The Most Holy Trinity

JOHN 16:12-15

This day's gospel reading is part of Jesus' lengthy Last Supper Discourse in the Gospel of John. The context is the oft-repeated theme of Jesus' departure from his disciples to the Father. John begins: "Jesus said to his disciples, 'I have much more to say to you, but you cannot bear it now.'" Since Jesus' discourse has already gone on for three and one-half chapters, this would be an understandable statement. The Last Supper Discourse is however not a word for word report of what Jesus said. It is an extended meditation on Jesus and the meaning of the Last Supper. Undoubtedly there are parts of the discourse that accurately report sayings of Jesus.

In what does this "much more . . . that you cannot bear with now" consist? There are various possibilities. The author may be referring to what was about to happen to Jesus - his arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection/ascension. He may be referring to the end times. Or he has in mind the persecution that Christians were already undergoing when John wrote his gospel in the nineties of the first Christian century. In John 20:30-31 the author will repeat the thought about "much more that is not written" in his gospel. The same concept is found in the final words of the gospel, "There are also many other things which Jesus did. Were every one of them written, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." All three statements contribute to the Catholic acceptance of an oral tradition that was not written into the New Testament.

The disciples will not be left alone in understanding what was yet to be revealed, "But when he comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are to come." To guide the Church and preserve it in the truth is part of the "job description" of the Holy Spirit. Only God can keep the Church in the truth, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:11, "No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God." Thus John implicitly proclaims the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Jesus claims that the Spirit will glorify him. Thomas Aquinas defines glory as praise with clear knowledge.

How does this glorification of the Son come about? The gospel responds, "He will take what is mine and declare it to you." John 14:25 proclaims the same, "The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have told you." What does Jesus mean by "what is mine?" One answer is in John 17:5, "Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made." Another answer is in today's gospel, "All that the Father has is mine," a reference to the divine nature which the Son shares with the Father. If "what is mine" signifies Jesus sharing the divine nature with the Father, then the Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus by keeping his disciples in the knowledge of Jesus divinity, that Jesus, like the Lord God in the Old Testament, is the I AM.

Despite many statements about the Trinity in the New Testament, the human language the Scriptures use leaves us in the mysterious darkness of faith. Nothing is left to us therefore except an act of faith in this revealed truth. We can however attempt to apply what the Scriptures and oral tradition tell us by using human concepts and relationships.

In Ephesians 5:22-32, Paul proposes the union between Christ and the Church as a model of the union between bride and groom. We can also propose the relationships between Father, Son and Spirit as a model for family life, equality in dignity but distinction in persons. As the Holy Spirit proceeds from the love between Father and Son, so the child proceeds from the love between father and mother. The comparison limps, as all human language fails to express this sacred mystery while groping in the dark for ultimate truth.

PROVERBS 8:22-31

This passage has been interpreted as a statement about the generation of the Son from the Father. There is danger inherent in using Old Testament statements to "explain" relations between the Divine Persons. There are two or more correct translations of the Hebrew of Proverbs 8:22, 'The Lord possessed me, the beginning of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago/⁹ (quaint but correct), or, "The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old." The latter translation feeds the heresies that deny equality between Father and Son, and proclaim the Son as God's first creation. This destroys the revealed teaching of redemption through the mediation of Jesus, not only a human being but also God, thus bridging the gap between fallen humanity and God. The passage from Proverbs must be understood not as an expression of relations within the Trinity but as the human author and the Holy Spirit intended. It refers to the Torah, God's revelation through Moses, as God's first creation and blueprint for all creation.

ROMANS 5:1-5

This reading accompanies today's gospel because it refers to God (the Father), to our Lord Jesus Christ (the Son), and to the Holy Spirit. "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us."