One of the more challenging units in the Frosh theology course that I teach is the doctrine of the Trinity.  Trying to explain the Trinity to a 14 year old is no easy task.  When I ask them, “Do we believe in the  Father-God, the Son-God, the Holy Spirit-God,” they intuitively say “No.”  When I ask them, “Do we believe in God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit,” they let loose with a resounding “Yes!”.  When I ask them to explain the difference, that’s when I get blank stares; and, in that “cognitive dissonance,” we begin our study.

            The Trinity is the most peculiar, unique doctrine of our faith.  It’s what makes us Christians and not Jews or Muslims.  No philosopher reasoned his way to it.  It is original to Christianity, though there are hints of it in the Old Testament.  In the opening verses of Genesis all three Persons of the Trinity are implicitly revealed in the beginning of Creation story.  In the same book, we hear God saying: “Let us make man in our image…” (Gn 1:26a).  Or, from today’s first reading, we hear that “God begot his Son before the earth was created” (Prv 8:22).

            When it comes down to it, we  simply get this teaching from Jesus.  Indeed, one can’t understand who Jesus is without having Faith in the Trinity.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus declares that “Everything that the Father has is mine” (Jn 16:15a).  Underscoring this revelation, Jesus says that “the Father and I are one” (cf. Jn 17:22b).  The first Christians strove mightily to come to grips with this strange duality: somehow Jesus was the Son of God, both sent and divine. He was other than the Father, but somehow at the same level as the Father.  Things got more complicated when the Holy Spirit came upon them.

            The Early Church knew that there was a Father (the one who sent Jesus), a Son (the one who was both sent and God), and a Holy Spirit (the Lord and giver of Life whom both the Father and Son had sent). Three but yet all the One God of Israel.

            The early Christians struggled with the revelation of the Trinitarian God for 300 years until under the directive of Emperor Constantine they came up with a formula at the Council of Nicaea in 325 a.d. which said that there was one God in three Persons.  They wrote this formula in Greek and the words came out literally that God is one substance in three subsistent relations. 

            Well, okay, but what does that mean?  Let’s start with the most basic question: what is God’s nature?  According to John the Evangelist, GOD IS LOVE (1 Jn 4:8).  That is not an attribute of God but is God’s very substance: Love is who God is.  And, love involves the giving and receiving of life which can only be done intentionally through persons.  God the Father, who is the Originator of Love, who is Lover, sent Jesus, his Beloved Son, into the world for our salvation.  And, when Jesus returned to the Father at his Ascension, he gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit who is the shared loving energy between the Father and the Son.  It is within this communal relationship that the divine revelation resonates.  In other words, God is a family, which means our relationship with Jesus can only be understood within the context of the Trinitarian community.

            What relevance does the Trinitarian doctrine have for us?  Well, it means that we, who are made in the image of the Communitarian God, are hard-wired to be in genuine relationships.  We find ourselves, we are most human, when we are in right relationship with God and each other.  We discover what life is really about when we love others by self-giving generosity.  Life just gets easier when we realize that our life is no longer about ourselves, but is about our Self-gifting God.  When we live out of the dynamic Love of the Holy Trinity, we will live authentic and genuine lives. 

            Brothers and sisters, we come to know who God through the revelation of Jesus.  A Christian is someone who, at the most fundamental level of being, is centered on the God of Jesus Christ.  If you know Jesus, then you must know the One who sent Him, and that realization can only be done in and through the Holy Spirit.  Jesus was sent by His Father so that we could participate in Trinitarian love now and forever.  This helps to explain why, on the last night of his life on earth, while sitting at supper with his disciples, the core of his Church, Jesus prayed, “I pray not  only for these, but also for those who will believe in  me through their word, so that they may all be one” (Jn 17:20).  Amen.