I have several short questions for you today. They all involve sports. My first question is …
● how many players are there on a football team? (11)
● How many players on a baseball team? (9)
● How many players on a basketball team? (5)
Eleven, nine, five: all odd numbers. So, this one should be easy.
● How many players in a Trinity?
No, three is not right. The correct answer is, of course: one. Our Trinitarian God does not consist of three “players.” There is only one God, not three. God is God: God is not a team. However, if you want to use the concept of “team” as an analogy for God, then you’d need to think of a perfect team with three perfect players. Three players who could play every position perfectly, who play so well you can’t tell the difference among them.
This is what our theology says about the Trinity: about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is no difference among them. There is an ancient Christian creed, it’s called the Athanasian creed, that makes a big point of this fact. This creed contains such statements as: “ … the divine nature of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one, their glory is equal, their majesty is coeternal.” And it goes on to state: “… both Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity must be venerated.”
This is, indeed, a difficult concept for us humans to grasp, let alone, understand. It’s been a major point of difficulty between Christians and Jews (and Muslims) for centuries. It has led to accusations by Jews and Muslims that we Christians worship three gods, whereas they worship only one God.
This basic teaching that there is only one God comes from scriptural passages such as the one we heard in the first reading for today, from the book of Deuteronomy. “… [because of the signs and wonders … because of the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt] …. this is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.”
So, how do we reconcile this one God with our Triune God, our one God with three divine Persons? One approach might be through a consideration of the secular holidays we’re celebrating this weekend. This weekend we honor fathers, those men to whom we owe our life and our protection during the years of our childhood. Today, we might, also, recall such statements as:
● “like father, like son”
● “he’s a chip off the old block”
Jesus acknowledged these relationships as well. He told his friends they had seen the father because they have seen him. They knew the father through their observations of Jesus, his son. It is this kind of relationship we are called to consider in our modern world – as fathers serve as models for their children, and children represent the best aspects of their parents.
Paul, in his Letter to the Hebrews we heard a few minutes ago, speaks of a similar relationship when he says: “… you received a spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, ‘Abba, father!’ The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ …”
The fact that our God is a Triune God is not a conclusion we could reach by our own thought process. This knowledge comes to us through the revealed word of God, speaking through his Son, Jesus the Christ. It is on the promise of Christ that our belief is based. Jesus made a fundamental promise to his disciples, and to us. He said: “… I am with you always, until the end of the age.” He promised his friends, and us, he would remain with us until the end of the world as we know it. Either he lied to them, and to us, or he has kept his promise.
We believe he did not lie, he, indeed, kept his promise. We believe that upon his bodily return to the Father, they sent to us the Holy Spirit who remains with us today, at this very moment, who guides us and sustains us with every breath we take. We speak of our one God in terms of three Persons, three “perfect players,” if you will.
● We speak of the God who is the creator. The one who created everything in the universe and who continues to create all that exists.
● We speak of the God who became incarnated, who took on human flesh in order to redeem us, in order for us to be reunited with our Creator-God.
● We speak of the God who remains with us, the Holy Spirit who sustains us, guides us, the spirit of God living within us.
We speak of our triune God who is creator, redeemer and sustainer. All of this can become mere words, and, perhaps, words which really do not strike us, change us, as they might. It’s because of such difficulties that we Christians, especially Catholic Christians, make use of symbols and symbolic actions to help us understand deeper realities.
Symbols and symbolic actions are not restricted to our attempts to understand God. I’m especially reminded of this as we celebrate another secular holiday this weekend, as we celebrate “Flag Day.” Our flag is, indeed, a symbol of our nation, our flag is a “trinity” of red, white, and blue. Take away any one of these colors and we would no longer have the flag of the United States of America. Its thirteen stripes and fifty stars are a symbol of our foundation from thirteen independent colonies into one nation, a nation in which most citizens do not react kindly when someone attempts to mock or burn a flag which is more than a mere piece of cloth.
As Christians, especially as Catholic Christians, we also make use of other symbols and symbolic actions, ones that should lead to a deeper and continuing appreciation for our Triune God. A major sign, of course, is the Sign of the Cross, a symbol which goes back to the foundations of our belief in a Trinitarian God. We use the visible cross as a reminder of the Paschal mystery of our God who suffered, died, and rose again for our salvation.
Yet we also make the “sign of the cross” to remind us of our Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. No matter how it is made.
● For some with all five extended fingers.
● For others, with the three lower fingers outstretched to represent the Trinity, and the thumb and forefinger touching to represent the unity of our God.
● Or it may be a hurried gesture as we touch our thumb or forefinger to our head, our heart and our shoulders.
It is a sign we make when we begin an effort and want to be reminded we do it in the name of God. It is a sign we make when there is a time of crisis (or a hope the free throw will, indeed, go through the basket) and we seek the help of God to see us through the crisis – or bring success to our efforts. It is a sign others make over us when we are taking leave and need to be reminded that God blesses our journey.
Yes, today, on Trinity Sunday, we might use all sorts of words, inadequate words, to explain what we mean when we speak of one God with three divine Persons. However, for most of us, it is more important merely to make the Sign of the Cross (†) and know that our Lord, our God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – will be with us always, until the end of the age.
Trinity Sunday; June 15, 2003: (Fathers’ Day and Flag Day)
Deut 4:32-34, 39-40; Rom 8:14-17; Mt 28:16-20