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| A SYMBOL OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. Image via google.com |
"Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations;
baptize them in the NAME
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
"Christians are baptized in the NAME
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
not in their NAMES,
for there is only God,
the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit,
the Most Holy Trinity."
- CCC 233
The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life and the whole of salvation history is the story of how God revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit [234].
Though God has been revered by many religions as Father for being the Creator and father of gods and man, it was only the Son who has revealed Him as the eternal "Father" in relation to His being the eternal Son, God's Word [John 1:1], Image [Colossians 1:15], and Radiance of His glory and the very stamp of His nature [Hebrews 1:3] [238-242]. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth [John 14:17], in turn reveals both the Father and the Son more fully for it is He who has spoken through the prophets before and now remains with the Church to be her Advocate [John 14:16], Teacher and Guide [John 14:26] [243-248].
This important article of Faith has been revealed to, believed, and clarified by the Church since the early days of Christianity both to deepen her own understanding of the faith and defend it against the errors that were deforming it [249-252]. Hence at Nicaea, the First Ecumenical Council that took place in 325, the Church affirmed the Faith that the Son is consubstantial, that is one in substance, essence or nature, with the Father and at the Second Ecumenical Council, the first of those held at Constantinople, in 381 reaffirmed this in the formulation of the Nicene Creed by stating that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten by the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father [242]. It was also at Constantinople in 381 that the Holy Spirit's consubstantiality with the Father and the Son has been clarified and affirmed through the words We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father ... with the Father and the Son, he is worshiped and glorified [245]. The Roman Catholic Church has inserted the term filioque, which means, and the Son, into the the formulation though it was not affirmed at Constantinople in 381 for as the Council of Florence explained in 1438,
The Holy Spirit is eternally from Father and Son: He has his nature and subsistence at once [simul] from the Father and the Son. He proceeds eternally from both principle and through one spiration ... And since the Father has through generation given to the only-begotten Son everything that belongs to the Father, except being Father, the Son has also eternally from the Father, from whom He is eternally born, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son [246].
The Gospel records the Lord Jesus Christ giving the Holy Spirit by breathing upon the Apostles and disciples [John 20:22]. During the Last Supper, He tells His Apostles, that He will ask the Father to send to them an Advocate, the Holy Spirit [John 14:16] and then later, He says, that it was for the good of the Apostles that He should go because if He does not go, the Holy Spirit will not come and assures them that if I go, I will send Him to you [John 16:7]. Therefore the filioque also has Biblical bases: the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. Isn't the Father in the Son and the Son also in the Father? [John 14: 10-11].
Now how about the NAME? The singular usage surely have a very important meaning and message. The Lord Jesus Christ did not tell His apostles to baptize in the NAMES of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, but just in the NAME. It is our faith that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are three distinct Persons, but the use of a singular identification for all of them, which is the NAME, signifies that they have something in common which make them not only equal with one another but also truly one with one another, and that is being the Only One God. Take note that the Lord did not say, in the NAME of GOD but clearly identified three Persons bearing the same ONE NAME, that is, One Identity, that of being God. The Apostles knew and understood very well the importance of the Name of God and if they didn't believe and understood the Lord, they would have shivered in hearing such a serious blasphemy. Remember how the Apostles remained believers of the Lord even if others left Him because of the Bread of Life issue? [John 6]. The Apostles have been prepared by the Lord Jesus to hear this declaration, of baptizing others in the NAME of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and they no longer have doubts about the truth of it. The Trinitarian formula has been introduced by the Lord to the Apostles already but deemed it proper for the Holy Spirit to fully reveal it for He says that they would not be able to bear everything [John 16:12] but that the Holy Spirit will lead them to all truth [John 16:13].
Hence since the very beginning, the Church already believed in the Most Holy Trinity and the formulations of the Creed came after just to affirm this Faith so that the Church would be freed from heresies, that is, false teachings. The belief in One God and Three Divine Persons have been a basic article of faith since the beginning: that there are no three Gods but just one but Three Divine Persons truly distinct from one another in relation of origin and it is such relations that they are distinct but by nature one and the same [253-255]. St Gregory of Nazianzus tells his catechumens before baptism this truth,
Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that casts down ... the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person consistent in himself as entirely God ... the three considered together ... I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendor. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me ... [256]
God is One. The Persons are Three. There is also one Divine Plan but three Missions. This divine plan has been decreed by the Father before the creation in his Son and stems directly from Trinitarian love which unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church. All things come from the Father, through the Son and are in the Holy Spirit. Though there is but only one and the same divine operation, the role of each Person is shown through each one's unique personal property and the whole Christian life is a communion with each of the divine persons without in any way separating them. It is through the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that the Trinity's distinct properties are shown. The ultimate end of creation is the creatures' taking part in this divine unity for as the Lord said if one loves Him, he will keep His word and the Father will love him and He and the Father will come to him and make their dwelling in him [John 14:23] [257-260].
In summary, the central mystery of Christian faith and life is the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity which God alone revealed to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Incarnation of the Son reveals the eternal Fatherhood of God and the Son's being one with the Father in divinity. The Holy Spirit's mission reveals His oneness with the Father, who sends Him, and the Son, in whose name He is has been sent, and that it is from both the Father, as the first principle, and the Son, by eternal gift, that He proceeds by spiration. By virtue of Baptism, we, Christians, are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth and in the world to come [261-265].
As stated by St Athanasius,
Now this is the Catholic faith. We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without 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 [266].
The Catechism on the Trinity closes with these words,
Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit [267].
This is what we, Catholic Christians, believe, and as what the Bishops at the Council of Nicaea decreed against those who do not adhere to this, let them be anathema.
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