Explaining the Trinity

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AaronK88

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I would like fellow Catholics to help me out here. It has been said constantly that the concept of the trinity is not explainable. It is beyond our minds to grasp. However, I feel like I have come to a basic explanation.

God, being who he is, is a being that is beyond our imagination. We cannot possible comprehend God. To comprehend God would make us God ourselves. God is infinite. Human beings, however, are not. While we have a basic understanding of the term infinite, we can never be infinite or experience infinity the way God can. God was, is, and always will be. God’s form is such that while we can grasp the concept of it, we can never fully comprehend, 100%.

In order for God to join us on our world, God would have to take the form of something that we COULD understand. That we could easily wrap our minds around. That is why through the holy spirit, God impregnated Mary with the Son, who while being God, is a separate but same entity. In this form, human beings are able to grasp on a level the divinity of God through Jesus, the Son.

Have I at least touched on it? What am I missing? Am I completely off?
 
Yes, many theologians have expressed what has been revealed by God while knowing that we could never comprehend an ineffable, infinte being. So what we do is apprehend rather than comprehend the nature of our God.

The Trinity has been revealed to us most clearly in Jesus Christ as we come to know who He is and how He explains the coming of the Holy Spirit. You do have a basic understanding, as we all do, even though there have been many documents written on this revealed nature of God. One could never explain the relational characteristics of three distinct persons in one God in a forum post. There is terminology like “generation” and “spiration” when used to explain the procession of the two persons from the Father.

Whenever we speak of God, He is always “more than”. We say that God is love; He is infinite love, we say that God is good; He is infinitely good, etc. So, in closing, your explanation pretty much describes the incarnation more than the Trinity but they are all interlinked. I know that there will be more people on here with oodles more information but in its simplicity God became man because, like you said, He humbled Himself to share in our humanity so that we can partake of His divine nature. We would never had been able to even start to understand Him unless He leaped through that infinite chasm to join us…teachccd
 
AaronK88 said:
I would like fellow Catholics to help me out here. It has been said constantly that the concept of the trinity is not explainable. It is beyond our minds to grasp. However, I feel like I have come to a basic explanation.

God, being who he is, is a being that is beyond our imagination. We cannot possible comprehend God. To comprehend God would make us God ourselves. God is infinite. Human beings, however, are not. While we have a basic understanding of the term infinite, we can never be infinite or experience infinity the way God can. God was, is, and always will be. God’s form is such that while we can grasp the concept of it, we can never fully comprehend, 100%.

In order for God to join us on our world, God would have to take the form of something that we COULD understand. That we could easily wrap our minds around. That is why through the holy spirit, God impregnated Mary with the Son, who while being God, is a separate but same entity. In this form, human beings are able to grasp on a level the divinity of God through Jesus, the Son.

Have I at least touched on it? What am I missing? Am I completely off?
Click to expand...
I am with you. The Trinity is a name we have applied to God as we have sought to understand who Jesus is. If we believe in the Resurrection and what his disciples said about the Father, him and the Spirit, then
one arrives at the Trinity. But it all starts with the man Jesus.
 
Oh boy. I at least* thought* I understood the Holy Trinity before, now after reading this I am way more confused.:confused:

So let me see if I can get this at least somewhat straight.

My understanding had always been that The Father was God the Creator. The Son was, of course, Jesus. And the Holy Spirit (or is it Holy Ghost) is the manifestation of God through the work and actions of those he directs (if that makes any sense.)

But what you’re saying is we cant really quantify God, the Holy Trinity is just a way of breaking him down to a form we are capable of comprehending, no? 😊
 
I think you’ve made a decent enough beginning. There are a couple of books by Frank Sheed you will love on this subject. The first is Theology for Beginners. amazon.com/Theology-Beginners-Francis-Joseph-Sheed/dp/0892831243/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229587389&sr=1-1 ] The second is also by Frank Sheed and has a more in-depth explanation. I have heard these books recommended on Catholic Answers Live, so I think I am on firm ground here to pass on the information. I have read the first book myself, and half of the second,
and I loved reading about the Blessed Trinity. It’s just fascinating to think about the implications of infinite being. Reading these books helps the Holy Eucharist make more sense to me.
 
I agree with Cathy. The two Frank Sheed books she mentioned are an excellent beginning to understanding the Trinity. (Theology for Beginners, and Theology and Sanity) And when I say understanding, I don’t mean that we will ever fully comprehend God’s nature, only that his nature, while a mystery, is not contradictory to human intelligence.

When we speak of Trinity, we are always speaking of a Trinity of PERSONS, never a trinity of beings. God is not three beings. God is not three distinct entities. He is only one being; one entity; one nature, one what. He is three distinct persons, but each person (who) possesses wholly and entirely the one single divine nature.

The persons do not share the divine nature. Each possesses it wholly.

[Jesus in his human nature is another consideration. Keep that separate from considering the trinity. Jesus is a divine Person (the Word) who because of the incarnation wholly took on a human nature while keeping his one divine nature.]
 
