THE TRINITARIAN COMMUNION:

The source of our communion in the Church

Fr.Tharian Njaliath, Papal Seminary, Pune

Introduction
Every religion seeks to answer the cry for freedom and emancipation from the
bondage of untruth, darkness and death. The reality of multiple bondage and
oppression is the cause and result of personal brokenness from which everyone seeks
liberation. Sociological studies and research are emphasizing the fact of certain
cosmic harmony in which person is essentially related to everyone else in a
relationship of interdependence in which everyone enhances and contributes to the
growth of the other. Thus the other has an important role to play in shaping and
perfecting ones life. This reality points and leads to the necessary recognition and
acceptance of the other. It emphasizes our mutual interrelatedness, pointing and
leading to community and communion.
However, our universal societal experience tells the sad story of
discrimination, oppression and degradation of the other. The forms and causes of such
evils differ, but the reality is universal (worldwide). The atrocities on dalits,
maltreatment and degradation of women and growing crime against women, child
labour, exploitation of the poor and the weak, and corruption are daily phenomena in
our society. Further, India is deeply marked and tarnished by such social evils
exemplified in its particularly heinous form of the caste system, which includes the
inhuman phenomenon of untouchability. Here persons are categorized not according
to their talents and abilities or achievements, but simply by their birth in a particular
social stratum. This is the hard, cruel face that society exhibits in India. Unfortunately,
this evil of untouchability taints the Church in India in general. Has Christianity no
answer to make, no remedy to offer to this anguishing problem?
Our faith, as Christians, is cantered on God the Trinity. Our life is lived in and
through the Trinitarian communion. Our Trinitarian faith involves our minds, our
hearts and our hands in action. It involves our minds to explore into the meaning of
the mystery of the Trinity, our hearts to worship and adore this mystery of love and
communion, our hands to reach out and work for a society where justice, equality and
genuine communion prevail. The faith that we have received has been passed on to us

from the faith experience of the Apostles, who experienced God in the life and
message of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. We are all drawn to this sublime
faith to enter into the great mystery of the Trinity. Therefore to basically found our
faith in the Triune God has a supreme significance right from the inception of the
Church until now. It is the fundamental principle which stimulates our Christian living
on earth.
The Church is sometimes described as a collective designation for the
varying social embodiments of Christian life in the world, as each differently
approximate the godly basis of true society.1 Christians derive their faith content
from the communion of the Trinitarian God. What is implied here is that they find the
true basis for their community life in the divine nature. This is what the existing
Churches have to exemplify. The variety that is experienced within the Church also
implies a major theological question: How does Gods Trinitarian self-determination
for humanity bring a true society in and through the diversity of the Churches.2
However, the Church has often not been capable of exemplifying Gods
communitarian nature as its basis of true sociality. The Churchs historical existence
in societies has been disfigured by fragmentation, separation and mutual conflicts.
Today the one Church of Christ is divided into Catholic Churches, Orthodox
Churches, Reformed Churches, etc. The Church, therefore, has to evolve new models
of ecclesiologies that can handle diversity within the Christian community positively
and hold its unity.
The communion with the Triune God and with one another, the basis and
norm of the Church and the Christian living. At this juncture the Trinitarian
communion is a vibrant model to lead us from unfaithful life to truthful life, from the
darkness of oppressive social structures to the freedom of communion, and finally
from the death of selfishness and oppression to the freedom of love and fraternal life.
Thereby we establish an egalitarian society in which all are included and accepted as
members of one human family. My aim in writing this paper is mainly the concern of
establishing inter-relationship among the individual Churches3 in India. This paper is
born out of the conviction that the present state of the Indian Churchs existence needs
to be transformed. A new way of the Churchs existence in India can really transform

