 |
| El Greco's Trinity |
The Sunday after Pentecost is unique in the Church’s year. Whereas every other holy day celebrates an event or a person, Trinity Sunday celebrates a theological doctrine! And what a perplexing doctrine it is – The One God in whom Christians believe is Three Persons. It seems to defy even the most basic principles of arithmetic. How can anything be both three things and only one thing? Yet that is what the doctrine obliges Christians to hold. What is more, this is not some optional extra that we may or may not choose to go along with. Since the fourth century, when the Creeds were finalized, the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity has been central to all the major branches of the Christian Church – Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran and Reformed. There are Unitarian churches who deny it, of course, but these have always been in a small minority.
 |
| Polish wood carving of the Trinity |
Why has Trinitarianism been thought so crucial? The answer
is revealed in part by this week’s readings. The Epistle and the Gospel
comprise two short and familiar passages. The first comes from Paul’s most
important letter – his Letter to the
Romans. Paul wrote this several centuries before the theologians' carefully formulated doctrines, and over a thousand years before Trinity Sunday
became a fixture in the Calendar. So here, Paul is simply trying to capture, and
convey, his own profound experience of what it means to be a Christian. The
problem arises because in doing so, he simply cannot avoid talking of God,
about Jesus and about the Holy Spirit in equal measure.
In this respect, the Epistle
does no more than the Gospel passage
itself. Like Paul, John wrote these words of Jesus a very long time before
theologians set to work on them. Yet here too we find that if Jesus is to
describe his mission properly, and convey his promise to those who believe in
him, a threefold reference is inescapable. The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is certainly perplexing, but this is because it reflects a great mystery to which we are necessarily
compelled, whenever we try to affirm the truth about Jesus Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment