OCR Text |
Show Doctrine o f the Blessed Trinity Unitarian Objection, that the Trinity is a Denial of the Unity of God, Founded on a Aisconception of Catholic-Teaching. (Written for the Intermountain Catholic.) The last communication contained an exposition of the Incarnation, which is the grand central truth around which all other truths, so to speak, revolve. Hence to reject it, in its orthodox sense, is to reject the foundation upon which ail Christian truths rest. It was implied im-plied in the ancient prophecies and was included in the expected Messiah. It is the germ of that dual truth which may be found in every human being. This profound mystery tells how the "Word was made flesh" that is, how the Son, the second person of the adorable ador-able indivisible Trinity, and who is God, assumed flesh in the chaste womb of the Virgin, and made that human nature, by hypostatic union with his divine person, per-son, his own nature, just the same as his divine nature. The Incarnation includes the Trinity, which forms the basis of orthodox faith, and is so essential to Christianity that its denial would mean a rejection of the whole Christian faith. What the Unitarian objects to, namely, that the Trinity is a denial of the unity of God or that there is and can be only one God, is found on a misconception of Catholic teaching regarding the Trinity. Trini-ty. On the question of the unity of God there can be no difference, for the Catholic teaching is that there is one and only one God, who is the creator of all things visible and invisible. The Unitarians' interpretation of the Trinity Trini-ty separates the divine essence in which the unity rests, and then contends that that orthodox meaning of the Trinity would make one three and three one, which would be not only unreasonable, but impossible. This is a false assumption, assump-tion, for no one maintains that God is one in the respect that he is three, or vica versa. The Catholic doctrine- as contained in the Athenasian creed isv that "we venerate one God in the Trinity Trin-ity and the Trinity in the unity, neither nei-ther confounding the persons nor separating sepa-rating the substance." The unity of God is here expressed, also its contents or interior relations. Unity without an object, could not in the Unitarian sense be equal to God. The Unitarian does not express his idea of 'the Deity by saying he is bne, but will add one God, thereby Implying Imply-ing a living being, who is more than simple unity. But a living being means an active being, since to live is to act. Therefore, to be eternally and infinitely living must mean eternal and infinite action. . But every action requires a principle, a medium and end. Unity, when applied to God, is not a mere abstraction, ab-straction, but means an active being who possesses in himself the essential conditions of activity, namely, principle, princi-ple, medium and end, which in the orthodox or-thodox sense means the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The Father is the principle, eternally active, generates the Son, who is begotten, and becomes the medium. The Holy Ghost, who is neither made, nor created, nor begotten, begot-ten, proceeds eternally from the Father and Son, aa the end or consummation of the divine life. This distinction of the three divine persons does not mean a distinction of the divine essence, nor deny the unity of God's nature. God is represented as a "most pure act" that is, a being endowed with the faculty of thinking and loving. As God's attributes are all infinite, the faculty fa-culty of thinking and loving in him is possessed in an infinite degree. To deny de-ny this double faculty in God would be to place the divinity lower than that of creatures. . They are eternally active. From all eternity he loved. Loved what? If simple unity, without any essential interior relations, there was nothing to love. Unity, pure and sim- 1 pie, only Rives unity, no matter ho'. often it may be multiplied by itself. The Unitarian's conception of fid is more than unity. lie will giant certain cer-tain interior relations in the divine essence es-sence which belong to a living being. "God is love" and that love is eoeter-nol, eoeter-nol, coexisting and coinfinit? with God himself. In this very idea which the Unitarian cannot deny is embodied tho Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, namely, name-ly, the unity of nature in God and at the same time a trinity of the unity. That there must bo unity in the divine di-vine Trinity is evident, since there could be but one infinite, namely, one God. More than one infinite is a contradiction. con-tradiction. Hence the Unitarian's objection ob-jection to the orthodox teaching starts with false premises, assuming that teaching, to be that the Trinity means one God and three Gods, or that one is; three and three are one, which would be not only unreasonable, but a contra- , diction and an intrinsic impossibility. What, then, in God is thought and love are interior relations esesntial t; the conception of unity as one living God. whilst this idea of God as triunet is essential to the conception of God aJ , one living unity. God is love. From all eternity he loved. The object of that love must be different from the faculty of loving. Every faculty .bears with itself an essential es-sential relation; and the relation sup- , poses a double term, namely, principle and medium, or the one acting and th lone acted upon. The same applies to thinking. Thoughts are the product of the intellect. Therefore they are distinct dis-tinct from the intellect. To think, one must think something, and that something some-thing is and must be distinct from the. faculty of thinking. A man's intellect when thinking is different from the- , same intelW't when not thinking. ani yet the difference in the same intellect, is the thought of the thinking intel- I lect. Edison thinking in his laboratory": j has a different intellect from tlhat ! which he has. when in a passive state. ' In the former state the intellect is hard at work revolving thoughts as to some ! new discovery and the means toattain it. These thoughts constitute the difference dif-ference in the same intellect. In God, who is not merely abstract unity, the faculties of loving and think- ; ing must exist, and these faculties-must faculties-must be of the same nature with God. namely, infinite, in other words, God himself. Yet the objects of his thoughts must be distinct from the faculty it- ; self, since it is impossible for a faculty to exerecise its action on itself. The object must be outside of itself. All this is reasonable, and the very nature of the divinity requires it. It contains a full exposition of the orthodox ortho-dox teaching of the Blessed Trinity, namely, three persons in one God, the Father begetting from all eternity his Son, whom he loves, and by whom he is loved, producing thereby the Holy Ghost who proceeds from both Father and Son. The Blesesd Trinity is the fundamental funda-mental principle of the Christian faith. Its denial, in the orthtdox sense, i3 a denial of Christianity. In its name the infant is born again. Hence the form used in baptism is. "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son. and of the Holy Ghost." Are not the three persons distinctly marked? The factl that this belief has always existed is a proof that God has revealed the Blessed Trinity, since natural reason rea-son could find no trace of God as Holy Trinity in the whole order of creation. The fact, then, that the human race has always believed that Gcd is three distinct persons in one substance, la proof that the Blessed Trinity is a revealed re-vealed truth. |