“…in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (NRSV, Matthew 28:19)

One of the great mistakes we all make at one time or another is that we expect to understand the mystery of the Trinity.  Yet if our minds could really grasp the mind of God they would have to be on a level with God’s mind – which is an obvious absurdity.  So it is that the more we explain the doctrine of the Trinity, the more we explain it away.  But we should always remember that God has revealed to us the mystery of the Trinity, not for the sake of satisfying our curiosity, but rather that, by the knowledge he gives us about himself, we may be drawn closer to him and be enabled to worship and obey him with greater understanding.

Contrary to popular belief, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity was discovered, not by bookworms in their studies, but through the daily experience of ordinary Christian folk in the world.  To begin with the Apostles, like ourselves, grew up with the knowledge that there is but one God, the Maker of all things visible and invisible.  As strict Jews they recited twice a day the verse from Deuteronomy called the Shema, beginning, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord…” (6:4).  While the heathen world might believe in a whole gallery of gods and goddesses, or in a vague energy of life, the Jews prided themselves on the fact that to them alone was revealed the truth of the living God, that he is personal and is one.