31/07/2012
What is the Holy Trinity?
RESPONSE: The Holy Trinity is the union of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as One God. As a fundamental truth of the Christian faith, no one embraces Christianity without believing in the Holy Trinity.
DISCUSSION: This central truth of our Christian faith is a mystery. Though Sacred Scripture contains many passages about the Trinity, nowhere in Sacred Scripture can we find a concise and thorough explanation of this mystery.[1] Though we cannot understand fully the mystery of the Holy Trinity, we can explain, in a limited way, the characteristics of God as Trinity.
He Is Known by His Works
One way we come to an understanding of God is in terms of His work in creation as made known to us through divine revelation.
According to God’s revelation of Himself, the First Person of the Trinity, God the Father, created all things visible and invisible through His Word, the Son (Jn. 1:3). The Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, became man in the person of Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:14; Col. 2:9). He died and rose to redeem mankind from sin and reconcile us to the Father (2 Cor. 5:14-21; Eph. 2:14-22; Col. 2:11-15). The third Person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit, is sent by the Father and the Son to form the Church (cf. Acts 2). Through the Church, He offers us the graces of salvation and sanctification. Thus, we sometimes speak of the Father as Creator, the Son as Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit as Sanctifier. The Father is revealed by His incarnate Son, Jesus, His perfect image. The Son reveals Himself by taking on our human nature. The Holy Spirit witnesses to the works of the Father and the Son, revealing Them both to man (cf. Catechism, nos. 238-246).
We thus speak of the Persons of the Trinity by how They relate to us as our Creator. We can also speak of Them by how They relate to each other.