If God is one, how can He be three? The most intelligent theologians have racked their brains over the problem, and the most prayerful ones have surrendered to the mystery. How it can be, we can't explain. But what it means, we can join! Our God is an ever-unfolding relationship. Theologians speak of the immanent and economic Trinity. The Trinity is immanent in the sense that the Persons are close and entirely sufficient within Godself. In other words, God doesn't require us for God to exist. The word economic is rooted in the Greek word for management of a household or family. The Trinity is economic in the sense that God has invited us to be part of Him. He's growing the family! We see the dynamic here in today's Gospel. 

Jesus says the Spirit "will take from what is mine and declare it to you" and that "everything that the Father has is mine." There is relationship here. Jesus speaks (and is) the word of the Father. The Holy Spirit speaks what He hears from the Son. The Father gives everything to the Son, and the Spirit speaks that inheritance over us. God invites us into the Trinitarian family!

The doctrine of the Trinity isn't something to brush off as overwhelming. After all, "the Spirit of truth... will guide you to all truth." This occurs most perfectly in the Church, who protects all that has been revealed by God in Scripture and gradually unpacked in tradition. We can trust the declarations of Her theologians and learn from the lives of Her saints. The Trinity may be a mystery, but, by the grace of God, we can have real truth about who God is and how we can love like Him.

~© LPi