Sunday, June 7, 2009

Trinity Sunday

This weekend, we celebrate the key doctrine of our Christian Faith: The Trinity. We are monotheistic - we believe in only one God. But our God is three Persons. Three persons perfectly united in one substance or existence. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God. Jesus Christ reveals Himself as God, and reveals the Father and the Spirit. These names are not simple names of modes - how God is revealed - but names of persons, and their internal relationship. It is not sufficient, as the Church has reminded us, to replace the 'traditional' names with other such Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier (to avoid 'patriarchal' language) because these reduce the Persons to activity, and when One Person is active, all members of the Trinity are active in their own way! The Father begets the Son eternally, and the Son is eternally begotten (but not made or created), and the Spirit proceeds from them both eternally. In love, they are one existence, three persons perfectly united.

This feast reminds us that God invites us into communion - we are created in the image and likeness of God. May we follow the example of the Trinity in loving others, and respond to His call in lives of service.

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