Jesus Helps Us to Understand the Trinity, Mary, and the Holy Spirit Chapter 5: Jesus Helps Us to Understand the Trinity, Mary, and the Holy Spirit ©Ave Maria Press

Beyond Human Understanding The mysteries of God far surpass the ability of the human mind to comprehend them.

Even for the great theologian, St Even for the great theologian, St. Augustine, God surpassed his understanding. According to one story, St. Augustine saw a boy trying to empty the ocean into a hole with a shell. After the saint pointed out the futility of this endeavor, the boy told him, that his mind was, likewise, too small to hold the immense truths about God, and then disappeared from his sight.

And yet, God so wants us to have a relationship with him that he reveals himself to us in ways that we could never discover for ourselves. As we saw previously, it is only by God’s revelation that we could come to understand anything about his nature.

The Inner Life of God God reveals to us certain things about his divine nature that are essential to our faith in him, foremost being the reality of the Blessed Trinity.

of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. When we pray the Sign of the Cross, it reminds us how central belief in the Trinity is to our Christian faith. The gestures we use to make the Sign of the Cross—touching our forehead, our chest, and then both shoulders—convey that we are making this profession with our minds, hearts, and entire being. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The study of the existence and attributes of God is called theology. The great theologians of our Church have explained for us that the One God is three divine Persons by his very nature—without regard to how God relates to human beings. This reality is called the Immanent Trinity, and refers to the inner life of God, or how “God exists in God.”

When we reflect on the Salvific Trinity, we are considering how God interacts with us, his creation—how God has gone outside himself to communicate with us, and to save us. The Immanent Trinity and the Salvific Trinity are intimately related. When we reflect on God’s actions in Salvation History, we understand better who God is.

Substance makes something what it is. Church theologians have developed vocabulary to assist us in understanding the mystery of the Trinity. When the word substance is used theologically, it refers to “nature” or “essence.” Substance makes something what it is. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all of the same substance—meaning that they all have the same divine nature—they are consubstantial.

Church theologians have developed vocabulary to assist us in understanding the mystery of the Trinity. Person refers to the distinctions between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Church theologians have developed vocabulary to assist us in understanding the mystery of the Trinity. Relation indicates that the three Persons of the Trinity are distinct because of how they relate to one another .

Using this vocabulary, the Church teaches several truths about the mystery of the Holy Trinity. While there are three distinct Persons, there is only ONE God—one divine being.

God is one, a “community- in-unity.” Using this vocabulary, the Church teaches several truths about the mystery of the Holy Trinity. We should not think of the Persons in the Trinity as being the same as human persons, or “people.” They are not three separate beings, or three separate wills or intellects. There is only one divine being. When one Person of the Trinity acts, the other Persons act in communion. God is one, a “community- in-unity.”

How do the Persons of the Trinity relate to one another?

As the first person of the Blessed Trinity, the Father is absolutely without origin. From all eternity, the Father “begets” the Son, the second Person of the Trinity. This means that the Father did not create the Son, but rather, the Son is the Father’s perfect, divine expression of himself.

“In the beginning, the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The Son, too, is a divine Person, and there was never a time when the Son did not proceed from the Father. “In the beginning, the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as the perfect expression of their divine love for each other.

The Son and the Holy Spirit are consubstantial with the Father. This means that the Son and the Holy Spirit have the exact divine nature as the Father.

The Father is not made, not created, not begotten by anyone. St. Athanasius described the different ways the Persons of the Trinity relate to one another. The Father is not made, not created, not begotten by anyone. The Son is from the Father alone. Neither created nor made, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son. Not created, not made, not begotten, but proceeding.

The Church has employed many symbols to try to express the mystery of the Triune God.

God’s Actions in Our Lives When we experience God’s saving activity in our lives and in the world, we can reflect upon the Salvific Trinity.

