The Most Holy Trinity
It doesn’t take
much to understand the expression, “the devil’s in the details.” Small,
seemingly insignificant details, can be the key to success or failure. The
Faustian myth of the devil striking up what seems to be an arms-length bargain
with a desperate soul for some promised reward, illustrates it best. The devil
must have invented the small print at the foot of the contract and conveniently
forgotten to mention that any reward comes at a disproportionate price – the
loss of one’s salvation. It is clear why the devil tries to hide the truth in
the details. Details are time consuming,
nerve wrecking, tedious and can bog you down. Details seem to be the sole province
of anal retentive personalities, obsessive compulsive individuals who drive you
mad with their nit-picking and insistence on precision. No, the devil
understands us too well. He wishes to cover-up the truth, disguise the truth,
and tries to get it in the fine print so we don’t pay attention. He is the
author of broad generalisations, ambiguity and confusion.
But many would
theorise that there is a much older variation of the expression. Instead of the
devil, it is “God” who “is in the details.” Many have postulated that both expressions
refer to the same reality, though from different angles. “God is in the
details,” suggests the fine details improve the bigger picture and paying
attention to them will bring far greater rewards. Whereas, “the devil is in the
details” seems to suggest that failure to pay attention to the final details
will have a detrimental effect on the bigger picture. The two phrases could be
considered opposites and yet could be considered the same. There is nothing
paradoxical about this. Taken together, they basically say that until you dig
into the details, you really don't know what you've got.
It is good to remember
that “God is in the details” when we contemplate the central doctrine of our
faith – the Most Holy Trinity. The foundational reality underlying everything
is God Himself, a Triune Unity. This is what the Catechism of the Catholic
Church teaches, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of
our Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in Himself. It is
therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that
enlightens them.” Yet, strangely, it’s one of those topics that most priests,
religious and catechists would avoid. In fact, most Catholics would just
dismiss the finer details of the explanation and resort to just committing to
memory the most basic formula, “One God, Three Persons.” If anyone were to
brave enough to ask or probe further, they would most likely get a rap on the
knuckles and a quick reprimand for questioning the very nature of God.
You may not take
me seriously when I venture to claim that this is actually a simple doctrine. That’s
hard to believe, right? But it is true. It is simple because God can be described
as the supreme simplicity, and the Trinity is the Church’s most basic description
of who God actually is – and who He needs to be in order to save us. To speak
of, or pray to, God as Trinity is to use a kind of ancient abbreviation. It is
a made-up word unique to the Christian faith, a shorthand way of affirming
three statements:
1.
There
is only one God.
2.
The
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is each God.
3.
The
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not the same.
Though it is a
made-up word to speak of all these realities at once, it is not a made-up
doctrine, an invention of theologians. The doctrine of the Trinity did not
arise out of speculation about God, out of an attempt of philosophical thinking
to explain to itself what the fount of all being was like. The reason why
Christians talk about God as Trinity is because God revealed Himself to them as
Trinity; in their own lives, in the collective life of the Church, and through
the Old and New Testament. The goal of revelation is not to confuse man. The
goal of revelation is that we may enter into a deeper communion with Him, with
the real Him, and not just an imaginary Him.
Nevertheless, one
of the most popular arguments that is used to reject theological fineries would
be that we should leave dogma, doctrine and the study of the truths of Faith to
the more intellectually minded. Doctrine is considered to be dry, abstract and
arid. It is said that doctrine, the truths of Faith stated in propositional
form, cannot compete with the personal lived experience of God. Venerable
Cardinal Neumann best describes this phenomena. “People urge that salvation
consists, not in believing the propositions that there is a God, that there is
a Saviour, that our Lord is God, that there is a Trinity, but in believing in
God, in a Saviour, in a Sanctifier; and they object that such propositions are
but a formal and human medium destroying all true reception of the Gospel, and
making religion a matter of words or of logic, instead of its having its seat
in the heart.”
Is this objection
justified? Hardly. What many people fail to see is that there is no opposition
between the propositional presentation of faith and the personal experience of
faith. Faith is both propositional and personal. Neumann reminds us that, “knowledge
must ever precede the exercise of the affections. We feel gratitude and love,
we feel indignation and dislike, when we have the informations actually put
before us which are to kindle those several emotions. We love our parents, as
our parents, when we know them to be our parents; we must know concerning God,
before we can feel love, fear, hope, or trust towards Him. Devotion must have
its objects; those objects, as being supernatural, when not represented to our
senses by material symbols, must be set before the mind in propositions. The
formula, which embodies a dogma for the theologian, readily suggests an object
for the worshipper.”
Doctrinal
formulas, rather than detaching us from God, are absolutely necessary for
attaching us to Him. We cannot love God if we know nothing about Him. The more
penetrating our knowledge of God, the deeper the love. It is no wonder that God chooses to reveal
Himself as Trinity. He would rather risk confusion and ridicule than to
perpetuate a shallow understand of His true nature. The details are necessary
to avoid the confusion based on loose speculations, guess work and the human
predilection to make God in our image and likeness.
So, if you have
never really taken the trouble to read up more about the Most Holy Trinity,
it’s time to remedy that. It’s never just an intellectual project but rather
one which is motivated by love and devotion. It is because I wish to know more
about the One whom I love and through that knowledge come to love Him more. It
is good to remember that when we abdicate the responsibility to know more about
God and rely merely on rudimentary knowledge at best and pure sentiments at
worst, we risk falling into heresy. The great majority of Catholics do not want
to be heretics, whether wittingly or unwittingly. But one become an unwitting
heretic when one chooses to hold on to or even promote one’s own preference,
opinion or decision over that which is revealed by God and taught by the Church.
Over the centuries, we have many such views, which includes describing the
Trinity as different modalities (one reality in three shapes or forms like
water, ice or steam), three different Gods (like the Mormons), or three
different beings of varying rank and status (like the Jehovah Witnesses who
describe Jesus as a superhuman divine being but less than God). We risk heresy
whenever we are contented with broad generalisations and ambiguity.
In our pursuit of
theological precision, we must also remember that our flawed and fragile
thoughts and words are never up to the job of giving a full, wholly sufficient
description of the Most High. God is indeed “more than words,” as St Thomas
realised. But the truth of the Triune God should not be lessened by the
inadequacy of language and human intelligence. At the end of day, we come to
accept what God has said about Himself even though we may not fully understand
every aspect of that revelation. The truth of the revelation will always be
simple. Our comprehension is another matter. But we should never cease to be
motivated to delve deeper. For God, and not the devil, is to be found in the
details.
God bless you Fr. Michael and thank you.....so needed that.
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