 | Father Richard James Cleary was born and reared in Wichita. After graduation from Cathedral High School in 1947, he attended the seminary operated by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey in Northwestern Missouri. There he came to appreciate the life of the monks and, having obtained the permission of Bishop Mark Carroll of Wichita, he became a monk of that monastery. After being ordained a priest in 1955, his superiors sent him to get his master’s degree at the University of Ottawa, Canada, then to study in Athens, Greece, and then in Rome, Italy, where he obtained his doctor’s degree in Theology. Finally, he spent a year of study at Harvard University. Later, Fr. Cleary was assigned to teach for many years in Rome. In 1998, he returned to Wichita, where he served in parish ministry at St. Mary’s Cathedral and at Blessed Sacrament parishes. In 2001, his abbot (superior) transferred him to Arkansas, where he served as chaplain of the Benedictine Sisters of Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, and helped in the parishes of northeast Arkansas. In March 2010, he was re-assigned to his monastery, Conception Abbey, Conception, in Missouri 64433. He can be contacted there at, 660-944-2877, or by email: rjcleary@juno.com. |
Religion
2002-08-01 10:47:00
Trying to understand the ‘Trinity’
Question: Although difficult, I am trying to understand the concept of the Trinity, where there are three persons in one God. I have come to understand that God the Father always was and always will be. That's kind of tough to imagine, but it does lead me to my question. If there are three persons in one God, was there only one of these persons who 'always was'? Did then both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit have a beginning insofar as being a God? If so, I know when Jesus was born, but how about the Holy Spirit?
Answer: Even though the word "Trinity" does not appear in the Bible, it certainly is taught.
The most helpful thing I ever heard about understanding the Trinity was this: "Don't think of the Trinity as a problem, but as a clue." It is meant to help us relate to a Being Who is so very different. He is a "Person" having knowledge, emotions, will, etc. But He is much more than we usually mean by "person". He is not in our Time/Space. He is not at only one place at one time. While we cannot really understand about Him, we can relate to Him, just as my dog can relate to me without understanding me.
I remember how embarrassed I was when some one asked me, "To whom do you pray, God the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit?" I had been praying for years and I didn't know! I had never thought about it. Soon I realized that I had no need to be embarrassed....one cannot pray exclusively to one or the other. When I pray I am looking up to the Father, with my prayer mediated through Christ while the Spirit is within me bringing thoughts to mind and helping me to find the words. I pray to God, through God and by God. Somehow, even the newest Christian seems to grasp this unconsciously when he prays.
Consider the peculiar situation during the 33 years when God was on earth incarnated as Jesus.
He came into the limitations of time/space! He experienced being in one place at one time. But God is outside time. He was still controlling the universe while He was growing up in Nazareth !!
It is helpful to me to think of Him as being two persons at that time. And when I accept Christ as Saviour, I am told (and experience) that God comes to live in my body and regenerates my nature. Then God is dwelling in me. It is helpful to think of God as three.
But the Three in my experience are truly ONE. All are eternal, holy, infinite, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. You asked whether all are eternal. The second verse of the Bible says that God's Spirit hovered over the face of the formless earth. The Gospel of John starts with a strong assertion that Christ was in the beginning and was the co-creator of everything.
"...The Word (Jesus) was with God and the Word was God". Christ is called the Son of God the Father.
Does this mean that they have the same relation as my father and I?
No, of course not. But the human relation which is most like theirs is a good father/son relationship. It is a place for me to start understanding, though I soon see that it is much more than a human father/son. When we get to the multi-dimensional, timeless reality which is God's universe, we will have the capability to understand without these mental models which are helpful here and now. And our universe will be seen as a tiny, limited incubator for making Children of God out of human creatures. Perhaps being squeezed into this little three-and-a-half dimensional universe was the greatest humiliation God the Son experienced in becoming Jesus the Christ.
If you want to read something helpful on this subject, see the last section of C.S. Lewis' book, ‘Mere Christianity’, entitled "Beyond Personality".
