Catholic Trinity - one will or three wills?

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I searched the web and couldn’t find a Catholic answer to this question. On Protestant websites I’ve found, they state that each person in the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) has its own will (based on Luke 22:42 and 1Cor 12:11) which means the Trinity has 3 wills. Luke 22:42 is said to support the Trinity (as opposed to modalism which is the belief that God is one) because it shows that God the Son and God the Father have separate wills. In this case they disagreed, but God the Son chose to submit to God the Father’s will. Does God the Son always submit to God the Father when they disagree? Do they fight sometimes or does God the Father ever give in and obey God the Son’s will? I think someone here replied before that the Trinity shares 1 will but I couldn’t find an official Catholic source to confirm it. What is the official teaching of the Catholic Church? I read that Jesus has 2 wills, a divine will and a human will but couldn’t find an official Catholic statement on whether Jesus shares the divine will or whether each person in the Trinity has his own divine will.

If the Catholic Church teaches that each person in the Trinity has it’s own will, then what happens when the will of one god disagrees with another god? For example, if you die and God the Son feels you were worthy enough to get into heaven but God the Father thinks you deserve to go to Hell, how will they determine where to send you?

If the Catholic Church teaches that each person in the Trinity shares 1 will, can you please provide a source so I can verify it?

Description of the Trinity from a Protestant website:
“God is a trinity of persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the same person as the Son; the Son is not the same person as the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is not the same person as Father. They are not three gods and not three beings. They are three distinct persons; yet, they are all the one God. Each has a will, can speak, can love, etc., and these are demonstrations of personhood. They are in absolute perfect harmony consisting of one substance. They are coeternal, coequal, and copowerful. If any one of the three were removed, there would be no God. (Source carm.org/trinity)”

Luke 22:42 - “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

1Cor 12:11 - “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” A Protestant website said this refers to the will of God the Holy Spirit.
 
One will. We don’t say “God’s wills be done,” but, “God’s will be done”. Christ has two wills: divine and human.
 
Sirach 3:20 What is too sublime for you, seek not, into things beyond your strength search not.

21 What is committed to you, attend to; for what is hidden is not your concern.

22 With what is too much for you meddle not, when shown things beyond human understanding.

23 Their own opinion has misled many, and false reasoning unbalanced their judgment.

This is what occurred to me - it’s rather like, I need the light bulb on … I don’t really need to know the infinitesimal details of nuclear fission or how the power reaches my outlet.

But I don’t mind others knowing it, seeking it out, or mastering the same. Seek and you shall find … but this counsel above might be as valuable as the answer you are looking for. 🙂
 
XianThinker said:
In this case they disagreed, but God the Son chose to submit to God the Father’s will.
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I would suggest that this is a good example of Christ’s two wills: his human side quite naturally desired not to die; his divine side knew that it was necessary.

While each member of the Trinity has an independent will, they all desire Good, and so the three wills naturally coincide. Christ keeps his human will in line with this, never sinning (Heb 4:15).

If you have the time, St Gregory of Sinai writes about this in ‘On Commandments and Doctrines’, 26-32, in the Philokalia, as do others in the same collection.
 
XianThinker said:
I searched the web and couldn’t find a Catholic answer to this question. On Protestant websites I’ve found, they state that each person in the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) has its own will (based on Luke 22:42 and 1Cor 12:11) which means the Trinity has 3 wills. Luke 22:42 is said to support the Trinity (as opposed to modalism which is the belief that God is one) because it shows that God the Son and God the Father have separate wills. In this case they disagreed, but God the Son chose to submit to God the Father’s will. Does God the Son always submit to God the Father when they disagree? Do they fight sometimes or does God the Father ever give in and obey God the Son’s will? I think someone here replied before that the Trinity shares 1 will but I couldn’t find an official Catholic source to confirm it. What is the official teaching of the Catholic Church? I read that Jesus has 2 wills, a divine will and a human will but couldn’t find an official Catholic statement on whether Jesus shares the divine will or whether each person in the Trinity has his own divine will.

If the Catholic Church teaches that each person in the Trinity has it’s own will, then what happens when the will of one god disagrees with another god? For example, if you die and God the Son feels you were worthy enough to get into heaven but God the Father thinks you deserve to go to Hell, how will they determine where to send you?

If the Catholic Church teaches that each person in the Trinity shares 1 will, can you please provide a source so I can verify it?

