Week 1 Introduction
The first day of creation begins with the manifestation of the Trinity: God the Father creates through his Word and his Spirit. Any account of creation must begin with a proper account of God, for he is the source, exemplar, and end of all creation.
God then send forth light to illuminate the creation. While in the creation he sent forth physical light, he also sends forth spiritual light to illumine the mind of the saints. If we wish then to understand the inner life of God, we must look to the Doctors of the Church whose minds have been infused with the deepest knowledge of the sacred mysteries.
In his profound work Quaestiones disputatae de mysterio Trinitatis (Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity), the Seraphic Doctor establishes seven attributes of God that allow us to understand the radical difference between God and creatures. In each article, he demonstrates how every attribute can be understood according to God as one and God as three.
Let us then approach the throne of God of God by ascending the seven steps of the divine attributes.
Week 1 Day 1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. (Gen 1:1-5)
From the very first words of scripture, God manifests himself as both one and three. As God, and as Father, Word, and Spirit. It is clear through human reason that God is one. For if there were two Gods, the Seraphic Doctor shows that one would have to be prior to the other, and so one would not be God but a creature. Thus, there is only one God.
While the pagans failed on even this basic point of reason, worshiping idols rather than the Creator, some great philosophers attained to this truth that God is one by reason, and likewise do many false religions now teach this. However, St. Bonaventure demonstrates that this is of no eternal merit, for it is by human reason.
God has made manifest though that he is also a Trinity, yet in such a manner that is no way contrary to his unity. Many heretics object that it does contradict his unity. The Seraphic Doctor explains that they confuse nature and person, for nature is what a thing is, while person who someone is. The who of God is three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The what of God is one: the divine essence. While we are really many despite having a common nature, for we are finite and divided, God in his infinite simplicity remain really one in essence when multiplied in three persons.
This inner life of the Trinity is unknowable by reason, but neither is it contrary to reason. For the light of faith brings us beyond reason, just as the light of the first day brough the creation beyond in its initial darkness. But just as God divided the day from the night on the first day, so too on the last day will he divide those who worshipped him as both unity and Trinity from those who denied what God has taught mankind.
Let us pray.
O God Almighty Father, who subsisting both in unity of essence and within Trinity by relation created all things out of nothing and illuminated it through light, grant, we beseech Thee, the illumination of our minds that we may understand the mystery of unity and Trinity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
