Jesus Helps us to Understand the Trinity – Part 1

Chapter 5Theology IMr. Perrotti

Prayer

• Today let us meditate on all that God has given to us this Easter season. He sent His son to redeem us from sin through the Paschal Mystery. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be the life force on the first Pentecost to reveal to the Apostle all that Christ wanted them to do, build our Church. God will never forget all those who want salvation through him!

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAiGAyp22JI.com

The Holy Trinity – Beyond Human Understanding

• The Holy Trinity –Three divine persons in one God operating together as one and separately for all mankind.

• It’s a Mystery –any religious truth that one can know only by revelation and cannot fully understand until it is revealed to them from God.

• The Mystery of the Holy Trinity is told to us by Jesus during his ministry as he introduces to us –The Holy Spirit – The inner Spirit in our Soul, the Love bewteen the Father and Son!

The Inner Life of God

• Our Catholic Catechism tell us that the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is central and essential to our Catholic Faith.

• The sign of the Cross reminds us daily of what we call our Trinitarian Belief.

• We say “Amen” because we are proclaiming that “we believe”

Our Baptismal Rites

• Through Baptism we enter in the church by being blessed by water “Three times” as a sign of our belief in the dive persons in one God.

• The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Church Law, tells us that the Baptismal Ritual brings death to sin and entry in to our Church which is the dwelling place for the Holy Trinity.

• At the Transfiguration of Christ, all three Divine Persons are present to acclaim and support Jesus’ impending Paschal Mystery.

Theology

• Your book describes Theology as the study of the existence of God.

• This word comes from the Greek words “Theos” and “Logos” meaning God and Word or as we know it the Word of God.

• Saint John also used “Logos” to describe the incarnation of Christ, or the “Word made flesh”.

Church Dogma

• Dogma - a doctrine or body of doctrines concerning our faith or morals formally stated and authoritatively proclaimed by the Church

• Deposit of Faith – All actions, words and writings revealed to us by Jesus Christ which forms the basis for our beliefs and Catechism.

• The Holy Trinity – Is part of the Theology, Church Dogma and Deposit of Faith which makes it the central core and teaching of the Church.

Immanent Trinity

• A focus on the inner life of God as Trinity of three divine Persons without God’s relationship to human beings or his creation work.

• When we focus on the Immanent Trinity, we focus on who God is, three Divine Persons in one, eternal and everlasting before and without what God created.

Salvific Trinity

• The active and inseparable work of the Trinity, God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-in our Salvation History.

• These are the many works that God has done and will do throughout our Salvation History to reveal his divine life, everlasting love, commitment and forgiveness to bring us all to salvation and his Kingdom!

ST. Augustine of Hippo

• One of the most important Christian Theologians, born of a devote Christian mother (St. Monica) and a Pagan Father.

• In his early life, Augustine was all but Christian let alone a Saint.

• Through the intersession of his mother and the divine Grace of the Holy Spirit, Augustine found Christ due to the prayers and persistence of his mother.

A Smart Man

• Early in life he abandoned his Christian beliefs and studied in Carthage, a pagan society.

• Venturing father and farther away from the faith his mother painlessly raised him in, Augustine lived a life of sin, indulgence and recklessness for 10 years. He had a son during this time.

• Saint Monica continued to pray for her son to reconnect with Christ.

The Biography of St. Anthony the hermit.

• In Europe in the year 386 AD, Augustine read the biography of St. Anthony the hermit.

• He was touched by what he had read and learned and began to move closer and closer to God.

• Born again in the Faith, Augustine decided to take his son and return to Hippo, a city in Africa. On his journey his parents died.

Priest and Bishop

• After he and son were baptized he became a priest and eventually a bishop.

• The loss of his parents, especially his mother, drove him to become a great theologian in the Church, eventually earning him the title of Doctor in the Church.

• His autobiography, “Confessions” is a Christian classic.

• He died in 430 AD and quickly became one of the patron saints of Catholic Education.

Saint Paul and the Trinity

• Because Paul preached to many communities that did not know or hear Jesus directly, the early Church developed simple formulas to explain and express the Trinity.

• Paul used Greetings like “ May the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you”

Vocabulary to Understand the Trinity

• The early Church Fathers developed a simple vocabulary to help explain the Trinity. They are as follows:– Substance – means “Nature” or “Essence”.

