The Trinity and the Mystery of our Existence

The mystery of the Holy Trinity is one that we cannot humanly comprehend.   There are however, clues to the divine nature of God imbedded in nature.  We cannot arrive at an awareness of God or the Trinity based on our human intellect alone, we must rely on divine revelation.  Of course the most perfect revelation about the nature of God comes from the words and life of Jesus Himself.  He said that when the disciples saw Him, they saw God the Father, explaining, “The Father and I are one.”  (John 10:30)

Jesus revealed The Father to be loving and forgiving, an understanding that led St. John to reveal that, “God is Love.”  (1 John 4:8)  Many people believe this, even if they do not profess or practice one of the mainline Christian religious traditions.   Catholic doctrine offers an explanation based on the divine nature of God in the Trinity.  The Father loves the Son, from all eternity, and the Son loves the Father.   So great is their love for one another that it is manifested in the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit.  In this respect, the Trinity is a loving relationship of the Three Persons, so powerful that they are One God.  Our human nature reflects this mystery in that we are capable of love.  When a man and woman love one another intimately, they become “one flesh,” and out of that union comes another unique person, the very expression of the love of the parents.   In this way, we humans are privileged to participate in the inner life of the Holy Trinity and the creation of a third, unique person.  St. Pope John Paul II made all this very clear in his amazing catechesis on the nature of our human bodies and human love.  That body of work which was written as a series of weekly talks given at his public audiences, early in his pontificate, is now referred to as the “Theology of the Body.”  In it, the former pope drew on anthropology, physiology, psychology, philosophy, and theology to lay out the true meaning of our masculinity and femininity, and the source of our inherent beauty and dignity as human persons.  The nature of our bodies reveals the very love of God which flows through each of us.  When that love is expressed in the nuptial embrace, it reflects the very nature of the Holy Trinity, which is an intimate loving relationship, so powerful and so fecund that it has the power to create new life. 

Our fertility, a gift from God, is meant to be an integral part of a loving relationship.  It is the total giving of ourselves to another person that forms a bond of love which reflects the permanent and unconditional love of the Trinity. (Nature imitating The Trinity).   Chastity and virginity is a great gift that we give to our spouses in making the permanent commitments that form the basis of marriage, the creation of a family, and the environment in which to raise children born out of that love.

Sadly, modern society has grown so accustomed to separating sex from fertility, that we have all but forgotten that sex and fertility are part of nature, an essential part of God’s plan for human existence and procreation.   Removing or thwarting our fertility makes us less fully masculine or feminine, and contributes to the selfish notion that sex drive is meant solely for our pleasure.  Consequently, casual sexual partners are no more than objects for our satisfaction.  In this worldview, we cut ourselves off from God’s plan for men and women, in that we no longer reflect the nature of the Trinity, rooted in self-giving Love.   Moreover, children are no longer seen as the product of selfless love, but instead, the unfortunate consequence of a “mistake.”  Rather than recognizing unborn children as unique human beings, imbued with the natural right to life, and the right to both a father and a mother, they are treated as commodities.  Consider the millions of embryos fertilized artificially, then frozen, awaiting implantation, used for stem cell research, or merely discarded.  People often think they are “entitled” to have a baby when and if they are ready, whether married or not, regardless of who the father or mother may be.  Sperm banks, egg donors, and surrogate mothers are all commonly accepted as part of the parenting landscape in which people who believe they are entitled to a child, skip over the natural phenomenon of human love, expressed intimately by husband and wife.  This is curious because the very same people who think like this are often big proponents of protecting mother nature, saving the planet from climate change, promoting animal rights, eating organic foods, and going green.  Yet they don’t think twice about chemically shutting down their natural fertility, or killing an unborn baby by dismembering them alive, or scalding them to death with saline solution.   Apparently they feel free to pick and choose when going “natural” is convenient to their lifestyle and aligns with their political views.

One final thought on all this, a musing on my part about the nature of God’s Love.  You won’t find this anywhere in Catholic doctrine, but what if the Love of God is the very energy that created the universe?  Scientists still argue about what caused the “Big Bang.”  The tremendous energy that created all matter and sent it hurtling out into space is a “mystery” par excellence.   Could it be that what we think of as energy is in fact the very Love of God?  Physicists now agree that the tiniest particles of matter are at their root, really tiny little packets of energy.  What we know to be atoms and elements, are comprised of neutrons and electrons that are themselves made up of little packets of energy, mysteriously held together by various forms of electromagnetic force.  Even within an atom, the space between neutron and electrons is huge, making them mostly just empty space, much the way there is so much space between the planets and the sun, or our solar system and the rest of the Milky Way.  Maybe, just maybe… the energy that forms and holds atoms, and planets, and stars in their stabile state of existence, hurtling through space, is The Love of God.   If this is the case, then we ourselves, made up of atoms and molecules and cells that grow mysteriously and replace themselves on their own, are quite literally the embodiment of The Love of God!  

This may sound a bit too much like pantheism, but I’m not suggesting that we ourselves are God, or that nature is God.  Rather, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the intelligence behind the grand design of all existence, and they created it out of their Love, their energy.  Moreover, we and everything that exists, owe our existence to The Love of God, the Holy Trinity.