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Hypostatic Unions of the Trinity

ZoxsasiZoxsasi
edited December 1969 in Coptic Orthodox Church
Hi,

I'd like some clarification concerning an issue of the Trinity (please correct me where I'm mistaken):

Concerning the Holy Trinity, we believe that each person (hypostasis) was in complete union with the other hypostases.

The Word (Logos) was Co-Eternal with the Father. A perpetual Son, to a perpetual Father. In the fullness of time, the Word of God took flesh from Saint Mary, and United it with His Divinity. There was no separation, no mingling or alteration between them. Complete Man and Complete Divinity United in the Person of Christ.

My question is this. In the person of Christ, was Christ STILL in Union with the Father and the Holy Spirit?? At the moment that Christ took flesh, did this change in anyway with respect to the union with the other 2 members of the Holy Trinity??

Thanks

Comments

  • John_S2000John_S2000
    The Lord's reply to St Philip the Apostle holds the answer.

    John 14
    7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
    8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
    9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. [NKJV]

    each person (hypostasis) was in complete union

    I'd preferably say is...

    GBU
  • peterfarringtonpeterfarrington

    My question is this. In the person of Christ, was Christ STILL in Union with the Father and the Holy Spirit?? At the moment that Christ took flesh, did this change in anyway with respect to the union with the other 2 members of the Holy Trinity??

    A good question Zoxasi.

    I think we need to look at the hypostasis as 'Who' a person is. His identity. So the three persons of the Holy Trinity and three hypostases, which describes 'Who' they are. The Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit. The Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son. But the 'What' they are is uniquely one in the case of the Holy Trinity. They are the same one God. Therefore the power of God is one power which belongs equally to each of the persons, and likewise all the other attributes.

    Indeed we distinguish between the persons by saying that the Father begets, the Son is begotten and the Holy Spirit proceeds. We are saying that we do not know what we are saying beyond repeating the distinctions which we find in Scripture and revealed by God.

    He is one God but God is three persons or identities. These are not three Gods because their identity is rooted in a single, indivisible divine substance.

    When the Word of God, the eternal Son, was made incarnate, the 'Who' remains the same. The 'Who' of Jesus Christ, is the same as the 'Who' of the Word. To touch Jesus Christ is to touch the Son of God. The man known as Jesus Christ is the invisible Word of God made incarnate. There is the same identity. There is only one identity. But the 'What' is diverse. In one sense Jesus Christ is truly and perfectly man, but he is also truly and perfectly divine. In one sense the Word of God is truly and perfectly divine, but he is also truly and perfectly man. The 'Who' remains the same, the 'What' becomes diverse in the incarnation.

    The relations of the hypostases or identities or persons in the Holy Trinity are the relations of persons one with another. In the incarnation there is no new person who is added anywhere. Jesus Christ IS the Word of God incarnate. Therefore the relations of the Holy Trinity are not changed. But one of the Holy Trinity is now incarnate. He has united something to his identity, extended his identity in some sense into the created realm, but his identity in relation to the Father and the Holy Spirit remains the same. The Father is not incarnate, nor is the Holy Spirit incarnate, but the Son and Word of God is now incarnate. Yet within the Holy Trinity he remains the Son of the Father, and the Sender of the Holy Spirit.

    'Who' the Word is has never changed. 'What' the Word is has been extended by his uniting Himself to a humanity from the Virgin Mary by the Power of the Holy Spirit. The relations between the members of the Trinity are to do with 'Who' not 'What' so they have not changed and human nature has not been drawn into the natural unity of the Holy Trinity. If the Word chose to cease to be incarnate He would continue to be 'Who' He has always been, and His relation with the other members of the Holy Trinity would continue as they have always been. But the humanity of Christ, the incarnate Word, would cease to have any existence, since it would cease to have any identity. It has not become part of the Holy Trinity, rather it is a unique mode of being (if we can say that) of the Word, who is one of the Holy Trinity.

    Does any of that make sense?

    Father Peter
  • mabsootamabsoota
    this is very helpful  :)
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