The Trinity By Lawrence Ogundipe Sdv

INTRODUCTION

According to the revelation, and within the infallible teaching of the chatholic church our faith requires ut unum Deum in Trinitate et Trinitatem in Unitate Veneremur, neque confundentes personas, neque Substantiam separantes (That we venerate the Unity of God in the Trinity and the Trinity in the Unity, without confusing the persons and without separating the substance) cf Justin Rusollilo Sdv. Heavens Heavens part II p. 18 Paragraph II.
The confession of God as Trinity is a great mystery of the Christian Faith. It is the most essential distinguishing factor between Christianity and other world religions. Hence, to be a Christian is to believe in a Trinitarian way.
But what actually does it mean to say that God is Trinity? How did Christians in the first instance come to express belief in a triune God and how and why was this belief developed into a dogma? Moreover, why should we as Christians today still believe what we do about the Trinity?
The above questions are pertinent and demand urgent answers especially in our time when many believe that Christianity will suffer no noticeable loss coherence, but would rather become more intelligible and accessible to the contemporary rational mind, if it were to discard the doctrine of the Trinity. The late Karl Rahner accessing the situation of the Trinitarian doctrine in contemporary Christian life did not hesitate to point out that one might almost dare to affirm that if the doctrine of the Trinity were to be erased as false, most religious literature could be preserved almost unchanged throughout the process.
The doctrine of the Trinity is both a dogma of the Church and a mystery which we live with, but absolutely we cannot understand it because it is beyond our human knowledge. St. Augustine had tried to grasp it but was made to realize his own foolishness and he had to accept it without query. It is the centre of our Christian faith which any genuine Christian must accept.
This Christian conviction of trinity raises a major problem for the theology, if God is one, how why did sacred scripture and the Churchs creeds affirm a pluralism within God, that in God there is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? If God is one, how can Christ also be God? Similarly if the Holy Spirit is God, how can the three be God without violating the unity of God?
What will be Christs relationship with God the creator, what is the position of the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit divine or the Church only ascribed divinity to Him? What relationship has the spirit with the Father and the Son?
This work is an attempt to revive the consciousness of this mystery in the Christian mind. Thus this work is aimed at representing the doctrine of the trinity not as a polemical discourse but at bringing out the essentials. It is put in simple language understandable for the common man and comprehensible to reason. Hence, it will not have fallen short of its objective if it reawakens a more positive mind-frame towards this mystery as well as a simple understanding of the mystery for the living tradition of the faith of the Church is a constant invitation to reflection.
Though as Augustine has it, the how of the trinity cannot be comprehended, and Barth believes that we must be content to leave the how of Gods Trinity Shrouded in mystery, nonetheless, reason can offer some clarifications of it, though the basic mystery will remain with us while we are pilgrims on the earth. By this we hope to overcome what Rahner calls the anti-Trinitarian Trinity as well as salvage the mystery from the neglect, evasion and division to which it is often subjected to. We thus hope that Christians, through this work, will come to a better appreciation and subsequent living out their faith in the one God who has revealed Himself as Trinity.
THE MYSTERY OF THE HOLY TRINITY
Each year Trinity Sunday calls us to reflect on the life of God. All religions recognise that God is beyond every other name, is beyond the reach of all description. We can never say the final word about God. There is always more to discover, there is always more to experience.
In the Christian New Testament especially it has been revealed to us that (1) there are three persons in one God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; (2) that each person of the Trinity is fully God, and (3) that each person of the Trinity is a separate and distinct person. The holy mother church profess: We believe in one God, the Father almighty. We believe in Jesus Christ His only- begotten Son, our Lord. We believe in the Holy Spirit.
SCHOLARS VIEW
Over the years scholars have attempt to explain this sublime mystery which raised a great dust since the period of Arius.
