The Mystery of the Trinity

In his homily this past Sunday for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, Father Andrzej brought up the Arian Heresy, which denied the Hypostatic Union.

If you are anything like I was when I first heard that term, you're probably saying, "The Hypo-what now?"

My bachelor's degree is in English.  I've always loved words - spelling them, learning about their etymology, picking apart their roots to get at their deeper meaning.  So, Hypostatic Union.  Let's take that apart.

In terms of doctrine, Hypostatic Union refers to the mystery that Jesus Christ was fully human and fully divine.  The term comes from the Greek hypostasis, meaning substance.  So, literally, the Hypostatic Union means a bringing together of substances - the Divine and the Human - into the one person, Jesus Christ, "the eternally begotten Son of the Father who became man and revealed in a human form, in a human language, the mystery of God," as Father said in his homily this week.

In response to the Arian heresy, the Church convened the First Council of Nicea in 325 AD, out of which came the Nicene Creed, which we profess at Mass on Sundays.  In the most recent English translation, this creed states that Jesus Christ is "consubstantial with the Father", consubstantialem Patri in Latin.  Again, we can take the word consubstantial apart to get at its deeper meaning.  The prefix con- means together or with, and substantial means relating to substance.  Consubstantial, as it is used in the creed, means “of the same substance as the Father,” further emphasizing the divinity of Jesus.

Still, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, one God in three divine persons, is just that, a mystery, which is hard for us humans to wrap our minds around.  Saint Patrick is said to have tried to explain the Trinity using a shamrock, three leaves but one plant.  I really like how Father Andrzej explained it later in his homily:  From all of eternity God’s perfect knowledge of God begets the image of God, which is the Son, eternally begotten Son, the perfect image of the Father.  Their mutual intimacy and love begets from all of eternity the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Divine Being, which contains from eternity the immensity of love between the Eternal Father and the Eternally Begotten Son.  The eternity Father Andrzej is referring to here means nothing created yet.  God would not be love if there would be nothing to love.

One of the benefits of being a cantor is I often hear a Sunday homily more than once, or I hear different homilies at different Masses on the same Sunday.  At the 5:00 PM Mass on Sunday, Father Patrick Elliot pointed out that the Church baptizes in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, not in the names of the three persons.  The one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  

"Our baptism in the name of the Trinity ... means that we are to participate, that is to say, we are called to participate in the life of God, into an intimate relationship with God, to join in the circle of love which is God.  This is how Christians experience God:  the Father who creates and sustains us, the Son who is our Savior, who gives Himself completely for us, and then the Spirit who lives within us.  Why?  To animate us, to guide us, and to direct us in our daily lives."

Father Andrzej stated at the beginning of his homily that sometimes we do not give as much thought to the Sign of the Cross as we should.  If we strive truly to live our lives in the mystery of the Trinity, we need to begin by being mindful of the mystery we profess when we say, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen."