Trinity:

The Christian’s Attempt to Fathom God

JUNE 3, 2007: HOLY TRINITY

Proverbs 8:22-31     Romans 5:1-5    John 16:12-15

To the church in the diaspora[1]

& to the church of the unchurched[2]

Introduction

Trinity at the end

The Nation has a liturgical cycle which begins with Memorial Day summoning us to the joys of summer. It explodes and peaks into the Fourth of July. It starts to wane with the falling leaves of Labor Day and is finally put to sleep with Thanksgiving Day in gratitude for the blessings of the harvest. The Church, too, has its liturgical cycle. It begins with the Father sending the Son in the Advent-Christmas season. It continues with the Son returning to the Father in the Easter-Ascension season. The cycle peaks with the Father and the Son sending the Holy Spirit on the feast of Pentecost (last Sunday). The theological feast of Trinity (of Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is well positioned here at the end of the cycle.

Mystery vs. theology

On the one hand, God is mystery; God is more than the human mind can fathom. On the other hand, theology is an attempt of the human mind to fathom God. So there is Jewish theology: the Jews’ attempt to fathom God. There is also Islamic theology: the Muslims’ attempt to fathom God. God as a trinity of persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is the Christians’ attempt to know God.

There’s always a tension between mystery and theology. On the one hand, mystery says God cannot be fathomed. On the other hand, theology says that might be true, but I’m going to try anyway. In the thirteenth century St. Thomas Aquinas (the Catholic Church’s most renowned theologian) wrote volume after volume of theology. But at the sunset of his life, it is said that he looked upon his pretentious Summa Theologica and exclaimed (of course in Latin) “Nihil est!" “It is nothing!” The Protestant theologian Karl Barth spoke of God as totaliter aliter, i.e., as totally other than what we think, say or write about God. Nevertheless, he wrote voluminously about the ineffable God, and he, too, at the sunset of his life made sport of his pretentious volumes, saying, "The angels are laughing at old Karl Barth."

Trinitarian theology

In his first letter St. John writes, “God is love, and who abides in love, abides in God and God in him” (I Jn 4:16). That’s Christianity’s most prized and unique profession: God is love. Our most prized and unique profession is not that God is merciful or just or forgiving; it is that God is love.

But for loving you need more than one person. In God there are three: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and these three are always in loving communion with each other. The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. And from this love proceeds the Holy Spirit of love. Christian Theology calls that the inward life of God. But this God, who did not need anyone outside Himself in order to be loving someone, did, in fact, go outward and downward toward us, His creatures. In the fullness of time God sent us His Son and the Holy Spirit. Christian theology calls that the outward life of God. That’s Trinitarian theology in a miraculously abbreviated nutshell! In the early fifth century, St. Augustine had infinitely more than that to say on the subject; he wrote nothing less than 15 books on the Trinity!

A war over the Trinity

In the eleventh century, theologians and their constituencies fought a theological war over the Trinity. They engaged in a fierce dispute about whether the Holy Spirit proceeds equally immediately from the Father and the Son (according to the Western Church), or whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son (according to the Eastern Church)? (Imagine staying awake all night over something like that!) The Latin text of the Nicene Creed which we recite at Mass originally stated that the “Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father” (Period!). In the eleventh century the Western Church (that’s us) added that the”Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.” (That little addition “and the Son” in Latin is filioque.).

When the Western Church declared that the Holy Spirit proceeded equally immediately from the Father and the Son and not from the Father through the Son, that broke the camel’s back. In 1054 it resulted in a definitive break which tore the seamless robe of Christ into two pieces: the Western Church (Rome) and the Eastern Orthodox Church. To this very day the two are not in communion with each other. Imagine! Going to war over the Trinity--that family of Father, Son and Holy Spirit who are always in loving communion with each other!