We experience the work of God the Father in the Salvific Trinity through his creation. The majesty of the world and every galaxy, as well as God’s gifts that sustain our life on the earth are all examples of the Father’s work in the Salvific Trinity.

Through our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, we experience the work of the Son of God in the Salvific Trinity. The second Person of the Trinity became human and is truly Emmanuel—“God with us.”

The Holy Spirit’s activity in the Salvific Trinity happens because the third Person of the Trinity lives in us. As Christ promised, the Holy Spirit is here to guide and strengthen us as individuals and as the Church community that we are.

saving intervention in the world: We typically attribute certain actions to the individual Persons of the Trinity, but remember that all three Persons act as one being. In the divine missions of the Blessed Trinity, we have distinctive works of God’s saving intervention in the world: creation, Salvation, and sanctification.

We typically attribute certain actions to the individual Persons of the Trinity, but remember that all three Persons act as one being. While the Father is associated with creation, the Son with Salvation, and the Holy Spirit with sanctification; all three Persons are fully present in all the divine missions.

As a sign of our gratitude, God asks us to love in imitation of him. Our contemplation of the Blessed Trinity leads us to a fundamental truth about the nature or essence of God: God is love. As a sign of our gratitude, God asks us to love in imitation of him. We were made to love, and can not be truly happy apart from loving God and other people.

The first place we learn to love is also a reflection of the love of God: our families We allow the Trinity to live in us when we reach out in love to our brothers and sisters.

As Pope John Paul II said, “God in his deepest mystery is not a solitude but a family, since he has in himself Fatherhood, Sonship, and the essence of a family, which is love.”

The Role of Mary, the Mother of God The perfect model of the Christian faith is Mary, the Mother of Jesus, our Savior.

Mary is the greatest saint. She is the very definition of what it means to be a saint—a holy person who lives in union with God. From the moment of her conception, Mary lived a life free of sin.

Mary is the greatest saint. At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel told the virgin Mary that God wanted her to become the mother of his Son. Despite the fear she must have experienced, she agreed to do as God asked.

Mary is the greatest saint. Mary could not have fully understood all of what God was asking of her, but her unselfish “yes” should be an example to all of us about the importance of having faith in God.

Directly after learning of God’s plan for her, Mary left home to see to the needs of her cousin Elizabeth, who was also pregnant. Not thinking of herself, but acting for the good of others, Mary offers us another example of what it means to show Christian love.

By dedicating her life to caring for the Son of God, Mary became the first disciple of Jesus, and continued to be so to the end of her life. From the moment of her “yes” to God’s plan, through the ministry, suffering, and death of her Son, Mary was a devoted follower of our Savior, and her Savior.

While he was dying on the cross, Jesus gave his mother to us, the Church. Mary stayed with the disciples after Jesus’ Ascension to support them as she had her own Son. She was present with the Apostles at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon them, bringing strength and courage.

At the end of her sinless earthly life, Mary was taken, body and soul, to be with her Son and reign as Queen of Heaven. This belief is called the Assumption, and serves as a promise to all the faithful of the eternal life God has in store for us. The Church has held this belief for many centuries, and Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption as a dogmatic teaching of the Church in 1950.

Because of the special role Mary plays in Salvation History, the Church teaches several other important truths about her . The Immaculate Conception is the belief that from the moment of Mary’s conception in the womb of her mother, she was preserved from Original Sin. Pope Pius IX declared the Immaculate Conception an infallible teaching of the Church in 1854. This means that, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception proclaimed by the Magisterium of the Church is totally free from error.

Because of the special role Mary plays in Salvation History, the Church teaches several other important truths about her . Mary conceived and bore Jesus our Savior as a virgin. Jesus had no human father, but was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary remained a virgin, even after the birth of the Lord, for her entire life.

Because of the special role Mary plays in Salvation History, the Church teaches several other important truths about her . At the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, the Church declared that Mary should be called Theotokos—which means “God-Bearer” or “Mother of God.” This title for Mary makes it clear that Jesus is one Person with two inseparable natures—human and divine.

