Several years ago, alarmed that Islam was the fastest growing religion in a nominally secular nation, I decided to study more about the Catholic doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Not only does it offer a fundamental teaching about God, it marks a signal difference between Catholicism and Judaism, Islam, all other world religions, and many forms of Christianity. A Catholic can no more ignore the doctrine than they can dismiss the crucifixion of Jesus and expect salvation.
Pursuing my studies, I began to appreciate the complicated and subtle arguments of the fourth century patristic bishops. They had to discover the narrowest of paths amid a dark forest of heretical ideas because every misunderstanding was fatally misleading. It took two major councils, at Nicea (325 AD) and Constantinople (381 AD) to agree on a formula (the Nicene Creed) but there are subtle differences between the eastern and western churches to this day. Tempers were raised and anathemas pronounced on all sides in the course of the discussion because everyone knew how important their final agreement must be.
The process resembled the prolonged discussion about the calendar with its seven days, twelve months, leap years, and four-hundred year cycles which lasted from Julius Caesar into the twentieth century when Moscow finally accepted the Gregorian calendar. But if the bishops decidedly wrong about the Trinity, the world's salvation would be lost.
The arguments at Nicene and Constantinople are far too complicated to recount here, but we should at least appreciate their importance. Many polemicists, hostile to the Catholic Church for reasons of their own, would dismiss the story as non-biblical and irrelevant. "What matters," they say, "is that every one be nice to each other. Can't we all just get along?"
But when getting along means submitting to a powerful ruler who envisions God the Father as tyrant, and Jesus and the Spirit as subordinate deities, we can't get along. Human beings may suffer a king, emperor, or czar so long as they are distant and their influence minimal, but when they begin to dominate and oppress they must be destroyed. There is no violence like that -- it is not needed -- between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Turning from the development of the doctrine to appreciation and gratitude for it, we reenter the sublime and beautiful mystery of the Eucharist. The Mass is a prayer offered to the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. There is no knowledge of God without the Lord Jesus, nor is there salvation without the Spirit who gathers us to the Sacrifice,
Receiving the precious Body and Blood of Jesus we are enveloped in the mystery too deep, mysterious, and holy for words. We are divinized as we become the Body of Christ, the Real Presence of God in the world. And like the Virgin Mary, we are made worthy by the grace she was given at her conception.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.