In his first letter John also writes, “The one who loves is a child of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (I Jn 4:7-8). Who is the one who knows God? Is it the one who professes that the Holy Spirit proceeds equally immediately from the Father and the Son? Or is it the one who professes that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son?” It is neither! The one who knows God is the one who loves.

A theologian who doesn’t know God

One day a man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and was waylaid by robbers who beat him to a pulp and left him half-dead. Along came a Jewish priest who had a doctorate in theology from the University of Jerusalem. He was hurrying to deliver a paper at the Theological Seminary in Jericho. With a ton of theology in his head but not an ounce of love and compassion in his heart he glanced at the poor man lying there and passed him by. Then along came a Samaritan who (in Jewish eyes) didn’t know the one true God. He was an infidel and heretic because he worshipped God on Mt. Gerizim instead of in the temple in Jerusalem (Jn 4:20). What’s more, back in Jerusalem this Samaritan had a reputation for being a rounder. But he also was known for having a very generous and kind heart. When he came upon the poor man dying by the wayside, he slammed on the breaks of his busyness and stopped to pour the oil of compassion into the poor man’s wounds. Then he hoisted him unto his beast of burden and hurried him off to the nearest inn where he provided for his care and cure.

Now which of the two knew God? Certainly not the Jewish priest who had a ton of theology in his head but not an ounce of love in his heart, for Scripture says, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (I Jn 4:8). It was the Samaritan (rounder though he might be) who knew God, for Scripture says, “The one who loves is a child of God and knows God” (I Jn 4:7).

A preacher who doesn’t know God

When Pope John Paul made a pilgrimage to England, the Rev. Paisley of Ireland, a staunch son of the Reformation, filled with a religiously generated hate, stalked the pope relentlessly every inch of his pilgrimage, throwing sticks and stones at John Paul. As an orthodox believer Paisley staunchly professed the Nicene Creed which confesses that the Holy Spirit proceeds equally immediately from the Father and the Son (filioque). But the poor reverend didn’t know God, for “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (I Jn 4:8).

Matt Shepard was a gay student from the University of Wyoming who was beaten to a pulp by two skinheads and was tied to a wooden fence out in the country where he died soaked in his blood and tears. At the Matt’s funeral the Rev. Mr. Phelps, also filled with a religiously generated hate, demonstrated with a sign that read, “God hates fags and buries them in hell (Rom. 3:13)” The Rev. Phelps quotes the Bible and even recites the Nicene Creed which confesses that the Holy Spirit proceeds equally immediately from the Father and the Son (filioque). But the poor reverend doesn’t know God, for “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (I Jn 4:8).

An Islamist who doesn’t know God

Usama bin Laden religiously recites his Shahada daily. That’s a Muslim’s simple, personal, ardent, one-line profession of faith that only Allah is God, and Muhammad is his Messenger. The Shahada is a Muslim’s Nicene Creed. On 9/11, inflamed by an apocalyptic hatred, bin Laden sent two 747s crashing into the World Trade Center bringing down two towers and three thousand innocent human beings with one fell swoop. This fiercely religious Islamist doesn’t know God, for the one who not only does not love, but, what is worse, hates with a hatred so fierce as to take ecstatic delight in the apocalyptic destruction of 9/11, can’t possibly know God, for God is love” (I Jn 4:8).

A Unitarian who knows God

A couple Sundays ago we recounted the funeral Mass for Sr. Barbara Kutchera. The homilist, Rev. Linda Hansen, was born and raised a Catholic, but years ago she left the Church and became an ordained Unitarian minister. As a Unitarian she does not espouse the Trinity; she doesn’t place it up there on the top of her list of truths to be firmly believed or even, for that matter, to be soundly rejected. And then there was Sr. Barbara, a good Roman Catholic and a Trinitarian, who did espouse a Trinity of Persons in God. Despite their differing theologies, they had a long, loving relationship. Now which of the two knew God? They both knew God. Rev. Linda knew God not because she was a Unitarian, and Sr. Barbara knew God not because she was a Trinitarian. They both knew God, because they both were loving people, for “the one who loves is a child of God and knows God” (I Jn 4:7).

