Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday which is the most amazing gift that God gives to us but also one of the most misunderstood. I think a lot of times we as priests say it’s too big of a mystery so we can’t even explain it but what I would like to do is explain it.
I’m going to go through that Nicene Creed because that gives us a beautiful image of Trinity. If you have one of those cards, you might just want to read it over as I’m going through it with you, but every single phrase in the Nicene Creed comes from scripture.
St. Augustine describes the Creed as the profession of faith, as concise and simple to understand as possible, that we make with our lips and carry in our hearts and commit to memory.
So, the Nicene Creed should be something that we know so well that we carry it in our hearts. He says that we have the entire Catholic faith in the Creed, and it’s known to the faithful and committed to memory, contained in a form of expression that is concise, as concise as it can be.
If you remember nothing else, I want you to know that as we celebrate this Feast of the Trinity, that we are celebrating God, who is love and reveals himself in love in the Trinity. God the Father is the first person the Trinity loves his son Jesus and Jesus loves the Father so much that that love is so strong that out of that love comes the gift to the Holy Spirit and it’s the Holy Spirit that we are drawn into that love of the Trinity. So, the Father, the Son the Holy Spirit – that love is what we are embraced by.
The first line, I believe in one God,
We hear this from the very beginning of Genesis:**
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel!* The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.
And from Mark 12:29-30 Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
Ephesians 4:6 – One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all, the Lord is one God, three persons.
It begins with God, the Father almighty,
God the Father is the first person of the Trinity. We get the word Father from Jesus. When He teaches us the Our Father, He cries out “Abba”, Father. The first thing we hear is that God is Father and He is a loving Father.
Genesis 35:11 – Then God said unto him: I am God Almighty. Here we have not only that He is Father, but He is Almighty Father. What Almighty is, is that He is all strong, all loving, all present, and everywhere.
John 10:29 – My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,* and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.
2 Corinthians 6:18 – I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.
maker of heaven and earth,
Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth
Isaiah 44:24 – Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, who formed you from the womb: I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, I spread out the earth by myself.
Jesus: Luke 10:21- “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.
Revelations 4:11 – for you created all things; because of your will they came to be and were created.
It tells us something about God that God is the Creator but not only heaven and earth, it says,
of all things visible and invisible.
1 Colossians 1:16 – For in him* were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; All things were created through Him and from Him.
So, we have God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and Earth, visible and invisible. Then it goes on to the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ.
I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
We hear in 2 Corinthians – Blessed be God the Father of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort.
1 Corinthians 8:6 – for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist.
The next line is
the Only Begotten Son of God,
This word begotten is very important. Because what it means is that there is this Father/Son relationship. That Jesus is begotten of the Father. We hear this in
John 3:16 – for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
It is being revealed to us that there is this personal relationship between the Father and the Son and we’ll get to how we fit into that later.
Hebrews 1:5-6 – For to which of the angels did God ever say: “You are my son; this day I have begotten you” Or again: “I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me”? And again, when he leads* the first-born into the world, he says: “Let all the angels of God worship him.
born of the Father before all ages,
Revelations 1:8 – I am the Alpha and the Omega, (the beginning and the end) says the Lord, which was and which is to come, the almighty.
John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.
John 17:5 – Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
God from God, Light from Light,
John 1:10-14 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people* did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.
true God from true God,
John 1:1 – The Word was God, and the word was with God. The same was in the beginning with God.
1 John 1:5 – The Lord declares God is light and in him there is no darkness.
1 John 5:20 – We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment to know the one who is true. And we are in the one who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Light from light is showing that God is light, and Jesus is born of that light.
Psalm 2:7 I will tell the decrees of the Lord that he said to me, “You are my son, today I have begotten you.
It is important that we know the word, begotten isn’t the way that we would understand it like a father begets their child in time. This is outside of time. It’s before time that God the Father begot His Son, Jesus, that He existed from the very beginning.
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, – One in essence with the Father, One in being with the Father.
Philippians 26 – We are being in the form of God though not equal with God.
1 John 5:1 – Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the father loves [also] the one begotten by him.
John 1:1 – The Word was God.
John 10:30 – The Father and I are one.
Jesus says in John I am in the Father and the Father is in me. He’s saying that God the Father and Jesus, though different persons, they share one essence. Then from there it says:
through him all things were made.
1 Colossians 1:16 – all things were created through him and for him.
John 1:1 – In the beginning was the word and the word was with God that all things were made by him and without him, nothing came into creation.
Ephesians – In the beginning of the world, the world was hidden by God but created all things in Jesus Christ.
This is saying that Jesus, with the Father, brought all things into creation. Then the next line answers why. Why did He bring everything into creation?
For us men and for our salvation
Acts 4:12 – There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”
That means us men and women, mankind. He came down from heaven,
John 6:51 – I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
Notice that we always bow our heads at that point of The Creed because it’s symbolic of Him coming down in the Incarnation.