Arius was an ascetic Christian presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt, born in Libya, between 250-256 He taught that only God the father was eternal and too pure and infinite to appear on the earth, as such he produced Christ the Son out of nothing as the first and greatest creation, after which the Son created the universe. He further said the sons relationship of the son to the father is not one of nature it is therefore adoptive, the implication of this is that God adopted Christ as the son, though Christ was a creation but because of his great position and authority he was to be worshiped and even looked upon as God. At Jesus incarnation He said that the divine quality of the son, the logos, took the place human and spiritual aspect of Jesus, thereby denying the full and complete incarnation of God the Son the second person of the Trinity.
 Emperor Constantine in 325 convoked the council of Nicaea in response to Arians heresy. Nicaea was a city in the East of the old Roman Empire close to Constantinople, the council of Nicaea refuted Arians doctrine by professing the Nicene Creed that states; the Son was begotten, not made Christ was of the same substance as the Father. Whoever that will henceforth not profess this will be anathematized. The Greek word homoousios (of the same nature) and homoiousios (of similar nature) became controversial but were at last resolved. Being the first council on doctrinal matters, the fathers relied on what Jesus said about himself, what the apostles said about him, the scripture, the sacred tradition and the Doctors of the church, at the end of this great council, Arius was condemned and sent to exile, peace and calmness returned to the church, and at last orthodoxy was restored.
THOMAS AQUINAS ON THE UNITY OF GOD
“It can be shown from these three sources that God is one. First from His simplicity. For it is clear that the reason why any singular thing is “this particular thing” is because it cannot be communicated to many: since that whereby Socrates is a man, can be communicated to many; whereas, what makes him this particular man, is only communicable to one. Therefore, if Socrates were a man by what makes him to be this particular man, as there cannot be many Socrates, so there could not in that way be many men. Now this belongs to God alone; for God Himself is His own nature, as was shown above (Question 3, Article 3). Therefore, in the very same way God is God, and He is this God. Impossible is it therefore that many Gods should exist.
Secondly, this is proved from the infinity of His perfection. For it was shown above (Question 4, Article 2) that God comprehends in Himself the whole perfection of being. If then many gods existed, they would necessarily differ from each other. Something therefore would belong to one which did not belong to another. And if this were a privation, one of them would not be absolutely perfect; but if a perfection, one of them would be without it. So it is impossible for many gods to exist. Hence also the ancient philosophers, constrained as it were by truth, when they asserted an infinite principle, asserted likewise that there was only one such principle.
Thirdly, this is shown from the unity of the world. For all things that exist are seen to be ordered to each other since some serve others. But things that are diverse do not harmonize in the same order, unless they are ordered thereto by one. For many are reduced into one order by one better than by many: because one is the “per se” cause of one, and many are only the accidental cause of one, inasmuch as they are in some way one. Since therefore what is first is most perfect, and is so “per se” and not accidentally, it must be that the first which reduces all into one order should be only one. And this one is God.”
In the first part of his treatise, Millard laid a logical foundation of the sense of the Trinity by way of scriptural argument. It was therefore, established that there is one God in three persons. Hence, it makes sense to talk about this doctrine via the scripture because; the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity cannot be properly explained only by human logic.
He by examining whether it makes sense to talk about this doctrine. He used analogous method of Augustine that is, using image to explain the reality of the trinity. He observed that of all the created objects, only man was made in the image of God. This being the case, if God is triune, the best reflection or analogy to his triune nature would be found in the creature that bears his image.
The concept, perichoresis is applied in order to understand the relation of the triune God. This concept means that there is an internal relationship between the Trinity, that is, what one does is connected to the other.
Rahner, holds that the treatise on the trinity must be connected to man, for him the basic thesis that establish that the Trinity is a mystery of salvation and not simply a doctrine is that the economic trinity is the immanent trinity; and the immanent trinity is the economic trinity. This entails that no adequate distinction can be made between the Trinity and the history of salvation.
FEMINISTS TRINITARIAN THOUGHT
Feminist theologians are of the opinion that the teachings of classical theologians on the doctrine of the Trinity did not take into account womens religious experiences. This doctrine of the Trinity according to them is used to sustain the patriarchal subordination of women. It does this by the use of male image and gender in the explanation of this doctrine.
