ARTICLE I
"I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, CREATOR OF
HEAVEN AND EARTH"
Paragraph 2. The Father [ Go to Paragraph 3 The Almighty ]
I. "IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT"
232 Christians are baptized "in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"53 (Mt 28:19.) Before receiving the sacrament,
they respond to a three-part question when asked to confess the Father, the Son
and the Spirit: "I do." "The faith of all Christians rests on
the Trinity."54 (St. Caesarius of Arles, Sermo 9, Exp. symb.: CCL 103, 47.)
233 Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not in their names,55 for there is only one
God, the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy
Trinity. (Profession of faith of Pope Vigilius I (552): DS 415.)
234 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central
mystery of 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. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the "hierarchy
of the truths of faith".56 (GCD 43.) The whole history of salvation is identical
with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men "and reconciles and unites
with himself those who turn away from sin".57 (GCD 47)
235 This paragraph expounds briefly:
(I) how the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was revealed,
(II) how the Church has articulated the doctrine of the faith regarding this mystery, and
(III) how, by the divine missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Father fulfills the "plan of his loving goodness" of creation, redemption and sanctification.
(I) how the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was revealed,
(II) how the Church has articulated the doctrine of the faith regarding this mystery, and
(III) how, by the divine missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Father fulfills the "plan of his loving goodness" of creation, redemption and sanctification.
236 The Fathers of the Church distinguish between theology
(theologia) and economy (oikonomia). "Theology" refers to the mystery
of God's inmost life within the Blessed Trinity and "economy" to all
the works by which God reveals himself and communicates his life. Through the
oikonomia the theologia is revealed to us; but conversely, the theologia
illuminates the whole oikonomia. God's works reveal who he is in himself; the
mystery of his inmost being enlightens our understanding of all his works. So
it is, analogously, among human persons. A person discloses himself in his actions,
and the better we know a person, the better we understand his actions.
237 The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense,
one of the "mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known
unless they are revealed by God".58 (Dei Filius 4: DS 3015.) To be sure, God has left traces of his
Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the
Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is
inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation
of God's Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
II. THE REVELATION OF GOD AS TRINITY
The Father revealed by the Son
238 Many religions invoke God as "Father". The
deity is often considered the "father of gods and of men". In Israel,
God is called "Father" inasmuch as he is Creator of the world.59 (Dt 32:6; Mal 2:10.)
Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, "his first-born son".60 (Ex 4:22.) God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is "the Father of the poor", of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.61 (2 Sam 7:14; /Ps 68:6.)
Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, "his first-born son".60 (Ex 4:22.) God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is "the Father of the poor", of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.61 (2 Sam 7:14; /Ps 68:6.)
239 By calling God "Father", the language of faith
indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and
transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving
care for all his children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by
the image of motherhood,62 (Is 66:13; ⇒ Ps 131:2.) which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy
between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human
experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for
man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can
disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall
that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man
nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood,
although he is their origin and standard:63 (Ps 27:10; ⇒ Eph 3:14; ⇒ Is 49:15.) no one is father as God is Father.
240 Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of
sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in
relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father:
"No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father
except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."64 (Mt 11-27.)
241 For this reason the apostles confess Jesus to be the
Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God"; as "the image of the invisible God"; as the
"radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of his nature".65 (Jn 1:1; ⇒ Col 1:15; ⇒ Heb 1:3.)
242 Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed
at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is
"consubstantial" with the Father, that is, one only God with him.66 (The English phrases "of one being" and "one in being" translate the Greek word homoousios, which was rendered in Latin by consubstantialis.) The second ecumenical council, held at Constantinople in 381, kept this
expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed "the
only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light,
true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the
Father".67 (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed; cf. DS 150.)
The Father and the Son revealed by the Spirit
243 Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of
"another Paraclete" (Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since
creation, having previously "spoken through the prophets", the Spirit
will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them "into
all the truth".68 (Gen 1:2; Nicene Creed (DS 150); ⇒ Jn 14:17, ⇒ 26; ⇒ 16:13.) The Holy Spirit is thus revealed as another divine
person with Jesus and the Father.
