Trinity by Andrei Rublev. Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Jewish and Islamic religions believe in one God. The Christian religion also believes in one God but with a difference: Christians believe in one God but three persons in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We believe that God has revealed this truth to us in the history of revelation in the sacred scriptures. The initiative came from God and whom the New Testament shows that though God is one - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - have different roles to play in the lives of people.
In the New Testament Jesus does the Father’s will; he prays through the night discerning what the Father’s plan is. At his baptism in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descends on him in the form of a dove; the Father’s voice says, ‘This is my Son the beloved in whom I am well pleased.(Mt 3:16,17).
In the second reading at Mass on Trinity Sunday, the conclusion to the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians reads: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor 13:13).
This Trinitarian language was in use very quickly as the early Christians came to understand the different roles that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit played. The Christian understanding of God evolved from the Hebrew scriptures, the people’s experience of God in the Hebrew bible is of one God. Christians held onto this central belief yet found God being manifest as Father, Son and Spirit.
The feast of Pentecost which we celebrated last week is the outstanding example of the Holy Spirit taking centre stage and filling the minds and hearts of the disciples assembled. The church is born.
The Father’s plan continues to unfold. The disciples are told by the risen Lord as he left them in Galilee to spread his message and example throughout the world. It has been done. We belong to a global church today where people of all nations and cultures acknowledge the presence of a triune God.
We have been taught that the Trinity is a ‘mystery’ that cannot be fully understood. We live in a time when the scientific method, the rational approach to truth and the desire to get to the heart of things, is all-pervasive.
Religion with its mysteries is dismissed or the mystery will be uncovered eventually. Some detractors say that if people believe in ‘mystery’ they will believe in anything. The riposte to that challenge from believers is, if people believe in nothing, they will believe in anything.
For people of faith, having a relationship with God is the important thing. Relationship, not understanding, or complete understanding is possible because God is God and what we know is what God has chosen to reveal to us.
The Russian icon of the Trinity by Andrei Rublev painted around 1410 depicts three people sitting around a table with room for a fourth. The vacant place is an invitation to each one of us to come into the intimacy of the Trinity, a place prepared for us from the beginning of time.
Columban Fr Gary Walker is currently living at the Columban house in Sandgate, Brisbane.
