(God in) Relationship

Homily for Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Eastertide

As Christians, we believe in a triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. However, belief in the three persons of the Trinity is a doctrine that developed over the first four centuries of the Church. That doctrine was formulated using the words of Jesus in the Gospel of St. John. It took centuries and many councils for the church to come to this belief in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons. Today’s Gospel text points toward that doctrine as Jesus maintains that putting our faith in him means that we put our faith in the one who sent him. What God is is defined by God’s nature and substance. Who God is is defined by the Father who is the creator, by the Son who is begotten, and by the Holy Spirit which proceeds from the Father and the Son. This formulation expresses at once their distinction and their indissoluble unity. Thus, the entire process of creation and grace is viewed as a single shared action of the three divine persons, in which each person manifests the attributes unique to them in the Trinity, thereby proving that everything comes "from the Father," "through the Son," and "in the Holy Spirit."

In the very first book of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Book of Genesis, we are taught that darkness covered the abyss that was without form or shape. Consequently, creation begins with the words, “Let there be light.” In today’s Gospel text, Jesus proclaims that the Father sent him as light for those who dwell in darkness. The darkness that exists in people is obliterated by faith in Jesus. In this simple statement, Jesus gives us the first hint about the relationship that exists between him and the Father. It is this statement and others like it that led the early Christian community to come to the understanding of God as three persons dwelling in indissoluble unity. Though the doctrine of the Trinity did not come into being until the fourth century, it was already part of the early Christians understanding of God. While the very first formula for baptism named Jesus, by the end of the first century the formula for baptism specifically named the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

During Eastertide we proclaim our faith in God using the Apostles Creed. Careful reading of that creed will show that there is no claim to divinity mentioned when speaking of Jesus or the Holy Spirit. This omission was rectified in the Nicene Creed which was formulated through the Councils of Nicaea.

Though no specific book of the Christian Scriptures, all of which were written in the first century or what is known as the Apostolic Era, contains any direct reference to a triune God, those who put their faith in Jesus and in the eyewitness testimony of the apostles came to believe in the Holy Trinity. As we listen to the Gospel today, we give thanks to those early Christians who came to know the relationship between Jesus and the one who sent him.