244 The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his
mission in time. The Spirit is sent to the apostles and to the Church both by
the Father in the name of the Son, and by the Son in person, once he had
returned to the Father.69 (Jn 14:26; ⇒ 15:26; ⇒ 16:14.) The sending of the person of the Spirit after Jesus'
glorification70 (Jn 7:39) reveals in its fullness the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
245 The apostolic faith concerning the Spirit was confessed
by the second ecumenical council at Constantinople (381): "We believe in
the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the
Father."71 (Nicene Creed; cf. DS 150.) By this confession, the Church recognizes the Father as
"the source and origin of the whole divinity".72 (Council of Toledo VI (638): DS 490.) But the eternal
origin of the Spirit is not unconnected with the Son's origin: "The Holy
Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is God, one and equal with the Father
and the Son, of the same substance and also of the same nature. . . Yet he is
not called the Spirit of the Father alone,. . . but the Spirit of both the
Father and the Son."73 ( Council of Toledo XI (675): DS 527.) The Creed of the Church from the Council of
Constantinople confesses: "With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped
and glorified."74 (Nicene Creed; cf. DS 150.)
246 The Latin tradition of the Creed confesses that the
Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque)". The Council
of Florence in 1438 explains: "The Holy Spirit is eternally from Father
and Son; He has his nature and subsistence at once (simul) from the Father and
the Son. He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one
spiration. . . . And, since the Father has through generation given to the
only-begotten Son everything that belongs to the Father, except being Father,
the Son has also eternally from the Father, from whom he is eternally born,
that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son."75 (Council of Florence (1439): DS 1300-1301.)
247 The affirmation of the filioque does not appear in the
Creed confessed in 381 at Constantinople. But Pope St. Leo I, following an
ancient Latin and Alexandrian tradition, had already confessed it dogmatically
in 447,76 ( Leo I, Quam laudabiliter (447): DS 284.) even before Rome, in 451 at the Council of Chalcedon, came to
recognize and receive the Symbol of 381. The use of this formula in the Creed
was gradually admitted into the Latin liturgy (between the eighth and eleventh
centuries). The introduction of the filioque into the Niceno-Constantinopolitan
Creed by the Latin liturgy constitutes moreover, even today, a point of
disagreement with the Orthodox Churches.
248 At the outset the Eastern tradition expresses the
Father's character as first origin of the Spirit. By confessing the Spirit as
he "who proceeds from the Father", it affirms that he comes from the
Father through the Son.77 (Jn 15:26; cf. AG 2.) The Western tradition expresses first the
consubstantial communion between Father and Son, by saying that the Spirit
proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque). It says this,
"legitimately and with good reason",78 ( Council of Florence (1439): DS 1302.) for the eternal order of the
divine persons in their consubstantial communion imply that the Father, as
"the principle without principle",79 (Council of Florence (1442): DS 1331.) is the first origin of the
Spirit, but also that as Father of the only Son, he is, with the Son, the single principle from which the Holy Spirit proceeds.80 (Council of Lyons II(1274): DS 850.) This legitimate
complementarity provided it does not become rigid, does not affect the
identity of faith in the reality of the same mystery confessed.
III. THE HOLY TRINITY IN THE TEACHING OF THE FAITH
The formation of the Trinitarian dogma
249 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."81 (2 Cor 13:14; cf. ⇒ I Cor 12:4 - 6; ⇒ Eph 4:4-6.)
250 During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify
her Trinitarian faith, both to deepen her own understanding of the faith and to
defend it against the 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.
251 In order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the
Church had to develop her own terminology with the help of certain notions of
philosophical origin: "substance", "person" or
"hypostasis", "relation" and so on. In doing this, she did
not submit the faith to human wisdom, but gave a new and unprecedented meaning
to these terms, which from then on would be used to signify an ineffable
mystery, "infinitely beyond all that we can humanly understand".82 (Paul VI, CPC # 2.)
252 The Church uses
(I) the term "substance" (rendered also at times by "essence" or "nature") to designate the divine being in its unity,
(II) the term "person" or "hypostasis" to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them, and
(III) the term "relation" to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others.