the unjust structures of the society and build a nation in which we all can live in love
and fellowship. It tries to investigate the ways and means of the Churchs new
existence in this multi-ritual and multi- cultural society. This study is divided into
three parts.
In the first part we consider the concept of the Trinitarian communion as the
source of our communion in the Church. Communion or koinonia means that
Christians share something in common: our faith, hope and charity, and have
communion with one another. The Trinitarian communion is the source of our
communion both in the Church and the world. It is Jesus who revealed the Trinitarian
communion, foreshadowed in the Old Testament. The Trinity of Persons lives in
perfect and eternal communion as a community of love, equals and justice. Through
the Trinitarian communion we are all drawn to have communion with the Father and
the Son in the Holy Spirit. Having been drawn into this communion we, as Christians,
are challenged to live in communion with one another.
In the second part, we deal with the biblical understanding of God as Trinity
how the kenotic love, equality; fraternity and justice challenge the present practice of
the rite divisions in the Church in India. In this section we shall consider how the
Trinitarian communion challenges with perfect equality, love, justice and fraternity
our rite dominated Churches in India. Raimundo Panikkar says, Trinity is not only
the theoretical foundation stone of Christianity but also the practical, concrete and
existential basis of the Christian life.4 Therefore the Trinitarian communion which in
itself is the source of our life and existence here on earth remains also as the source
and symbol of our communion in our society. Here we shall explore concrete ways
and means in which we could experience and bring back the Trinitarian communion
into our daily life. The Church as a sacrament motivates us to establish communion
among dioceses, parishes and Christians themselves i.e., among women and men,
clergy and laity, dalits and caste people, Catholics and other denominations and
finally with the persons of other religions.
In the third part we discuss that the fundamental Christian experience of God
as communion. The Persons of the Trinity live in a perfect communion. The Godhead
established a relationship with us by his free will and out of love. The perfect union
that exists in the Triune God, their openness, despite the reality of distinction existing

in them their perichoresis i.e., interpenetration of their relationships challenge our

existing unjust, unequal, and caste dominated Church. The phenomenon of
discrimination based on caste etc. goes against the God whom we believe in. Our
Christian behaviour should be rooted deeply in the Triune God not only to do good to
others but to be with others as brothers and sisters. As J.M.R. Tillard says, The
fundamental inspiration of Christian behaviour is communion with God and others in
faith, charity and hope. This is not only to do good to others, but to be with others
in the common confession of faith in one God and in the dynamism of the reign of
God.5 Therefore we shall consider here the self emptying love of the Triune God
which challenges those who treat other Christians as untouchables or inferiors, or
belongs to another rite, as this goes against the very purpose of Gods creation.
Christian life should move from its societal divisions towards the perfect unity and
equality of the Triune God, to establish a just and egalitarian Christian community
i.e., the Church.
We conclude the paper with some practical suggestions to realize and establish
communion with the Trinity and among human beings themselves in the context of
the Church in India.

1. The Trinitarian Communion: The source of our communion in the

Church
In the recent theological thinking the concept of Koinonia has taken on a much
more explicitly and insistently Trinitarian character.6 The starting point of an
ecclesiology based on the notion of communion is Trinitarian. God lives in
communion and it is for that communion that God created humanity and the whole
created reality. Vatican IIs Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, spoke of
the sacred mystery of the reality of the Church having the Trinity as its highest
exemplar and source (UR 2).
The present societal structure of the Indian social scenario and the
discrimination and division caused by the same in the Catholic Church in India
certainly look for an egalitarian society and communion where everyone experiences
the love of neighbour and the love of God. Communion as such deals with a web of
interwoven relationships with us. This intervention of God in our history is very clear

in the life of Israel, which reaches to perfection in and through Jesus Christ. The
Church under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit continues this task of
Jesus in the world. Communion emphasizes that the Church is basically a
communion or fellowship among human beings and God.7
Hence the need of retrieving the original communion that was practiced in the
early Church, to lead humanity to experience the love of God and love of neighbour
here and now on this earth. The Trinity as persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, lives
and communicates a perfect communion to humanity. As Jacob Parapally rightly says,
The revelation of God as Triune with the equality of persons, unity of substance,
essence and nature and with the dynamic and self-giving surrender to one another
should have been the source and model for Christian fellowship8 The relationship
of love that is there in the Triune God remains as a challenge for our discriminated
and oppressed society. In this section we explore the concept of communion
ecclesiology in the Christian community by drawing its roots both from the Bible and
the Church documents and also the development of the doctrine of Trinity in the
Church and its relevance for us in India today.

