I.Trinity Current Issues

I.Trinity Current Issues

Readings found in:

Luis F. LADARIA

The Living and True God

pp. 83, 312

L:122 means page 122 of this work

A.Ways of speaking and demonstration

1.Order of thought about the Trinity

2.The way to talk about the Trinity

a)Persons

“In God, there are three persons in unity of essence.” L:312

b)Attributes

‘Feminine’ aspects of God

c)Father

(1)“Fatherhood of God” L:83

God manifests himself as Father in the life of Jesus and above all in his resurrection from the dead. L:336

d)Son

(1)sonship of Jesus L:83

Upon Jesus, who is in his person the Son, the Holy Spirit descends and dwells. The Spirit acts in Jesus and is at every moment the driving force and the guide in his historical path as Son towards the Father. It is worthwhile to recall the ideaof von Balthasar about the Holy Spirit as the «mediator», in a certain way, of thewill of the Father with respect to Jesus. In the Spirit, Jesus obeys, in freedom, hisFather's plans59.L:96

3.The way that Jesus is The Christ

a)Ladaria: Anointed at the Baptism

In relation to the moment of the «anointing», the constitution of Jesus asMessiah, the differences among the authors whom we have briefly explored are clear. Should we attach preference to the moment of the incarnation or to that of the baptism of Christ56? It does not seem that, faced with the quite clear statements of the New Testament and of the earliest tradition of the Church, we canpose any strong objections. The «anointing» of Jesus takes place in the Jordan, as we have seen. This is the reference point for the messianic action of Jesus and the subsequent giving of himself to humankind57. It must be clearly stated thatthe sanctification of the humanity of Jesus by the work of the Spirit in the firstinstant is not under discussion because of this. Ever since the incarnation, Jesusis in his person the Messiah, the Christ (cfr. Lk 2:11; also Mt 1:1; 1:16; 1:17; 1:18). But only after the new outpouring of the Spirit and the manifestation to the people in the Jordan will he begin to exercise his messianic function. The baptism has meaning for Jesus, the incarnated Son; it is only a manifestation for the othersof something he already possessed58. Without falling at all into adoptionism, wecan see moments of «newness» in the historical path of Jesus, the Son, towardsthe Father, which will culminate in the resurrection

56 The Catechism of the Catholic Church (ccc) addresses on different occasions the baptism andthe anointing of Jesus. Cfr. numbers 438,453,535,536,565,695,727,741 and 1224. On the one hand, special mention is made of the fact that, from the first instant, Jesus is the «Christ» and thatfrom the incarnation, he has the fullness of the Spirit. However, on the other hand, it sets forththat Christ is anointed and consecrated in his baptism at the Jordan and that he receives the Spirit who will remain upon him. L:95

The second controversial point of which we have spoken is the one that refersto the active subject of this anointing. Is it the Father or is it the Son who anointshis humanity? Based on the testimonies of the New Testament and those of theearliest Christian tradition, it does not seem adequate to think that the Logosanoints his own humanity with the Spirit that he possesses and that belongs tohim. It is above all, the Father who carries out this anointing. It does not appearin accordance with the outlook of the New Testament to say that the Son anointshis own humanity at the Jordan. L:98

b)von Balthasar: The Father anoints Jesus

We must also ask ourselves if the Trinitarian dimension of the anointing ofJesus is duly emphasized. As we could see in the earliest tradition, the Father isthe one who anoints Jesus, not the Son who anoints his humanity.In a more elaborated manner, H. U. von Balthasar has also addressed thisissue46. The action of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus Christ is clearly evident in the New Testament. If at first we saw the Spirit as the one in whom Jesus has beenanointed as the Messiah, there was a need very early to antedate the beginningof the action of the Spirit on him to the time of his conception so that the Lord were not considered simply as a prophet47. L:93

c)Scripture

(1)Born Christ

(2)Signs of being Anointed as a child

B.Patripassionism

On the cross, inthe abandonment of Jesus, the Father and the Son are profoundly separated, and at the same time, in the handing over to death they are most profoundly united.From this event between the Father and the Son comes the Spirit who justifiesthe «godless», fills the abandoned with love, and brings back the dead to life. Whathappens on the cross happens first and foremost «between God and God». L:104

C.Modalism:

1.Barth

“terminology proposed by Barth: the term persona should be substituted by «mode of being» ( Seinsweise” L:313

As we can see Barth wants to avoid any danger of tritheist representations. His «modes of being» terminology has sometimes earned him the accusation of being «modalist». But we must bear in mind that he clearly affirms the difference in God himself, not just in his mode of manifesting himself.” L:315

2.Rahner

Consistent with his basic axiom, Rahner begins with the idea that shouldGod wish to communicate himself to human beings, it is the Son who must appearhistorically in the flesh as man and it must be the Spirit who activates theacceptance of such communication in faith, hope, and love by the world. All of this presupposes the freedom of God, but if God wants to communicate himself freely, he is no longer «free» to do it in any other way, because then this self communicationwould not be telling us anything about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit151. L:316

Rahner then moves on to the immanent Trinity, once he has determined that«economically» God has communicated in this way. This self-communication could not be considered such if not from the dual way in which God communicate himself in his internal life, in the immanent Trinity: the Father gives himself to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. This dual mode of outward self-communication must befit God in himself, because otherwise he would not have truly communicated. This communication of God has two different created effects(the humanity of Christ and the grace created in the human being), different in themselves, but it cannot be reduced to them. These two different effects are the consequence of the two modalities of divine self-communication in the heart of the Trinity; they do not constitute the difference between them154. L:317

K. Rahner points out that in the heart of the Trinity between the Father and the Son there is not a reciprocal «you»156. L:318

The modes of God's self-communication outwardly respond to what God is in himself. Like Barth, K. Rahner also insists on the starting point in the Father: there is not a divine essence prior to these three modes of subsistence, differentiated while at the same time united in real relations. But once this fundamental statement has been made, what we can and should ask ourselves is whether with his proposal Rahner arrives where he wishes to go, if his considerations should not be complemented or even corrected by others. L:320

3.Moltmann

Moltmann also sees difficulties in the use in Trinitariantheology of the concept of substance: it is not a biblical concept and, furthermore, if we see the unity of God on this level, it is understood as a «neuter»,as something not personal. Given that the two paths of absolute subjectivity andunity of substance are unfeasible, a third one opens before us in order to speak about the divine union167; for Moltmann this is the perichoresis. only by starting from here can we reach union in God: For only the concept of unitedness (Einigkeit) is the concept of a unity that can be communicated and is open. The one God is a God at one (einiger) with himself. That presupposes the personal self-differentiation of God, and not merely a modal differentiation, for only persons can be «at one with one another» (einigsein), not modes of being or modes of subjectivity... The unitedness, the at-oneness, of the «tri-unity»(Die Einigkeit der Drei-einigkeit) is already with the fellowship (Gemeinschaft) of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. It therefore does not need to be additionally secured bya particular doctrine about the unity of the divine substance...168 L:322