We Are Created in Christ Our Savior: The One True Christ...

Dr. Zachary James-Anthony Bramble

If you have ever asked yourself about the mystery of the Trinity, perhaps you have labored hard on the difficulties surrounding His, Christ’s, divinity. Let me offer you a bit of culture before we begin our quest because it might help your understanding. G.K. Chesterton poetically wrote:

Between the perfect marriage day

And that fierce future proud, and furled,

I only stole six days—six days

Enough for God to make the world.

For us is a creation made

New moon by night, new sun by day,

That ancient elm that holds the heavens

Sprang to its stature yesterday—

Dearest and first of all things free,

Alone as bride and queen and friend,

Brute facts may come and bitter truths,

But here all doubts shall have an end.

Never again with cloudy talk

Shall life be tricked or faith undone,

The world is many and is made,

But we are sane and we are one.

Grant, Oh Lord!, that we might know how we are one with you, our divine Christ in the Trinity.

In all of humanity, between our boundaries which are purely physical, as a race, distant not unto Him, we recognize humanity … Whether this humanity be misshapen, Baroque if you will, or more or less “well put together.” If we think of the Trinity in our mental prayer, it may be hard for us to assemble pieces. In one way or another we have been taught that the Trinity is a mystery. While this is true on some level, an it would be wrong to assert that we know more than our Lord, it is not hard to understand that like our unity as a human race, we are also in union with our lord. Chesterton writes again:

"Nobody can imagine how nothing could turn into something. Nobody can get an inch nearer to it by explaining how something could turn into something else. It is really far more logical to start

by saying ‘In the beginning God created heaven and earth’ even if you only mean ‘In the beginning some unthinkable power began some unthinkable process.’ For God is by its nature a name of mystery, and nobody ever supposed that man could imagine how a world was created any more than he could. create one. But evolution really is mistaken for explanation. It has the fatal quality of leaving on many minds the impression that they do understand it and everything else”

And so, to be fully united with the prospects of Christ, our savior, we have to adopt the mind of a child. This is to say that we must not make exceptions for our faith. God, Christ, did not assemble our world from other pieces. No… Like a painter he conceived of, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, and he wrote of… Us …. Humanity. St. Thomas Aquinas in his Suma Theologica answers objections posed to the trinity saying:

"In its etymological sense, this word "Trinity" seems to signify the one essence of the three persons, according as trinity may mean trine-unity. But in the strict meaning of the term it rather signifies the number of persons of one essence; and on this account we cannot say that the Father is the Trinity, as He is not three persons. Yet it does not mean the relations themselves of the Persons, but rather the number of persons related to each other; and hence it is that the word in itself does not express regard to another. We are so special to Him because of this labor."

We must take the Bible for what it says, as Christ did when he was tempted…

I answer that yes, we must accept, therefor, that God is defined by these wisdoms, but also I answer that we see God in our persons, the trinity representative of the human, and it is not void of our nature. Which in, and of itself, defines natural law, and codifies in modernity, the similarities of humanity with history. We do not lack that which has been provided to us by antiquity, and so we persists as is equivalent to that which is the natural law, corroborated by the doctors of the church, and great classical thinkers of the past, in modernity. If God was, is, and ever shall be, and we as the faithful accept this premises, how can we not exists exactly as God has designed us, man and woman, in the image of Genesis?

"And the tempter coming said to him: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.Who answered and said: It is written, Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God."

Therefore we cannot negate Holy Scripture. For nothing preceedeth the word of God and nothing persists subsequent to Holy Scripture. “Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.” It cannot be adulterer nor can it be recreated if Christ, truly has been resurrected, is, was, and ever shall be; as scripture also supports. From a scriptural perspective Christ is the last prophet, scribe, and the divine word, our divine God.

To understand the Trinity let us paint this picture. First we have to look to the Father. As we know from life, smaller portions of something, take homeopathic medicine for instance, are usually more effective over time. When Moses approached the burning bush God made clear to him that he would die should he look upon the face of the Lord: “And again have said: Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me and live.”

The apostle John reiterates:

“No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abideth in us, and his charity is perfected in us.” To clarify, this means God is in us and we are in him and so we must be chased. So to understand the first person of the Trinity, we see little pieces of God in ourselves, and as the famous saying goes, “less is more.” Therefore our lives are spared since God has given a piece of himself to each of us in his image. Second, we look to the Christ. As each of us has a body as did our Father. The principle belief of our faith is the incarnation of Christ. The book of Matthew tells us: “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law: That he might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Last, we look to the spirit. As we are animated by our souls, which the devil cannot bind, thanks be to Christ, so also does christ have a “soul,” the Holy Ghost, and hath filled him with the spirit of God. With wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and all learning, we know our Lord whom we are like. Further Ephesians reminds us:

"But as wise: redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury; but be ye filled with the holy Spirit, Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father…"

As scripture has inspired us, we must look towards God. No more must we want him, then also we must beg in supplication with the childlike necessity. If we love our Lord as do the children, we accept him for everything that he is and we realize the that the entirety of humanity, in all its natural diversity, is his and we are of him. We can see the Trinity in ourselves an so the mystery of our faith becomes a distinct part of the human condition. How beautiful it is, that we share in the suffering of our Lord’s sacred heart and he in ours, in our physicality. We need only give our sorrows to Him who bled out for us on the cross. For we are but lilies bending to his breath, the purple wind of souls.

According to The third session of the Council of Trent, celebrated on February 4, 1546

The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent

PUBLISHER & DATE

Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., February 4, 1546

DECREE CONCERNING THE SYMBOL OF FAITH

In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

This holy, ecumenical and general Council of Trent, lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost, the same three legates of the Apostolic See presiding, considering the magnitude of the matters to be dealt with, especially those comprised under the two

heads, the extirpation of heresies and the reform of morals, for which purposes it was chiefly assembled, and recognizing with the Apostle that its wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the spirits of wickedness in high places,1 exhorts with the same Apostle each and all above all things to be strengthened in the Lord and in the might of his power, in all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith they may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one, and to take the helmet of the hope of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.2 Wherefore, that this pious solicitude [of the council may begin and continue by the grace of God, it ordains and decrees that before all else a confession of faith be set forth; following herein the examples of the Fathers, who in the more outstanding councils were accustomed at the beginning of their work to use this shield against heresies, with which alone they have at times drawn unbelievers to the faith, overcome heretics and confirmed the faithful. For this reason it has thought it well that the symbol of faith which the holy Roman Church uses as the cardinal principle wherein all who profess the faith of Christ necessarily agree and as the firm and sole foundation against which the gates of hell shall never prevail,3 be expressed in the same words in which it is read in all the churches, which is as follows: I believe in one God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God and born of the Father before all ages; God of God, light of light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation descended from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, he suffered and was buried; and he arose on the third day according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father; and again he will come with glory to judge the living and the dead; of whose kingdom there shall be no end; and in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is adored and glorified; who spoke by the prophets; and in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE NEXT SESSION

The same holy, ecumenical and general Council of Trent, lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost, the same three legates of the Apostolic See presiding, understanding that many prelates in various localities are girded for their journey, and that some also are on their way here; and considering that the greater the attendance of Fathers in sanctioning and confirming all that will be decreed by the holy council, in so much greater esteem and respect will those decrees be held among all men, has ordained and decreed that the next session after the present one be held on the Thursday following the next Laetare Sunday. In the meantime, however, the discussion and examination of those things which the council shall deem necessary to discuss and examine, shall not be deferred.

ENDNOTES

1. Eph. 6:12. 2. Ibid., 6:10, 16 f. 3. Matt. 16:18.