Yes, thanks, Jim, for giving the title to the second book. I forgot to mention it.

I first picked up Theology and Sanity because I tend to be a little (some would say a lot) neurotic, and I thought it might help me in that way.

As it turns out, it’s not a book on psychology, but on reality: on Who God is and who we are. As the author says, a person is considered sane who is in touch with reality. So knowing the truth about God and His creation makes us more sane.

Becoming more convinced about the rationality of belief in the Blessed Trinity, the God Who is Love, is deeply consoling and healing.
 
AaronK88 said:
I would like fellow Catholics to help me out here. It has been said constantly that the concept of the trinity is not explainable. It is beyond our minds to grasp. However, I feel like I have come to a basic explanation.

God, being who he is, is a being that is beyond our imagination. We cannot possible comprehend God. To comprehend God would make us God ourselves. God is infinite. Human beings, however, are not. While we have a basic understanding of the term infinite, we can never be infinite or experience infinity the way God can. God was, is, and always will be. God’s form is such that while we can grasp the concept of it, we can never fully comprehend, 100%.

In order for God to join us on our world, God would have to take the form of something that we COULD understand. That we could easily wrap our minds around. That is why through the holy spirit, God impregnated Mary with the Son, who while being God, is a separate but same entity. In this form, human beings are able to grasp on a level the divinity of God through Jesus, the Son.

Have I at least touched on it? What am I missing? Am I completely off?
Click to expand...
aaron,
why do you think you must understand the Trinity.? The Trinity is a mystery, which know one really understands fully.
God has chosen to reveal himself as a Trinity, one example can be found in Mt.3:16 When Jesus was baptized. Please read this. All three persons of the Trinity were present.
We walk by faith. “If God has to prove himself to us he would be an idol.”
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, so one can boast.” Eph.2:8

God bless,
jean8
 
apromisemade said:
Oh boy. I at least* thought* I understood the Holy Trinity before, now after reading this I am way more confused.:confused:

So let me see if I can get this at least somewhat straight.

My understanding had always been that The Father was God the Creator. The Son was, of course, Jesus. And the Holy Spirit (or is it Holy Ghost) is the manifestation of God through the work and actions of those he directs (if that makes any sense.)

But what you’re saying is we cant really quantify God, the Holy Trinity is just a way of breaking him down to a form we are capable of comprehending, no? 😊
Click to expand...
I thought that all Christians believed that the Father created the heavens and the earth THROUGH the Son.
 
tortdog said:
I thought that all Christians believed that the Father created the heavens and the earth THROUGH the Son.
Click to expand...
Yes, God the Father “spoke” through the Son (Word) and things leaped into existence. When we say that God created everything we speak of Father, Son and Holy Spirit since They are inseparable in nature…teachccd
 
Besides the books of Frank Sheed that have been mentioned, another good one is the theology section in the back of CS Lewis “Mere Christianity”. He talks about the terms “beget” and “begotten” in an easy way to understand.

My understanding of The Trinity is more concretely understood through Christian Marriage. John Paul II’s book “Theology of the Body” says that Christian Marriage is the most perfect expression of The Trinity that we can have and can comprehend.

“The body, and it alone,” John Paul says, “is capable of making visible what is invisible, the spiritual and divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the invisible mystery hidden in God from time immemorial, and thus to be a sign of it” (February 20, 1980).

As physical, bodily creatures we cannot see God. He’s pure Spirit. But God wanted to make His mystery visible to us, so He stamped it into our bodies by creating us as male and female in His own image (cf. Gen. 1:27).

**The function of this image is to reflect the Trinity, “an inscrutable divine communion of [three] Persons” (November 14, 1979). John Paul thus concludes that “man became the ‘image and likeness’ of God not only through his own humanity, but also through the communion of persons which man and woman form right from the beginning.” **

catholiceducation.org/articles/sexuality/se0055.html

I personally believe that Christian Marriage is God’s portrait of Himself. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is seen in Husband, Wife, Children.

We say that the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person who is the union and love between the Father and The Son. Children are the fruit of the union and love between husband and wife. Christian marriage truly is an image of the Holy Trinity here on earth.
 
AaronK88 said:
I would like fellow Catholics to help me out here. It has been said constantly that the concept of the trinity is not explainable. It is beyond our minds to grasp. However, I feel like I have come to a basic explanation.

God, being who he is, is a being that is beyond our imagination. We cannot possible comprehend God. To comprehend God would make us God ourselves. God is infinite. Human beings, however, are not. While we have a basic understanding of the term infinite, we can never be infinite or experience infinity the way God can. God was, is, and always will be. God’s form is such that while we can grasp the concept of it, we can never fully comprehend, 100%.

In order for God to join us on our world, God would have to take the form of something that we COULD understand. That we could easily wrap our minds around. That is why through the holy spirit, God impregnated Mary with the Son, who while being God, is a separate but same entity. In this form, human beings are able to grasp on a level the divinity of God through Jesus, the Son.

