Pastor's Letter 20230604 - 04 June 2023 - The Unfathomable Mystery of God

Father Michael · June 3, 2023

June 4^th, 2023

Feast of the Blessed Trinity

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Icon of the Blessed Trinity (Andrei Rublev ca 1360-1430 A.D.)

A Message from Father ^†Michael

Today’s Theme: “The Unfathomable Mystery Of God”

Reflections on Today’s Scripture

(Exodus 34:4-9) God revealed Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai, as a God Who is faithful to His promises and rich in tenderness and compassion.

On this feast day of The Blessed Trinity, we celebrate the personal involvement of God, with us as Father, Son and Brother; as Spirit and life. In the Old Testament, God is portrayed as tenderly caring for Moses, placing him in a cleft of a rock (for protection,) to glimpse a revelation too great for human understanding.

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(2 Corinthians 13:11-33) ^†Paul encouraged the Corinthians to live in peace and love. The “Trinitarian Blessing,” used today, as a greeting to be offered to each other at the beginning of every Holy Mass and at the start of all our prayers, began as a kiss of peace.

All who believe in Jesus, and His saving work, can share in the life of the Holy Spirit. Calling for reform and social harmony, ^†Paul advised the Corinthian believers in Jesus to offer each other a holy kiss—a reference to the greeting of peace, customarily exchanged at the “breaking of bread.” The early Christians’ celebration of the Holy Eucharist at the “table of the Lord,” provided the perfect context for repairing personal relationships, mutual encouragement and community growth. It has become today’s sacrifice of the Holy Mass.

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(John 3:16-18) God has shown His love for us by sending His Son to save all of us. All who believe in Him will be saved.

Martin Luther proclaimed this Reading “a Gospel in miniature,” because it proclaims, in a few words, the incredible dimension of God’s love, as well as the saving effect of that love on the course of human history. It reinforces that salvation is identified with eternal life but also underscores the fact the believer can experience it, not only after death, but in the present. ^†John reminds us that love is the hallmark of all God’s dealings with His people.

Rublev’s Icon’

None of us wants to be “left out.” If we don’t receive an expected invitation to a wedding, for instance, we may feel hurt, excluded and not wanted.

Of course, we also have to look at ourselves to see how generous we are when it comes to inviting other people into our own lives. Some people we dismiss immediately, barely exchanging a word with them. With others, we may share a polite—but brief—chat at the door, without bringing them into our home. Still others we may bring into the entryway, where we “talk business,” for example, but then we show them out. Then, there are those select few whom we welcome, invite to come in immediately, and offer hospitality.

In Rublev’s icon, which is seen at the beginning of this letter, the three Divine Persons are shown seated at table, replete with a dish of food. Quite noticeably, there is an empty space at the front of the table—which the artist meant to convey “openness, hospitality and welcome,” towards the stranger and outsider. This space is meant for each of us, and for the entire human family, signifying God’s invitation to share His life with us.

For many, the great mystery of the Holy Trinity is intimidating, and that is a pity. We should view the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as friends, to Whom we can relate, and with Whom we can converse, in prayer. Because the Son of God befriended us, we are no longer strangers and outsiders. We are God’s children…a part of the family.

We have already been given a place at the banquet of earthly life, but God wants us to have a place at the eternal banquet, also. Only at God’s table can we find the nourishment our hearts crave.

From all this, we comprehend that God is love. Our only response must be trust in Him and love for one another.

The Holy Trinity—an Historical View

Acceptance of Scripture as the inspired, written Word of God is a concept still being debated, today. For believers, the very steadfastness of the Bible throughout the millennia is testament to its abiding worth, and systemic truth. For some, however, ONLY Scripture, the Old and New Testaments, in particular, is of value in crafting a belief system. However, most modern theologians also accept a “developing” Scripture—or, “holy tradition,” that continues through the present day (a prime example of which is the New Testament, itself!)

^†Paul’s letters to the Corinthians (ca. 54 a.d.,) were the first references we find to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. There are numerous references to the “Spirit of God,” throughout Scripture, of course, but none encapsulated them as the Blessed Trinity, before ^†Paul. Theologians accept ^†Paul’s blessing (“In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit,”) as evidence of the Church’s gradual and growing understanding of the nature of God.

Our modern Feast of the Blessed Trinity requires us to understand and celebrate it as a prolongation of the mysteries of Christ, and as a solemn expression of our faith. In the triune life of the Divine Persons, to which we have been given access by Baptism, we enjoy the Redemption won for us by Christ. We must accept that only in heaven shall we properly understand what it means to share in the very life of God—in union with Christ.

The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity was borne from much disagreement and strife, throughout the first four centuries of the Church. Then, emperor Constantine, in an effort to quell heresy concerning Christ’s divinity, convened the first Ecumenical Council at Nicea (325 A.D.,) where he proclaimed the Catholic Faith the “state religion,” and earnest discussions were begun to solidify an understanding of the Holy Trinity.

Further clarification was offered by Aurelius ^†Augustine (ca. 354-430 A.D.,) bishop of Hippo Regius, in North Africa, who became the most influential theologian of the Latin Church. Anyone seeking to comprehend the Catholic Church must understand ^†Augustine.

In explaining the concept of the Trinity more precisely, he used psychological categories in a new way—espousing a similarity between the threefold God and the three-dimensional human spirit. He postulated the existence of relationships between the Father and the memory; between the Son and the intelligence; and between the Spirit and the will. This became to be known as the Son—begotten from the Father “according to the intellect”—(The Father knows and begets the Son in His own Word and Image.) But the Spirit “proceeds” from the Father (as the lover,) and the Son (as the beloved,) “according to the Father’s will.” The Spirit, then, should be understood as the love between Father and Son having become “person.” In this reference, the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son”—as we commonly recite in The Profession of Faith, during the sacrifice of the Holy Mass.

The Greek Church fathers, however, always began from the One God and Father, Who for them, as the “One God.” They defined the relationship between Father, Son and Spirit in His “light.” This gives us an analogy of “one star” that gives its light to a “second star,” and finally, to a “third.” To our human eyes, all three stars appear one after the other, only as “one star”—all proceeding from the Father, alone.

^†Augustine posited it was the one Nature of God, or Divine Substance, that is common to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This “Divine Nature” has become the principal of unity for the Latin Church. To develop the illustration from the Greeks: three stars do not shine one after the other, but “side by side,” in a triangle at the same level, with the first-and-second-stars giving light to the third. Therein, ^†Augustine made an intellectual construction of the Trinity with philosophical and psychological categories, in an extremely subtle way, as the “self-unfolding” of God. It is this view that has permeated the theology of Church, down through the centuries, to the present day.

For us Christians, all life begins in the Trinity, comes from the Trinity, and is destined to seek eternal rest in the Trinity. The life of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit—mystery of divine mysteries—is a mutual giving, so complete, that the divine Persons do not exist except in relation to one another. The divine life given to us through Baptism into Christ’s Mystical Body is meant to be shared with all people, through the apostolic zeal of Christians.

May God Richly Bless You!