1.1 Koinonia in Trinity

The Greek word koinonia like its associated verb koinonein takes us back to
the Greek adjective koinon. Koinon is what is shared, as opposed to idion, what is
private. Hence idion is used of private property or experience, koinon applies to
shared, or public, property or experience. Koinonein thus means to share in common
and koinonia (a noun) means sharing. The Latin word communio is the translation of
the Greek word koinonia. Koinonia means for Christians to share something in
common: our faith, hope and charity, and have communion with one another.
Koinonia is Gods own mode of being. John D.Zizioulas, in his book Being As
Communion, points out, The Being of God is a relational being: without the concept
of communion it would not be possible to speak of God... The substance of God,
God, has no ontological content, no true being, apart from communion.9 Jacob
Parappally describes this communion in the following words: The oneness of the
persons in the Trinity is absolute. There is perfect unity by mutual surrender of

everything except that which cannot be surrendered, i.e., the personhood. There is no
domination or subordination, no superiority or inferiority, no anteriority or
posteriority but complete equality. There is only mutual-indwelling, co-existence and
inter-penetration which the Greek Fathers called perichoresis.10
Ernest Skublics describes the basic features of the Trinity which are relevant
to its being the source and ultimate model of human community. He writes, No
person of the Trinity was ever alone. The three are co-eternal, inconceivable apart
from each other.11 In the Trinity, each person being defined by the relationships that
person has with the other two. In fact, it has been said that each is a personified
relationship.12He describes the Trinitarian communion as follows: their communion
is so intrinsic to their (shared) being that in fact it is their being, making them
inconceivable apart from their communion. And yet, each person is irreducibly
unique, not blended into an impersonal commonality by their one and indivisible
nature.13

1.2. Communion is based on the interpersonal relationships

Susan K.Wood explains more clearly by saying, Communion ecclesiology
develops from the two biblical meanings of koinonia: the common participation in
the gifts of salvation won by Jesus Christ and bestowed by the Holy Spirit and the
bond of fellowship or the community of Christians that results from our union with
God.14 This communion is also explained in human interpersonal relationships by
B.C.Butler, who says, Communion is a system of personal relations built upon and
flowing from common possession or common experience, and in potency to become
interpersonal relationship.15 Based on this common possession and common
experience he understands communion as a relation or relations between persons,
established through shared possessions, shared experiences or shared goals and
hopes; and a community arising out of such relations.16 Hence communion is based
on the interpersonal relationships in which the community shares in the common