Substance is what makes something what is it. When we say the Father has the same substance as the Son and Holy Spirit, we are proclaiming that God is one divine being, three divine persons in one!

Vocabulary to Understand the Trinity

• Person– Refers to the distinctions among the Father, Son

and Holy Spirit are distinct because of their relationships.

RelationThe Father, Son and Holy Spirit are distinct

because of their relationships.

God the Father

• The Image of Father, means protector, role model and mentor.

• God the Father is seen as a proud Father of love who wants all of his children to do well, succeed and be one.

• Creator, Patriarch and Wisdom are all words that we connect with Father!

God the Son!

• Throughout the Old Testament God through the Patriarch, Judges, Prophets and Kings tries to keep His people faithful.

• Unhappy with ultimately was seen as a “successful failure” God through the messianic prophets promises to send a redeemer to save us from sin.

• This redeemer is His Son, a distinct part of God, but at the same time a relationship of Father and Son is developed. God is incarnated!

God the Son!

• Having the exact divine nature as the Father, Jesus Christ His Son become the Father’s instrument of salvation.

• Fully God and Fully man, the second person of the Holy Trinity is revealed to man as the messiah or Emmanuel.

• The Incarnation of Christ becomes a mystery itself and a part of the foundation which ultimately became the Paschal Mystery!

God the Son!

• Paschal Mystery – Passion, Death. Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ –”The Word made Flesh”

God the Holy Spirit

• The relationship between the Father and the Son is perfect. The Holy Spirit is often referred to the love between the Father and Son.

• The Holy Spirit does the work of both the Father and Son as he remains distinctly like the Father and Son!

• Jesus introduces us to the Holy Spirit through his many teachings.

• The Holy Spirit becomes the life-force in the souls of the Apostles and all those who follow Christ.

The Shield of the Trinity

The Shield of the Trinity

• DEUS – Means God in Latin• Pater – Father• Filius – Son• Spiritus Sanctus – Holy Spirit• The shield describes the Father, Son and Holy

Spirit as God, but also states that the Father is not like the Son, who is not like the Holy Spirit.

• Three Divine Persons professed as one, but acting seperately.

The Shamrock and Saint Patrick

The Shamrock and Saint Patrick

• Challenged by his congregation to explain the Holy Trinity as his followers were having a difficult time believing Saint Patrick reached down and picked up a shamrock.

• He asked, is this one leaf or three, he stated on stem which made it one, three leaves which made the distinct and equal!

The Germans and the Christmas Tree

The Germans and the Christmas Tree

• Most of the traditions we have as Christians concerning Christmas and remembering and celebrating the Birth of Christ come from Germany.

• The Christmas tree was a sign of the three points of Trinity. The star on top, was a symbol of the star that led the Magi, the lights a sign of Jesus as our light of the world, and those Angels Hear on high.

St. John Damascene with two famous symbols “A Tree and The Sun.”

“A Tree and The Sun.”

• St. John Damascene used the Tree and the Sun to help him describe the Trinity.

• With a Tree and showed the Father as the roots, the Son as the Branches, and the Holy Spirit the fruit. The substance of the roots, branches and fruits are all the same, and yet each part is distinctive.

• With the Sun, The Father is the sun, the Son is the rays and the Holy Spirit is the heat. Distinctive, but all the same substance.!

Divine Mission of the Holy Trinity

• Creation, Salvation and sanctification are all considered divine missions of the Holy Trinity.

• Our CCC teaches us that God is three divine Persons acting distinctly differently to preform these missions.

• God Created the world (images of the Father), we are saved through God (Jesus Christ) and sanctified by God (the Holy Spirit)

LOVE

• Love is the driving force of the Holy Trinity. • God created us because he wanted company and he

loved what he had done.• Our Salvation History is an example of God’s Love

for us!• The Paschal Mystery is how God showed his love for

use.• The Deposit of Faith, Canon, the Sacraments and

our Liturgy are ways that God reminds us of His love!

How can we do the Work of the Trinity

• Honor the Lord thy God and have no other God’s but me and love thy neighbor as thy self!

• Simple yes – We make it hard!!!!!!!! Treat people as you want to be treated!

• As the Holy Spirit to help you by filling your soul with God’s Grace!

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOm1DMZJITs.com