TMA 4 Module 8 – THE TRINITY AND THE INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN LIFE

Introduction

Early in life we have been introduced into the life of the Trinity. As infants we have been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. As young children we were taught to make the sign of the cross and say: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

We also notice that when people pass in front of the church they make the sign of the cross. Basketball players also cross themselves, boxers, athletes, etc. And so, can we conclude that the three divine persons in the Holy Trinity are already known to us?

The truth is not so. In fact many of us take the three persons of the Holy Trinity for granted. They are there but we don’t bother much about them. Much more so in our life, we seem to know so little about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We know little as to how they influence our life.

Christian life is a sharing in the life of the Holy Trinity. But what should it be like?

The life of the Trinity is a life of relationship. The Father begets a Son, the Son is begotten by the Father, and the Holy Spirit is breathed forth by the Father and the Son.

Human life is also a life of relationships. Man is by nature a social being and only when he enters into relationship with others that he can live or develop his gifts (GS 12). Man is the only creature on earth that God has wanted to relate with (GS 24).

But how do the three divine persons relate to us, and how should we relate to them? Only revelation gives us the answer to these questions.

Our relationship with the divine persons begins with the Father. It is the Father who chose us from eternity to be his sons and daughters (Eph 1:3-5). It was he who predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29). It was he who promised us a Redeemer (Gen 3:15). It was he who sent his only-begotten Son to save us (Jn 3:16-17). He sent the Spirit into our hearts (Gal 4:6). His plan for us is “to unite all things in Christ” (Eph 1:10). The Father is the origin of the plan of salvation. He is also our final goal.

The Son is he in whose image the Father wishes us to be conformed (Rom 8:29). It is in the Son that all things were created and are held together in being (Col 1:15-17). It was the Son who was the promised seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15). The Son was sent by the Father, and lived among us. He revealed to us the Father whom no one has seen (Jn 1:18). The Son was the Word of the Father, revealing him as no other had done before.  He is our one Mediator with God (1 Tim 2:5), he is the only way to the Father (Jn 14:6). Through him we have access to the Father (Eph 2:18). He is so much his image (Col 1:15) that he who sees him sees the Father also (Jn 14:9).

The Son laid down his life of his own free will in obedience to the Father, in order that we might have abundant life (Jn 10:10, 17-18) and may all be gathered as one (Jn 11:52). It was the Son who sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples on Pentecost (Acts 2:33). The Spirit is the Spirit of the Son  (Gal 4:6) who continues to work in the hearts of people through the power of the Holy Spirit (GS 38). The Son is our Lord and our God (Jn 20:28). In the end he will come again to judge the living and the dead. He will welcome the good into the kingdom of the Father (Mt 25:34-40). Our final joy will be “to be always with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:17-18) when we shall be conformed to the glory of his risen body (Phil 3:21).

It is the Holy Spirit who came upon Mary and by his power she conceived Jesus in her womb (Lk 1:35). He descended upon Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry (Lk 4:14-21) and enabled Jesus to offer his life as a sacrifice to God (Heb 9:14). God the Father raised Jesus from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:11). It was the Spirit who descended upon the disciples on Pentecost. He gives the Church all the charisms and ministries it needs to carry out its mission in the world (1 Cor 12).

It is the Spirit who joins us to Jesus (1 Cor 12:3; Rom 8:19) and pours out into our hearts the love of God (Rom 5:5). The Spirit guides us into the fullness of truth and enables us to witness to Christ powerfully (Acts 1:8). He keeps alive in the Church the hope for the final coming of the Lord and our resurrection will come through his action (Rom 8:11).

It is the Holy Spirit who makes Jesus present in our hearts and in our Eucharistic celebrations. Because of the Holy Spirit Jesus is not just history but a present experience, and the Father is a person we can intimately address.

The three divine persons become ours through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Father and the Son pour out their love into our hearts by giving us the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5), who then dwells in our bodies and in the Christian community as in a temple (1 Cor 3:16-17; 6:19). But where the Spirit is there are the Father and the Son, because he is the Spirit of the Father from whom he proceeds, and of the Son through whom he proceeds. In fact, Jesus promises the indwelling of the Father and the Son in those who love the Son and do his works (Jn 14:21-23).

This indwelling of the three divine persons is the greatest gift of God to us. There is no greater treasure than this, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit living in us. This indwelling brings about a transformation so deep that it can only be called our divinization, for we share in God’s nature. St. John of the Cross does not hesitate to say that we become God by participation. We share in God’s life, knowing God by faith, and loving him, and hoping in him, and in this way really coming into contact and remaining in touch with God. The triune God who lives in heaven makes his home in our hearts.

As they live in our hearts, the three persons want us to enter into an intimate personal relationship with each of them.

1.       The Father wants us to be his sons and daughters. (Gal 4:4-7). He wants us to obey him in love, entrusting our whole lives to him in trust, and believing his every word. He wants us to listen to his Son (Mt 17:5) and strive to be like him, who is the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Rom 8:29).

2.       The Son wants us to be his brothers and sisters (Jn 20:17) to follow him and to pattern our lives after him. He wants us to learn from him (Mt 11:29), to be humble and obedient to the Father like him. He wants us to put God and his kingdom at the very center of our lives (Mt 6:24, 33). He teaches us to call God “Our Father” (Mt 6:9). He wants us to love one another as he has loved us, and to exclude no one, not even our enemies from our love (Mt 5:43-48). He wants us to follow him in the carrying of our daily cross (Lk 9:23) so that dying with him we might also live with him (2 Tim 2:11). He gives us his Spirit so that we may be united with him, with the Father, and with one another.

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Last Updated: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 08:34:56 PM