Since the 14th century, Catholics have been celebrating the Sunday after Pentecost in honor of the Most Holy Trinity. By establishing a solemn celebration, the Church hands on to her children the central mystery of the faith: “one God in three persons, the ‘consubstantial Trinity.’ The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire.” (“Catechism of the Catholic Church,” #253) This is a mystery to be pondered; not a puzzle to be solved! Christians are, uniquely, Trinitarian-monotheists: one God, one divine nature/substance/essence, three divine persons.
In all actuality, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity goes back much further than the 14th century – there being, in many areas since the 4th century, some form of liturgical celebration in response to Arianism and other heresies that deny the Trinity. The Church needed to respond to various challenges to her Trinitarian faith that denied the distinction of the divine persons or held Jesus not to be divine. Arius of Alexandria, for example, taught that there was a time when Jesus was not; that he is a creature. Many scholars understand Arius’ teaching to lead to holding Jesus to be something neither divine nor human.
The debate about Jesus’ nature, the proper understanding of the Incarnation, eventually caused enough disquiet that the Emperor Constantine, in 325 AD, called the bishops together in Nicaea, located in present-day Turkey, to settle the issue. This should not be quickly passed over, nor should it be seen as secular power interfering in matters of the Church. Rather, it shows the influence the Church was beginning to have upon society, as well as the freedom she was experiencing, since her leaders were able to meet openly to discuss the faith.
The bishops, traditionally numbered at 318, met beginning in May and finishing in July. They ultimately put forth a profession of faith – known today as the Nicene Creed – and 20 canons regarding Church discipline.
The Nicene Creed begins with an affirmation of the belief in one God. This one act of faith in the one God is then further expanded to the three distinct persons who are this one God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The profession of the 318 bishops ended with the statement “and in the Holy Spirit”; the 1st Council of Constantinople in 381 AD elaborated further about the Holy Spirit and included the statement about the Church, baptism and resurrection, giving us the creed we are familiar with.
The creed professes the divinity of Jesus by stating: “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father.” Consubstantial translates the Greek “homoousios” – of the same substance or one in being – expressing with a non-scriptural term what the other phrases stated: the oneness of the Father and the Son. The 1st Council of Constantinople later added that the Son is born before the ages: that is, the Trinity is always the Trinity, always existing as Father and Son and Holy Spirit.
The central part of the profession of faith proclaims the divinity of Jesus, his being God-Incarnate, while being distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit. Now 1,700 years later, the Church is still professing this faith in the divinity of Jesus, as the incarnate second person of the Most Holy Trinity.
Many Christians make this profession of faith every Sunday. When the profession came into the Latin-Rite Liturgy, the “we believe” as found in the profession of the bishops became “I believe.” When professed together, each individual “I” strengthen one another, forming one communal “I,” who is the professing community. Unfortunately, all too often, the creed is raddled off like singing the “ABCs”; the words are pronounced but with little engagement or intent.
Sadly, this leads many to have a poor understanding of who Jesus is and the reality of our salvation. Pope Leo XIV, in his first homily, commented that presently “there are many settings in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman. This is true not only among non-believers but also among many baptized Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism.” There is a failure to recognize Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” as Saint Peter confessed. (Matthew 16:16)
However, the profession of the creed ought to lead us to ponder the mystery of God and our salvation: One of the persons of the blessed Trinity became man, without losing his divinity, without ripping apart the unity of the Trinity, for our salvation! This should enkindle in us a fiery passionate love for the Most Holy Trinity, for God has come to save His creation. The creed should engender an ardent hope for eternal life, for the God-man Jesus Christ is our help. This love and hope are grounded in the faith expressed in our profession: God is a Trinity of persons, the Son became man and redeemed us, promising resurrection to everlasting life.
The salvation and the forgiveness of sins, leading to the life to come, “is only possible if the Son (and the Holy Spirit) is God. It is only when God himself becomes ‘one of us’ that there is a real possibility for human beings to participate in the life of the Trinity, that is, to be ‘divinised.’” (International Theological Commission, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour,” #58) This is the cause of our hope. This hope allows us to fulfill the demands of discipleship, confident that God is our help.
Saint Athanasius wrote that “Christ gave the faith, the apostles proclaimed it, the Fathers … gathered at Nicaea handed it on.” (“Epistula ad Afros Episcopos”) As we gather on Sunday and profess our faith, recall his teaching: receive the faith from Christ; hand it on like the Fathers; proclaim it like the Apostles!
Father Jason Rocks is chancellor for the Diocese of Camden and pastor of Holy Eucharist Parish, Cherry Hill.
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