Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: Trinity Sunday. How do we know that God is three Persons in ONE God?
1) The Gospel today is so clear from Matthew 28: 16-20 as Jesus says: "Go make disciples of all nations in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." The dogma of the Holy Trinity is thus perfectly iterated by Jesus. This Dogma: There is ONE GOD in THREE DIVINE PERSONS!
is made perfectly clear by Jesus in that He says that these Divine Persons are equal not subodinate to one another but equally God.
2) Jesus says "in the Name of.." He does NOT say in the "Names of" because if He said Names in the plural, then there would be three Gods. The Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Spirit is God; but there are not three Gods. Jesus shows this ONENESS of God by making the "Name of" God to be singular!
3) The Church has always taught this dogma and is iterated in the Apostles' and Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. We say often the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds; but let me just quote from the Athanasian Creed of the 4th Century: "We distinquish Persons but do not divide substances....all are etenal in Majesty. The Father is Lord; the Son is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord. But there are not three Lords. The Father is etenal; the Son is eternal; the Holy Spirit is eternal." [In this we can clearly see that the Jehovah Witnesses' dogma in changing John's Gospel 1:1 to read: "The Word was a god" which is such a heresy - a resurrecting the Arian heresy. Also the Greek translation of this Gospel has the word "THE Word" as by Greek grammar meant to modify the object of the sentence as "God." There is no Greek article "a" and there cannot be lowering the word "God" to "a god". This robs God the Son of His Divinty! This denies the Holy Scripture by changing it. Likewise the Church of the Latter Day Saints also lowers Jesus making Him to be a creature and thus does not accept Jesus as God. There is no Trinitarian formula in the Jehovah Witnesses and Moman's creeds (Mormans identify Jesus with the angel Michael; but Michael is NOT eternal but is a creature of God). Therefore both of their baptisms are invalid because no one is baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" -- as Jesus told us to do in Matthew 28: 16-20. Both of these churches are "cults" and are NOT "Christian" because Jesus is not divine in the creeds of these churches. Also both of these churches/cults CHANGE Holy Scripture. Both of these churches ADD to Holy Scripture: the Jehovah Witnesses add the article "a" and lower the case of "God" to "a god"; and the Mormans ADD the book of Morman: both of these additions are NOT Holy Scripture nor are Divinely Inspired. The Holy Spirit -- regulated by the Jehovah Witnesses to a "force" not a Person -- cannot contradict HIMSELF by these heritical doctrines that change /add to Sacred Scripture. Additionally, the high prophet of the Morman Church made the following supposedly word from God as God saying through the high prophet: "As you are (man) so I was; and as I am so you shall become." This theological impossibility pronounces as coming directly from God's mouth that God the Father was once a "man" and that the prophet shall become "God". The divination of humans is part of the Morman church teaching. When I asked a Morman minister under what basis did the Morman church come to hold this doctrine of man's becoming God, his answer was thus: "I the Scripture is says: 'Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect!'." My kind reply was thus: "When Holy Scripture says, 'Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect', it does NOT say: "Be ye Divine as your Heavenly Father is Divine!'" Thus it is a totally theological and philosophical IMPOSSIBILITY for a man to become God and the Morman prophet who says that God was once a man actually intrinsically denies the Divinity of God the Father because God's Being as Divinely Eternal -- as eternally God -- is thus denied! If God's eternalness is denied, HE is denied to be God.]
4) The Catholic Church - in its 2000 year history - has never broken away from itself. It has preserved Holy Scripture without adding or subtracting from Holy Scripture. The Catholic Church has ALWAYS taughta and believed what John as written: " In the beginning was the Word. Word was with God; and the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelled amongs us.." This etenalness of the Word -- as God -- is thus consistent with Jesus words, Himself, when He said: "Before Abraham came to be I AM!" Additionally when Jesus was being Baptized by John the Baptist, the Holy Trinity was manifested: Jesus, the Word of God made flesh was present. The Holy Spirit was manifested as a Dove and the Father's voice like thunder said: "This is My beloved Son whom I am well pleaased..listen to Him!"
