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If we read the Fathers of the Church and the ancient
theologians, I we shall see that for them the dogma of
the Trinity, however obscure it may have been for them,
was of the greatest importance. Thus Tertullian[1]
asked: "What is the substance of the New Testament,
except that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
believed to be three, are one God?" The words of St.
Hilary[2] on this mystery, expressed in the sign of
the cross, with which Christians sign themselves, have
been quoted many times; "This is what the Church
understood, what the synagogue did not believe, what
philosophy could not grasp." The dogma of the Trinity,
therefore, is that fundamental truth by which believing
Christians are distinguished from the Jews and pagans.
Both the Greek and the Latin Fathers wrote long
treatises on the Trinity, at first as positive and
apologetic theology and later as speculative theology.
Among the Greek Fathers we find St.
Athanasius,[3] St. Basil,[4] St. Gregory
Nazianzen,[5] St. Gregory of Nyssa,[6]
Didymus,[7] Cyril of Alexandria,[8] St. John
Damascene;[9] and among the Latin Fathers, St.
Hilary,[10] St. Ambrose,[11] St.
Augustine,[12] St. Fulgentius,[13] and
Boetius.[14]
Among the Scholastics, all the great theologians and
their commentators wrote speculative treatises on the
Trinity; among modern positive theologians, Petau and
Thomassin wrote at length on this dogma. Finally, the
more recent theologians have accorded this dogma the same
importance, as Franzelin, Scheeben,[15] Kuhn,
Billot, Buonpensiere, de Regnon[16] (who wrote
four volumes, 1892-98), and J.
Lebreton.[17] Father Jugie's recent work is based
on the sources of revelation and the teachings of the
dissident Oriental Churches.[18] A. d'Ales wrote
his "De Deo Trino" in 1934; P. Galtier
wrote "De SS. Trinitate in se et in nobis"
in 1933; L. Choppin, "La Trinite chez les
Peres, Apostoliques" in 1925; F.
Cavalerra, "Les premieres formules trinitaires de
S. Augustin" in 1925, and M. Schmaus,
"Die Psychologie Trinitatslehre des hl.
Augustinus" in 1927.[19]
In view of this theological activity it is surprising that
toward the end of the last century the question of the
importance of this dogma should have arisen.[20] With
regard to this question three positions may be
distinguished.
Certain Protestants, holding that this mystery is
incomprehensible, declared that God revealed it as an
enigma to humble human reason, which seeks to measure all
things according to its own principles, and not in order
to perfect our intellects by sublime and fruitful
knowledge.
This position, which is in opposition to the whole
tradition of the doctors, exaggerates and distorts a
truth. It is indeed true that in the revelation of this
mystery God shows us that His intimate life and His
divinity transcend even our highest and most universal
analogical concepts, the concepts of being and unity.
For the Deity as such, naturally unknowable, is in a
sense above the being and unity which are naturally
knowable, as Cajetan said so well.[21] The
revelation of the mystery of the Trinity shows that the
Deity is also above the absolute and the relative for, as
we shall see, the Deity as it is in itself is not really
distinct from the divine relations, from paternity,
filiation, and spiration. Thus it is not something
merely absolute nor merely relative, but something above
these, the supreme enigma. But must we conclude that the
manifestation of this enigma was intended solely to humble
our reason and not also to perfect and illuminate it?
Many other Protestants during the nineteenth century,
and some Catholics too, like Hirscher, declared that
this dogma indeed illuminated our minds, but only in an
extrinsic manner. They thought that for us the Trinity
had no intrinsic importance, but that it served only to
obviate contradictions in the other mysteries of the
incarnation of the Son of God and the sending of the
Holy Ghost, which in themselves are of great value to
us.
