Day 37: The Divine Economy

For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the same operation: "The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle." However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. CCC 258

Today's reading is yet another short one, though densely packed again, on the divine oikonomia or "the ways in which God has acted in time" (Catechism Companion, p. 78). The Catechism has some rich material on this, like this part:

Being a work at once common and personal, the whole divine economy makes known both what is proper to the divine persons, and their one divine nature. Hence the whole Christian life is a communion with each of the divine persons, without in any way separating them. Everyone who glorifies the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him. CCC 259

For ease in understanding though, I thought this summation in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "49. How do the three divine Persons work?" was good:

Inseparable in their one substance, the three divine Persons are also inseparable in their activity. The Trinity has one operation, sole and the same. In this one divine action, however, each Person is present according to the mode which is proper to him in the Trinity.

The revelation of the Trinity at Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River, depicted here by Francesco Albani, we have a theophany - a revelation of God that includes the Father in the heavens, the Son baptized by John, and the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus in the form of a dove (see CCC 258). [Catechism Companion, p. 79]