Father, Son and Holy Spirit

The liturgical feast in honour of the Blessed Trinity is presented to us as an apt conclusion of the paschal season which begins with the first Sunday of Lent and goes all the way through Easter and Pentecost. The Church wishes thereby to tell us, as it were, that the Holy Trinity, itself the greatest of all mysteries, is the clue to our "understanding", if we may use this word, of all the other mysteries we are asked to hold as Christians.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three really distinct divine Persons, and yet one eternal and infinite God. Is this a contradiction in terms? Saying so is equivalent to a kind of escapism, which both betrays the weakness of our faith as Christians and our lack of effort in trying to accept what God is trying to teach us about himself as faithful members of his Church.

Before ascending into heaven, as we read in the Gospel, Jesus took leave from his disciples and, sending them officially to all parts of the world, commissioned them to teach all nations and to baptise them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. It is this faith that we give witness to whenever we bless ourselves and make the Sign of the Cross before beginning something important or after concluding it.

The Apostles' Creed, which we usually recite during Mass every Sunday, is actually a brief summary of what the early Christians believed regarding the Trinity. The opening article of the Creed is about the Father, the first Person of the Trinity. It only says that God is the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. A short statement, but one that, so to speak, contains in germ everything else that follows.

God as Father is the first person of the Trinity: He is not only the Father of the Son, born of him from all eternity, but our own 'father' as well, a word which underlines a relationship of love as regards each one of us: if He is truly our father, we are truly his children, because it is ultimately from him that we have received not our own being, but our life as well.

Going further down the Apostles' Creed, we confess our faith in Jesus Christ, who is the only Son of God, begotten of him from all eternity. In this part of the Creed we have a very brief summary of what we believe in regard to Jesus Christ: that he was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that he has the same human nature as each one of us, that he suffered and died for us, that he arose from the dead and will judge us after our own bodily death.

The third section of the Creed is about the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity: the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son and is worshipped no less than the Father and the Son. He is the giver of life, of the supernatural life which exists in each one of us.

The Creed is usually referred to as the symbol of our Christian faith. Although, as is clear from the above, only the most essential truths about the Trinity are contained in it, it contains in a nutshell the vital elements of our Christian faith and continues to offer to theologians and faithful alike the basis for their teachings and deeper speculations.

Ultimately, we do profess our faith in the Trinity not by reciting the Apostles' Creed, but by living as true children of our Father in heaven, by accepting wholeheartedly the teachings of Jesus Christ, and by allowing the Holy Spirit to inspire and sanctify us.