THE TRINITARIAN COMMUNION - Archdiocese of Ernakulam ...

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the experience of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit himself reveals the Father and the Son.The Holy Spirit leads us to and deepens our experience of the Trinity. 49The ‘triadic formulas’ that we find in the New Testament help us to note howthe early Christian community experienced God as Father, Son and Spirit and also thedevelopment of their faith in the Trinity. Leonardo Boff cites along with the Pauline(Gal 3:11-14; 2Cor 1:21-22; 3:3; Rom 14:17-18; 15:16, 30; Phil 3:3; Eph 2:18; 3:14-17) 50 and other New Testament (Titus 3:4-6; 1 Pet 1:2; Jude 20:21; Rev 1:4-5; Heb6:4) 51 triadic formulas, four triadic formulas as foundational ones which directly makemention of the Trinity. They are: (a) Mt 28:19 52 reveals how a Christian throughbaptism is introduced to live in the Trinitarian communion. 53 (b) 2Cor 13:13 54 hasbeen widely used in the liturgy and the celebrations of the early Church. In this textgrace, love and fellowship that guide our Christian living show how we participate inthe Trinitarian communion. Three distinct persons refer to various aspects of Christianlife. (c) 2 Thess 2:13-14 55 verses show how in Paul’s mind that everything is builtaround the three sources of grace and salvation: the Father, the Son and the HolySpirit. (d) 1Cor 12:4-6 56 explains how the ministries, those undertaken in the Christiancommunity centered on the Trinity.2.3 Development of the Trinitarian Communion in the Church DocumentsThe God who revealed himself in the Old Testament is YHWH. The basicexperience that developed in the Israelite community of YHWH as the Almighty Godwas their deliverance from the Egyptian slavery. The polytheistic understanding ofGod among the surrounding nations is another significant factor that influenced Israelto develop her monotheistic understanding of YHWH. Therefore Israel believed inand worshipped the One Godhead.In the early Christian community Jesus was experienced as the Lord andSaviour (Rom 10:9). The whole Christian community was centered, built upon andlived on the person of Jesus Christ, his message, and life. Jesus Christ wasworshipped by the Christian community on the basis of his resurrection event. Jesus’
faith.” 58 The early Christians were faced with the fact of the Trinity in their lives. Manyunique experience of God as Abba is the generating source for Christians to ventureinto the understanding of and belief in the Old Testament understanding of GodYHWH. Here comes the problem of having two gods.The Trinity is a mystery. As a mystery nobody can fully explore or understandit 57 but rather one can experience it. It has to be recognized that the Trinitariandoctrine arose as the spontaneous expression of the Christian experience. The earlyChristians knew themselves to be reconciled to God the Father, and that thereconciliation was secured for them by the atoning work of the Son, and that it wasmediated to them as an experience by the Holy Spirit. Thus the Trinity was for them afact before it became a doctrine, but in order to preserve it in the creedal faith of theChurch the doctrine had to be formulated. As Walter Kasper rightly sums up withregard to the how of the doctrine of Trinity, “The doctrine of the Trinity seeks,therefore, to reconcile the Trinitarian statements of scripture and tradition, to bring tolight their internal harmony and logic, and thus to make them plausible in the eyes ofChristian intellectuals and Fathers of the Church made attempts to understand it andarticulate it as a doctrine in a more palpable way to the common woman and man butfailed because of its depth in itself and its inexhaustible inaccessibility for humanknowledge. Hence many Christian intellectuals understood the mystery of the Trinityand at the same time misunderstood it as well. Thereby heresies 59 surfaced whichwere refuted by the Fathers of the Church. However through the heresies the need ofthe times the evolution of the understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity has comeinto existence. Based on inspiration and guidance from God, the Church hasformulated the official doctrine 60 which remains as the norm and way for our beliefand faith in the Triune god.The whole question in the patristic period was with regard to ‘the Oneness (inthe West) and the real distinction of the three persons (in the East).’ 61 Many falseinterpretations and concepts emerged in their discussion over these truths; therebyheresies developed and the Church corrected the heretics and set right doctrine of the
Page 3: the unjust structures of the societ
Page 6 and 7: everything except that which cannot
Page 8 and 9: Triune God’s communion, a relatio
Page 10 and 11: God as father, Wisdom/Word and Spir
Page 12 and 13: ightly says, “The vivid personifi
Page 16 and 17: Trinity. The development of the Tri
Page 18 and 19: in the same way the Holy Spirit sur
Page 20 and 21: mostly built upon love which in a w
Page 23 and 24: Son Jesus Christ (Jn 3:16-17). God
Page 25 and 26: the principle of perestroika, recon
Page 27 and 28: future one. It is present because o
Page 29 and 30: should constitute a single family,
Page 31 and 32: and the presbyterate for pastoral c
Page 33 and 34: God. Rather, we learn from Matthew
Page 35 and 36: 75. Ibid.76. Nonna Verma Harrison,
Page 37: is currently doing Ph.D in Ecclesio

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