Here's my reasoning. The Way can be understood as the physical aspect of our being. It's the walk we walk. It's the life we lead. It's the body we have. It's the actions we do. It's the deeds we decide on. It's the body.
The Truth can be understood as the mental or intellectual aspect of our being. It's the doctrine we believe. It's the philosophy we follow. It's the analysis we understand. It's the thought, the concept, the decision and the dogma. It's the head.
The Life can be understood as the spiritual, intuitive, relational, emotional aspect of our being. It's the relationships we have. It's the emotions we feel. It's the intuitions we have. It's the life that we live. It's the compassion we feel and the love that we love. It's the heart.
These three aspects, Body, Mind and Spirit make us into little Trinities. In us the three are at war. They are discordant. They are not in harmony. The end of the Christian journey is to be fulfilled and completed and whole and in balance and 'self actualized' and to be all that we were intended to be. In other words--to be saints. Saints have the three aspects of body, mind and spirit in perfectly graced balance.
So if these three aspects of Body, Mind and Spirit are meant to be one, when Jesus says he is Way, Truth and Life he is saying that he is fulfillment of the Body, the Mind and the Spirit. He completes the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of who we are. Life in Christ is therefore life that is completed physically, mentally and spiritually. In Him we come to wholeness. In Him all that is lacking in body, mind and spirit is completed, purged, fulfilled and made One.
And this is where the Holy Trinity comes in. That if I am Body, Mind and Spirit--a little Trinity, then I am called to be three in one and one in three total unity and total trinity. This is what I aim to become in Christ and by his grace and through his church, for through his church I am given three aspects of my redemption and sanctification. I have sacraments which minister to the Body and Doctrine which ministers to the Mind, and Grace--the infilling of the Holy Spirit, which redeems my Spirit.
The Church teaches us that what one person of the Holy Trinity does, all do. So, for example, when God spoke the world into existence he did so through the Divine Word (who was in time incarnate as the Son) and through the indwelling and overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, at the incarnation God the Father, who begat the Son eternally, overshadows the Virgin through the power of the Holy Spirit so that the Son is enfleshed. Likewise here, the Son speaks of being the Way, the Truth and the Life and so indicates that he IS the physical aspect, the mental aspect and the Spiritual aspect of Man, and therefore also he is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One Unity. Blessed Trinity.
The Holy Trinity is therefore, not some abstruse doctrine, but a living and vital concept that renews me from within and is hidden within the simple gospel teaching that Christ himself is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Disclaimer: This post is a piece of speculative theology, and I am quite open to correction by a real theologian (or bishop) if I am wrong.
The Baltimore Catechism indicates two reflections of the Trinity in human nature; one looks much like what you describe here, while the other reflects into the human soul. So, at least you're not entirely just making stuff up, which should be encouraging! In particular, it should be feasible to chase down some older comentaries on the topic, so we can get closer to What Is.
ReplyDeleteI like it! Without going to deep into the analogy (as to whether it is 100% theologically sound), it certainly seems helpful for the average Catholic. Christ is the answer to all our issues - mind, body, and soul. Amen!
ReplyDeleteFather I think it is beautiful. I'm only a student of theology because I want to know how to communicate better, but I just finished a Trinity course and it changed my life. Thinking and willing! I wrote this about the Trinity and happy families. I'd turn cartwheels if you or anyone else who dropped by said "hello." :-)
ReplyDeleteThe Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father. the Holy Spirit is not the Father nor the Son, but each is fully God, yet fully distinguishable within the Triune Godhead.
ReplyDeleteThis fits Christ as Logos well, but the rest seems a stretch. The Church is also described as Christ's body, and God the Father is not --- for we can call only the Spirit the spirit.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, this turns the love of the trinity into what appears to be a self-love, of a mind for a spirit for a body for a mind. God is not navel-staring. (This is a speculative rebuttal, as I don't have any particular training in theological matters.)
Body/Mind/Spirit is perhaps a good way to describe how three can be one and one can be three, but that's about as far as I'd push it.
dude,
ReplyDeleteeveryone, especially at the mo
knows:
The Holy Trinity
is
A Shamrock.
St Patrick and all Saints o these Isles pray for us and heretical priests of all description.
Another analogy. The past is not the present, the present is not the future and the future is not the past. Yet all are part of time and one does not exist without the other.
ReplyDeleteJesus, the truth the life and the way (body , mind and spirit) in other words the new Adam. Mary, the new Eve, how does she fit in? The trinity(masculine) and Mary(feminine). I barely understand what I'm talking about but I'm reading books by two amazing philosophers; Mary Rosera Joyce and Karl Stern both catholic. I believe wholeness/integration of the human person has alot to do with the harmony between masculinity(otherness) and feminity(withiness).
ReplyDeleteBroken, some theologians ascribe the 'feminine' aspect of the Trinity to the Holy Spirit. St Maximillian Kolbe has written some interesting things about Mary being espoused by the Holy Spirit. Others are wary because they are concerned that Marian devotees may attempt to eventually equate Mary in some way with the Holy Spirit...
ReplyDeleteI think new testament scripture states very plainly the role of each "person" of the Trinity in our lives. That really is all we need.
ReplyDeleteNo, no, no. Mary is a seperate unique individual(not the Holy Spirit). She said, "yes,let it come to be" the trinity within me. She is both other(seperate from God) and united to Him. Her receptivity(femininity)and otherness(masculinity)make her whole. I must not say anymore lest I sound like a nutcase. I'm studying and praying and trusting God and Church will guide me. I do believe our humanity is deeply connected to our sexuality. Jesus the perfect God/ man and Mary the perfect human woman are telling us something about what it means to be fully human/fully Alive.