The exclusive use of male imagery is the first difficulty to surface when the Trinity is addressed from a feminist perspective. At least two male figures, a Father who generates a Son, breathe fort a third more amorphous figure who is nevertheless referred to as He. Trinitarian theology focuses on the pattern of relationship between these male envisioned persons, as does liturgy and catechesis. The evocative power of the deeply masculinized symbol of the Trinity points implicitly to an essential divine maleness, inimical to womens being imago Dei precisely as female. Giving rise to the uncritically held assumption that maleness is of the essence of the triune God.
According to the feminist theologians it is misleading to think of God as fraternity of male beings who are begetting, spirating and proceeding from one another. They are asking that this expression be dropped and we start using both male and female gender or imagery, using personal imagery without gender (friend, redeemer), using non person symbols. They also see the structure of this doctrine as being structured in a hierarchical pattern rather than according to the equality of mutual relations. Theology has been highly selective in its focus on the Father- Son-Spirit pattern. Feminist theologians are of the view that other options are also realizable; they gave example of Lukan passage where the Father was not the one sending but the Spirit who sent Jesus to bring good news to the poor and proclaim liberty to the oppressed. The feminist theologians argue that the order in which the Father is seen as the principle from which the other persons of the Trinity proceed from is hierarchical and does not show equality in the persons of the Trinity.
THE FEMINIST PROPOSAL
The issue at stake in Elizabeth Johnsons argument is how we speak about God; the right way of speaking about God in an experience of woman. Her intention is to have a reconstructive work into the doctrine of the Trinity and how it is applied; and reshapes the churchs theology and worship.
In her feminist Trinitarian reflection, Johnson proceeds on the assumption that the three persons of the Trinity each transcend the categories of gender since they each cannot be bound by the designations of male and female. According to Johnson each hypostasis may in fact be spoken of in female terminology as equally as male. As a result of the social ills caused by the oppression of women and the quasi deification of men which has been supported by masculine God-language, however, Johnson asserts that it is necessary to use female terminology for the hypostases of the Trinity. She therefore uses the designations of mother-Sophia, Jesus-Sophia, and Spirit-Sophia, and Spirit Sophia to speak of the three persons of the Trinity. While reversing the usual order such that the first person is spoken of last and the last as first: Spirit-Sophia, Jesus-Sophia and mother-Sophia. Thus, her emphasis is on the Spirit, she took the Spirit as the first with the basis of experience.
Secondly, Elizabeth offers and defends the use of her popular title for Godhead, SHE WHO IS, which she says is a feminist gloss. The root of it coins from Exodus 3:14, where God reveals his name to Moses as I AM WHO I AM.
The warrants for Johnsons use of SHE WHO IS instead of HE WHO IS, itself which is derived from the divine self-naming in Exodus 3:14, are designated to be linguistic, theological, existential, spiritual, and political. SHE WHO IS: linguistically this is possible; theologically it is legitimate; existentially and religiously it is necessary if speech about God is to shake off the shackles of idolatry and be a blessing for women.Spiritually SHE WHO IS, spoken as the symbol of ultimate reality of the highest beauty and truth and goodness, of the mystery of life in the midst of death, affirms women in their struggle toward dignity, power, and value. It discloses womens human native as Imago Dei, and reveals divine nature to be the relational mystery of life who desires the liberated human existence of all women made in her image. In promoting the flourishing of women SHE WHO IS attends to essential elements for the well-being of all creation, human beings and the earth inclusively. Politically, this symbol challenges every structure and attitude that assigns superiority to ruling men on the basis of their supposed greater God likeness.
Furthermore, Elizabeth proposed language which she claims that will generate new content or new experience. She says, If we do not construct language which will generate new content, Christianity may wither and fade as a result: if the idea of God does not keep pace with developing reality, power of experience pulls people on and the god dies, fading from memory. Feminist theology is thus the savior of Christianity for the contemporary moment. This salvation requires that we construct new religious language that will meditate the same pre-linguistic experience that is mediated in the traditional but patriarchal and this ultimately defeating religious language.