hopes and goals. Proceeding from here to take part in the communion of Godhead we
establish a bond of fellowship with one another in the community.
Human life is filled with so many experiences both in the physical and
spiritual realms. These experiences mould, motivate and transform the very life of
human subject individually, socially, and globally. There is a basic thrust in every
human being to seek relationship with the divine. As Thomas Marsh says, A Godtowardsness is a basic and essential feature of the human being, of being human.
There is in the human being a basic orientation which continually directs it to seek to
relate to and exist in relationship with a transcendent Absolute, God.17 As Christians
our religious experience is centered on a person of Jesus Christ through whom we are
drawn into the life of God as Trinity. Jesus Christ experienced God as abba and all
those who believe in him are drawn to this innermost experience of God as abba in
the Holy Spirit. The very Christian living itself is a participation in the life and
communion of the Triune God.18
Catherine Mowry LaCugna says, The doctrine of the Trinity is ultimately a
practical doctrine with radical consequences for Christian life.19 This indicates the
importance of the Christian experience of the Triune God in the Christian living. The
life of the Trinity as communion motivates and inspires the Christian living in this
world. In our day to day liturgy we profess and practice especially in the Eucharistic
celebration the Trinitarian communion. We worship God the Father through the Son
in the Holy Spirit. George H. Tavard says The Father is addressed in the preface, and
the trisagion or Sanctus is prayed to him. The Beloved Son is evoked in the account
of the last supper, during which the words of consecration are proclaimed over bread
and wine. The Spirit is invoked to transform our gifts, in the prayer which has been
called the epiclesis by oriental authors.20 Therefore the Christian life in its worship
and living is Trinitarian. We take part in the very life of the Triune God. We as
persons enter into the divine life and establish our relationship with Triune God.
Catherine Mowry LaCugna says, Divine life is therefore our life. The heart of
Christian life is to be united with the God of Jesus Christ by means of communion
with one another.21 Therefore the very fundamental Christian experience is the

Triune Gods communion, a relationship that explores the mysteries of love,

personhood and communion both with God and with one another.

1.3 Trinitarian Dimension of the Ecclesial Communion

God created the human being as a communion in the image of God he
created him/her, male and female he created them (Gen 1:27). Reflecting the
communion character of the Trinity itself, the human being is a communion. Severed
from communion, as an individual, the human being is destined to die.22 Sin is
precisely the failure to live out this communion. And sin is the tragic prerogative of
the person alone.23 Once being is viewed a essentially communion the reason why
salvation is attained by incorporation into communion, becomes obvious. Skublics has
shown how each of the seven sacraments manifests an aspect of this progressive
incorporation.24 The Church, then, is the sacramental experience, manifestation and
realization of human community as designed in the image and likeness of the Trinity.
The main thrust of the early Christian community is solely based on the
practice of communion, where all are accepted as brothers and sisters despite their
differences of race, gender etc. The same thrust is perceived in the Second Vatican
Council in its documents emphasizing the need of renovating and re-establishing the
Church on the principle of communion which is rooted in the Trinity. Going back to
the development of the doctrine of the Trinity reveals how the Church down the
centuries has set right the belief and faith of the faithful against heretics and their
heresies. The understanding and development of the understanding of the Triune God
both in the Old Testament and the New Testament reveal the God who entered into
human history and established a relationship with humans. The Trinity as Persons and
their perichoresis enable us to draw inspiration from their communion and
relationship to perfect our relationships in our community, thereby bringing
communion between God and human beings and among human beings themselves.
How is the understanding of the Trinity developed both in the Old Testament
and the New Testament? How is the doctrine of the Trinity developed in the life of the
Church? How does a Christian experience the triune God in his/her life? These are the
questions we will be dealing with in the following section.

2. The Biblical understanding of God as Trinity

God speaks to us through the Word of God and relates with us. Therefore it is
appropriate to look into the Bible both the Old Testament and New Testament basis
and development of God as Trinity and to examine how they are related with one
another and with us. There is quite a distinction between the doctrine of Trinity and
the reality of the Trinity. The doctrine of Trinity is the effort of human intelligence to
formulate and understand the mystery of the Trinity. The reality of the Trinity is the
fact that Gods revelation in the Bible as Father, Son and Spirit in human history and
Gods involvement in human endeavours taking our sufferings and struggles in Gods
communion.25 In the New Testament we have the direct revelation of God as Father,
Son and Spirit revealed by Jesus and in the Old Testament we observe the
foreshadowing of the revelation of the Trinity.
2.1 Foreshadowing of Trinity in the Old Testament
The understanding of God as Trinity is foreshadowed in the Old Testament.
The most common narratives that earlier theologians took into consideration in this
regard are: Let us make (hu)man in our image, after our likeness; (Gen 1:26), the
hospitality that was shown by Abraham and Sarah to the three angels seated around
their table (Gen 18:1-15) and the Trisagion i.e., Tris means three, hagion means
Holy that we find in Isaiah (Is 6:3). Based on these scriptural passages the Scholastic
manuals and the Fathers of the Church like Irenaeus, Augustine, and Origen spoke of
the foreshadowing of the Trinity in the Old Testament.26 However, todays exegetes
would not consider them as the foundation of the Trinity.
The understanding of God as Trinity i.e., three persons is not a Hebraic
understanding because the Israelite people experienced God as one God YHWH. This
faith developed in the course of many years, also against the belief in many gods of
the surrounding nations of Israel. J.P.Arendzen says, Their (Israelites) mind was so
firmly set on the defence of the unity of the Godhead in a polytheistic world, their
opposition to the multitudinous gods of the pagan pantheon was so fierce that the idea
of more than one person in God would naturally be alien to their mentality and their
mind be closed to any suggestion of it.27 Therefore Israel could not think of God as
Trinity however we can cite in the Old Testament many instances of their addressing

