A Homily for Trinity Sunday*
Whosoever will be saved, before all
things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith; which faith except
every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish
everlastingly. And the catholic faith is
this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity
in Unity; neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
For there is one
person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such
as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreated, the
Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated. The Father incomprehensible, the Son
incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
The Father
eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet they are
not three eternals but one eternal. As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible,
but one uncreated and one incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son
almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.
And yet they are not three almighties, but one
almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is
God, and the Holy Spirit is God; and yet they are not three Gods, but one
God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the
Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; and yet they are not three Lords but one
Lord. For like as we are compelled by
the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;
so are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say; There
are three Gods or three Lords.
The Father is made of none, neither
created nor begotten. The Son is of the
Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the
Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers;
one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
And in this Trinity none is afore or
after another; none is greater or less than another. But the whole three persons are coeternal,
and coequal. So that
in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is
to be worshipped. He therefore
that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.
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All those Catholic expounders of the
Holy Scripture, both of the Old Testament and of the New, who have written
concerning the Trinity, Who is God, have tried to teach this doctrine,
according to the Scriptures: that the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit constitute a divine unity of one and
the same substance in an indivisible equality; and therefore that they are not
three Gods, but one God.
The Father hath begotten the Son,
and so He who is the Father is not the Son.
The Son is begotten by the Father, and so He who is the Son is not the
Father. And the Holy Spirit is neither
the Father nor the Son, but is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, Himself
also co-equal with the Father and the Son, and pertaining to the unity of the
Trinity.
It was not the Trinity was born of
the Virgin Mary, and crucified under Pontius Pilate, and that was buried, and
rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven, but only the Son.
Again, it was not the Trinity that
descended in the form of a dove upon Jesus when He was baptized; nor, on the
day of Pentecost, after the ascension of the Lord, when “there came a sound
from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind,” was it the Trinity that “lit upon
each of them with cloven tongues like as of fire,” but only the Holy Spirit.
Nor was it the Trinity that said
from heaven, “Thou art my Son,” either when Jesus was baptized by John or when
the three disciples were with Him on the mountain, or when the voice sounded,
saying, “I have both glorified it, and yet will glorify it,” but that was the
Father only, speaking to the Son.
But the Father, and the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, as they are indivisible, so work indivisibly. This is also our
faith, because it is the Catholic
faith.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit together is not a greater essence than the Father alone or the Son alone
or the Holy Spirit alone; but these three persons together are equal to each
singly. This is difficult for us human
beings to comprehend, because we cannot think except under the conditions of matter
and space, and so phantasms or, as it were images of bodies, flit about in our
minds. And so, until we are purged from our
corruption, let us believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, alone,
great, omnipotent, good, just, merciful, Creator of all things visible and
invisible, and whatsoever can be worthily and truly said of Him in proportion
to human capacity.
And when we are told that the Father
is the only God, let us not separate from Him the Son or the Holy Spirit; for
together with them He is the only God, together with them also He is one God;
because, when we are told that the Son also is the only God, we must understand
that without
any separation of the Father or the Holy Spirit. And let us so say “being of one substance,” as
not to think one to be either greater or better than, or in any respect
differing from, one another.
And yet, we must not say that the
Father Himself is both Son and Holy Spirit, or whatever else each is singly
called in relation to either of the others.
“Word,” which is not said except of the Son, and
“Gift” is not said except of the Holy Spirit. And on this account it is also permissible to
use the plural number, as it is written in the Gospel, “I and my Father are
one.”
And there is a reason why, in the
Trinity, the Son and none other is called the “Word of God,”
and the Holy Spirit and none other is called the “Gift of God,” and God the
Father alone is He from whom the Word is born, and from whom the Holy Spirit
principally proceeds. (We find that the
Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son also. But
the Father gave Him this, too, because whatever He
gave to the only-begotten Word, He gave by begetting Him. Therefore the Father so begat the Son that the common Gift should
proceed from the Son also, and the Holy Spirit should be the Spirit of both.
This distinction, then, of the
inseparable Trinity is not to be merely accepted in passing, but to be
carefully considered; for hence it was that the Word of God was specially
called also the “Wisdom of God,” although both Father and Holy Spirit are
wisdom. If, then, any one of the three is to be specially called Love, what
could be more fitting than that it should be the Holy Spirit? In that
simple and highest nature, substance is not one thing and love another, but the
substance itself is love, and love itself is the substance, whether in the
Father, or in the Son, or in the Holy Spirit. And yet the Holy Spirit should be specially
called Love.
Therefore, as Holy Scripture
proclaims that God is love, and that love is of God, and works in us that we
abide in God and He in us, and that hereby we know
this, because He has given us of His Spirit, then the Spirit Himself is God,
who is love. And if there is among the gifts of God none greater than love, and
there is no greater gift of God than the Holy Spirit, what follows more
naturally than that the Holy Spirit is Himself love, who is called both “God”
and “of God”? And if the love by which
the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, ineffably demonstrates
the communion of both, what is more suitable than that He should be specially
called love, who is the Spirit common to both?
For this is the sounder thing both
to believe and to understand, that the Holy Spirit is not alone love in that
Trinity, yet is specially called love; just as He is not alone in that Trinity
either a Spirit or holy, since both the Father is a Spirit, and the Son is a
Spirit; and both the Father is holy, and the Son is holy, as piety doubts not.
And yet He is specially called the Holy Spirit; for because He is common to
both, He is specially called that which both are in common.
We believe in the one Lord God, the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For Truth would not have said, “Go,
baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit,” unless the Lord God was a Trinity. Nor would the divine voice have said, “Hear, O
Israel, the Lord thy God is one God,” unless he were such a Trinity as to be
one Lord God.”
The wise man spake
of the Lord God in his book, which is now called Ecclesiasticus:
“We speak much, and yet come short,” he said, “and in sum of words, He is all.” When, therefore, we shall have come to God,
these very many things that we speak, and yet come short, will cease; and God,
as One, will remain “all in all.” And we shall say one
thing without end, praising the Three in One,
ourselves also made one in Him, the one Lord God, God the Holy Trinity.
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*
This homily is not an original composition. The first part is from the Quicunque Vult, the so-called “Athanasian
Creed.” The remainder is from Augustine’s
treatise “On the Trinity.”
22
May 2005
Return
to the deacon’s homily
page.