The Holy Quran on Trinity
The phrase ruh al-qudus, commonly translated as the "holy spirit" or the "spirit of holiness", occurs four times in the Quran, in sura 2 (Al-Baqara) ayat 87, sura 2 (Al-Baqara) ayat 253, sura 5 (Al-Ma'ida) ayat 110,  and sura 16 (An-Nahl) ayat 102. In three instances, it is described as the means by which God "strengthened" Jesus, and in the fourth it is identified as the one brought down God's truth to his prophet.  Muslim commentators commonly connected this expression with the "faithful/trustworthy sprit" (al-ruh al-amin) who is said to have brought down the Quran in verse 26:193, and identified with Gabriel. Other Muslim commentators viewed it as identical with the created spirit described in other Quranic verses as the means by which God brought Adam to life (e.g., 15:29), made Mary conceive Jesus 21:91 and inspired angels and prophets (e.g., 17:85). The spirit who together with "the angels" descends and ascends to God (16:2, 70:4, 97:4) was also identified with Gabriel in Quranic commentaries. Thus, the figure of Gabriel became a focus of theological reflection on the content of revelation and the nature of cognition itself, with distinctions articulated between reason, prophetic revelation, and mystical knowledge. Though The Muslims did not believe in the Trinitarian God the traces of it is seen in the holy Quran.

Pope Francis on the Trinity
Every year, the light of Easter renews in us the joy and wonder of faith. We recognise that God is not something vague. Our God is not smoke. He is concrete; not an abstraction but having a name: God is Love. Not some sentimental or affective love, but the love of the Father who is the origin of all life; the love of the Son who dies upon the cross and rises again; the love of the Spirit, who renews humanity and the world. Understanding that God is love does us much good, because it teaches us to love, to give ourselves to others as Jesus gave himself to us and walks with us.
The Most Holy Trinity is not a product of human reasoning. It is the face with which God revealed himself, not from a cathedra on high, but walking with humanity. It is Jesus who revealed the Father to us and who promises us the Holy Spirit who teaches us everything we dont know, who guides us from within, who gives us good ideas and good inspiration.
WHAT I THINK
We refer to this revelation as the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. A mystery is a truth which God has made known to us and which we would not otherwise have discovered. What it means to have three Persons in one ‘Being’ is something we do not even try to understand, just as it is difficult to understand how Jesus can be both God and human (the Mystery of the Incarnation). But we get some inkling if we confine ourselves to reflecting on what each of the Persons in the Trinity DOES as a clue to what they are.
FATHER: When traditionally Scripture speaks of God as Father, we know that in God there can be no gender differences and we call God Father in the sense of the parent who gives us life and nurture. God as Father is the originator, the source, the conserver of all life, of all that exists.
We see God as Father, a loving and compassionate Father. Not a daunting patriarchal figure operating in the clouds, but one that is easily approached and who can be addressed by the familiar and intimate term Abba. He is the creator and giver of life. Everything good that can be discerned in the world around us comes from him and through him. He is the one who cares, the one who waits for the Prodigal to return and forgives completely and immediately. He is the Father of truth, the Father of love and compassion, the Father of justice. The whole of this beautiful world in which we live is a testimony and, at the same time, only a faint indication of what he really is.
SON: We know the Son, of course best through Jesus, born of Mary in Bethlehem. In him there was the mysterious combination the divine and human on one Person, a truth as far beyond our comprehension as the Trinity itself. We see the Son as God, who in an extraordinary way came to live among us and whom, in a paradox beyond all understanding, we humans killed. Despite all its injustice and brutality, the gift of Jesus in the Passion was a glorious revelation of love. Jesus is the unveiling of our God in human form. In Jesus, the Son of God, as a human being, we can see, hear and touch God. We see something of the nature of the Father as Jesus identifies with the weak, heals the physically and mentally sick and socialises with the sinful; in his compassion for the social outcast, the needy, the sinner; in forgiving the sinner and his enemies, in his unconditional acceptance of all, irrespective of class, religion or gender. We also see him challenge the dehumanising values that form the fabric of most of our lives. Though he is God, he empties himself of all human dignity that he might open to us the way to true and unending life.
