Well, this is where it apparently falls apart—a God of the Trinity– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here is where faith, belief, and human experience diverge.
Remember, the early followers of Jesus were largely Jewish. Indeed, Jesus himself was a faithful Jew. And yes, the early Jesus movement in the years immediately after his death remained within the synagogue, within the great Jewish faith—a faith longing and waiting for a Messiah. But when the early followers began to speak of God the Son, and then even more God the Spirit, here is where it all fell apart for the faithful Jews.
It was not the ideological claim that this Jesus might be the Messiah. The Hebrew people were waiting for a Messiah. Rather, it was the claim that became ever more dominant that this Jesus was God himself. It was the oneness of God that the Hebrew people were so insistent upon. “Hear O Israel, the Lord is your God, the Lord alone.” To claim this crucified one as God and Lord and to claim there can be another, the Holy Spirit, as God was too much. It appeared that the followers of Jesus were embracing Greek mythology, claiming to worship multiple gods.
Christians asserted that they did not believe in multiple gods, nor did they deny their Jewish faith tradition, except for one exception. There can be one God in three persons. Hence, the split between those who followed the Hebrew faith passed down through the great patriarchs and those who followed the Hebrew faith now understood through the person of Jesus, the Son of God himself. God, who came down from heaven and fulfilled the promises made to His holy people.
The Triune God –– the God of the Trinity. It looks illogical and unreasonable. How does three equal one? It really is a question that defies human cognition. No mortal understanding by itself can solve the mystery of the Trinity. Nor will it ever exhaust the complexity of the mystery. Only with God’s revelation through his Son do we have any idea of three in one, and worship the Trinity as the only true God.
Jesus begins laying the groundwork and reveals the holy Trinity. He does so first by claiming that He and his Father are one. St. John records this teaching in his Gospel. “The Father and I are one.” The claim was so outrageous to the Jews that they immediately picked up rocks to stone him.
Even His disciples found the teaching confusing. Later in John’s account, Thomas and Phillip remained unclear of Jesus’ consubstantiality with His Father. Phillip asks a pointed question of showing them the Father, implying two different entities. Jesus says, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” Jesus clarifies further, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.”
After the resurrection, the disciples came to know with certainty that Jesus was both divine and human. If it were possible to have two persons in one God, then a third was not incomprehensible. The meetings with the resurrected Lod became a precursor to their contemplation of the third person—The Holy Spirit.
When the Risen Jesus appeared to the Apostles and breathed on them His Spirit, he gave them the power to forgive sins, a power previously reserved only to God. The gift of the Holy Spirit united God’s people with Himself through the Church. By forgiving sin, God does so through the Holy Spirit, in union with the bridegroom (Jesus) and His bride, the Church. Jesus further promised His Church they would never be orphaned, and through the Holy Spirit, He remains with them to the end of time.
By giving the Spirit, God’s presence in time continues even though Jesus is in heaven with the Father. The physical presence of Jesus as Emmanuel, God with us, continues in every corner of the universe through the Holy Spirit. The third person connects, sanctifies, and unites the people of God in a bond of love and peace. Without the gift of the Holy Spirit uniting all tongues and peoples, the Church could not have survived through historical persecutions and trials. It has survived and will continue through the Spirit of God, uniting humanity with the divine.
Although the mystery of the Trinity far excels our understanding, we can be certain of one God in three persons. This is our faith, and this is the reality that God has revealed to His people. Throughout eternity, we will ponder this great mystery and never fully understand it. It is not a cause of worry but a cause of joy.