The basis of this position, as its authors declared, is
that the dogma of the Trinity taken intrinsically,
prescinding from the other truths with which it is
connected, cannot perfect our inner life, our faith,
hope, and charity. They argue as if it mattered not to
our interior life whether we believe that there are four
divine persons, or that the divine persons are not really
distinct from one another. Since, according to these
men, God did not reveal this mystery because of its
intrinsic validity, any theological attempt to penetrate
it is futile, and therefore the treatise on the Trinity
is merely an introduction to the treatises on the
redemptive Incarnation and the mission of the Holy
Ghost, which perfect our faith, hope, and charity.
Such an introduction, they said, is necessary to prevent
any contradiction between the essential truths
intrinsically necessary for the Christian life: between
1. the unity of God, which is the fundamental truth of
the Old Testament; 2. the divinity of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, who, according to the Gospels, is not
entirely identified with His Father; and 3. the
divinity of the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete and
Sanctifier, sent by the Father and the Son. These are
the essential dogmas of Christianity, which cannot be
reconciled without the distinction and the
consubstantiality of the three divine persons, as is clear
from the first centuries, when Sabellianism denied the
real distinction between the three divine persons, and
when Arius and others denied the consubstantiality of the
Son and the Holy Spirit. According to this position
the dogma of the Trinity was revealed to illuminate our
minds but solely in an extrinsic manner to prevent
contradictions in the other mysteries.
The Modernists, however, like Le Roy, extended this
position in a pragmatic sense, declaring, "The dogmas
of faith are to be accepted only in a practical sense,
that is, only as preceptive norms of action and not as
rules of faith."[22] Thus, for the Modernists the
formula of the dogma of the Trinity was introduced into
the professions of faith to prevent such heresies as oppose
the Christian life.
This position is similar to Locke's Nominalist
philosophical position. Locke taught that the principle
of contradiction is a solemn futility, in itself of slight
importance but necessary nonetheless to obviate absurdity
in our thought and speech.
If a principle is necessary to avoid error, is it without
all intrinsic value? Certainly contradictions are not
eliminated from our thinking without some positive
illumination, and the principle of contradiction precludes
all absurdity only because it is a fundamental law of real
being and of thought. Thus, ontology is not a solemn
futility but an important part of metaphysics which, in
opposition to absolute evolutionism, defends the validity
of the principles of contradiction and identity, which was
denied by Heraclitus when he said," ll things are
becoming and nothing exists and in the becoming itself
being and non-being are identified."
So also in the spiritual order, charity dispels all
discord because it is the supreme virtue uniting the soul
with God and also uniting souls to one another.
Similarly, the mystery of the Trinity would not exclude
every contradiction in the other mysteries of the
incarnation of the Son and the sending of the Holy
Spirit unless it were the expression of the intimate life
of God in the most sublime aspect of that life.
The third position is the traditional view of those who
hold that the dogma of the Trinity possesses intrinsic
value of the greatest importance for us. This position
was defended during the nineteenth century by Kleutgen
("Theologie der Vorzeit") and Scheeben,
whose fundamental reasoning may here be stated briefly and
later developed during the course of this treatise. This
dogma 1. perfects our natural knowledge of God the
Creator, 2. it gives us supernatural knowledge of the
intimate life of God, and 3. it throws light from above
on other supernatural mysteries.
The first reason is found in St. Thomas: "The
knowledge of the divine persons was necessary for right
thinking about the creation of things. For when we say
that God made all things by His Word we avoid the error
of those who say that God made all things necessarily
because of His nature. But when we discover in God the
procession of love we see that God produced creatures not
because of any need, nor because of any extrinsic cause,
but because of the love of His goodness."[23] This
is to say, as Scheeben points out, that the revelation
of the mystery of the Trinity perfects and confirms our
natural knowledge of God the Creator and of creation as
an entirely free act of God "ad extra". This
will be all the more apparent when we remember that many
philosophers denied the freedom of creation because of the
Platonic and Neoplatonic principle that the good is
essentially diffusive of itself. But God is the highest
good. Therefore God is essentially and to the greatest
degree diffusive of Himself even as the sun radiates its
light and heat everywhere by its very nature.
