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The Holy Trinity in
Creation
God the Father created the world through the Son (Word) in the Holy Spirit. The
Word of God is present in all that exists, making it to exist by the power of
the Spirit. Thus, according to Orthodox doctrine, the universe itself is a
revelation of God in the Word and the Spirit. The Word is in all that exists,
causing it to be, and the Spirit is in all that exists as the power of its being
and life.
This is most evident in God's special creature, man. Man is made in the image of
God, and so he bears within him the unique likeness of God which is eternally
and perfectly expressed in the divine Son of God, the Uncreated and Absolute
Image of the Father. Thus, man is "logical"; that is, he participates in God's
Logos (the Son and Word) and so is free, knowing, loving, reflecting on the
creaturely level the very nature of God as the uncreated Son does on the level
of divinity.
Man also is "spiritual"; he is the special temple of God's Spirit. The Breath of
God's Life is breathed into him in the most special way. Thus, among creatures
man alone is empowered to imitate God and to participate in His life. Man has
the competence and ability to become a Son of God, mirroring the eternal Son,
reflecting the divine nature because he is inspired by the Holy Spirit as is no
other creature. Thus, one saint of the Church has said that for man to be a man,
he must have the Spirit of God in him. Only then can he fulfill his humanity;
only then can he be made a true Son of God, likened to him who is only-begotten.
On the most basic level of creation, therefore, we see the Trinitarian
dimensions of the being and action of God: the Word and the Spirit of God enter
man and the world to allow them to be and to become that for which the Father
has willed their existence.
The Holy Trinity in Salvation
With man's failure to fulfill himself in his created uniqueness, God undertakes
the special action of salvation. The Father sends forth His Son (Word) and His
Spirit in yet another mission. The Word and the Spirit come to the Old Testament
saints to make known the Father. The Word, as it were, incarnates himself in the
Law (in Hebrew called the "words") which is inspired by the Spirit. The Spirit
inspires the prophets to proclaim the Word of God. Thus, the Law and the
Prophets are revelations of God in His Word and His Spirit. They are partial
revelations, "shadows" (as the New Testament calls them), prefiguring the total
revelation of the "fullness of time" and preparing its coming.
When the time is fulfilled and the world is made ready, the Word and the Spirit
come once more -- no longer by their mere action and power, but now in their own
persons, dwelling personally in the world.
The Word becomes flesh. The only-begotten Son is born as a man, Jesus of
Nazareth. And the Spirit who is in him is given to all men to make them also
sons of the Father in an eternal development of attaining His perfection by
growing forever "to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph
4:13).
Thus, in the New Testament we have the full epiphany of God, the full
manifestation of the Holy Trinity: the Father through the Son in the Spirit to
us; and we in the Spirit through the Son to the Father.
The Holy Trinity in the Church
The life of the Church is the life of men in the Holy Trinity. In the Church all
become one in Christ, all put on the deified humanity of the Son of God. "For as
many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal 3:27). The unity
of the Church is the unity of many into one, the one Body of Christ, the one
living temple of God, the one people and family of God.
Within the one body there are many individual members. Many "living stones"
constitute the living temple. Many brothers and sisters make up the one family
of which God is the Father. The unique diversity of each member of the one Body
of Christ is guaranteed by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Each unique person
is inspired by the Spirit to be a true man, a true son of God in his own
distinct way. Thus, as the Body of the Church is one in Christ, the one Holy
Spirit gives to each member the possibility of fulfilling himself in God and so
of being one with all others in calling God "Father" (See 1 Cor 12).
The Church, then, as the perfect unity of many persons into one fully united
organism, is a reflection of the Trinity itself. For the Church, being many
unique and distinct persons, is called to be one mind, one heart, one soul and
one body in the one Truth and Love of God Himself. The calling of the Church to
be one in all things is the prototype of the vocation of all mankind which was
originally created by God as many persons in one nature, ultimately destined by
God for ever-more-perfect growth in free unity of Truth and Love, in the life of
God's Kingdom.
The Holy Trinity in the Sacraments
The sacraments of the Church portray the Trinitarian character of the life of
God and man. Each person is baptized by the Holy Spirit into the one humanity of
Christ. Being baptized, each person is given the "seal of the gift of the Holy
Spirit" of God in Chrismation to be a "Christ", i.e. an anointed son of God to
live the life of Christ.
In marriage the unity of two into one makes the new unity a reflection of the
unity of the Trinity, and the unity of Christ and the Church. For the family of
many persons united in one truth and love is indeed the created manifestation of
the one family of God's Kingdom, and of God Himself, the Blessed Trinity.
In penance once more we renew our new life as sons of the Father through the
grace of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, forgiven and reunited into the
unity of God in His Church.
In holy unction the Spirit anoints the sufferer to suffer and die in Christ and
so to be healed and made alive with the Father for eternity.
The priesthood itself, the ministry of the Church, is nothing other than the
concrete manifestation in the Church of the presence of Christ by the same Holy
Spirit who makes accessible to all men the action of the Father and the way to
everlasting communion in and with Him.
Finally, the "mystery of mysteries," the Holy Eucharist, is the actual
experience of all Christian people led to communion with God the Father by the
power of the Holy Spirit through Christ the Son who is present in the Word of
the Gospel and in the Passover Meal of His Body and Blood eaten in remembrance
of Him. The very movement of the Divine Liturgy -- towards the Father through
Christ the Word and the Lamb, in the power of the Holy Spirit -- is the living
sacramental symbol of our eternal movement in and toward God, the Blessed
Trinity.
Even Christian prayer is the revelation of the Trinity, accomplished within the
third person of the Godhead. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, men can call God "our
Father" only because of the Son who has taught them and enabled them to do so.
Thus, the true prayer of Christians is not the calling out of our souls in
earthly isolation to a far-away God. It is the prayer in us of the divine Son of
God made to His Father, accomplished in us by the Holy Spirit who himself is
also divine.
For we have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba! Father! The
Spirit itself bears witness that we are children of God … for we know not what
we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself intercedes for us … (Rom
8:15-16, 26)
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Source: OCA
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