Have I at least touched on it? What am I missing? Am I completely off?
Click to expand...
Aaron,

The best way to look at the Blessed Trinity is that when you start asking questions about what God is then there is One. When you ask questions about who God is then there are Three.

One question that should be asked is why are there more than one person who is God? It comes from the great revelation of the New Covenent which is God is Love. God is not just a loving God, He is Love or the old english use of Charity or Greek Agape. I believe that this simple statement is the foundation of the entire revelation of the New Covenent.

What does this mean concerning the Trinity? Evaluate the argument below:

P1) God is Love (Charity or Agape) as per the Scriptures. Christian belief in “Perfect Love”, which God can only be, is that giving yourself completely to another. “No greater love that a man has than to give his life for a friend”.
P2) God is a necessary Being. This means that God has no external needs for Him to exist.
P3) If God is Love then He must Love another for it to be perfect love.
C1) Whatever is required for P3 must be only within the Godhead. If not then God needs something outside Himself, which means that He is not a necessary being and thus is not God.
C2) Thus God is a multi-person Being.

Without a doubt the Christian God is three persons. Why three persons? What is required for Love to occur? You need three things for love to occur: 1) Lover, 2) Something to be loved or Beloved, & 3) The Love itself. Thus three. St. Augustine in his work “On the Trinity”. Refers to the Father as the Lover; the Son as the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit as the Love between the Father and the Son. But that being said, all Three are Love, Beloved and Love. Why? Because the Son loves the Father thus the Son is the Lover and the Father the Beloved. The Father loves the Holy Spirit. Thus the Father is the Lover, Spirit the Beloved and the Son the Love. This can be done in every combination of the Three.

Remember God is Love. Love is His essence. It is Who he is and why He deserves to be worshipped and loved by us. Everything that was done and revealed in the New Covenent has its root cause in that God is Love.
 
jean8 said:
aaron,
why do you think you must understand the Trinity.? The Trinity is a mystery, which know one really understands fully.
God has chosen to reveal himself as a Trinity, one example can be found in Mt.3:16 When Jesus was baptized. Please read this. All three persons of the Trinity were present.
We walk by faith. “If God has to prove himself to us he would be an idol.”
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, so one can boast.” Eph.2:8

God bless,
jean8
Click to expand...
There is nothing wrong with meditating on the mystery of the Trinity. That is what God wants us to do. We should always meditate and contemplate our God and Savior. Why, for the same reason why us humans always want to know more about the ones that we love so that we can love them more. The more you know about the God that you worship, then the more that you will understand why he wants us to live the life of his Son. Yes you are correct a creature cannot understand the concept of the Trinity as a whole, but we can understand something about our God and can learn more by meditating upon Who and What He is.
 
ERose said:
Aaron,

The best way to look at the Blessed Trinity is that when you start asking questions about what God is then there is One. When you ask questions about who God is then there are Three.

One question that should be asked is why are there more than one person who is God? It comes from the great revelation of the New Covenent which is God is Love. God is not just a loving God, He is Love or the old english use of Charity or Greek Agape. I believe that this simple statement is the foundation of the entire revelation of the New Covenent.

What does this mean concerning the Trinity? Evaluate the argument below:

P1) God is Love (Charity or Agape) as per the Scriptures. Christian belief in “Perfect Love”, which God can only be, is that giving yourself completely to another. “No greater love that a man has than to give his life for a friend”.
P2) God is a necessary Being. This means that God has no external needs for Him to exist.
P3) If God is Love then He must Love another for it to be perfect love.
C1) Whatever is required for P3 must be only within the Godhead. If not then God needs something outside Himself, which means that He is not a necessary being and thus is not God.
C2) Thus God is a multi-person Being.

Without a doubt the Christian God is three persons. Why three persons? What is required for Love to occur? You need three things for love to occur: 1) Lover, 2) Something to be loved or Beloved, & 3) The Love itself. Thus three. St. Augustine in his work “On the Trinity”. Refers to the Father as the Lover; the Son as the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit as the Love between the Father and the Son. But that being said, all Three are Love, Beloved and Love. Why? Because the Son loves the Father thus the Son is the Lover and the Father the Beloved. The Father loves the Holy Spirit. Thus the Father is the Lover, Spirit the Beloved and the Son the Love. This can be done in every combination of the Three.

Remember God is Love. Love is His essence. It is Who he is and why He deserves to be worshipped and loved by us. Everything that was done and revealed in the New Covenent has its root cause in that God is Love.
Click to expand...
ERose, thank you for reminding us of the beautiful words by read St. Augustine’s On The Trinity. For me, it doesn’t get any better than this. It is so moving to realize this Love (the Beloved of the Father) became a human being. And as the Beloved He surrenders Himself completely on the cross to the Father. This act of love of Christ surrendering Himself back to the Father on the cross is also one of Lover and Beloved. In the union of these Persons (Father and Son) as Lover and Beloved both one to another is 3rd Person who is Love (the Holy Spirit).

This is exactly what Christian Marriage is meant to imitate and image through His grace (love) and why it is so beautiful. Christian marriage is a God’s self portrait 🙂
 
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