“The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of 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 in the ‘hierarchy of the truths of faith’” (CCC 234).
What is the Trinity? God is an exchange of love. Why is it a mystery? Because we can’t know it unless God reveals us. God is one substance and three persons. God is love. All three persons in the Trinity are the same divine substance:
The Father (The Lover)
Jesus Christ the Son (The Beloved)
The Holy Spirit (The relationship between the Father and the Son)
The love between them is so strong that is is a person in itself.
This video also has a nice explanation of what it means to be “eternally begotten” and “consubstantial”. This is helpful for a study of the Creed.
“The Trinity” by Andrei Rublev (1425-27)
Holy Trinity -- An Icon of Love: a meditation on the Holy Trinity
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” This simple saying helps me appreciate the efforts of those who prayerfully draw wonderful icons that we can enjoy.
One icon that I am very fond of is “ The Trinity” made by Andrei Rublev. Looking at the icon has made me think of many symbolic imageries, most of which are in the context of the Lord’s Supper as the representation of God’s love for us. The first image that come to mind when I look at the icon is the circle represented by the table. The three angels are the Holy Trinity, who make up the circle, and based on their sitting position they also form a triangle. The next image I want to focus on is the Lord’s Supper; this is represented at the center of the table, through the cup which has a face peering out, which to me represents the Holy Eucharist. His love for us in His incarnation is a total self-gift.
This icon led me to meditate on John 13:31-35, the new and last commandment to the Apostles. Jesus said, “I say it to you. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Pope Benedict XVI during his Angelus address on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, June 7, 2009, called God “Love.” He said, “Three Persons who are one God because the Father is love; the Son is love; the Spirit is love. God is wholly and only love, the purest, infinite and eternal love. He does not live in splendid solitude, but rather is inexhaustible source of life that is ceaselessly given and communicated.”
Pope Benedict reminds us that God is love and that it is because of His love that we can be. The icon shows this love by the way the figures look at each other. Both Christ and the Holy Spirit are looking at the Father and, in turn, the Father looks back at them.
This love that they have for one another is what simply represents God: love. God communicates this love with us by giving us His only begotten Son. But in return, God receives this love back by the commandment Christ gave to us, thus creating a constant and unending cycle. “Love one another as I have loved you.” God gives us the example of this perfect cycle of love by entering humanity and by doing so He gives His Holy Spirit to us as well.
The Holy Eucharist is how we remember God’s continual love for us by remembering first that God the Father has been present in the affairs of men — always watching, always loving us.
Second, the role that Jesus undertook for us was that He emptied Himself and took the form of man, and then showed us how to love each other as God loves us. He shows us how to do this by giving His life for us on the cross.
And lastly, by the continual work of the Holy Spirit, we can remember Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass so that we continue to remember God’s continual love for us and His people.
If we wish the great gift of the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity to bear its full fruit of intimate friendship with the three divine Persons, we must become accustomed to living with the Trinity, since it is impossible to have a real bond of friendship with someone if, after offering him the hospitality of our home, we immediately forget him. In order to live with the Trinity, it is not necessary to feel God’s presence within us; this is a grace which He may give or withhold. It is sufficient to be grounded in the faith by which we know with certitude that the three divine Persons are dwelling within us. By relying on this reality which we cannot see, feel, or understand, but which we know with certainty because it has been revealed by God, we can direct ourselves toward a life of true union with the Blessed Trinity.
First, we should consider the three divine Persons present within us, in Their indivisible unity. We already know that everything done by the Trinity “ad extra,” that is, outside the Godhead, is the work of all three divine Persons without distinction; hence, this applies to Their action in our soul. All Three dwell equally in us. They are there simultaneously and They all produce the same effects in us. All Three diffuse grace and love in us; They enlighten us, offer us Their friendship and love us with one and the same love. Still this does not prevent each of Them from being present in our soul with the characteristics proper to His Person: the Father is there as the source and origin of the divinity and of all being; the Word is present as the splendor of the Father, as light; the Holy Spirit, as the fruit of the love of the Father and of the Son. Each divine Person, then, loves us in His own personal way and offers us His special gift. The Father offers us His most sweet paternity; the Son clothes us with His shining light; the Holy Spirit penetrates us with His ardent love. And we, insignificant creatures, should try to realize that we have such great gifts, so that we may fully profit by them.
O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, take me into Your embrace and deign to admit me to intimacy with You.
A website to help further understand what-is-the-trinity?
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