RBWords

     If this quote from today's second scripture in St. Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians seems familiar, you might hear it at the beginning of Mass today!  What's more, it would follow the words:  "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! Amen!"  Two prayers that profess faith in the Holy Trinity stand at the beginning of our most sacred liturgical celebration!  But before you hear those words at church, you pass through the door of the church and look for the holy water fount where you touch the water and make the "Sign of the Cross."  You DO remember to say the words, don't you?  Hmmmm......   Anyhow, the Trinity gets into everything, especially that most Catholic of all gestures, the Sign of the Cross!

 

     The quote from St. Paul shows that within thirty years after Jesus' death and resurrection the Christian community was well on the way to developing the rather profound and complicated speculation that characterizes the theology of the Holy Trinity.  St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas added considerably to the Western traditions on this and our Eastern brothers and sisters have a very rich liturgical expression of it.  In the end, though, no matter how much has been written and speculated, the Holy Trinity remains a "mystery."  To those who thought it to be polytheism, St. Augustine replied, "It's not a lie but a mystery!"

 

     Some theologians have offered a distinction that allows for understanding either of the Trinity in itself (the "immanent" Trinity) or the way the Trinity works in creation (the "economical" Trinity).  Theological history is littered with various "heresies" on the subject.  St. Patrick added the three-leafed clover as an image.  The Eastern church has contributed the truly wonderful Rublev icon of the Trinity, a copy of which I always keep in my room.  I think St. Paul's words ultimately say it best.  AMEN