Newsletter - 12th June 2022
Trinity: Complicated Perplexity or Obvious Simplicity?
Have you ever noticed that when you mention the Trinity, many people are apt to turn away in incomprehension but if you say “God is love” those same people often respond with an enthusiastic “amen”? The strange thing is these two statements – the Trinity and God is love - actually say the same thing. I learned this the hard way. While studying theology, my assigned reading included a thick and densely written book on the Trinity. After a tough slog through 400 pages, I discovered, on the second to last page, the statement that the whole doctrine of the Trinity can be summed up by three words “God is love”. An unending number of pages are required to describe this central mystery of Christian faith but they can never fully convey what Scripture says in three words – God is love (1 John 4:16).
The American Bishop, Robert Barron, has said, “The Trinity can be viewed as the most inaccessible Christian doctrine, but it's also the most ordinary and obvious. Catholics invoke the Trinity whenever they cross themselves in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Moreover, every single baptised person has been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Through baptism we've been sealed by the Trinity and brought within its dynamic…”
Our difficulty with the Trinity is often because we don’t look at it from the perspective of the “ordinary and the obvious.” Instead, we treat it like a problem of logic or mathematics – how can one God be three persons? The question, on its own terms, has no answer and we are left perplexed and confused.
But if we approach from the perspective of what Bishop Barron calls the “dynamic” of the Trinity, our confusion and incomprehension are lifted. This is the dynamic of a God who is love - the ceaseless flow of love between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
We don’t come to this conclusion solely by the exercise of our senses and minds. It is something that has to be revealed to us – what Jesus has shown us about who God really is. As we reflect on this revelation, we come to accept it in faith as a truth that is both “obvious and ordinary.” When we try to explain it, we use the language of the Trinity - a language that is both beautiful and meaningful so long as it remains tied to the key thing Jesus has shown us – that God is love.
If you are motivated to learn more about the Trinity, the core mystery of Christian faith, a good place to start is with the talks and homilies of Bishop Barron. These can be found online at his Word on Word on Fire website.
Deacon Ted Wood ccn
Focus of the Week
Parish Summer Party Hog Roast
Saturday 25 June from 7pm - tickets £10 (£5 for u16s)
Tickets on sale after weekend masses and from the parish office. A cash bar will be available so please bring your jingly money as it is preferred to the type you can fold.
Sunday Evening Mass
Sunday 19 June 5.30-6.30pm
Our next evening mass will be taking place later this month - it is a different type of gathering to the morning masses. Please come along and join us to experience the difference.