Description of the Trinity from a Protestant website:
“God is a trinity of persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the same person as the Son; the Son is not the same person as the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is not the same person as Father. They are not three gods and not three beings. They are three distinct persons; yet, they are all the one God. Each has a will, can speak, can love, etc., and these are demonstrations of personhood. They are in absolute perfect harmony consisting of one substance. They are coeternal, coequal, and copowerful. If any one of the three were removed, there would be no God. (Source carm.org/trinity)”

Luke 22:42 - “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

1Cor 12:11 - “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” A Protestant website said this refers to the will of God the Holy Spirit.
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CCC 253 The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the “consubstantial Trinity”. The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: “The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God.” In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), “Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature.”
 
XianThinker said:
I searched the web and couldn’t find a Catholic answer to this question. On Protestant websites I’ve found, they state that each person in the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) has its own will (based on Luke 22:42 and 1Cor 12:11) which means the Trinity has 3 wills. Luke 22:42 is said to support the Trinity (as opposed to modalism which is the belief that God is one) because it shows that God the Son and God the Father have separate wills. In this case they disagreed, but God the Son chose to submit to God the Father’s will. Does God the Son always submit to God the Father when they disagree? Do they fight sometimes or does God the Father ever give in and obey God the Son’s will? I think someone here replied before that the Trinity shares 1 will but I couldn’t find an official Catholic source to confirm it. What is the official teaching of the Catholic Church? I read that Jesus has 2 wills, a divine will and a human will but couldn’t find an official Catholic statement on whether Jesus shares the divine will or whether each person in the Trinity has his own divine will.

If the Catholic Church teaches that each person in the Trinity has it’s own will, then what happens when the will of one god disagrees with another god? For example, if you die and God the Son feels you were worthy enough to get into heaven but God the Father thinks you deserve to go to Hell, how will they determine where to send you?

If the Catholic Church teaches that each person in the Trinity shares 1 will, can you please provide a source so I can verify it?

Description of the Trinity from a Protestant website:
“God is a trinity of persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the same person as the Son; the Son is not the same person as the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is not the same person as Father. They are not three gods and not three beings. They are three distinct persons; yet, they are all the one God. Each has a will, can speak, can love, etc., and these are demonstrations of personhood. They are in absolute perfect harmony consisting of one substance. They are coeternal, coequal, and copowerful. If any one of the three were removed, there would be no God. (Source carm.org/trinity)”

Luke 22:42 - “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

1Cor 12:11 - “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” A Protestant website said this refers to the will of God the Holy Spirit.
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By saying, “Not my will, but your will be done” Christ will was in union with that of the Father. Their wills were free but in perfect union.

One example of “will” and understanding of what we “want” became clearer to me in this silly situation…
I was living in a community and we had a guest over very late. When they finally left, two of the girls walked our guest home. This left just one other girl and I to clean up (and there was a lot of dishes) I was tired and wanted to go to bed and so I was grumbling to myself about all of the work that needed to be done still. My friend said to me, “why are you upset?” And I said, “Because I want to go to bed.” So she said, “well, then go to bed.” So I looked at her and said, “what? with all these dishes to do?” So she said again, “well, if you want to go to bed, then you should go to bed.” So my response to her was, “I’m not going to go to bed and leave you with all this work by yourself.” So then her very wise response to me was, “Ah, then what you truly want is to help me and finish the dishes more than you want to go to bed. If that is what you truly want, then why are you upset?”
I wasn’t upset after that, because I realized that I was “wanting” two things, but my true desire was to do the chore that was unpleasant because that was the greater good. This didn’t lessen my desire for sleep, however, but it did give me the courage to make it through to the end of the dishes.

I think with Christ it was the same. He was human with a human body. To want the health of our bodies is good. Sleep when we are tired is good. Being tortured and crucified is bad. But sometimes the greater good comes from that sacrifice of our human flesh. Christ’s will was in perfect union with the Father’s. The Father didn’t want to see His beloved Son tortured and crucified, and the Son didn’t want it either. But, They both wanted the greater good - the salvation of our souls - even if it meant this great Sacrifice.
 
In Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, the divine and the human nature coexisted. It is a great mystery, indeed. When praying in the Garden, the Lord appeals to the divine will to take place over the human will.

However, there is only one God, thus the three Divine Persons act as one, with one will.

This unique will of the one God in three Persons can be seen more clearly in the following passages of the Scriptures:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness
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Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us
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Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”
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Of course, a deeper understanding of the meaning of “Person” and of what is meant by “one divine nature” is essential.
 
The Trinity is One God, not three Gods. There is one Divine Nature, not three. The three Persons each possess the one divine nature, thus there is one divine will, not three.
 
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