Sunday, June 16, 2019

Heathen Banding - Holy Trinity


Here we are, on the day of the Feast of the holy and undivided Trinity itself, so how to make sense of it all, how can God be three persons in one divine nature? 

Well, you couldn't make it up, especially if you wanted to start a religion and make some loot and that, for me, is a powerful proof of the revealed nature of the thing, its veracity.

Regardless, perhaps Frank Sheed lifts us up to the brink of mystery. From Theology For Beginners (do yourself a favor and get one, it's free): 


So God utters a word – not framed by the mouth, of course, for God has no mouth. He is pure spirit. So it is a word in the mind of God, not sounding outwardly as our words sound, akin rather to a thought or an idea. What idea produced in God’s mind could possibly be God? Christian thinking saw early that it could be only the idea God has of himself.
…the idea that God has of himself cannot be imperfect. Whatever is in the Father must be in his idea of himself, and must be exactly the same as it is in himself. Otherwise God would have an inadequate idea of himself, which would be nonsense. Thus, because God is infinite, eternal, all-powerful, his idea of himself is infinite, eternal, all-powerful. Because God is God, his idea is God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God.”
…Father and Son love each other, with infinite intensity. What we could not know, if it were not revealed to us, is that they unite to express their love and that the expression is a third divine person. In the Son, the Father utters his self-knowledge; in the Holy Spirit, Father and Son utter their mutual love.
Their love is infinite; its expression cannot be less, Infinite love does not produce itself finitely; it can no more produce inadequate expression than infinite knowledge can produce an inadequate idea. Each gives himself wholly to the outpouring of his love for the other, holding nothing back – indeed the very thought of holding back is ridiculous; if they give themselves at all, they can give themselves only totally – they possess nothing but their totality! The uttered love of Father and Son is infinite, lacks no perfection that they have, is God, a person, someone.

Make of this what you will but be very sure you don't go against it. That way leads to madness and destruction.  

In the meanwhile, heathen banding on the wall, if we could be bothered to build it. Chop, chop.

Your Friend,

LSP


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