Reply. That good is diffusive of itself according to its
particular aptitude, I concede; that it is always so
because of its actuality, I deny. On this principle
St. Thomas[24] showed that creation was fitting and
proper, but in his following article he went on to say
that, although creation is fitting it is entirely free
because "the goodness of God is perfect and is able to be
without other beings since nothing of perfection accrues to
it from other beings." Some obscurity remains,
however; for if God had created nothing, how would the
principle that good is diffusive of itself be verified in
God? In the first place how could there be an end
eliciting the action of creation, and secondly how would
creation be effected? Here Leibnitz erred by saying that
creation is not physically but morally necessary, and that
God would not be perfectly wise and good if He had not
created, and moreover if He had not created the best of
all possible worlds. Such was also the teaching of
Malebranche. This obscurity is clarified by the
revelation of the mystery of the Trinity, for, even if
God had created nothing, there would still be in Him the
infinite fecundity of the generation of the Son and the
spiration of the Holy Ghost. Thus the principle that
good is diffusive of itself is perfectly verified in God.
Indeed the highest good is necessarily diffusive of itself
within itself but not by causality; by a communication
which is not only a participation in its nature but a
communication of His entire indivisible nature, of His
entire intimate life in the generation of His Son, who
was not made, and in the spiration of the Holy Ghost.
Thus from a higher plane comes confirmation that creation
is an entirely free act by which God communicates without
Himself a participation of His being, His life, and
His knowledge. Thus also it is more evident that God is
not the intrinsic cause but the extrinsic cause of the
universe, the end for which it was created, the being
that created, conserves, and keeps it in motion.
If, therefore, God created actually, it was through
love, to show in an entirely free act His goodness, and
not in any way by a necessity of His nature, as St.
Thomas taught in the passage cited above against the
pantheists and against that absolute optimism which is
found in the teaching of Leibnitz and Malebranche.
The second reason supporting the traditional view is that
the revelation of the Trinity has intrinsic value for us
and is of the greatest importance for the supernatural
knowledge of God in His intimate life and immanent
operations. No created intellect by its own natural
powers is able to know the formal object of the uncreated
intellect which is the Deity in its own proper aspect of
Deity; the created intellect knows God only according to
the common and analogical terms of being, unity, truth,
goodness, and so on. For if any created intellect,
human or angelic, could attain even confusedly and vaguely
to the formal object of the uncreated intellect, it would
then be of that same nature as are the intellects of the
ignorant man and the greatest philosopher. Then we would
have that pantheistic confusion of the uncreated and
created natures which, like sanctifying grace, would be a
participation in the formal nature of God. This is
profoundly explained by St. Thomas: "It is not by his
natural knowledge that the angel knows what God is,
because the very nature of the angel by which he attains to
the knowledge of God is an effect not commensurate with
the power of the cause that made it."[25]
The angel, and especially man, by his natural knowledge
cannot attain to God except by those perfections in which
he can share in the natural order, such as being, unity,
goodness. But God as He is in Himself cannot be shared
in the natural order; such participation can be only in
the supernatural order by sanctifying grace. Thus even an
angel in his natural knowledge is related to God as He is
in Himself as the eye that perceives all the colors of the
rainbow but would not perceive white light from which the
colors are derived as inadequate effects. St. Thomas
taught: "Revelation most properly defines God inasmuch
as He is the highest cause, teaching not only that which
is knowable by creatures but also communicating how He is
known to Himself alone and to others in
revelation."[26] This is primarily the Godhead
Himself, or the intimate life of God, which is properly
made known by the revelation of the Trinity.
In the Trinity we see the infinite and eternal fecundity
of the divine nature, which is communicated by the Father
to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost by the Father and
the Son. The Protestant theologians mentioned above say
that the mystery of the Trinity is an enigma without
meaning for our interior life, but the traditional
theologians say that in this mystery of the Trinity we
come to some knowledge of the most perfect intellectual
life, that is in the three persons, who in the same
divine truth live by the same act of pure intelligence
which is subsisting intelligence itself.
