According to correct Christian theology, we think of God as Being in three Persons, but what does that mean? Of course, we are familiar with human beings, and we know that each of us is a person. And we know that Jesus became one of us, and in that sense, we recognize Him as a human person. But what kind of "person" is actualized by God? How is Ultimate Divinity expressed in personhood? Even before the historical incarnation, how was God expressing his Being as personal?
We need to look at several factors, in order to be able not only to recognize a "person," but also to exclude what does not fully qualify. As far as I can see, there are four of these: rationality, purpose, freedom and relations. If any one of these is missing, personhood is stunted and incomplete, unable to reach a full development. With them all together, we can comprehend the full range of expression of personality, healthy or otherwise, as being a question of harmony and balance.
So now, we can come back to our first question. In what sense is God a person, or even three persons? I feel like I am in deep theological waters here, way over my head, and I must tread carefully, especially as what I think I see on the horizon may not be so obvious to anyone else... and it might be so high that it remains beyond my ability to swim there. To stretch the analogy a bit, maybe an angel will take on the role of a porpoise, and push me to shore before I drown. It would not be the first time.
So, let's take up the first part of the definition and see what we mean by calling God a person. Do we see Him as reasonable? From the works of creation, we discover evidence of information and improvement, and even mathematical calculations that seem to show how things fit and behave. Thus we have logical reasoning. The aspect of beauty in sight and sound also speaks of another kind of reason, seeking aesthetic harmony and balance, as well as such Truth as leads to well-being, so that it may become a shared experience of meaning. Finally, there is another kind of reason that works through love, building community from an association of persons by exercising both restraint and kindness to build justice, mercy, support and guidance. You may wonder, how can love be reasonable? But without love, there can be no social contract. There would be no alliance among strangers who come to accept each other, but only a detente, an armed truce between enemies who merely choose to act as if they would trust one another. Without love, we can only stand on self-interest, and we would never go past the law of retaliation. And when love breaks down, that is exactly where society ends up, as an armed camp.
Because we have reasonable minds, we are amazed to find reason in the creation, and we see its integration and order as a universal cohesiveness, which we call "Cosmos." More, we find the development of the beauty and harmony of life, and its growth in variety and complexity, to be pleasing. Until, with the arrival of humanity, we get the emergence of civilization. So yes, we know, not only that there is a God, but that He is rational. I know I'm preaching to the choir here. I have not convinced any atheists. But I'm talking to Christians, and we're looking a the Trinity.
That a person requires a sense of purpose should be obvious to everyone. Without it we have no motivation, and we exist in boredom and apathy. Even the most trivial, to observe others at play, is acceptable if all else fails to elicit allegiance. But God is not satisfied with anything so trivial. His is a purpose to span all of eternity. In his primordial state, God shares intimacy of mind between his three persons, and the intensity of this exchange so fills his Being that He wants to expand and share it beyond Himself. That is why He chose to create time and space, matter and energy, stars and planets, and finally life and humanity. God wanted a creature that would reflect his own image and likeness, so that we could share in his interpersonal life of communion. But this is not solely a melding of minds. It includes the development and filling of the cosmos, and raising it all to conscious adoration, and to gratitude for his Love and abundant sustenance. Expansion of life throughout the universe is about as far from a trivial pursuit as you can get. But as with reason, there are different aspects of this that require the involvement of each of the three persons.
It's difficult to avoid over-simplifying this, as if it was a type of modalism, because we sound like each divine person has a separate agenda. But none of them ever acts alone. Rather, the three persons each have their own perspective and interpretation of the plan, and range of interests where they embellish the others' works, while all labor toward a common aim. It's a collaboration, in which all confer to evaluate the progress daily, and share the responsibility to fill in the spaces. Perhaps I can say it's like this, the Father plans and sets up the framework, while the Son develops the structure, and the Spirit oversees the laborers and keeps them working together. It's as if they are planning a fine manor estate with a grand house and a garden park, with servants and a working farm to support it. But the servants are all family, and everyone has a share in the estate. Like I said, it's vastly over-simplified. Since God, the Father, is both omniscient and prescient, the intellectual pursuits cannot be neglected, with learning meant for the Son, and his human family, and discovery led by the Spirit... and so on. But such divisions dare to presume upon the divine unity, ... and I believe that you've got the point. Besides, there is lots more to it.
