The Trinity is one of the most important aspects of God. It is a mystery, and we are less likely to be able to describe than to experience the Trinity in relationship. One of my favorite prayers is St Patrick of Ireland's Lorica that models the concept of the armor of God from Ephesians 6:10-16 in active intercession. It begins, "I bind unto my self today the strong Name of the Trinity, the Three in One and One in Three by whom all nature hath creation . . . Eternal Father, Spirit, Word." One way to think about the Trinity is to first of all realize that words that describe concepts in the material cannot that often help us depict the spiritual. Whatever the Divine is cannot ever be completely be captured by words.
Nevertheless, God relates to human beings specifically and gives us many ways to grasp what we need to understand and share. When we come to believe that there is a Creator the next question is how Creation comes into being. Action must be initiated. The initiator and the tool of initiation are part of one another and we use the metaphysical term "logos" to name that tool which is differentiated from the Creator -- Bering in action. In the beautiful first chapter of St John's Gospel the Creation Narration from the first chapter of Genesis is explained and completed in order to identify who Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah is on a cosmic level. This cannot be understood only from a material perspective.
First there is the Creator, the Prime Mover. But within and intrinsically a part of the Livng God is the implement of creative activity, the Word/logos which was spirit and which was made to become incarnate as the human being Jesus of Nazareth. And the Spirit of God is intrinsically part of the Divine and the Incarnate Word. Jesus identifies the connection but separation mystery when he states, "I am in the Father and the Father is in me."
The Trinity can be seen as different aspects of the divine, and it can also be seen as a description of how the divine relates to creation and specifically to human beings. The Holy Spirit of God abides in the fullness of creation, generating all that is created using the instrument of the Word or logos. One of the problems we have is that in western thought there are separations between body, mind, soul, spirit, and psyche; and between the material and the physical. We are complex creatures, and our creator is even more complex. Even though there is no way to completely describe the creator in words, the tools of the identifications of the Trinity help us to be late to the divine in the ways that Jesus described his relationship with the Creator. By calling the Creator “Father,” Jesus identifies himself as the Son of God. Then, during the last night before his Passion, Jesus assures his disciples that he will send the Holy Spirit to them. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit is not present within Jesus while he is on Earth.
Indeed, the Holy Spirit is part of Jesus and part of God the Father as well. Just as human beings are body, mind, soul, and spirit; created in the image of God, the Oneness and singularity of God is made up of component parts that work together and are part of the whole. One of the activities of the Holy Spirit is to reveal Jesus Christ to us. When we respond to God’s invitation to be in relationship with Him and Jesus Christ, is the Holy Spirit that mediates this communication and interconnectivity.
In the material realm, one way to think about how there can be a differentiation between two and one, we can look at a woman who is pregnant with the child. While in utero, the child is part of the child’s mother, but also a separate entity. After birth, the child is separated from the mother but is still connected to the mother because of the genes that are part of the child’s heritage and make up. The fascinating and complicated way that all parts of the human body work to make manifest the encoded messages and initiators in the human genome are still being discovered. The amazing miracle of life is a cause of wonder. The child will always be part of the child’s parents because the tile could not come into existence without the genetic template from both parents.
We can use this physical reality as a window on the spiritual reality of the Trinity. Jesus is the son of the living God, and the spirit of the living God lives in Jesus in the physical and abides in the fullness of creation with the Divine. By using the creative word, the living God brings about whatever God desires and God’s Holy Spirit takes part in manifesting the physical creation. The Trinity is intrinsically connected but operates separately in certain situations. We can relate to the Creator/God the Father, to the Savior, and to the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, all at work together and there is no separation between them. All that is known to one of them is known to all of them.
Even in the first chapter of Genesis we see the Trinity in action. The creator who is uncreated and always existent speaks creation into existence through the instrument of the logos/Word, and sends forth the Holy Spirit as part of the act of creation and continuation of the life of all that is created. Each element is intrinsically different in activity, but the source of each component is one in the same.