Catholics have always had a special devotion to Mary Catholics have always had a special devotion to Mary. Because she is the Mother of God and the Mother of the Church, we ask her to intercede for us to God. Our prayers to Mary help us to imitate her total love and commitment to her Son. Our devotion to Mary should not be confused with worship, which is proper only for God. Mary never seeks glory for herself, but always points us toward her Son. As she told the waiters at Cana, she says to us: “Do whatever he tells you.”

Of the many devotions to Mary, the most popular is the Rosary, which includes a repeating of the Hail Mary and a meditation on the mysteries of the life of Christ.

Some other popular Marian devotions include the feast of the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God on January 1st, the Miraculous Medal, the Scapular, various Marian prayers such as the Angelus, and the devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.

The Holy Spirit Gives and Renews Life Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, and it is that Spirit—the third Person of the Blessed Trinity—who gives life to the Church.

Jesus called the Holy Spirit the Paraclete, indicating that the Holy Spirit would be our advocate, defender, and consoler. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift—or grace—to us, that enables us to share his life and love.

We first receive the Holy Spirit at our baptism, when we become temples of the Holy Spirit and are justified before God. Justification means that our sins are forgiven, and we are able to enter into a right relationship with God through our faith in Jesus Christ. While Jesus had no sin, the Holy Spirit descended upon him at his baptism as well.

The Holy Spirit also gives life to and builds up the Church. The Holy Spirit uses the Church to draw us to Christ, to reveal good things the Lord has done for us, and to make present today the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s love. This is done especially in the Eucharist, in which we share God’s own life.

Wisdom Understanding Counsel Fortitude Knowledge Piety The Holy Spirit showers gifts upon us that strengthen and build up the Church. Wisdom Understanding The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are bestowed on us especially at Baptism and Confirmation, and they make it easier for us to live a Christian life. Counsel Fortitude Knowledge Piety Fear of the Lord

St. Paul also tells us about other gifts of the Spirit called charisms. Charisms are given to individuals to benefit the person and strengthen the whole community. Among the charisms are wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracle working, prophecy, discernment, speaking in tongues, and interpreting tongues.

Further, St. Paul describes the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are spiritual perfections that result from the Holy Spirit living in us. These fruits are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.

The Holy Spirit brought the Church into existence at Pentecost. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that we find the Holy Spirit still actively working in the Church. The Holy Spirit works through the Scriptures which he inspired.

The Holy Spirit brought the Church into existence at Pentecost. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that we find the Holy Spirit still actively working in the Church. Through Sacred Tradition, witnessed throughout the ages by the Church Fathers.

The Holy Spirit brought the Church into existence at Pentecost. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that we find the Holy Spirit still actively working in the Church. Through the Magisterium or teaching authority of the Church, as a guide to the servants of God’s people: the pope and bishops of the Church.

The Holy Spirit brought the Church into existence at Pentecost. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that we find the Holy Spirit still actively working in the Church. In the Sacraments which put us in touch with the Risen Lord.

The Holy Spirit brought the Church into existence at Pentecost. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that we find the Holy Spirit still actively working in the Church. Through prayer, where he continually intercedes for us.

The Holy Spirit brought the Church into existence at Pentecost. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that we find the Holy Spirit still actively working in the Church. Through the many gifts and ministries that build up the Church as the Body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit brought the Church into existence at Pentecost. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that we find the Holy Spirit still actively working in the Church. Through the apostolic and missionary life and outreach.

The Holy Spirit brought the Church into existence at Pentecost. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that we find the Holy Spirit still actively working in the Church. Through the saints, whose lives witness to the presence of the Holy Spirit and his continuing work of Salvation.

Since the third Person of the Blessed Trinity is purely Spirit, we use many different symbols to communicate his presence, nature, and activity. Becoming familiar with these symbols can help us to understand the Holy Spirit more deeply.