As far as freedom goes, which is absolute only for divinity for only God knows the full consequences of every decision, once the purpose is agreed, each Person is allowed to use the full extent of his faculties to express his authenticity and authority. The Father resides in his transcendent holiness, creating and observing the worlds He has made, while planning and manipulating from behind the scenes. The Son, coequal but obedient, was given full authority to define the right actions of humanity with regard to the Law. Always in communion with the Father, his freedom was guided by divine Wisdom even as He enacted his part of the divine plan for the maturity and salvation of humanity. In this way, whatever He decided would be accepted as the right way, for his love of both God and Man never wavered, nor did his adherence to the Father's plan.
Then when the events in history were done, Jesus returned up to Heaven, and together with the Father they sent the Holy Spirit down to us. This was an act of love, and the Holy Spirit, eternal Wisdom, acted from their agreement of communion. In her freedom, She would help by guiding us to remember Jesus' teachings and the meaning of his doings, so that we could agree on the Truth of our faith. But She does not choose to interfere in our freedom, seeking instead to guide and convince us by explaining the Truth, and abiding in those hearts where She is welcome so as to prompt us when we are faced with choices. It is the Spirit who calls us to worship in Church, and to read scripture and pray at home. Her job is to help us to become saints. Insofar as we allow, the Holy Spirit wants to promote harmony and unity among the members of the Body of Christ.
Lastly, that a person needs to have relations with others should be self-evident. None of us is quite self-sufficient. When we are small, we need our parents to care for us, and even as adults there are many things that we can't, or don't know how to do for ourselves. Thus, the way that we relate to others is crucial to our survival and well-being. With those who are closest to us, we feel gratitude and a degree of attachment, which elicits a desire to share and reciprocate, to care for them in return. This is what we call "love."
But for God, love is such an integral part of his Being that it defines who He is. Creation itself was an act of love, of desiring to love more. So the Father chose to expand the horizons of his interests and activities, and to make living creatures. On the sixth day, He made people, so that some of his creatures could love Him back, in the same way as they were loved. And then He took a rest. It was the Son who walked with us in the Garden of Eden. He taught us how to know what was good to eat, and to give names to his other creatures. And He knew when we had broken his trust, and tried to hide from his angry disapproval. His description of the harsh consequences of sin showed us what we had done, how we had corrupted our world. Then, it was the Holy Spirit who watched over us, always seeking out those who wanted to know God and do what is right. Eventually, it was the Spirit who called Abraham to leave Ur and follow into the Promised Land. It was the Spirit who first proposed a covenant, to choose a people to teach about the plan to break the power of sin, and to fix our broken relationship with Him.
But as I said before, breaking God's activities into separate spheres over-simplifies things too much. The Trinity indeed is a community of three distinct persons, but they are not separate in the way I have portrayed them. In every thought, word and deed, they act together, each influencing how things turn out, and sharing their ideas while planning what to do next. They do often seem to have dissimilar styles, but they share the same goals and definitions of what is good and proper.
My purpose in illuminating these distinctions has been to show that each of the three persons is indeed a fully developed person in his/her own right. Too often, we hear about the Father and the Son, and how they appear as being male in gender, but then we are told that the Spirit lacks a gender. As a result, we think that the Shekinah, the Holy Presence, is more like a "force" than a real person, being merely the palpable Love that flows between, and emanates from the other two. She is not a "force," but her own being, truly equal and honorable, gracious in her own way. She even has her own name, Sophia, meaning Wisdom. It is only because She is ultimately humble, never seeking her own worship, but always pointing to the other two as being worthy of love, that She seems to be something less. Indeed, She is so completely devoted to them that She only speaks to us about Jesus, and never draws attention to Herself.
All three persons exist as the fullness of Love, and that is the only reason why there exists anything other than God in his own sphere of illumination. We are the product of God's love, and it is our purpose to learn to love Him in return. If we succeed, then we will find our own place in Heaven, where we will share in the amazing relationships of God's Love, and in a community of sharing among all of the people of God. Insofar as we allow ourselves to be filled with God's love, we find that we are fulfilling not only our purpose, but also the deepest desires and inclinations of our own nature, because we were created to reflect his image and likeness. When we get to Heaven, we will be restored to our original integrity, and we will be doing just that, all according to the Plan.
