One In Three

When the Apostle John wrote as his first words, "In the beginning was the Word..." (John 1:1), he surely must have had in mind that ancient Hebrew writing which had as its first words, "In the beginning when God created..."  (Genesis 1:1).  The  Apostle certainly places Jesus in the middle of the creative act as he goes on to write, "All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being." (John 1:3)  The book of beginnings makes no direct reference to the Son being in the mix of creation, but it does explicitly name God as creating and the reference to "a wind from God"  surely beings to mind the Holy Spirit.

 

References to the Trinity are not always spelled out as clearly as we would like to see them in the Scripture, but they are present, nonetheless. Later as the Word speaks of the sixth day we hear it saying,  "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness..."  (Genesis 1:26).  It often seems that we have become hesitant to speak much of the Trinity lest others get confused by references to three instead of one.  One of the things obvious to us as we read the Scripture is that it does not require consistency of itself.  It actually is written in a way to encourage our moving into mystery instead of complete understanding.

It is, perhaps, true that we all have our own simple way of understanding how God is One God; yet, One who expresses Himself in three ways.  St. Patrick often used a clover.  Others speak of the way in which we all express ourselves through different roles.  While explaining the Trinity may not be as simple as we would like it to be, the thing is that it does not have to be understood.  It is what God has chosen to do in making Himself known in the world.  We really need to know nothing more.  After all, this walk with God is not about understanding, but about faith.