In the Image of the Trinity

Last Updated on June 2, 2023 by Gloria M. Chang

A Trinitarian Universe

The revelation of the Trinity bathes the whole of reality in a new light, transforming every domain of human life. What does a tri-personal universe look like?

Let us listen to St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called “The Theologian” (Oration 40.41):

This I give you to share, and to defend all your life, the One Godhead and Power, found in the Three in Unity, and comprising the Three separately, not unequal, in substances or natures, neither increased nor diminished by superiorities or inferiorities; in every respect equal, in every respect the same; just as the beauty and the greatness of the heavens is one; the infinite conjunction of Three Infinite Ones, Each God when considered in Himself; as the Father so the Son, as the Son so the Holy Ghost; the Three One God when contemplated together; Each God because Consubstantial; One God because of the Monarchia. No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the Splendor of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish Them than I am carried back to the One. When I think of any One of the Three I think of Him as the Whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking of escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of That One so as to attribute a greater greatness to the Rest. When I contemplate the Three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the Undivided Light. 

Three and One

The personal God who spoke to Moses in a cloud “face to face, as a man speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11) revealed himself in Jesus Christ as simultaneously Three and One: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each Person encompasses the “whole” divinity without dividing or sharing it. Divine “wholeness” transcends materiality. In St. Gregory’s faltering words, the Trinity is “divided without division” (Oration 39.11). More elegantly put in another translation, the Trinity is “divided indivisibly” or “undivided dividedly.” 

Concrete Persons

Minds “captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) no longer abstract “God” or divinity from the Three Persons. Possessors of eternal life know the Father and the one whom he sent, Jesus Christ (John 17:3), by the Spirit of truth (John 16:13).

In discourse about the historical unfolding of divine revelation, we speak of the “God of Abraham and Moses.” After Pentecost, we habitually pray and live in the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Humans in the Image of the Trinity

How do human persons image the Trinity? Metaphysically, diverse human persons encompass the whole of human nature without division. “Indivisibly divided” and “undivided dividedly,” persons in communion transcend bloodlines, tribes, languages, and cultures. The notion of “family” becomes a communion encompassing all persons without exclusion. 

Beyond Tribalism

Absolute diversity in the image of the Trinity transcends relativity, banishing the tribalism associated with “relatives.” “Degrees of separation” and “distance” belong to fragmented materiality. Measurable distance arises from matter. But in personal communion, distinction transcends measure.

Immeasurable Persons

What is the relationship of distance to measure? Take, for example, a meter stick as a standard to measure a certain distance. We quantify the distance in units of the standard. 

In a world that measures, individuals are compared using standardized tests, meter sticks, scales, and thermometers. This is possible because individuals exist in a quantifiable condition of material extension. Biological descent, blood lines, and genetics are all woven from the fabric of material extension. Thus one individual is measured against another, compared, weighed, valued, and sometimes devalued.

Persons, however, cannot be measured. Unlike individuals cut from one material fabric, persons transcend divisibility. Each person contains the whole of human nature, an immeasurable reality invisible to the physical eye. Wholly distinct persons transcend relativity.

Persons Are the Whole Christ

Comparable objects share a foundation divisible by degrees. Not so with persons. In the image of the Trinity, we embody the nature of Christ not by degrees but in toto.