THE TRINITY REFLECTED IN MAN
Et creavit Deus hominem ad imaginem suam: ad
imaginem Dei creavit illum, masculum et feminam creavit eos…
Genesis I, 27
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The secret of God’s inner life was not
revealed until
the coming of Jesus Christ.
In many and various ways in times past God
spoke to
our ancestors through the prophets
but now, in our own day, He has spoken to
us
through His Son. (Hebrews I, 1)
Only with Christ’s appearance on Earth did
God reveal
His own nature as entailing a Trinity of Persons, Father, Son
and Holy Spirit
(Holy Ghost).
God
must be
one, as St Thomas shows, but nothing in philosophy precludes an
opposition of relation
of Persons in that One. Relation is real, an
accident whose
whole being is ‘be-towards’ another person or thing. Relation is, St Thomas
teaches, the least of
all reality.
English
retreat
master, Fr Bernard Basset S.J. (1909-1988) used remark in his
sermons how
experimental psychology confirms the truth that each man, though
one, gives
every indication of being two. I
think,
‘I’ll go into town’; then I think again, ‘No.
I’ll leave it until tomorrow’.
With whom am I conducting this conversation if not with
myself? Every moment of
the day a man manifests this
division when he communes with his soul and reaches decisions. He may do it a thousand
times. Shakespeare’s
plays are replete with
monologues illustrating this remarkable characteristic of the
human soul, as
when Hamlet weighs the question of suicide with his ‘to be or
not to be’.
And
there is a
third aspect.
What
standard do
I use as I conduct this internal discussion with myself; as I
make, and act on,
the judgements that result—whether to act or not, whether to do
this thing or
that? What motivates me
is, universally,
my own good (whether actual or perceived), in other words, the
love I bear
myself. Every being
loves itself,
reflecting in this characteristic the love manifested by its
Author in giving
it essence and existence. Every being acts
to preserve these gifts of God.
So does
man. We are made in love
and love, not
hatred, ought to colour the conduct of our lives in perpetual
thanksgiving.
Thus
man enjoys
in his being a trinity of aspects which reflects the Triune
nature of his
Author. God made us in
His own image and
likeness
Michael Baker
June 7, 2020—Trinity
Sunday
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