SEEKING THE MYSTERY:
THE AWESOME NATURE OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
Approaching Trinity Sunday always presents the opportunity for greater reflection on the Nature of Almighty God, and a prayerful engagement with the Mystery that is the Revelation of the Most Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I spent time this week re-reading some of the works of St. Gregory the Theologian (Nazianzus), 4th Century Archbishop of Constantinople, particularly the Theological Orations on the Holy Trinity.
St. Gregory tells us that “No one has yet discovered or ever shall discover what God is in his nature and essence.” True knowledge of God in his essence will only occur when our souls (and intellect) “mingles with its kin” and “the copy returns to the pattern it now longs after…that we shall, in time to come ‘know even as we are known.’” We receive knowledge of God Himself as “a scant emanation, as it were a small beam from a great light.”[1]
Since this mystery leaves us with many question which we cannot answer, we can relate to St. Gregory’s question as to whether we “Shall we stop our preaching here at matter and objects of sight?”
Yet, this great Doctor of the Church seems to call us forward by his next question: “Or, since Scripture recognizes the tabernacle of Moses as a symbol for the whole world (the world, I mean, of things ‘visible and invisible’) shall we pass through the first veil, transcending sense, to bend our gaze on holy things, on ideal and heaven transcending reality?”[2]
As we seek to enter in to this great Mystery, we follow the footsteps of the Saints, who have received the Light of Revelation and have given us the Faith of the Church. We follow “The Theologian” in the profession that:
We have one God because there is a single Godhead. Though there are three objects of belief, they derive from the single whole and have reference to it. They do not have degrees of being God or degrees of priority over against one another. They are not sundered in will or divided in power. You cannot find there any of the properties inherent in things divisible. To express it succinctly, the Godhead exists undivided in beings divided. It is as if there were a single intermingling of light, which existed in three mutually connected Suns.[3]
The Divine Word of God is the eternal Son, whom the Father was never without, and in his Incarnation he is the “image” [εἰκών = Icon] of the invisible Father (Col. 1:15), restoring humanity to the Divine image.[4] The Divine Spirit of God provides us with the Divine Life, allowing us to be partakers [kοινωνός = participation, fellowship] of the Divine Nature (2 Peter 2:4) through baptism: “From the Spirit comes our rebirth, from rebirth comes a new creating, from new creating.”[5]
Thus as we receive God through the Sacraments and as we seek Him through prayer, pushing past the veil to gaze on holy things, the revelation of the Holy Trinity “shines on us bit by bit.”[6] As we receive this light, we can agree with St. Gregory when he says: “Thus do I stand, thus may I stand, and those I love as well, on these issues, able to worship the Father as God, the Son as God, the Holy Spirit as God—‘three personalities, one Godhead undivided in glory, honor, substance, and sovereignty.’”[7]
This Trinity Sunday, let us seek to know the Most Holy Trinity more deeply and let us, with St. Gregory, commit ourselves to call others into a deeper engagement with the Mystery that is Almighty God:
“To the best of my powers I will persuade all men to worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the single Godhead and power, because to him belong all glory, honor, and might for ever and ever. Amen.”[8]
I pray that you have a Blessed Feast of the Most Holy Trinity.
In Christ,
Fr. Jon+
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[1] St Gregory of Nazianzus. (2002). On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius. (J. Behr, Ed., F. Williams & L. Wickham, Trans.) (pp. 49–50). Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
[2] St Gregory of Nazianzus. (2002). On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius. (J. Behr, Ed., F. Williams & L. Wickham, Trans.) (pp. 62–64). Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
[3] St Gregory of Nazianzus. (2002). On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius. (J. Behr, Ed., F. Williams & L. Wickham, Trans.) (pp. 127–128). Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
[4] St Gregory of Nazianzus. (2002). On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius. (J. Behr, Ed., F. Williams & L. Wickham, Trans.) (pp. 84–85). Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
[5] St Gregory of Nazianzus. (2002). On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius. (J. Behr, Ed., F. Williams & L. Wickham, Trans.) (pp. 138–139). Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
[6] St Gregory of Nazianzus. (2002). On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius. (J. Behr, Ed., F. Williams & L. Wickham, Trans.) (pp. 138–139). Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
[7] St Gregory of Nazianzus. (2002). On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius. (J. Behr, Ed., F. Williams & L. Wickham, Trans.) (pp. 138–139). Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
[8] St Gregory of Nazianzus. (2002). On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius. (J. Behr, Ed., F. Williams & L. Wickham, Trans.) (p. 143). Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.