In the mystery of the Unity and Trinity of God we believe that... . By Fr. Z.

2017 post by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

[RCM LINK]

formatted by Gilbert 2025

A brilliant composition by Father Zuhlsdorf as we approach the august mystery of the Holy Trinity held in the Ordinariate as Trinitytide (Ordinary Time) following Whitsuntide (the season of Pentecost).

+ + +

In the mystery of the Unity and Trinity of God we believe that,

1. from all eternity and before material creation and even outside of time itself, the One God who desired a perfect communion of love expressed Himself in a perfect Word, containing all that He is. 
2. The Word God uttered was and is a perfect self-expression, also perfectly possessing what the Speaker possesses: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood.
3. So, from all eternity there were always two divine Persons, the God who spoke and the Word who was spoken, the God who Generates and the God who is Generated, true God with and from true God, Begetter and Begotten, Father and Son.
4. There was never a time when this was not so.
5. These two Persons eternally regard and contemplate each other.
6. From all eternity they knew and loved each other, each offering the other a perfect gift of self-giving.
7. Since the self-gift of these perfect and divine Persons, distinct but sharing one divine nature, can be nothing other than a perfect self-gift, perfectly given and perfectly received, the very Gift between them also contains all that each of the Persons have: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood.
8. Therefore, from all eternity there exist three distinct divine Persons having one indivisible divine nature, Father, Son and the perfect self-gift of love between them, the Holy Spirit.

This is a foundational, saving doctrine we believe in as Christians. At the core of everything else we believe in and hope for, we will find this mysterious doctrine of divine relationship, the Triune God.

1. By baptism we images of God are brought into a new relationship with this Triune God.
2. We become the adoptive children of the heavenly Father, members of the Son our Lord Jesus Christ in the Mystical Person of the Holy Church which He founded.
3. The Holy Spirit makes of us His dwelling so that all the divine Persons are present to us and in us, informing all that we are, do and say.
4. Our membership in the Church opens the way to an eternal relationship of glory and praise with the Trinity.
5. The promise and token of this eternal reward is how we, as members of a Church of believers professing a common Faith, can take into our bodies, and thus into our souls, the already transformed Body and Blood of the Second Person, the one who unites in His divine Person both the eternity divinity of God and the finite two-fold nature of man.
6. For this to have taken place, and to make it possible for us to “return back” to the Father, the Second Person “went forth” from the Father in a new way, this time in the context of time and space.
7. In taking us up in our human nature, He made an act of self-emptying.
8. In filling us with divine gifts in Holy Communion, Christ renews (not re-sacrifices) His Sacrifice, His giving forth and His taking back up again.