A year ago, when I was still working in Elgin parish, Fr Colin decided to begin the introduction of the new translation of the Missal. We ordered special leaflets, got them, and then he took seriously ill. So seriously that he was completely out of action for three months. Suddenly the task of gradually introducing the new translation became my responsibility. It was strange and funny at the same time: a foreigner with rather moderate English and a strong accent was doing an essentially linguistic task across Moray from Lossiemouth to Tomintoul. During that time I was asked several times by different people about one particular word that had appeared in the Creed: ‘consubstantial’. Every time I heard this question I promised to give a broad explanation of it in a sermon. But I haven’t done it yet. Till now.
Christianity is rooted in the Jewish religion. Jesus was born as Jew; he was raised in the Jewish culture, soaking up its history, symbols, beliefs and traditions. His disciples and followers were virtually exclusively Jews, sharing the same culture. Perhaps the most important element of Judaism, standing it out among other religions, was monotheism – the belief that there was only one God. It was so strong that the first of the Ten Commandments was this: ‘You shall have no other gods before me.’ When the gospel reached the pagan world, with its Greek philosophy and its pantheon of deities, questions about Jesus were appearing. Who was he? What was his position with regards to God? Christians were dangerously caught between the Scylla of polytheism and the Charybdis of Jesus’ exclusive humanity. The first was unacceptable by the Jews, the latter unappealing to the pagans. Christian thinkers harnessed Greek philosophy to explain this apparent paradox.
In classical philosophy ‘substance’ is the concept of an object, or thing, when this is contrasted with properties or events. Perhaps pretty close to this term is the word ‘essence’. In this concept ‘consubstantial’ means that Jesus and God have the same nature, that they are equal. In a highly simplistic way we human beings are consubstantial – despite our different appearances and behaviours we share the same nature; essentially we are the same. We can make a comparison here with reproduction – we are not able to have offspring with species other than humans. Remember: it’s a highly simplified example.
Someone might think it was just a cunning way of solving the problem. But it isn’t an ideological twist or turn. It’s deeply biblical thinking described in philosophical terms. The shortest definition of God we find in the first letter of St John: ‘God is love’. But love doesn’t exist on its own; it’s a relationship between persons. God the Father loves God the Son with such perfect love that the love binding the two of them is another person: the Holy Spirit. We could compare it to a perfect family: the love and total self-giving between the husband and wife becomes a person in their child.
The mystery of the Holy Trinity is not solely a theoretical idea. It’s at the very core of our faith, as through the incarnate Christ we have direct access to God. As we heard in the second reading: ‘the spirit you received […] makes us cry out “Abba, Father”. The Spirit […] witnesses that we are children of God. […] and we are coheirs with Christ, sharing his sufferings so as to share his glory’.
