Tag: Holy Trinity

The Holy Trinity – A Scientific Analogy

This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. 

The Holy Trinity, one of the five Dogmas of the Church, is an extraordinary and unfathomable mystery. Our limited intellects are unable to comprehend its reality, yet, our Scriptures and scholarly Tradition makes it known to us.

The scientific analogy that will be provided in a few moments is truly inadequate to describe the Holy Trinity. It does, however, provide the proverbial “grist for the mill” for all of us, believers and skeptics alike, that such a concept of “Three existing in One” does exist in nature and can be scientifically proven. So, if an actual physical and observable process exists in nature then why can it not be a reflection of its existence in the spiritual and religious world of Faith?

A number of years ago, one of my RCIA students (an engineer who graduated from Annapolis, America’s Naval Academy) mentioned a physical property of water that aided our discussion. He correctly said that God is One Being of three Divine Persons. He then went on to apply a new analogy regarding water. We know that water consists of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen and it can exist in three independent states: liquid, solid, and gas. It is one substance, water, in every state that it is in.

So, as far as the new analogy is concerned, he said the question should be asked: “Can water exist as a liquid, solid, and gas at the same time?”

The answer: “Yes, it can, because of the scientific reality known as the Triple Point.”

“The Triple Point is the single combination of pressure and temperature at which liquid water, solid ice, and water vapor can coexist.” The coexistence means that the water’s states of liquid, solid, and gas are present, yet independent, at the same time. Scientifically, and observationally, “This occurs at exactly 273.16 K (0.01 °C) and a partial vapor pressure of 611.73 pascals (ca. 6.1173 millibars, 0.0060373 atm).” For further inquiry see this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_point

The article also goes on to state that the Triple Point pressure of water was used during the Mariner 9 mission to Mars as a reference point to define “sea level”. More recent missions use laser altimetry and gravity measurements instead of pressure to define elevation on Mars.[3] [There are numerous other elements and substances that possess Triple Points, and are easily referenced in additional Wikipedia articles]. Some of the data comes from the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (now NIST).[4]”

So, while understandably inadequate to even skim the surface of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Triple Point of water at least shows that a simple framework for comprehending the reality of the Trinity does exist in nature. Science can assist us in understanding theological truths.

Besides science and nature, our Holy Scriptures and Sacred Tradition provide additional historic and religious truth to substantiate the Dogma of the Holy Trinity. Examples are found in the Gospel of Matthew: the 3rd chapter (the Baptism of Jesus)  and in the 28th chapter (Jesus’ commissioning His Apostles to go out and make disciples of all the nations, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” St. Paul also refers to the Holy Trinity in his second epistle to the Corinthians (13: 11-13) and Romans (8: 14-17) and (5: 1-5).

The Early Fathers of the Church (AD 100 through AD 800) also discussed and provided extraordinary scholarship in developing our basic understanding of this dogma. St. Thomas Aquinas, 450 years later also wrote persuasively about the Holy Trinity, too.

The Holy Trinity, while being a Mystery, can still be approached and discussed through spiritual faith. Faith is the assent of an individual’s intellect and will to believe the teachings of the Church. It is a supernatural gift from God to a person’s soul and intellect at the moment of their Baptism. Faith is sustained through parental modeling, formal teaching, prayer, study, and the reverential reception of the Holy Sacraments.

The Catechism of the Council of Trent and the New Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd edition) contain wonderful explanations about this dogma of our faith. Also, teacher and apologist Frank Sheed, in his book Theology For Beginners, (pp. 33-36), provides us with additional insights into the truth of the Holy Trinity:

” …God utters a word [John 1:1]. … So it is a word in the mind of God, not sounding outwardly as our words sound, akin rather to a thought or an idea. What idea produced in God’s mind could possibly be God? Christian thinking saw early that it could be only the idea God has of Himself. The link between having a Son and having an idea of oneself is that both are ways of producing likeness.
    … [B]ecause God is infinite, eternal, all-powerful, His idea of Himself is infinite, eternal, all-powerful. Because God is God, His idea is God.
    … The Father knows and loves; so His idea knows and loves. In other words, the idea is a Person …, for He – this Person – can know and love. The thinker and the idea are distinct, the one is not the other, Father and Son are two persons; but they are not separate.
    … Father and Son love each other … They unite to express their love and … [this] expression is a third Divine Person: the Holy Spirit. In the Son, the Father utters His self-knowledge; in the Holy Spirit, Father and Son utter their mutual love. Their love is infinite; its expression cannot be less.
… As the one great operation of spirit, Knowing, produces the Second Person, so the other, Loving, produces the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.”

Glory Be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

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                                                 The Trinity in an Initial B, Master of the Codex Rossiano (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/461298)

Copyright © 2011- 2021. Deacon Paul O. Iacono – All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint must be obtained from the author in writing. Students, and those interested, may quote small sections of the article as long as the proper credit and notation is given. Thank you.