SPIRIT: We see God as indwelling Spirit becoming, as it were the soul of Gods people. All our evangelising work, our works of social development and social welfare, our care of the sick, the weak, the oppressed and the outcast – all the good that we do; every act of truth and integrity, every act of human empathy, every act of solidarity, forgiveness, acceptance, justice in people all are the work of the Gods Spirit working in and through us. Wherever there is genuine loving, there is the Spirit of God at work.
And yet, being aware of all this, we still cannot say that we know our God. But there is enough here if we pray and reflect on it that is already overpowering in its significance. In the Trinity, our minds are brought into contact with the complexity and wonder of God. Maybe to be sceptical or incredulous is to be grudging in the presence of greatness. After all, we shield our eyes from the sun, not to deny but to acknowledge!! Those who presume to simplify God pay him no compliment.
All beings cast a shadow and the greater the being the greater the shadow.
A God without mystery would be a God without claim to our reverence. (Father McNabb)
To try to explain this mystery of Christian faith, St Ignatius of Loyola used the image of three separate musical notes when played together produce a single chord or harmony pleasing to the ears. These three notes are all different; each has a different wavelength, yet each is equal within the chord. The three notes work together in joyful combination. You cannot quite determine where one ends and another begins within the wash of sound. The notes are three expressions of the one energy. Others have used the image of water in three different forms i.e. solid (ice) liquid (rain) and gas (steam) to reflect the uniqueness and yet the relatedness of each person of the Trinity.
The three persons of the Trinity were involved in the Baptism of the Lord the Father voicing approval of the Son; the Son himself about to be baptised; the Spirit, symbolised by the dove.
Christ made it clear: The Father and I are one (John 10:30). Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9), and of the Spirit he would say: When the Paraclete comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who issues from the Father, he will be my witness. (John 15:26). And it is in the name of the three distinct persons that the apostles are ordered to baptise: … baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)
Think of how often in our prayer we call on the Trinity. We usually begin by making the sign of the cross. Our Mass begins, our babies and our adults are baptised and our blessings are imparted in the name of the Holy Trinity. The decades of the rosary end with Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Every official prayer of the Church ends by making our petitions to the Father, through the Son, ‘in the Holy Spirit’. Do you think we should begin all our enterprises in our own name only?
What if God concealed the Trinity from us, he would not have admitted us to his inner life, made us his intimate friends. By revealing it, God was not out to confuse; he meant to confide, to reveal his startling nature to us.
In the beginning there was ‘the original community’ of the Trinity, three persons at home in one God. This community is marked by equality, by familiarity, by closeness, by diversity and by loving unity. Wouldnt it be great if the human community could be recognised by these qualities?
Pause frequently when making the Sign of the Cross, thinking of the love of God poured into your heart.
CONCLUSION
The mystery of the Triune God is the most sublime and greatest mystery of the Christian faith. It is the foundation on which Christianity stands and without which it falls. We can never have come to the knowledge of this mystery without Gods gratuitous revelation of it, a fact which culminated in the paschal mystery of the God-man Jesus.
Gods intent for this revelation was borne out of His desire that we share in the divine life but contrary to the divine intent the attitude of most Christians, theologies alike, to this mystery can best be described as indifferent and for some the mystery should be jettisoned. It is against this backdrop that this essay sought to affirm the churchs teaching on this mystery, especially the import of the Trinitarian community in todays world bedeviled by dissension, disunity and rancor. The example of the Trinity shines out and teaches us that despite our differences in language, color, religion, etc, we can still be united just like the Trinitarian persons, who while being distinct are yet one.
Fr Lawrence Sdv.