Day 35: Formation of Trinitarian Dogma

During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify her Trinitarian faith, both to deepen her own understanding of the faith and to defend it against the errors that were deforming it. This clarification was the work of the early councils, aided by the theological work of the Church Fathers and sustained by the Christian people's sense of the faith. CCC 250

Today's reading is short, covering the formation of the dogma of the Trinity. This occurred mainly at the ecumenical councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, and Chalcedon. What I liked most about this section of the Catechism were the basic definitions provided in CCC 252 of key theological terms used by the Church: "substance", "essence", or "nature"; "person" or "hypostasis"; and "relation". This was helpful in understanding the gist of what these councils were defining. The Catechism acknowledges that the Trinity is an "ineffable mystery" that Pope St. Paul VI is quoted as saying, "infinitely beyond all that we can humanly understand". Indeed.

I do like how the Catechism Companion, Vol I describes the Trinity:

God the Father is Father because of the Son, and the Son is Son because of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the bond of love between them. (p. 74)

Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, 1876 painting by Vasily Surikov