So also in this mystery there is some manifestation of the
supreme life of charity in the love of the three divine
persons, who in the same infinite goodness live by the
same act of pure love, which is subsisting love itself.
Here we have the supreme model of our supernatural life,
the love of the three divine persons, since our adoptive
sonship is the image participating in the eternal filiation
of the only-begotten Son.[27] For so Christ prayed
for us to the Father: "That they may be one, as We
also are" (John 17:11); and St. Paul writing
to the Romans said: "For whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to be made conformable to the image of His
Son; that He might be the first-born among many
brethren."[28]
By its own powers the created intellect could not know
this essentially supernatural mystery, and without some
revelation, more or less obscure, there would be no
explicit knowledge of the intimate life of God in itself.
Some implicit knowledge of the intimate life of God,
however, is obtained when we believe that God is and that
He is the rewarder, for we know Him not only as the
author of nature but also as the author of grace and the
remunerator in the order of salvation. The intimate life
of God, therefore, is known from the effects of grace
and salvation, but this life is known explicitly in itself
in the mystery of the Trinity, although not with that
clarity with which it will be seen in heaven.
This is clearly expressed by Alexander of Hales[29]
and still more clearly by St. Thomas, who says:
"Only this can be known about God by natural reason,
that He necessarily possesses being inasmuch as He is the
principle of all beings. God's creative power is common
to the entire Trinity and pertains therefore to the unity
of essence and not to the distinction of
persons."[30]
Objection. This knowledge of the intimate life of God
remains so obscure that it does not of itself throw any
positive light on the human mind.
Reply. Clearly even a very imperfect knowledge of the
intimate life of God is of the utmost importance for us in
this life since it is an anticipation of eternal life.
This knowledge will correspond to our natural
inefficacious and conditional desire of seeing the essence
of the first cause and the intimate conciliation of the
divine attributes; it corresponds also to our supernatural
and efficacious desire which proceeds from infused hope and
especially from infused charity, which is the true
friendship between God and the just man. Any friendship
presupposes a union of the friends and strives for a more
intimate union between them.
To say, therefore, that the revelation of the mystery of
the Trinity is without real value for us is to look at the
matter from a naturalistic viewpoint. We recall here the
words of Aristotle: "Man should be attracted to divine
and immortal things as much as he is able, and however
little he may see of these things, that little is to be
loved and desired more than all knowledge he has of
inferior substances."[31]
Christ our Lord pointed out the importance of the mystery
of the Trinity when He said: "But I have called you
friends; because all things whatsoever I have heard of
My Father, I have made known to you, "[32] and
"Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou
hast given Me may be with Me; that they may see My
glory which Thou hast given Me, because Thou hast loved
Me before the creation of the world."[33] These
words refer primarily to the eternal generation of the
Word.
Indeed the act and the fruit of charity is that rejoicing
in God because God is infinitely perfect in
Himself.[34] This joy, however, is greatly
increased by the knowledge of God's inner life and His
infinite fecundity. This is what St. Paul meant,
writing to the Colossians: "That their hearts may be
comforted, being instructed in charity, and unto all
riches of fullness of understanding, unto the knowledge of
the mystery of God the Father and of Christ Jesus: in
whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge."[35]
When theologians abandon the contemplation of divine
things, they say that the revelation of the mystery of the
Trinity is of no intrinsic value for us, that it is
useful only to prevent contradictions in the enunciation of
other mysteries. And because of this trend theology
gradually became anti-contemplative. Men began to write
books of theology devoid of contemplation and piety, just
as if they were to write books of piety devoid of
doctrine. The Fathers of the Church and the great
doctors, on the contrary, looked on the mystery of the
Trinity as having the greatest importance for us. The
tract on the Trinity, of course, was not purely
practical like the tracts on penance and matrimony, but it
afforded the greatest help in attaining the higher stages
of contemplation and union with God.
