What does "person" mean?

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The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons,
the “consubstantial Trinity”

What does person mean in Holy Trinity?
 
My catechism (not on hand, sadly) says that “person” doesn’t have the same meaning in reference to the Holy Trinity as it does when referring to you or me. It’s a term that helps distinguish the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I’ll look it up at home and check in later.

Here is a link to the Baltimore Catechism’s teaching on the Holy Trinity: ourladyswarriors.org/faith/bc3-03.htm
 
The word “person” in the Trinity context is in fact used differently from its regular use.

In the social context, “person” means individual or union which can be uniquely identified and has particular rights and responsibilities.

In the trinitarian context it rather means a mode or a role of the same individual. Like saying that a man is a father, a son and a husband at the same time. Not really explain much.

Alternatively, many human interpreters tend to think of Trinity as of union/cluster of three persons.

One important think to understand about God is that we cannot understand His nature. Apostles never dared enter into such definitions. The Nicaean thinkers coined the term most likely because of the fear of Gnosticism and not because of the fear of God.
 
Shlomo said:
In the trinitarian context it rather means a mode or a role of the same individual. Like saying that a man is a father, a son and a husband at the same time.
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This idea of the Trinity is a heresy condemned by the Church. It is called ‘modalism’ or ‘Sabellianism’. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not simply modes of God; they are three, distinct persons in God himself.
 
To the OP, excellent topic for a thread!!!

I do not like some of the responses on this thread. In particular, the following sounds dangerously close to the heresy of Modalism.
Shlomo said:
In the trinitarian context it rather means a mode or a role of the same individual. Like saying that a man is a father, a son and a husband at the same time. Not really explain much.

Alternatively, many human interpreters tend to think of Trinity as of union/cluster of three persons.
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The term “person” in the Holy Tritinity is much closer to how we think of the common use of the word than being represented by this response and the one by Rich C.

A good definition might be the following: An individual substance of a rational and complete nature.

This is definition is my attempt an simplifying Aquinas’s definition in the following newadvent.org/summa/4016.htm#article12 , which is embedded in the last two replies.
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javid said:
The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons,
the “consubstantial Trinity”

What does person mean in Holy Trinity?
Click to expand...
I agree with your first paragraph; well put in my opinion.

As for your question - for me - understanding the meaning in the strict sense is part of the mystery. And therefore I answer you thus - it’s a mystery.
 
javid said:
The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons,
the “consubstantial Trinity”

What does person mean in Holy Trinity?
Click to expand...
From Father John Hardon’s Catholic Dictionary:

“PERSON. “An individual substance of a rational nature” (Boethius). Therefore every individual intellectual substance which is complete in itself, uncommunicable and existing for itself, is a person. Essential to person in theological terms are intelligence and substantiality, wholeness in oneself and especially individuality. From individuality flow such features of personhood as distinctiveness, incommunicability, and uniqueness. Among human persons there are also the elements of responsibility and possession of distinctive rights. (Etym. Latin persona, actor’s mask; character; supposition of a rational nature.)”

From the Catechism:

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.”

266 “Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son’s is another, the Holy Spirit’s another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal” (Athanasian Creed: DS 75; ND 16).

689 The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, the Spirit of his Son, is truly God. Consubstantial with the Father and the Son, the Spirit is inseparable from them, in both the inner life of the Trinity and his gift of love for the world. In adoring the Holy Trinity, life-giving, consubstantial, and indivisible, the Church’s faith also professes the distinction of persons. When the Father sends his Word, he always sends his Breath. In their joint mission, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen, the visible image of the invisible God, but it is the Spirit who reveals him.

1812 The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which adapt man’s faculties for participation in the divine nature: for the theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object.

IF IT STILL SEEMS UNCLEAR IT IS BECAUSE THIS IS THE MYSTERY OF ALL MYSTERIES; THEREFORE THE VERY BASIS FOR “FAITH.”

Traditionally this is a common theological explaination:

Father = Creator
Christ = redeemer and Savior
Holy Spirit = Sactifier; teacher; protector

God Bless you, pat/PJM
 
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