Vigils Reading

TRINITARIAN FAITH

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church3

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From the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the

very root of the Church’s living faith, principally by means of Baptism. It finds its

expression in the rule of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching, catechesis,

and prayer of the Church. Such formulations are already found in the apostolic

writings, such as this salutation taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy: “The grace of

the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be

with you all.”

During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify its Trinitarian faith,

both to deepen its own understanding of the faith and to defend it against errors

that were deforming it. This clarification was the work of the early councils, aided

by the theological work of the Church Fathers and sustained by the Christian

people’s sense of the faith.

The Church uses the term “substance” (rendered also at times by “essence”

or “nature”) to designate the divine being in its unity, the term “person” or

“hypostasis” to designate the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the real distinction

among them, and the term “relation” to designate the fact that their distinction

lies in the relationship of each to the others.

We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the

“consubstantial Trinity“. The divine persons do not share the one divinity among

themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: “The Father is that which

the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which

3 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994, Liberia Editrice Vaticana, USCC, pgs. 66-67.7

the Holy Spirit is… by nature one God“. In the words of the Fourth Lateran

Council: “Each of the persons is that supreme reality ”

…

“Father“,”Son“,”Holy Spirit” are not simply names designating modalities

of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: “He is not the

Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit

he who is the Father or the Son.” They are distinct from one another in their

relations of origin: “It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and

the Holy Spirit who proceeds.” The divine Unity is Trinity.

Because it does not divide the divine unity, the real distinction of the

persons from one another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to

one another: “In the relational names of the persons the Father is related to the

Son, the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to both. While they are called three

persons in view of their relations, we believe in one nature or substance.” Indeed

“everything (in them) is one where there is no opposition of relationship.”

…Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what

they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper

to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation

and the gift of the Holy Spirit.