The Solemnity of the Holy Trinity

GOD IS PERSONAL

    What then have we learned from this series of feasts and celebrations? That God is One we already know. That much has been revealed from the very beginning. God has always shown Himself to be more than a “force”. He is personal. But in sending us, first of all His Son, and then, secondly, His Holy Spirit, He reveals Himself as three within the one single godhead. We can never fully understand such a great mystery, but we are able to gain a glimpse from the coming of the Son and Holy Spirit. When we call God “Father”, we are giving Him a name which has actually always belonged to Him, because He has always had a Son. It is otherwise with men. Men can only become fathers when they beget a child, so there is always a time beforehand when they are not yet fathers. But God’s fatherhood is eternal, because His Son is co-eternal with Him.

    So in what sense is the Son of God “begotten”? It is in the sense that the Son is the perfect copy of His Father. For instance, when we see a resemblance between a father and his son, we always say that the son is like his father, not the other way around. That is because we recognise not simply that a human father existed before his son, but also that the son’s likeness to his father depends on his father, who has given him his life and identity. Note that we are speaking only of the relationship between father and son because it helps us to understand what is meant by speaking of God as being “Father” and “Son”; so if we do not mention the role of a human mother in this context it is not because it is of less importance to us. Now in the case of God the Father and His Son, the likeness is total, and has never had any beginning or development. Moreover, the bond of love that unites the Father and Son is so complete that it is also personal—it is the Holy Spirit. This Spirit not only unites Father and Son in a personal bond of love, but is also “poured into our hearts”, as St. Paul puts it in one place, so that we, too, can share the inner life of the three divine persons of the One God in a way that goes beyond all understanding.

     That gift of the Holy Spirit which we received in our baptism and confirmation continues to make God’s presence a reality in the hearts, souls, minds and even the bodies of all those who live life according to God’s Will. It is the same Holy Spirit who will bring us safely through this life, God willing, into an ever greater union with the Father and the Son, until we become one with Him and with all redeemed humanity in the glory of heaven which Christ has won for us.                                ~   Fr. Paul Dobson