Marriage and the Trinity

[Binary]

In the Trinity, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the mutual love of the Father and the Son.

Is marriage an icon of that, inasmuch as new life is created by the love of the husband and wife?

 

[AlexPetrosPio]

Interesting view, I’ve always heard that a marriage is an icon of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, between Christ and His Church, at the end of the Book of Revelations, poetically described in the Song of Songs. Obviously that icon can’t show the creation of a new baby like yours does. The problem with yours is that it may show that the Holy Spirit is a creation of the Father and the Son, and not co-eternal from the beginning. Isn’t love and the Trinity such an awesome Mystery? Nothing on Earth can ever truly give us an accurate picture of the Trinity. I’ll meditate over your icon and see what I think.

 

[Binary]

Another thought I had, and again this is just speculative, so I hope nobody will jump on me if I’m wrong: In marriage, two persons become one, but still love each other intensely. Is this at all like the Father/Son part of the Godhead?

I’m not trying to force marital love into being an icon of something it’s not, these are just parallels I’m observing and wondering if they’re indicative of something more.

 

[AlexPetrosPio]

I’m not trying to force marital love into being an icon of something it’s not, these are just parallels I’m observing and wondering if they’re indicative of something more.

Oh no, these parallels are present as they are meant to be. It is why marriage is a sacrament and not just a piece of paper as the secularists claim. With the two become one an icon of the love of the Father and the Son is a wonderful speculation. I would love to see this worked out to its logical conclusion (and then checked back with the Church and the great Theologians, East and West of course .)

 

[tonyrey]

Since we are made in the image and likeness of God our capacity for creativity must have a divine origin. The fact that God is not one Person existing in splendid isolation is reflected in the father, mother and child because they too are united and perfected by love…

 

[JimG]

In the Trinity, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the mutual love of the Father and the Son.

Is marriage an icon of that, inasmuch as new life is created by the love of the husband and wife?

I knew a nun who uses precisely that analogy in her adult education lectures about the Trinity.

Her presentation on the Trinity pretty much follows that of F.J. Sheed in “Theology for Beginners.”

She begins with the one nature of God, and the Person of the Father.

What does God know? First, he knows himself. One might imagine the Father forming an idea of himself. Because God is perfect and infinite, there is nothing in the Father’s idea of himself that is not present in the original—not even personhood. The Father knows himself perfectly, thereby eternally generating (not creating), the divine Word, the Son. God’s self knowledge is perfectly expressed in the Person of the Son.

The mutual love between the Father and Son is also perfect and infinite—so perfect that it is also a Person—the Holy Spirit.

Thus God’s eternal knowledge and love are eternally expressed in the three divine Persons.

The nun who taught this class then went on to draw the marital analogy: The love of a husband and wife, when perfected in the marital act, may be so fruitful that in nine months we will have to give it a name. Love generates persons, thereby imitating the divine life of the Trinity.

 

[Binary]

That is so beautiful, Jim. Thank you.

 

[JimG]

That is so beautiful, Jim. Thank you.

Thanks; my summary doesn’t do it justice, of course. She took about an hour to lay out this presentation on the Trinity in a pretty clear manner.

And in her regular life, she taught elementary school children! Of course, they didn’t get the full Trinitarian lecture. Someone asked her once which age groups she most enjoyed teaching. She said that she enjoyed teaching children, but she also enjoyed teaching adults, because it was easier to get them to settle down.

 

[Binary]

Thanks; my summary doesn’t do it justice, of course. She took about an hour to lay out this presentation on the Trinity in a pretty clear manner.

And in her regular life, she taught elementary school children! Of course, they didn’t get the full Trinitarian lecture. Someone asked her once which age groups she most enjoyed teaching. She said that she enjoyed teaching children, but she also enjoyed teaching adults, because it was easier to get them to settle down.

Ha!