A Jew who knows God

In 1995 Jewish CEO Aaron Fuerenstein’s fabric mill burned down a few days before Christmas in Methuen, Mass. He didn’t take the insurance money and run. Instead, he held on to all his 2000 employees (the majority of them Christians), gave them all a Christmas bonus and kept paying their health insurance and weekly salaries until the mill was rebuilt. This modern-day saint who is still in the Old Testament, quoting his prophet Micah who calls him "to act justly, with loving kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God" (Mica 6:8) never ever heard about the procession of the Holy Spirit equally immediately from the Father and the Son. But he does, indeed, know God, for “the one who loves is a child of God and knows God” (I Jn 4:7).

A dad who knows God

Nic, a beloved friend of ours, died on May 9, 2007, after a long period of home hospice care. His daughter eulogized him at the funeral saying, “Dad, when you expressed doubts about your goodness, I assured you that you were good, and that God would take you with open arms. You shared with me your remorse over your drinking. Dad, you made it up to all of us, and more than enough, and that has made a huge difference in all our lives. I shared your experience with many detox patients who suffered remorse about their families. You helped others without even knowing it. That is your style, Dad: to make a BIG impact but to do it quietly!”

Toward the end of his long home hospice care, Nic wanted to read the whole New Testament. I found the large size edition of Good News for Modern Man with very large print for him. A daughter brought the book to the wake to show me how far he had gotten. She opened it to the beginning of the last book of the New Testament—Revelation. On the margin was written the date “May 2, 2007.” He got that far! He never made it into Revelation. He didn’t have to. Revelation promises that there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which God would wipe every tear from his eyes and in which there will be no more crying out in pain for him and no more dying. That promise was about to be revealed to him personally (Rev. 21: 2-4).

Nic had no suspicion whatsoever that the Holy Spirit proceeds equally immediately from the Father and the Son, but he did, indeed, know God, for the one who loves knows God.

Be at peace

This isn’t a crusade against theology or dogmas or creeds or catechisms or even church affiliation. That would certainly put us on the hit list of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. These all have their value. This, rather, is a different kind of crusade. In the creed at Mass today we recite, “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only son of God, eternally begotten of the Father…of one substance with the Father.” We also recite, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds [equally immediately] from the Father and the Son.” As we recite the words we probably feel we don’t know what they mean. We wonder whether the people in the pew beside us know what the words mean. Be at peace. Neither does that whole tribe of good people like the Good Samaritan and Rev. Linda and Sr. Barbara and Aaron and Nick know what that equally immediate procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son really means. But they all do, indeed, know God, for those who love know God. And so do we know God, as we try to walk in their footsteps.

What’s more, when someone we love very much (like a son or daughter) has gone Buddhist or Muslim or Jewish or Unitarian on us, or no longer goes to church, or longer professes to believe, be at peace, if they are loving human beings. For it is not the good theologian or the good churchgoer but the Good Samaritan who is a child of God and knows God.

Conclusion

Our attempt: good stuff

At the end of the day, our theology of Trinity (our Christian attempt to fathom God) is rather good stuff. Scripture says it is not good for man to be alone. Our theology of Trinity says it’s also not good for God to be alone. Trinity says God isn’t alone: God is a family of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and these three are always in loving communion with each other. And this loving communion could have stayed within God, but it didn’t. In the fullness of time it burst outward and downward toward us, when God sent His Son to us at Christmas and His Holy Spirit to us at Pentecost in order to create in us a tribe (a church) of loving people like the Good Samaritan, Rev. Linda, Sr. Barbara, CEO Aaron and good dad Nic.

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[1] Diaspora is a Greek word meaning dispersion. Originally it referred to the settling of scattered colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile. It’s now come to mean the migration or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland or parish!

[2] By “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!