The Holy Trinity

(the Central Christian Mystery)

One God in Three Persons, is a central mystery of the Christian faith. It is a statement that defines God’s supreme perfection. There is no contradiction here since we do not say one God vis-à-vis 3 Gods, but One God in 3 Persons. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are 3 Persons in One God, one divine nature. A shamrock flower is one flower with 3 petals, a triangle is a polygon that has 3 sides.

This is a statement regarding the very nature of our Supreme God. One recent saint, Saint Padre Pío was expressing: “Faith is not to be argued over, either you accept with your eyes closed, admitting the inadequacy of the human mind to understand its mysteries, or you reject it. There is no middle way. The choice is up to you.” (book, Padre Pío, the stigmatist, written by Fr. Charles Mortimer Carty). Even the great St. Augustine , who wrote volumes on this very mystery, stood in awe before this awesome nature of God’s perfection – One God in Three Persons.

When Jesus, God’s Son, made the statement: “The Father and I are one” (Jn. 10:29), the Jews fetched stones to stone him, so Jesus said to them, ‘I have done many good works for you to see, works from my Father; for which of these are you stoning me?’ The Jews answered him, ‘We are not stoning you for doing a good work but for blasphemy: you are only a man and you claim to be God’ (Jn. 10:31). The claims to godhead by Jesus was clearest when he answered in the affirmative the decisive question by the high priest Caiaphas: “I put you on oath by the living God to tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God” (Mt. 26:63). Jesus rose from the dead, 3 days after His Crucifixion. Saint Madre Maravillas de Jesus, OCD, a Spanish Carmelite, famed for her miracles, has this to say: El hacer milagros es como el ultimo esfuerzo del Señor y de su Madre para abrir los ojos a las criaturas y fortalecer la fe (translate: The working of miracles is like a final attempt by Our Lord and His Mother to open the eyes of creatures and to strengthen the faith.).