ReplyDeleteBroken, of course you are right, Mary is a separate individual and fully human--she is not Divine. No Catholic theologian suggests that she is. Instead, they suggest that her feminine humanity reflects the work of the Holy Spirit and that she reveals the 'feminine' aspect of God.
ReplyDeleteI should add that all of this is speculative theology and not Church dogma.
You are also right that our masculinity and femininity are to be fully part of our restored humanity in Christ.
I really don't think the work of the Holy Spirit is subject to any gender. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are manifested within humanity in both genders. To put a gender classification on these gifts working in us is a bit much.
ReplyDelete2 words - Stunning and moving.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what qualifies one as a "real" theologian, but if having a PhD counts for anything, "I like it."
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful! What a charming description of the activity of the body,mind and spirit. We are made in God's image so doesn't it make sense that we (however imperfectly) should reflect the Trinity of God.
ReplyDeleteThis week during Mass I had a strong impression that our Church is like a womb. We are fed directly through the Sacraments, most directly through the Eucharist. Isn't that perhaps a reason the Church is called "she", the bride of Christ. The Church carries us in her womb, feeds us and gives birth to us with eternal life. Just thinkin...
I like it.
ReplyDeleteThis post is a piece of speculative theology
ReplyDeleteSome interesting thoughts, but it has the whiff of too much speculative psycho-babble. Sorry.
One important objection though --
"The end of the Christian journey is to be fulfilled and completed and whole and in balance and 'self actualized' and to be all that we were intended to be."
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We are not and cannot be "self-actualized." That is what the man and the woman in the Garden wanted to be and thought that they could be, "self-actualized." But we cannot actualize ourselves. We are mere creatures, we are not gods, we are not the Creator. We do not, we cannot self-actualize.
Only God can actualize us. The end of the Christian journey is to be fulfilled and completed and whole and in balance and God-actualized and to be all that we were intended to be. We become what we are intended to be only by Him making us that way, by His grace. Only He who is holy can sanctify us, we cannot sanctify ourselves (self-actualize).
Moreover (OK, a second objection), even if the Body, Mind and Spirit of an individual were fully three in one, that still would not Trinitarian, it would not be reflective of one made in the image of the Trinity.
An essential component of the Trinity is relation, relation of persons. An isolated individual human being, no matter how well-integrated his body, mind, and spirit is still incomplete. The spousal meaning of the body reveals that Man, male and female, is a social creature, a being made for relation, an dynamic outward relation that is, in the fullness of love, both unitive and fruitful (and these unitive and fruitful components of the fullness of love are not limited to the sexual, but involve the virginal as well).
Being made in the image of God, that is, in the image of the Trinity, means that man, by his nature, is intended to exist in a loving communion of persons, just as the Trinity is a loving communion of persons. Unity of body, mind, and soul in a single individual, being confined to the self, does not reflect this Trinitarian image.
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ReplyDeleteAnd the Holy Spirit is rightly called "He" (and not "it" or "she") because that is how Jesus refers to Him.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, the Holy Spirit is rightly called "He" because, as revealed in the human body, there is a "spousal" meaning to human existence. We are made for relation, we are made particularly for "spousal" relations, not merely between human beings (male and female), but between human beings and God.
We see this with Mary, who is our model and points the way to our own eschatological destinty. She has, in effect, a "spousal" relationship with the Holy Spirit, that is, a relationship that is in the fullness of love both unitive and fruitful. That is, between the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit, there is a loving communion of persons that is pro-creative. Mary and God are joined as two become one, resulting in a Virgin becoming a Mother.
So too is it with us. We too are called to be like the Virgin is, to have a virginal loving relation with God, that is, a love that is pure and totally dedicated to Him, such that it is unitive and fruitful. In this "spousal" model, the Holy Spirit is the He. That means that we humans are the "she."
Even us human males are, in this model, the "she" of the relationship with the He who is God. And because that "spousal" relationship with God is virginal, like Mary, and not sexual, even us males can carry Jesus within our being and bear other fruits.
The Holy Spirit is rightly called "He," because by our joinder with Him (who is the Spirit of Love) in the fullness of love, that loving communion of persons bears fruit, including not only the various Fruits of the Holy Spirit in this life, but the fruit of eternal life, as well as "children," both bioligical and spiritual.
This is a very popular quote but I guess very few really understand it. God is present in all these three aspects and hopefully people will live by it. Jesus died on the crucifix and we need to appreciate that everyday.
ReplyDeleteI think about God a lot, and have experienced the truth of The Trinity on a personal level.I can feel the healing course through my body every time I go to Eucharist. Occasionally I like to look at the beliefs of other Monotheistic systems and study how they compare, especially the excellent theology of Judaism. There is a theory among some Jewish theologians that while God created the world of Spirit and Matter, he is neither. Something greater than humankind can comprehend or see examples of in the known universe, although his works are visible and are meant to be enjoyed and cared for in an ethical way. My private thoughts on this are that such a wonderful God would make himself present in his creation - in the Holy Spirit (the giver of life), as well as incarnate in our Savior Jesus Christ and his sacred physical form, through whom all things were made. The Holy Spirit and Christ being a perfect reflection of the father and his Will, a perfect harmony, in those planes of existence. I think our Jewish brethren are the smartest and most compassionate race on the earth, and certainly have suffered persecutions beyond compare, but I think that the symplicity of this model might help them with a greater understanding of why we Christians believe as we do beyond the simple fact of Faith, not to mention the everyday miracles we experience that affirm our belief.
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