If someone asks me, “What distinguishes your religion from others?” I would point him to the mystery or puzzlement (?) of the Holy Trinity. I would do this, not because I totally understand what the Trinity is all about. Never! It’s rather that this particular mystery and wisdom of God makes us wonder and humble our human knowledge of things around us that we do not and cannot understand everything even though we will try our best to grasp things around us.
Trinity, however, is such a topic that most clergy would prefer not to talk about for many reasons. Throughout the Church’s history, theologians have tried to make sense of the doctrine of the Trinity. Some were criticized as heretics, not because they were not faithful Christians but because they exclusively focused more on one aspect over others. In a way, the teaching of Trinity has produced many heretics. So, no wonder why people avoid talking about it. In my theological training, I learned how to talk about the Trinity without violating other elements. I remember one of my church history professors jokingly said, “Don’t try to explain it. Once you do, you end up becoming a heretic.” This, of course, does not mean there’s no meaning in explaining what the Trinity is. It just is a tough topic to tackle. And at times, it becomes an obstacle to articulate our faith. As I further reflect on the mystery or puzzlement of the Holy Trinity, I realize all my efforts to understand and explain are missing some things that are most fundamental to our Christian faith. What’s the purpose for us to know about the Trinity? What’s the purpose for God to reveal himself in a trinitarian manner? What do we get out of it? How does our belief in the Triune God help us love God and others more and live our lives more faithfully according to God’s will? Perhaps, you might say, “Well, this doctrine of the Trinity really has nothing to do with my faith. I believe in Jesus and love him. And most importantly, I know Jesus loves me. This is all that matters to me.” This reasonable and simple response is actually how we ought to begin our understanding of the Trinity. Jesus loves us. This is all that matters to us and our understanding of God’s love spoken in the trinitarian way. At this point, I’m not going to go into theological concepts. Rather, I would like us to think of this term “trinitarian” as a language. In English, the name of a national language is commonly the same as the national adjective. So, for Russia, its national language is Russian. For Greece, it’s national language is Greek. For Korea, it’s Korean. Now, for the city of God, it’s Trinitarian. So, I want us to imagine that God speaks Trinitarian. It’s the language of God. As we know, the most effective way to communicate with one another is to speak the same language. So, when I first came to this country, the first thing I needed to do was to learn English. What about with infants? We need to learn how to baby talk. What about with dogs? We learn our way to communicate with dogs or cats by using some words, not full sentences. When my dog, for example, really has to go outside, he stands at the front door. The essence of this communication is to be on the same page. And what compels one to communicate deeper with another is a general sense of love. Back to the language of God that God speaks Trinitarian. God being divine then is to speak the human language in order to fully communicate with us humans. The most radical way for God to do so wouldn’t be that God learns English. Of course, God knows all the languages and all other means to communicate with us. But the most radical way for God to fully communicate with us is to become human, to be where we are. Jesus of Nazareth is then the human language of God. Traditionally, we thus call him the Word of God incarnate. The divine language of God became human in Jesus. When we hear Jesus, we hear God talking to us. When we see Jesus, we see the language of God becoming flesh. When we look at Jesus, we can imagine what God is like. So again, that rather reluctant response, “What matters to me is that Jesus loves me. Not so much about this Trinity thing.” is surprisingly how we start learning to speak the language of God which is Trinitarian. Jesus himself is our language teacher to help us speak this Trinitarian language and is the language itself. So here’s how he teaches us. Jesus calls God the Father. He identifies himself as the Son. Which means God is the Father to Jesus. Remember Jesus’s baptism when the voice of God said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (Mt. 3:17) What these terms, “Father and Son” tell us is their relationship to each other. Jesus relates himself to God as the Son as God relates himself as the Father. This relationship is mutual. Then the Father breathes forth the Breath, the Life, the Vitality, the Joy, and the Delight. The Father breathes forth the Holy Spirit. And the Son also breathes forth the same Spirit, especially after his resurrection. Both the Father and the Son breath forth the same Breath of Love to each other. This Love, whose proper name is the Holy Spirit, then proceeds from the Father and the Son. We are then invited to participate in these subsistent relations of the divine life. Through Jesus with the help of the Holy Spirit, we enter this divine life of the Trinity. Through baptism, we stand in the place of Jesus. We become adopted as God’ children. We enter into Jesus’s relationship to God as the Son to the Father. Through the Son, God becomes “our” Father, and the Holy Spirit is breathed into us. For us personally, all these trinitarian terms of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in “subsistent relations.” What I mean by this is that we can’t talk about the Father without Jesus who is the Son. We can’t talk about the Son without God who is the Father. We can’t talk about the Holy Spirit without the relationship between the Father and the Son. Analogically speaking, it’s like a marriage. In a married relationship between John and Jane, John becomes the only husband to Jane. Jane in turn becomes the only wife to John. The husband and the wife represent who John and Jane are to each other in their relationship. The husband and the wife become one body as they love each other. So, how we make sense of the Trinity is to think in terms of relations. I may have greatly failed to talk about the Trinity this morning. At least, I have shown how challenging it is to talk about the mystery of the Trinity! But one of many reasons why we trouble grasping a bit of this mystery would be that we think of ourselves as individuals. We’re too used to seeing ourselves as one single unit. For example, all I can and would say about me is that I’m just Paul. That’s who I am. But in the trinitarian language, this is not true. I’m to my parents a son. I’m to my wife a husband. I’m to my son a father. I’m to you a brother in Christ. My identity is not just myself, but this whole system of relations I have with other people. The mystery of the Trinity is to remind us that we’re connected to one another in love just as we can think of the divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as subsistent relations. When God sees you, you’re not just one single individual. God sees you in relation to your family, friends, and all who are involved in your life. And most importantly, God sees you as God’s beloved child. God relates himself to you as the Prodigal Father who runs to you, hugs you, and kisses you with eternal love. Then, this trinitarian mystery is for you to see yourself as God’s beloved child and see others as the same through the Son. This much of talk on the Trinity would be enough for me and all of us today as Jesus says in today’s gospel lesson, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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