Talk 2

On the past Sunday we promised to begin our talk on the highest mystery of the Christian Faith—the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead. With God’s help we now begin this talk. In the one God, according to the teaching of the Christian Faith, there are three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—a Trinity consubstantial and indivisible. The very first words of the Creed already make known to everyone that, although we believe in one God, yet we do not believe in one Person of God: for we call the one God Father. “And the name of Father,” says Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, “in its very utterance makes known to us also the Son; just as, when we say the name of the Son, we immediately picture to ourselves the Father as well. For if He is the Father, then without doubt He is Father of the Son; and if He is the Son, then without doubt He is Son of the Father.” And in believing in the Father and the Son, we must necessarily believe also in the Holy Spirit, as consubstantial with the Father and the Son, and revealed through the Son to men. We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, not confusing the Persons and not dividing the one essence of God: for the Person of the Father is one, the Person of the Son is another, and another is the Holy Spirit. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, but not three gods, but one God. Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them, said the Lord to the Apostles, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He did not say “in the names,” so as not to give occasion to divide the one essence into three Persons, but “in the name,” to show their consubstantiality, or unity of essence in the Trinity of Persons. “One in substance I hymn You, in three Persons I honor You: Father, Son, and most holy Spirit”—thus is it said in one of the Church’s books.

Because of the special importance of the teaching on the Most Holy Trinity for each Christian, the name of the three Divine Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is used by the Church—both in the temple, during Divine worship, and even in the homes of the faithful, in the performance of various prayers—very frequently, just as the name of the king is frequently used among his subjects, just as a son very often calls his father by his name; the one who is benefited—his benefactor; a friend—the name of his friend; a servant—the name of his master. And our God, worshipped in Trinity, in the preeminent and highest sense, truly, brothers, is for us both King and Father and Benefactor. Therefore, for a Christian not to know and not to honor as he ought the Divine Trinity would be both foolish presumption and ingratitude. Every subject knows, at least by name, his King; he knows of his dominion, authority, and power; he reveres his sacred Majesty; the one who is benefited often and gladly remembers and speaks of his benefactor. Even an ox knows the one who owns it and the donkey the manger of its master. How then should we not know that the dominion, kingdom, power, and glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are over all men and over all the world? How should not a man, who has received from the Holy Trinity all his gifts, beginning with life itself down to the very breath of air he inhales, often and with proper reverence remember the Triune Benefactor? “For in Him we live and move and have our being,” says the holy Apostle of God.

Therefore, brothers, each of us absolutely needs to know correctly and to honor with proper reverence the royal and life-creating Trinity. And you have long been all familiar with the great and eternally worshipped name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, because—as we have said—the holy Church very frequently both in the temple and even in your homes has taught you this glorious name. It is necessary only to give an explanation of what we hear about the Triune God in the Church, or in our homes.

We hear very frequently in the Church and in our homes brief prayers and brief praises to the Holy Trinity. Namely, we very frequently hear prayers: above all to the Holy Spirit: King of heaven, Comforter, Spirit of truth. Since the third Person of the Holy Trinity—that is, the Holy Spirit—teaches us to pray to God worthily, strengthens us in His service, and in general raises up, exalts, and establishes those who serve God worthily, and thus brings about our salvation, which was acquired for us by the Son of God; the holy Church at the beginning of every service, every prayer-service, calls upon Him, the Almighty Sanctifier; then—a prayer to all Persons of the Holy Trinity together: Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us. This Trisagion we hear sometimes separately, but more often together with the prayer: Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us—several times in all the Divine Services. The holy Church especially loves to repeat it, imitating the unceasing cry to God of the heavenly powers: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. When we pronounce the prayer: King of heaven, we are preparing ourselves for worthy prayer to the Lord God, asking that the All-holy Spirit dwell in us and cleanse us from all defilement; and saying the subsequent prayers to the Most Holy Trinity, we pray in deed, honoring with divine worship the Holy Comforting Spirit, whom we asked to dwell in us and cleanse us from defilement for worthy prayer to the Triune God. After this is read the prayer to the first Person of the Holy Trinity—according to the commandment of the Savior, who commanded us: Thus you shall pray: Our Father in heaven… and so forth; at the end of the prayer the Priest pronounces a doxology to the Holy Trinity, to show that both the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one essence, and kingdom, power, and glory belong equally to the three Persons. We often also hear an invitation to worship our King and God Jesus Christ: Come, let us worship our King God, or, as it further says: Come, let us worship and bow down to Christ our King and God. Besides this, the priest and reader often send up from the person of the holy Church a single glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit with a common name for all three Persons: one name signifies that the three Persons have one essence.

Thus the holy Church at every service invites us to prayer and worship of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity—now together, as equal in honor, now separately, to seek necessary gifts from one or another Person.

Therefore, when we hear the repetition of the same prayers to the Most Holy Trinity, pronounced by the priest or reader, or the Creed, let us not pass them by without attention, much less grow weary when they are read or sung. The holy Church, which has ever before its eyes the Tri-holy Master of our life, Judge and God, repeats them very frequently so as to root in our minds and hearts the name of the Life-creating Trinity, so that we are constantly breathing and living in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving to It. Let us then follow the holy Church in pronouncing these prayers, praises, or thanksgivings to the all-sustaining Trinity.

In offering proper worship to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the three Persons in one essence, let us strive, to the glory of the Triune God, to be united with one another in unity of mind, desires, and good deeds—which the Savior himself desired and asked in his last prayer to his Father: I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us. To this unity our faith calls us, which is founded on love for the Lord, and the unity of our nature, the unity of our earthly needs and spiritual requirements. Indeed, one might say that all the nature surrounding us, the whole beautiful world of God, calls men to the closest, mutual union. You see how it is orderly in its course and life, and with all the diversity of its parts, comprises one harmonious whole. So should men be harmonious in their lives and, with the diversity of their gifts and abilities, form one whole, resplendent with faith and love. There will come a time, or rather eternity, when all the countless multitude of the righteous, who have departed from this life and those yet to depart from it into eternity, will be united in the age to come in the most perfect unity of thought, feeling, and striving for God’s glory and their own blessedness. Even here on earth the holy Church strives to prepare us for this union through unity of faith, hope, and love. May we all be worthy to attain the blessed unity to the glory of the Triune God.

Amen.