirit is my protection. O Most Holy Trinity, all glory to Thee!"