Trinity Sunday (Year C)
12“I have much more to say to you, but you can’t handle it now. 13However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, They’ll guide you in all truth. They won’t speak on Their own, but will say whatever They hear and will proclaim to you what’s to come. 14They’ll glorify me, because They’ll take what’s mine and proclaim it to you. 15Everything that the Father has is mine. That’s why I said that the Spirit takes what’s mine and will proclaim it to you.
Other readings: Proverbs 8.1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5.1-5
Prayer:
All-Loving and everlasting God, you’ve given us grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Before we get too far along, let’s address the elephant in the room: They/Their. In my adaptation of the Gospel Reading today, I’ve changed how the Common English Bible translates some of the Greek words and phrases. While the Greek word for Spirit (Πνεῦμα — Pneúma) is gender neutral, it does have a feminine article with it (τῆς). So πνεῦμα is feminine leaning but the pronouns that refer back to πνεῦμα are masculine leaning. That is, God’s Spirit has feminine and masculine leanings.[2] This leads us right back to Genesis 1.27, “God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them.”
One of the reasons I prefer “They/Their” is that it points to something beyond our understanding. That is, God is intimately feminine and masculine and at the same time God is neither feminine nor masculine. While God created humanity — female and male and everything in between — “in God’s own image, in the divine image,” God isn’t human; God is Spirit (Numbers 23.19; John 4.24). Furthermore, when referring to God as masculine only, we’re undermining women, whether that’s our intention or not. That is, if my daughter only hears God referred to in masculine terms, then what does that say about her relationship with God? It speaks to God neither relating to her nor her relating to God.
So what does all of this have to do with Trinity Sunday? Well, more than I thought when I first started praying and thinking about the Lesson.
When talking about the Trinity, well … it’s difficult. While the Bible never comes out and tells us what the Trinity is (i.e., how to define it), it gives us plenty of examples of it.[3] Our Gospel Lesson today reflects this. In John 16, Jesus refers to himself, the Father, and the Spirit; three distinct beings or entities. What the doctrine of the Trinity teaches is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct beings or persons (hypostases) who share one essence (ousia) — the Three in One, the One in Three.
The saints of the Church have explained this tri-unity of God by using such an example from worldly existence. We see three people. “What are they?” we ask. “They’re human beings,” we answer. Each person possesses the same humanity and the same human nature defined in a certain way: created, temporal, physical, rational, etc. In what they are, the three people are one. But in who they are, they are three, each absolutely unique and distinct from the others. Each person in their own unique way is distinctly human. One person is not the other, though each one is still human with one and the same human nature and form (adapted).
While I find that example helpful, it’s still unhelpful at the same time. That is, while we could try and explain the Trinity in logical terms, we really can’t because the Trinity isn’t logical. And, of course, that’s the whole point, isn’t it.
The source and unity of the Holy Trinity is the Father, from whom the Son is begotten and also from whom the Spirit proceeds. Thus, the Father is both the ground of unity of the Trinity and also of distinction. To try to comprehend unbegottenness (Father), begottenness (Son), or procession (Holy Spirit) leads to insanity, says the holy Gregory the Theologian, and so the Church approaches God in divine mystery, approaching God apophatically, being content to encounter God personally and yet realize the inadequacy of the human mind to comprehend God (adapted; emphasis added).[4]
“ … the Church approaches God in divine mystery.” That’s it, my friends. That’s the Trinity in a nutshell. Our human minds are “inadequate … to comprehend God.” As God tells us through Isaiah —
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
So, on this Trinity Sunday, let’s not try and “figure out” the Trinity. Let’s rest in the fact that this mystery is how God has decided to reveal Godself to us. To show us that God is beyond our comprehension. Indeed, that’s what faith is for.
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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[1] Scripture quotations marked (CEB) are taken from The Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible.
[2] There’s a lot more to it than this, of course, but I’m thinking of something my Mom told me a long time ago and trying to keep it simple.
[3] This is the way the Bible is — it just states things, rather matter-of-factly, and leaves the definition of such things open-ended. Think of our Lord’s crucifixion. Every passage just states that Jesus was crucified. It never really describes what crucifixion is. Since the people living in the first century knew exactly what crucifixion was, there wasn’t a reason to describe it. They witnessed it all the time.
[5] Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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