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Trinity

The Resurrection

  • Completes the paschal mystery, the Passover into the next stage of life.
  • A historical and transcendent event:
    • The Empty Tomb
      • CCC 640 In itself it is not a direct proof of Resurrection; the absence of Christ's body from the tomb could be explained otherwise. Nonetheless the empty tomb was still an essential sign for all. Its discovery by the disciples was the first step toward recognizing the very fact of the Resurrection. This was the case, first with the holy women, and then with Peter. The disciple "whom Jesus loved" affirmed that when he entered the empty tomb and discovered "the linen cloths lying there", "he saw and believed".
    • The Appearances
      • First appeared to Mary Magdalene and the holy women, then Peter, then the twelve.
      • The faith of the first community of believers is based on the witness of concrete men known to the Christians and for the most part still living among them.
        • Served as the foundation of their entire missionary work of spreading the gospel to the point of dying for the faith.
    • Christ’s Glorified Humanity
      • The wounds were still visible, and the apostles could see and touch them.
      • Jesus shared a meal, and was able to pass through walls/doors, being present to his disciples when he wills.
      • It participates/exists in the physical order but is not limited by space and time. He is risen and his body is glorified → not merely resuscitated or resurrected like Lazarus.
    • The Ascension
      • Completes the Incarnation → only the one who came from the Father can return to the Father. “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
      • Christ’s ascension gives us access to the “Father’s house”, to Heaven.
      • Anticipated when Jesus is lifted up on the Cross.
      • Jesus is the one priest of the new and eternal Covenant, who entered heaven itself and now is seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us as the one priest.
        • Our humanity is now in Heaven.

Historical Facts and Potential Hypotheses and Catholic Response

  • Empty Tomb
    • Stolen body hypothesis/resuscitation hypothesis
  • Eye-witness accounts (1 Cor 3:15)
    • Evolved myth hypothesis
  • St. Paul’s Conversion
    • Psychogenic hypothesis
  • Pontius Pilate, Roman Executioners, and the Sanhedrin’s involvement
  • Christian Martyrs
  • Christianity becomes the most widespread religion in less than four centuries.

Triune God

CCC 234 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the "hierarchy of the truths of faith". The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men "and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin".

  • Old Testament
    • Gen 1:1-2, Gen 1:26, Gen 18:1-15
    • There are Names for God’s Actions 
      • Word and Spirit → This “Word” receives personal characteristics 
      • The names really indicate God in his revealing / saving action 
    • God as Father in the OT
    • God as Father in the NT
      • Father is used as a personal name, Father of the eternal Son.

God the Son in the NT

  • Indirect approach: one who performs actions properly divine is of divine nature
    • Jesus performs properly divine actions → therefore he is divine.
    • Examples: promulgates a new law, forgives sins, heals sinners, allows himself to be worshipped, is unknowable except by the Father, knows God and reveals him to others.
  • Explicit Approach on the Son’s divinity

The Title “Lord” 

Son of God 

Jesus “Is God” 

  • Jn 1:1, Jn 1:18 → The Word is with God (i.e., with the Father), The Word is God (i.e., truly divine), The Word’s functions.  
  • Indirect evidence to the Son’s Distinction from the Father 
    • Who is sent by another is distinct from that other → the Father sends the Son.
    • John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me”
  • Direct evidence on distinction of Father and Son 

God the Holy Spirit

  • Is the Holy Spirit Divine? a Person? 
    • His actions → Groans with us, Rom 8:16, Rom 8:26 
      • Distributes gifts as he wills, speaks in the churches, gives words to those undergoing persecution, grieved by human sin (1 Cor 12:11 in context) 
  • Indirect Evidence for Holy Spirit’s Divinity
    • Crucial Involvement in Messianic Action. 
  • The Argument → the power upon which Jesus relies in his mission is divine.
    • The Holy Spirit is the power upon which Jesus relies
    • The Holy Spirit is divine  
  • From the beginning, the Holy Spirit is present → Old Testament through the New Testament.
  • Messiah bears the Spirit of God and acts in power of Holy Spirit 
  • NT: Holy Spirit Active in the Church 
  • One Argument → The ultimate cause of forgiveness and sanctification is divine 
    • The Spirit is the ultimate cause of forgiveness and sanctification 
    • Therefore, The Holy Spirit is divine
      • Examples: enables confession of faith in Jesus, accomplishes our adoption, crucial for forgiveness of sins, can be blasphemed against, knows the deep things of God
  • “Direct” Approach to Divinity of the Spirit
    • Jn 16:13 → Spirit is in relation to Jesus as Jesus is in relation to the Father 
    • Spirit leads into all truth: So he does not receive in portions but w/o measure