5) Here is an anology from Nature that may help us: In lightning there are three modes of being: light, heat and power. These modes of being are simultaneous. There are three modes of being that are perfectly united, perfectly simultaneous, perfectly one.
6) How is this Divinely revealed Dogma of the Most Holy Trinity RELAVANT to your life and mine no matter what our vocation is: married, single, religious, priest or lay apostolate? Here is how:
a) In the Holy Spirit there is Divine giving of the Divine Persons to one another. The Father loves the Son and gives Himself in Love totally to the Son. The Son loves the Father and gives Himself in Love totally to the Father. The LOVE between the Father IS the Holy Spirit Who thus is the Mutual Gift of Love between the Father and the Son. The Love of the Father for the Son and the Love of the Son for the Father is an INFINITE LOVE...an INIFNITELY ETERNAL PERSONAL LOVE..AND IS A PERSON: THE THIRD PERSON OF THE HOLY TRINITY.
b) When a married couple give themselves to one another in daily mutual devotion that is Permanent, Exclusive and Faithful are thus imitating the Holy Trinity's eternal Love that is Permanent, Exclusive and Faithful. When they are sexually and intimately ONE, they are truly manifesting the image and likeness of God in God's Trinitarian life: Three in ONE: thus in the Trinity there is the Lover, the Beloved and the Love: so too in Marriage, there is the Lover, the Beloved and the love between them...and often this love between them is actually a third person: a child. Just as the Trinity's inner Divine life of Self giving goes out toward others: "Bonum est diffisivum Sui", so, too, the married couple does serve the Community. Thus Family Love and Community Love are Images of the Divine Love of the Trinity that goes out of ONESELF and LOVES others INTO BEING: Creates countless angels and saints: creates you and me...and loves you and me. Thus Jesus says: "As the Father loves me, so I love you. ..Love one another as I have loved you!"
c) Religious -- brothers, nuns, and priest -- are also imitating the Holy Trinity by manifesting a great love for God Eucharistically and in the Community: thus devoting themselves to Christ personally in Holy Communion and IN the people of God whom they serve. Mother Teresa of Calcutta is the perfect example of manifesting the image of the Holy Trinity's Love for others.
d) Lay apostles - married or single - also devote themselves to Christ personally and Eucharistically when they serve Christ both in Sacrament and in apostolic service and ministry to others in their Community.
e) In reflection of the Most Holy Trinity, any time we manifest an outgoing love away from our own self interest toward another in need by means of our charity would be in imitation of the Most Holy Trinity in our lives. This would serve to bring about the Kingdom of God.
f) ABORTION - which happens 4,000 times every day in the US -- is the very OPPOSITE of a reflection of the Most Holy Trinity. Why? Because the Trinitarian Community Life within the Trinity is LIFE-GIVING, LOVE-GIVING, AND JOY-GIVING. Abortion gives unspeakable pain and dismemberment to a living human being. Killing of a member of our family is totally opposite of the Family Love of God within the Most Holy Trinity.
In conclusion, WE ALL - in our LIFE-GIVING LOVE manifest and REFLECT the INNER TRINITARIAN LIFE in our married love, our religious love, our community love. We all imitate the inner Love of the Holy Trinity. Thus, this dogma is ESSENTIAL TO OUR VERY BEING.
God's plan is so clear: after a life of self giving, we will be prepared to come into heaven where our Love will be etenally fulfilled as we enter spiritually more and more in a sharing of the INNER JOY of the Holy Trinity's Bliss! And we will GROW ever more and more in this Joy. "Enthusiams" is a Greek word that mean to "be caught up into God". We can see why saints like Mother Teresa and Blessed John Paul were so ENTHUSIATIC here on earth..and are being fulfilled in their enthusiams eternally!
Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of the faithful and renew the face of the earth!
Love and peace and joy,
Pio Peter Zammit
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