(I) the term "substance" (rendered also at times by "essence" or "nature") to designate the divine being in its unity,
(II) the term "person" or "hypostasis" to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them, and
(III) the term "relation" to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others.
The dogma of the Holy Trinity
253 The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but
one God in three persons, the "consubstantial Trinity".83 (Council of Constantinople II (553): DS 421.) 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 the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by
nature one God."84 (Council of Toledo XI (675): DS 530:26.) In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215),
"Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance,
essence or nature."85 (Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 804.)
254 The divine persons are really distinct from one another.
"God is one but not solitary."86 ( Fides Damasi: DS 71.) "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."87 (Council of Toledo XI (675): DS 530:25.) 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."88 (Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 804.) The divine Unity
is Triune.
255 The divine persons are relative to one another. 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."89 (Council of Toledo XI (675): DS 528.) Indeed "everything (in them) is one where there is no
opposition of relationship."90 (Council of Florence (1442): DS 1330.) "Because of that unity the Father is
wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the
Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father
and wholly in the Son."91 (Council of Florence (1442): DS 1331.)
256 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called "the
Theologian", entrusts this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens
of Constantinople:
Above all guard
for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to
take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all
pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge you
into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and
patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one
in three, and containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without
disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that raises up or
inferior degree that casts down. . . the infinite co-naturality of three
infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely God. . . the three
considered together. . . I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity
bathes me in its splendor. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when
unity grasps me. . .92 (St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 40, 41: PG 36,417.)
IV. THE DIVINE WORKS AND THE TRINITARIAN MISSIONS
257 "O blessed light, O Trinity and first
Unity!"93 (LH, Hymn for Evening Prayer.) God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is
love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of
his blessed life. Such is the "plan of his loving kindness",
conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son:
"He destined us in love to be his sons" and "to be conformed to
the image of his Son", through "the spirit of sonship".94 (Eph 1:4-5, ⇒ 9; ⇒ Rom 8:15, ⇒ 29.) This
plan is a "grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages
began", stemming immediately from Trinitarian love.95 (2 Tim 1:9-10.) It unfolds in the work
of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of
the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church.96 (AG 2-9.)
258 The whole divine economy is the common work of the three
divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too
does it have only one and the same operation: "The Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle."97 (Council of Florence (1442): DS 1331; cf. Council of Constantinople II (553): DS 421.) However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique
personal property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament,
"one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things
are".98 (Council of Constantinople II: DS 421.) It is above all the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and
the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine
persons.
259 Being a work at once common and personal, the whole
divine economy makes known both what is proper to the divine persons, and their
one divine nature. Hence the whole Christian life is a communion with each of
the divine persons, without in any way separating them. Everyone who glorifies
the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows
Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him.99 (Jn 6:44; ⇒ Rom 8:14.)
260 The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the
entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity.100 (Jn 17:21-23.) But
even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: "If a
man loves me", says the Lord, "he will keep my word, and my Father
will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him":101 (Jn 14:23.)
O my God, Trinity
whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you,
unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be
able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may
each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make
it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never
abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in
my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.102 (Prayer of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity.)
IN BRIEF
261 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central
mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it
known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
262 The Incarnation of God's Son reveals that God is the
eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means
that, in the Father and with the Father the Son is one and the same God.
263 The mission of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in
the name of the Son (Jn 14:26) and by the Son "from the Father" (Jn
15:26), reveals that, with them, the Spirit is one and the same God. "With
the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified" (Nicene Creed).
264 "The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father as the
first principle and, by the eternal gift of this to the Son, from the communion
of both the Father and the Son" (St. Augustine, De Trin. 15, 26, 47: PL
42, 1095).
265 By the grace of Baptism "in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", we are called to share in the life
of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after
death in eternal light (cf. Paul VI, CPG § 9).
266 "Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God
in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons
or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is
another, the Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal" (Athanasian
Creed: DS 75; ND 16).
267 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.
CONTINUE TO PARAGRAPH 3 - THE ALMIGHTY
CONTINUE TO PARAGRAPH 3 - THE ALMIGHTY
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