How can Jesus be “divine” and God remain one? Do we have a “three-headed” God? What are Christians proposing in talking about a “triune” God? Where does Jesus fit into this picture?
These honest questions aren’t as strange as they might first appear. They are very real questions for some people. For many out among us in the pews, the Trinity is completely irrelevant…it has no meaning for their work-a-day lives. The Triune God is merely and abstraction…a doctrine lost back in history with little or no relation to my everyday struggles.
What’s the answer to this state of affairs? First, we need to honor the questions. Then we need to probe for honest answers, for a good question deserves an intelligent response! So let’s explore the Jesus/God relation just a bit.
Let’s be honest. We wouldn’t know anything about a “Father” or “Holy Spirit” except for the fact that Jesus talked about them. So the early Church had a real problem. Jesus acted “Godly.” So does that mean we have three gods? Our answer was a resounding “no,” but then we had to explain ourselves. The result was a marvelous insight into a great Mystery. God is hidden…an immense Mystery of open, self-giving love. It is of Love’s nature to express itself, and to give itself away. When this Mystery is self-disclosing, we name this the “Word.” Now we have two “somethings” in God…God’s deepest Mystery (Father) and God’s self-expression (Word). But we can’t stop there to have a full notion of Love. Love gives of itself. And so, we name this self-giving “Holy Spirit.” God is still God…One…but there is a three “somethingness” in the Oneness.
So we need to recapture the integrated vision of the early Church, and never consider the three “Personas” separate from one another. Distinct, yes, but separate, no. The Orthodox use a candle flame to try to capture this profound Mystery. The flame is one thing, and I can talk about it. But I know the flame is there because I can see its light or feel its heat. I can also talk just about the light or heat. But all of us know we cannot separate the flame from its light or its heat.
Now we come to Jesus. To express God’s deepest Love, God’s very Self, the Word fused itself to human DNA. Now our human “stuff” is joined to God, never to be parted. In other words, God married us in Jesus, and the woman, Mary, was the bridal chamber. (Ever wonder why Jesus often talks about wedding banquets and worked his first miracle at Cana?) So, the Word, joined to our humanness, becomes the window, the Way to the heart of God through the self-giving Love of the Spirit.
A challenge: pick up your scripture and read any part of the Gospel. Pay close attention to Jesus in whatever he is saying or doing. Ask yourself two questions: What do I know now of God by what he has said? What do I now know of God by what he is doing? In doing this, you are allowing Jesus to be the window, the icon, the Way, the Door…into the very heart of God as Love, disclosing Itself and giving Itself. God will be One, yet self-disclosing to you, and revealing too, how God is self-giving Love.
