Do Dogmas have any practical value for us today?
The first reading today refers to the Wisdom of God, as the previous part of the chapter from which it is taken reveals. This Wisdom of God is perceived as a part of the very essence of God. And like the Word of God which we read about in the first chapter of John’s Gospel (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God..” John 1:1), so too we are told here that the Wisdom of God is also from all eternity.
And just like our own ‘wisdom’ or our own ‘words’ are part of our very essence, and not distinct from us, it would seem obvious that both the Wisdom of God and the Word of God are both equally part of the very essence of God the Father. While we consider that Jesus is the Word of God, we could also consider that the Wisdom of God is expressed in the Spirit, for it is the Spirit who, according to Jesus, will teach his disciples to understand all that they could not understand of Jesus’ teaching.(John 14:26).
So, it would seem that the Apostles/disciples experienced God in three distinct ways: the experience of the loving Abba Creator of the Universe (known to the Jews as YAHWEH), the teaching Word (Jesus) , and the courage-giving and doubt-removing Wisdom (the Spirit). And yet as strong monotheistic Jews, they were convinced that God could only be ONE. Struggling with these apparently contradictory experiences, the early Church, over quite a few centuries of theological struggle, came to articulate their experience of God in what we know as the Trinitarian doctrine of there being “three persons in One God”. This use of the term ‘persons’ emerged from ideas found in Greek philosophy, where an individual person referred to one who embodies a specific or distinct way of engaging with others. And so, since they experienced God in three distinct ways, the term ‘person’ seemed suitable, and yet they were clear, of course, that God could only be one. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, this term ‘person’ was actually strongly opposed by those who came from the different background of the Eastern Catholic Churches (Is My Relationship With the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit? June 4, 2023).
But keeping that issue of the rightness or wrongness of that Trinitarian articulation by the Western Churches, the question that we could ask ourselves is this: Do these dogmas in Christianity have any practical value in our own lives today? We must admit that for most of us, these dogmas are beliefs that are essentially mental affirmations, rather than experiential statements, and really offer no value addition to, nor any practical value in, our lives. After all does it really matter to my daily living whether God is three persons in one, or whether Mary is a virgin, and so on vis-a-vis many other dogmas?
But if true religion is more than just a set of mental beliefs, but rather an experience of God (The Three Elements of a Saving Faith, February 25, 2024) then we could ask ourselves whether these dogmas could have any practical experiential value in our lives. I have always spoken of our religious life as a journey, a pilgrimage. In all journeys, it is useful to have signposts on the way, signposts that earlier travellers have placed for us, especially when each of us is not really sure of the way. Similarly, as the early Christians struggled to understand their faith, (incidentally a struggle which has never completely ended), they came up with certain articulations of what they felt were essential signposts to guide us on our journey. And dogmas are just those signposts that the Church community over the centuries felt were particularly important or even essential. Of course depending on my own personal religious journey, some dogmas will have relevance, and some will not, precisely because we are all travelling our own unique paths to God.
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One of these summary articulations is about how God engages with us, an experience that is articulated in the dogma of the TRINITY. This, as mentioned earlier, was an articulation of the three different ways the early disciples of Jesus experienced God.
How could this dogma be practically useful to us? I can, of course, only speak for myself, because as I said earlier, different dogmas offer value addition depending on the specifics of our own journey or pilgrimage. For me, I realise that very often I find myself faced with a dilemma as to how to proceed in life. What is the Jesus-way forward? Sure, Jesus’ teachings are available to me, but that often doesn’t seem to be enough. After all, we do know that despite three years of living with Jesus, and despite hearing his teachings through personal encounters with him, the disciples were often still not sure how to proceed. And as we know from the rest of the New Testament writings, it was only after much deliberation and perhaps even disagreements that they came up with some conclusions as to what should be the way forward for Christians. So, if even with such close contact with Jesus, they themselves were often not sure, and often even misunderstood his teachings, as I have explained in other blogs, how much more likely is it, that I too would be confused and make mistakes!!! - despite having the Gospels available to me.
To those like me, this Trinitarian doctrine, understood as three different kinds of experiences of God, could offer some helps or guidelines. The first guideline I am offered is that whatever decision I make, whatever action I take, it must be rooted in the unconditional love that our Abba God has for all human beings, both good and bad. Such a guideline is extremely challenging, at least for me, for it is often difficult for me to follow when there are so many people (religious leaders, political leaders, even people among my own friends and family) who, according to me, function out of such tremendous selfishness that causes so much harm to others. I see them and often I find it difficult to remember that our Abba God loves them too. And of course, in reflecting on this guideline, I may be forced to confront myself, for I too may be like them in some or many ways.
A second guideline that is offered to me in the doctrine of the Trinity is when I remember that the WORD of God, who is equally part of the essence of this same Abba God, is also a God who (among other things) stands up against those who are hypocrites, against those who burden others with religious laws, against those who prefer to look after only themselves rather than love their neighbour etc., So the guideline from the first experience of God as a loving Abba God is nuanced by this additional guideline that says that loving everyone also requires us to speak up for those who cannot, and/or to speak truth to power, sometimes even to the point of being willing to die doing this. And that is not enough, because even if one has to die at their hands one must be able to genuinely believe in Jesus’ heart-rending words: “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing”. In other words as the saying goes, though I can and must hate the sin, I must still not hate the sinner. Such a difficult tight-rope to walk!!!
And finally, the experience of God as Spirit reminds me that to follow the above two guidelines, one must have much inner wisdom and external courage - which we call the grace of the Spirit (Does the Holy Spirit give us any special powers, June 8, 2025). For even the disciples, despite experiencing the love of the Father and a relationship with Jesus the Word, still had to grow by trying again and again, falling multiple times, until they were finally filled with the Spirit, the grace of such wisdom and courage. In the same way, I too can find the grace of such wisdom and courage only by continually trying and falling and picking myself up again and trying again - and through that I will experience the Spirit who will give me the grace and strength to become who I am called to be, to live as I am called to live.
Of course, as much as I am influenced and guided by the Christian experience of God, my journey may also be enriched by the signposts left by other travellers (e.g. other religious, and even non-religious travellers). And such other experiences may also guide my journey. And though I may use the Christian experience as a yardstick to evaluate these other signposts, in the end the journey is towards experiencing the Ultimate reality and I do not need to reject the other signposts that may help me along.
Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth,
When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
When he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
When he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command,
When he marked out the foundations of the earth,
Then I was beside him, like a master worker, and I was daily his delight, playing before him always, playing in his inhabited world, and delighting in the human race”.
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
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