For our salvation we hear in Acts 4:12 – Neither is there any salvation outside of him; for there is no other name under the heavens or the earth. It is given whereby we shall be saved.
So, we are saved by Jesus and the whole reason He came into the world was for our salvation.
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.
He took on flesh by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. This is interesting because a lot of other denominations don’t believe in the Virgin Mary but it’s very important.
(In Matthew) When his mother, Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child by the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit conceived in her.
Luke 1:27-35 – The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph… and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High”… But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.
We have this love now of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit that enters now into the womb of Mary.
Then we go into,
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
Mark 15:15 – So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures,
Matthew – from that time forth Jesus showed his disciples how he must go to Jerusalem to suffer all things by the Chief Priests and Scribes be killed and raised on the third day.
Then as we celebrated last week with the Ascension,
He ascended into heaven
John 20:17 – Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
1 Peter 3:21-22 – through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.
This is important. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of His Father. We hear in
John 20 – Jesus said, “Do not touch me for I have yet to ascend to my father but to go to my brothers and tell them I ascend to my father and your father.”
To my God and your God. Jesus now is revealing to us that we are part of this love of the Trinity. That we can call God our Father because He calls us our brothers and sisters and invites into this relationship of love.He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
John 5 – God the Father judges no one but has committed all judgment to his only son. We believe at the end of our day at the end of our lives and the end of our world that we will be judged by Jesus
2 Timothy 4:1 – I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power:
and his kingdom will have no end.
Luke 1:33 – of his kingdom there will be no end.
Now we get to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
Notice it’s saying again, one God, the Holy Spirit, the Lord, so three persons in one God. The Holy Spirit is the Giver of Life.
John 6:63 – It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh* is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
Jesus says in John 3 – truly, truly I tell you unless a man is born of water and of the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
We have this way that Jesus wants us to come into this love of the Trinity and this love that we enter into happens from the moment of our Baptism.
This is important because over the years there has been a misunderstanding between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church about how the Holy Spirit comes about.
The Creed says,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
John 15:26 – “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me.
Acts 2:32-33 – God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses. Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and poured it forth, as you (both) see and hear.
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
John 16:14 – He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Romans 11:36 – For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
who has spoken through the prophets.
2 Peter 1:21 – or no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the Holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God.
That is what I said in the beginning. The Father and the Son love so much that this love outpours onto us by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus says in John – but when the comforter will come who I will send from the father. Jesus is saying, “I will send from the father.” Even the spirit of truth which proceeds from the father. So, the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son.
What happens when the Holy Spirit comes? You have the very next line, the birth of the Holy Catholic Church. The Apostolic Church.
I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Ephesians 4:1-6 – I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
John 17 – Father, that they all may be one. This Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit are one. Jesus wants us, the church, to be one with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He says, “May they be one that they also may be one in us. That the world may believe that you sent me and the glory that I give them, even as we are one, I will be in them and they will be in me.
This is amazing because Jesus is inviting us now into that love of the Trinity. Into that same oneness that the church, the Body of Christ, through the Holy Spirit, is one with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The apostolic church is very important. With our faith we go all the way back to the Apostolic Church, all the way back to Jesus commissioning Peter and building His church upon the rock.
We hear in Acts – they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine in faith fellowship most especially in the breaking of the bread and in prayer. That is what we do every Sunday during Mass. We celebrate the Eucharist in this Apostolic Faith.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins,
The word one is used again. There’s one baptism that brings us into love for the remission of sins, for the forgiveness of sins.
In Matthew Jesus says, “This is my blood, the blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. He came into the world to shed His blood, to forgive us our sins so that we could be one with God once more.”
Acts 2:38 – Peter [said] to them, “Repent and be baptized,* every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit.
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
Romans 6:5 – For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
In Corinthians 1 Paul says, now if Christ preached that He rose from the dead, how can some among you say that there is no resurrection from the dead.
So, he’s saying Christ himself said that he would rise from the dead and our whole faith lies on this reality, that He rose from the dead. No other human in all of history rose from the dead.
Why did He do this? Out of love. “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him might not die but have eternal life.”
Finally, we come to the end of The Creed and we say, “Amen,” and Amen means, I Believe. We say this at the end of The Creed: we also say it when the Priest or Deacon says the Body of Christ, the Blood of Christ. Amen. I believe.
Our whole faith is revealed to us in The Creed. It’s a wonderful prayer and it’s something we should all know by heart but also come to understand this love that is revealed to us. This love of the Father, this love of the Son, this love of the Holy Spirit and the Church which we are made one and brought into the Trinity.
*Regular font is Father Michael speaking to us. The italics are basically the words of scripture, and notes of father Michael to support his homily. The bold letters are the words of the Nicene Creed
