Nature of Jesus and the Holy Trinity

[SammiLeeds]

I’m trying to get my head round the Trinity a bit - I get that I’ll never really understand it as it’s a mystery. But maybe you guys can help a bit?

So Jesus is fully human and fully divine, with the two natures never mixing or mingling. In which case, why does he “not regard equality with God as something to be grasped”? I have read that there is no heirachy within the Godhead…
Also, why does Jesus pray to God the Father if he is Divine himself?

The more I think about it, the more confusing it is.

 

[Wesrock]

Jesus had a human soul and will, and it natural and right for a man with these to pray. Also, as an example to us.

As for equality with God not being something to be grasped, it’s referring to Jesus choosing to live a humble, earthly life among us, having human needs, etc… And not manifesting all the glory due to him in the way he lived his earthly life.

 

[newconvertcatholic]

God is one but three persons. God is communion. He is not a dictator. Jesus is God. He is part of the communion we call Trinity. So he is an equal member of the Trinity but at the same time the relationship within the Trinity is not the same between all members.

Imagine a family. The Father, the daughter and the son are all equal but they are not all the same. It is correct to say the Father is greater than the son because the son exists because of the father.

Now, Jesus, who is fully divine because he is a full member of the divine communion called Trinity, for us, and in obedience to Father (who is not the same as the Son but God also), took up human flesh. And so he become fully human.

Over the centuries there were many heresies which said that Jesus isn’t fully human or that he isn’t fully God. That is why we say Jesus is fully human and fully God. He is not any less God because he became a human being and he is no less of a human being because he happens to be the Son of God. He is co-equal with the father.

Why does he pray to the father? Because the Trinity is a relationship which is nurtured through prayer. And because, the father is greater than I, not in substance but in differences of persons.

I will admit that the Trinity is mystery but there is one thing we can take away. God is not a dictator, he is a communion of persons. So that is why Jesus does the will of the father.

 

[SammiLeeds]

Thanks for your response, it’s been really helpful

I do struggle to get my head round the nature of the Holy Trinity, although I do accept it as true. If they are of the same essence but distinct persons, I can’t understand how they are one God. The idea of the Trinity being a relationship is something for me to think on.

Maybe there’s a lesson in there somewhere about me not being able to work everything out with logic lol

 

[Eric_Hyom]

You might read John17 - 20. We are called to be ‘One’, in the same way as the Father and Son.

20 “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.