Discovering Our God

And God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me."

— Exodus 20:1-3; emphasis added

I will take you for my people, and I will be your God.

— Exodus 6:7; emphasis added

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

— 2 Corinthians 6:16; emphasis added

Lesson No. 1

The Mystery of Who God Is

What's your image of God? When you think about God, is it only Jesus? Does it really matter?

Certainly, all thoughts of God are in and of themselves "good." But who is, what is, and where is God for you? And where are you for God? (I'll leave this part for you to answer for yourselves.)

Does it really matter? It does for a fuller understanding of the divine mystery of who God is and a better understanding of how God has chosen to interact with us. And it's important because we are able as humans to respond more readily with "persons" than with "spirits." God, of course, knows this, and it is complementary to God's desire for a highly personalized relationship with each of us. Our God therefore has chosen to reveal himself as the divine triune Godhead, the "blessed Trinity," to share a bit more about the mystery of who God is. Keep in mind this is for the benefit of our understanding and in no way benefits God, who, being perfect, cannot be added to or improved in any way or even changed.

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 [our Catholic] 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."

237 The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the "mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God." To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of God's Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit....

253The Trinity is One.We do not confess three Gods, butone God [each sharing fully 1 perfect and divine nature] in three persons, the "consubstantial Trinity." The divine persons do not share [as in split up] the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: "The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God." In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), "Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature."

261 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Catechism of the Catholic Church; emphasis added)

This mystery of God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — has had numerous attempts at being explained by saints and teachers far brighter than I am. It is and shall remain a mystery, until God himself explains it to us in our promised life to come.

Still, there is a profound example used by Saint Patrick: the shamrock, with its three separate leaves still being only one shamrock. When I was teaching high school students, I came up with another visual example. It's not profound, but it does nevertheless give an illustration of the "three in one" possibility.

I had three identical clear glasses and a clear glass pitcher of water. I marked the glasses one inch from the top and filled them water from the glass pitcher carefully to the line. I then had the class look closely to see if there were any differences. None were found. I then took premade labels with "God the Father," "God the Son (Jesus)," and "God the Holy Spirit" written on them and stuck them to each of the three glasses. And I asked if everyone thought the contents were "equal." "Yes, they are!" So I went on to explain that each of the three divine persons are "coequal" and "coeternal," meaning that they are very much "the same." They share fully, not a section of only one divine and perfect nature. But each contains the entirety of that one divine and perfect nature. What one knows, all know; what one desires, all desire; what one commands, all command. They cannot disagree with one another because they share the same one divine nature fully and completely. I then fielded their questions.

I then poured the water from the three glasses back into the same pitcher while naming each of the divine persons and ended the demonstration with the words "three in one," only one nature, only one God but three separate persons.

We then shared some catechism teachings and this passage from the Bible: "Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John [Saint John the Baptist], to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?' But Jesus answered him, 'Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.' Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized [the Son of God], he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove [God the Holy Spirit] and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven [God the Father/, saying, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased'" (Matthew 3:13-17; emphasis added). All three "persons" of the blessed Trinity are at one time and in one place for our benefit.

Three in one. Every thought, every teaching, every dogma, and every doctrine in the Bible is there because God wants it there. That's the primary reason the Bible ought not be altered, and as Peter himself points out in 2 Peter 1:20-21, "First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came...