The Holy Trinity – Communication Through Word and Art

Is communication just a trait of human beings? Is it a trait of God?

The Dogma of the Holy Trinity is one of the great Mysteries of the Christian Faith.  All Christians acknowledge and accept that The One True God, the divine Holy Trinity, are three separate and distinct Persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is not three separate Gods. They are one God in three Divine Persons. This is known as the dogma of the “consubstantial” Trinity: each of the three Persons is God – completely and entirely.

These ideas were debated and verified by the assembled bishops at the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 and subsequent Councils (specifically the ecumenical Council of Nicaea/Constantinople in AD 381).

In the 13th century the Fourth Lateran Council stated: “Each of the Persons is that supreme reality (nature, essence, and substance) of God” (confer Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition, paragraphs 198 through 315, pp. 54-84).

These three Divine Persons relate and communicate among themselves and desire to communicate and relate with Their creation. This is verified through Holy Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the historic teachings of the Apostles, the Ecumenical Councils, and the saints of the Church.

The  first of Their creation, the nine choirs of angels, communicate with God and each other, too.

Obviously, human beings communicate and relate through speech, behavior, and the written word, though at times, not very well. To a much lesser extent, there is “communication” in the other members of the animal kingdom (by instinct, chemical, and behavioral signals) and in the plant kingdom (through chemical signals).

God the Father has communicated specifically through His Word, the incarnated Son, Jesus Christ. In accordance with the Father’s will the human Jesus is “born of a woman” into space and time through the great Mystery of the Incarnation of Christ.

Jesus agreed to humbly obey His Father’s will. Through His Incarnation the Divine Son Jesus expresses His two natures: human and divine. He does this while “hiding” the full majesty of His divinity (except for the moments of His Transfiguration, Resurrection, and subsequent appearances to His Apostles).

The Holy Spirit (as the Council of Florence stated in 1439) “Is eternally from the Father and Son; He has His nature and subsistence at once from the Father and the Son. He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one spiration (the life-giving breath of God).”

“When the Father sends His Word to His Creation He also sends His Breath. “Jesus and the Holy Spirit are on a joint mission, while at the same time being distinct but inseparable. It is the Son who is seen, the visible image of the invisible God, while it is the Holy Spirit that reveals Him.” (please refer to page 181 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition, also pages 54 through 90).

The Holy Spirit communicates and spiritually shapes us through the Holy Scriptures, liturgical and private prayer, the teachings of the Western and Eastern Rites of the Church, and with the Father and Son in the seven Holy Sacraments (in the Eastern Rites – the Holy Mysteries).

The solemnity of Pentecost recalls the full expression of the Holy Spirit’s “Fruits and Gifts” to the Apostles, and through the Holy Sacraments to us, too  (refer in the Christian Scriptures to the Acts of the Apostles chapter 2, verses 1 – 42; and in St. Paul’s letters to the Galatians chapter 5: verses 22 ff; and 1st Corinthians chapter 12, verses 4 ff; also refer in the Hebrew Scriptures  to the book of the prophet Isaiah chapter 11, versus 2 – 3).

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“The Trinity”: early 15th century; egg tempera and gold on wood panel by St. Andrei Rublev (1370 – 1430).  St. Rublev was a Russian Orthodox monk. He resided and “wrote” with egg tempera paint to produce images of God, the angels, and the saints in sacred  icons. He lived at St. Sergius Monastery in Moscow, Russia. His sacred icon above captures some of  the truth of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity communicating with each other. God the Son, Jesus Christ, is the figure in the center of this painting.  You see two of His fingers extended to express His human and divine nature, and in a pointing gesture, to the “Cup of His Blood”  made manifest through His Redemptive sacrifice. In this masterpiece you observe the colors blue representing divine life and purple madder/burgundy signifying Christ’s humanity. God the Father is on your left and God the Holy Spirit is on your right. The Holy Spirit is garbed in blue and in green as a symbol of new life and spiritual growth through prayer and the Holy Sacraments (Holy Mysteries). God the Father is painted in both blue, green, and a very light, transparent gold ochre. The First Council of Nicaea (AD 325) verified and promoted the Dogma of the Holy Trinity. This Dogma was reaffirmed, and further explained by the Council of Nicaea/Constantinople in AD 381.

 

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A contemporary copy of the original Trinity by Rublev.

God the Father sent His Son to be born of a woman through the fecundity of the Holy Spirit. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ changed the Universe. God became flesh and walked among us. Why?  In order to teach, heal, and redeem us from our sins. The New Covenant with His creation is written in His Blood. There is, if you have the gift of faith, ample proof that God wants to communicate with you.

It is up to each man and woman to honestly determine whether or not they are ignoring Him, and if so, to decide what to do about it. Time is short.

Copyright © 2011- 2019 Deacon Paul O. Iacono All Rights Reserved.