In the traditions of Orthodoxy, beyond the descriptions of the creative activity in first chapter of Genesis, another depiction of the Trinity is in the narration of the encounters with the three angels who come to speak with Abraham and Sarah at the oaks of Mamre. In what is arguably the most precious and seminal icon of Russian Orthodoxy, the “Troitsa” (“Trinity”), the icon painter depicts the angels in relation to one another. The connectedness and oneness of the three angels is first of all made obvious because they all look alike. Secondly, the angel on the left and the angel on the right are both looking at the angel in the middle. In Orthodox tradition the angel in the center is the pre-incarnate logo/Word. In temporal and material terms, at the time of the encounters between the three angels and Abraham and Sarah, the logos/Word is not yet Jesus of Nazareth, of course. But the promise of his incarnation is foretold through the narration of the encounters and interaction with the human beings Abraham and Sarah. The pre-incarnate Messiah through his life; the revelation of God through his teaching, healing and deliverance ministry as well as through his relationships with individuals and collected groups of human beings, with angels; and with human spirits no longer alive on Earth (notably with Elijah Moses and at the Transfiguration) is already foreshadowed through the depiction of the angels in the “Troitsa”icon.
There are three aspects to how the Trinity acts and is in relationship. The primary aspect is how each element of the Trinity relates to each other element and to the complete whole. The second or aspect is how the activity of the Trinity and each member of the Trinity relates to all of creation, and especially to human beings. The third aspect is how each member of the Trudy and the Trinity as a whole relates to individuals. There are specific activities and specific manners of encounter and relationship for each one of these aspects.
In the first chapter of Genesis, it states that the Divine Creator is already in relationship with more than just itself. This is emphasized is in the language of a conversation that involves more than one, and even potentially more then two other entities. God says "LET US make human beings according to our own image.” But who is “us”? Is God speaking of and to the other elements of the Trinity, or is God speaking to what is called the heavenly host, or is God possibly speaking to both of these groups? Throughout the Bible beginning with Genesis, at times the divine moniker is the plural Biblical Hebrew noun “Elohim.” It has been argued by biblical scholars that this is just a term similar to the way an earthly monarch does not use the first person singular pronoun, “I,” but uses the First person plural or ceremonial pronoun, “we”. However there is a case for explaining the use of "Elohim" by maintaining that is the proper pronoun for a Trinity to use. No realization, understanding, or activity can be separately apprehended, comprehended, or actualized by one aspect alone. Each element of the Trinity has full knowledge and unanimous agreement with each other element individually and collectively concerning every creative and interactional impetus and exchange. There are both similarities and differences between the way the Trinity interacts with itself and how it is in relationship with humanity.
In the narrative describing creation in the early chapters of Genesis, it seems that even though that was created was called “good” by the living God, on the sixth, or last, day the crowning achievement of the Divine Creator was to create human beings. The Living God wanted to share, and continues to want to share knowledge of the glories of Creation, and indeed the creative activity itself with the creatures made in God’s image. It is made clear in the narration that God does not need anything, but desires a relationship with human beings for God’s own sake. So human beings are not only able to understand and appreciate the intricacies and beauty of creation, God has given them the free will to interact with God. Therefore, the omniscient Creator who later becomes the Father of the incarnate logos/Word completely and absolutely knows that human beings have the same chance of doing good for doing evil because of the gift of free will. Therefore the plan salvation is made on the spiritual level even before human beings are created. So the Trinity’s interaction with all of you many includes creation, relationship, punishment, salvation, punishment, death, resurrection, and eternal life. These gifts are offered to all of humanity collectively, but must be received individually. Therefore it is important to understand the interaction between the two Trinity and each individual.
Included between the covers of the Holy Bible are pages where can be found narrations of how the Divine Creator; the Savior Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah (Anointed One); and the Holy Spirit (Paraclete; Spirit of Truth) interact with individuals and groups of people as subsets of collective humanity. In Genesis God walks in the Garden of Eden; talks with Adam and Eve; and exacts punishment for transgressions. At the same time, God makes clear to Adam and Eve that even beyond the garden of Eden God will be present in their lives and in the lives of their human descendants as well as with all of creation and it's separate elements. Narrations concerning God's direct conversations and interactions with Adams and Eve's first sons Cain and Abel are followed by descriptions of God’s relationships with individual and collective groups of human beings including the Creator’s dispersal of human beings because of their intention when building the Tower of Babel; and among many others, God’s talks and dealings with with Noah; with Abram and his wife Sarai, whom God renamed Abraham and Sarah, respectively; with Hagar and her son Ishamael; and with many others including Moses, prophets, kings and ordinary people.
