02-11-2007, 01:33 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-11-2007, 01:34 PM by Faith Hope Charity.)
<b>The Blessed Trinity</b>
The three things are existence, knowledge & will. For I can say that I am, I know & I will. I am a being which knows & wills. I know both that I am & that I will. I will both to be & to know. In these three - being, knowledge & will - there is one inseparable life. One life. One mind. One essence. Therefore, although they are distinct from one another, the distinction does not separate them. This must be plain to anyone who has the ability to understand it. In fact, he need not look beyond himself. Let him examine himself closely, take stock, & tell me what he finds. For none of us can easily conceive whether God is a Trinity because all these three -immutable being, immutable knowledge & immutable will - are together in him. Whether all three are together in each person of the Trinity, so that each is threefold or whether both these suppositions are true & in some wonderful way in which the simple & the multiple are one, though God is Infinite He is yet an end to Himself & in Himself, so that the Trinity is in Itself, & is known to Itself, & suffices to Itself, the Supreme Being, One alone immutably, in the vastness of its Unity. This is a mystery that none can explain, & which of us would presume to assert that he can?
(St Augustine 354-430 AD)
Here the mystery deepens. Three Distinct Persons & only One God. How is this possible? Reason understands that there is no contradiction, because it is a Trinity of Persons & a Unity of Divine Nature. But the difficulty remains. Each of the Persons is the same God. How can They be really distinct? The reply which our reason stammers is based on the concept of relation. The Three Divine Persons are distinguished among Themselves solely by the relations which They have with One Another. Precisely by the relation of the Father to the Son; of the Son to the Father; of the Father & the Son to the Spirit; & of the Spirit to the Father & the Son. The Council of Florence in 1442 could therefore state, "These Three Persons are One God, because the Three are One Substance, One Essence, One Nature, One Divinity, One Immensity, One Eternity... in God everything is one & the same, where there is no opposition of relation".
(Pope John Paul II 1985)
Christians acknowledge one God - Unbegotten, Eternal, Invisible, incapable of being acted upon, Incomprehensible, Unbounded - who is known only by understanding & reason. By whom all things through His Word have been produced & said in order & are kept in existence. We recognize also the Son of God. Let no one think it laughable that God should have a Son, for we do not conceive of either God the Father or God the Son as the pagans do, who in their myth-making represent the gods as no better than men. The Son of God is the Word of the Father, in thought & in actuality. By Him & through Him all things were made, the Father & the Son being One. Since the Son is in the Father & the Father is in the Son by the Unity & Power of the Spirit, the Mind & Word of the Father is the Son of God. If in your exceedingly great wisdom it occurs to you to enquire what is meant by the Son, I will tell you briefly. He is the first begotten of the Father, not as having being produced, for from the beginning God had the Word in Himself, God being eternal Mind & eternally Rational. Who then would not be astonished to hear men speak of God the Father & of God the Son & of the Holy Spirit.
(St Justin Martyr 150AD)
God - Father Son Holy Spirit - have one nature or substance; one power & authority. There is a consubstantial Trinity; one deity to be adored in three subsistences or persons.
(2nd Council of Constantinople 553AD)