How Do You Explain “The Trinity”?

In Catholicism, the concept of the Trinity is of utmost importance. As monotheists, Catholics believe that there is only one true God. However, that singular God is made up of three divine persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Catholics also believe that the Son, (Jesus Christ), is fully God and fully human. He is believed to be “consubstantial” (meaning “of the same substance”) with the Father.

Although it is simple to recite these beliefs during the Nicene Creed at mass, if you actually take time to reflect on the idea of three persons in one God, it gets confusing. How could this phenomenon ever occur? In reality, it’s impossible for humans to explain. While we’ll never be able to completely comprehend the Trinitarian concept during this life, art is one way we can attempt to understand it!

Below is one abstract example of Trinitarian art. It is called Blessed Trinity and was created by Marlene Scholz in the late twentieth century:

Blessed Trinity is one of my favorite depictions of the Trinity because through its use of line and color scheme, it shows how the three persons make up a single God. For instance, the swirling lines in the image create a sense of continual movement, which coincides with the Trinitarian belief of Perichorisis (the concept that the three divine persons are interwoven and are constantly moving or dancing around each other).

The circular swirl at the top of the image serves as a depiction of Heaven. From that heavenly swirl, we see that the hands of the Father deliver the Son to live on the Earth. The Son is shown on his knees praying to His Father in heaven – a common practice for Jesus, as recorded in the New Testament. We also see the Holy Spirit descending from Heaven, (in the form of an orange dove), which allowed Jesus to become incarnate through Mary.

One interesting nuance of this picture is that both God the Father and the Son are drawn in the same color: white. This homogeneous color code helps explain that these two members of the Trinity are consubstantial, or, of the same substance with each other. Meanwhile, the Spirit is depicted as a fiery orange dove, appearing to fly into Jesus and become a part of Him.

Both the dove and “tongues of fire” were common biblical symbols for the Holy Spirit. A prime example is the Baptism of Jesus: “and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased (Luke 3:22 NAB).”

Another example is the Pentecost: “And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance (Acts 2:2-4 NAB).”

I like how Blessed Trinity manages to depict both of these prominent Spirit symbols into one.

Overall, I believe this image is a great representation of the Trinity because it shows in a simple yet abstract way the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!