It is not easy for people to accept Christianity as a monotheistic religion. There is a God of Creation. There is a God of Salvation. There is a God of Advocate. But for Christians, their God is one.
Judaism has no such problem. They always have only one God who created the heavens and the earth and all the things within. This God is also their God of salvation who delivered them from Egypt and Babylon. Islam has no such problem. They have only one true God. Jesus was only a prophet and not their God.
Christianity resolves this problem with the concept of the Blessed Trinity. God reveals Himself in three different Persons. God the Father is the Creator. God the Son incarnates as Jesus and is the Saviour. God's love and power assumes a personality and is the God of Advocate.
Fr. Milanese lamented in his homily today that the Blessed Trinity is such a mystery that men can never fully comprehend. Therefore, when we talk about the Blessed Trinity, sometimes we do not even know what we are talking about.
Have Christians made a mistake in their understanding of their God? No way. How could they be wrong for 2000 years without being pointed out the mistake?
In fact, the brief definition of the Blessed Trinity above is inevitably inaccurate. If God is one, did God the Father create the universe without the participation of God the Son? Negative.
Indeed, God the Son took part in Creation as well. According to the book of Genesis, God created the known universe with His Word (Genesis 1). John, the apostle, wrote a whole gospel to reflect on this incarnated Word of God who calls God his Father and himself the Son of God. In Genesis, we also find the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2). Of course, in the Hebrew Scripture, the Holy Spirit has not yet assumed a personality of its own. It was only the animating power of God. We have to wait until the Acts of the Apostles to see how a deepening of the understanding of the Holy Spirit has developed in the early church.
The question whether God the Father suffered on the cross with the Son had led some people to doubt the divinity of Jesus. It became a heresy in the early history of Christianity. Lastly, a difference in opinions on whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, or from the Father and the Son became an ignition point of the schism between the Roman Church and the Easter Orthodox Church in the 11th century. Truly, the Blessed Trinity is not easy to talk about. Luckily, the Holy Spirit will help us understand better as promised by Jesus in the Last Supper.
I have yet 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; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come (John 16:12-13).
Throughout history, the Holy Spirit has guided the Church through one crisis after another. He will continue to inspire the Church to handle new challenges in our modern age.
Confucism talks more about virtues than deities. Therefore, it is not difficult to discover a certain kind of Trinity of virtues too. They are mentioned in the Middle Way and known as the Three Constantly Practised Virtues「三達德」: Wisdom, Benevolence and Courage「智、仁、勇」and benevolence is the essence of them all. Wisdom and courage are embedded in benevolence.
天下之達道五，所以行之者三。曰：君臣也，父子也，夫婦也，昆弟也，朋友之交也。五者，天下之達道也。知仁勇，三者，天下之達德也，所以行之者一也。
子曰：好學近乎知，力行近乎仁，知恥近乎勇。知斯三者，則知所以修身。知所以修身，則知所以治人。知所以治人，則知所以治天下國家矣。【中庸第二十章】
Though there is no religious element, their unity may enlighten us on the inner life of the Blessed Trinity.
Dear Lord, we long to share in Your inner life of Trinity. Let us constantly practise virtues and meditate Your mystery to attain our salvation. Amen.
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