Amid his tribulations, St. Hilary, writing of the
Trinity, said: "The persecution of men is a small
thing because the persecutors cannot touch the divine
persons nor diminish their joy." A friend rejoices in
the joy of his friend, and the just man rejoices in the
beatitude of God.
All the great doctors who wrote about the Trinity, from
St. Athanasius to St. Thomas, were true
contemplatives, deeply concerned not only with purely
practical human affairs but also with divine things, with
the divine life itself, the knowledge and love of which is
the beginning of eternal life. By the revelation of the
Trinity we are given the supernatural knowledge of God,
as distinct from natural knowledge; and immediately the
distinction of the two orders of knowledge becomes
clearer. This was the great argument against Baius, who
denied the essential distinction between nature and grace,
as if grace were something owing to nature.[36] This
distinction between the two orders stood out so clearly in
the revelation of the dogma of the Trinity that some
rationalists taught that the tract on the one God
contained all that could be said about God. Consequently
the Protestant liberals, who are rationalists in a
sense, no longer mention the Trinity, speaking
exclusively of the unity of God, and therefore came to be
known as Unitarians.
Finally, the revelation of the mystery of the Trinity
not only serves to obviate contradictions in the teaching
of the other mysteries, but also throws a positive light
from above on all the other supernatural mysteries, on the
redemptive Incarnation, the sending of the Holy Ghost,
and the life of grace. All this will be clear to us in
heaven, but even now we can see that the visible and
invisible missions of the divine persons presuppose the
internal processions, because no one is sent by himself,
but the Son is sent by the Father, and the Holy Spirit
is sent by the Father and the Son. Again, our adoptive
sonship is the image and participation in the sonship of
the eternal Son, since the only-begotten Son is "the
first-born among many brethren."[37] Adoption is
attributed to the Father as to its author, to the Son as
to the model, and to the Holy Ghost as to Him who
imprints the character. So also the friendship between
the saints and the just is an image participating in the
friendship of the divine persons, according to our
Lord's words, "that they may be one, as We also
are." The life of grace is, as it were, a reflected
light, manifesting God's inner life and the divine
processions.
Thus St. Thomas taught: "The knowledge of the divine
persons was necessary for us,... especially that we
might think correctly about the salvation of the human
race, which is accomplished by the incarnate Son and the
gift of the Holy Spirit."[38] He says it was
necessary for correct positive thinking, not only to avoid
contradiction negatively. The reason is that a truth
which excludes equivocation and absurdity in any teaching
is a higher truth, such as those eminent principles of
being and reasoning and ontology itself in the
philosophical sphere. This will stand out most clearly
after we have attained the light of glory; when we see the
Trinity clearly, the other supernatural mysteries will be
lucidly evident.
We see, therefore, that the revelation of the mystery of
the Trinity has not only an extrinsic value, but an
intrinsic worth in illuminating our minds, for it makes
manifest to us the principal and supreme object of our
faith, which according to the arrangement of the
Apostles' Creed is the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost and those things attributed to them in the
order of salvation.
Lastly, we should point out that the just here on earth,
until that time when they reach the height of perfection
which is called the transforming union, described by St.
Theresa in the seventh mansion, enjoy the contemplation
of the mystery of the Trinity amid the darkness of faith,
which is really the highest exercise of the theological
virtues and of the gift of understanding and wisdom.
Looking at the matter from this exalted viewpoint, those
opinions which hold that the mystery of the Trinity is of
no intrinsic value appear not as the dicta of wise men but
rather as the fruit of spiritual stupidity and ignorance in
the scriptural sense of the word. St. Paul said:
"Although we speak wisdom among the perfect; yet not the
wisdom of the world,... but we speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery,... that eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man,
what things God hath prepared for them that love
Him."[39]
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