God as father, Wisdom/Word and Spirit of God. Let us now examine how the
Trinitarian understanding is foreshadowed in the Old Testament.
When we observe the names that are used to call God in the Old Testament,
they reveal to us the peoples relationship with God and vice versa. In the Hebraic
culture the names of persons are selected very carefully because a name represents the
whole person to whom it is given.28 Hence the names that we find the Old Testament
mostly represent the persons essence. Likewise we find many names that are given to
God or by which the Hebrews call God representing the peoples experience with the
divine.
Among the many names that are used to address God the most frequently used
name is YHWH and it is used 6800 times in the Old Testament both by itself and in
compounds.29 God is also addressed as Father a little more than 20 times in the Old
Testament.30 In the Old Testament Father is not a name for God.31 When God is
addressed, as Father this does not mean that the Israelites are born to Him and they
are His real sons and daughters, but it is understood rather as a metaphor.32 Further
Fatherhood attributed to God refers to Gods exclusive relationship with Israel as the
chosen people.33 We can also find other texts which really express how God as
Father dealt with the people of Israel and their meaning. The oldest text in which God
is addressed in relation to the people as Father is in the Song of Moses.34 This text
refers to Gods covenantal relationship with the people established by His loving act
of delivering Israel from captivity and restoring them as a nation and a free people.
Through this Gods miraculous act in the history of Israel, the Israelites are called
Gods children (Ex 4:22-23; Hos 11:1; Dt 32:18-19; Is 1:2; 30:1). In other words, God
is the one who as a human father protected the Israelites from slavery and distress,
and thereby the Israelites experienced God as father.35
In the Old Testament we also find personifications of God as Wisdom, Word,
and Spirit. The word that is used for Wisdom in Hebrew is hokmah which occurs
318 times in the Old Testament. We observe that Wisdom is personified in dignity

and power in the divine work of creation (Wis 6:16; 7:27; 8:1), providence, and
salvation. In the book of Job we witness how wisdom is precious (Job 28:15-19),
quite beyond the reach of human beings (Job 28:12-14, 20-21) and accessible only to
God (Job 28:23-27). Therefore we observe Wisdoms mysterious inaccessibility to
human being.36 Begotten or Created long ago as Gods firstborn (Prov 8:22),
hokmah not only existed with God before everything else but also cooperated in the
divine work of creation (Prov 8:30-31).37
The Word as personified (Wis 16:12; 18:15-16) like Wisdom is also with God
from the beginning (Gen 1:1-2; 4; Is 55:10-11; Ps 33:6, 8-9, 148:5; Sir 43:26) In the
Old Testament Word is set in parallel with Wisdom (Wis 9:1-2) and Spirit (Judith
16:14). Therefore as Wisdom is with God in the divine work of creation, providence
and salvation, the Word is also with God. Leonardo Boff says, On the one hand the
Word reveals the sovereignty of God, who creates everything through the Word; on
the other hand God shows himself to men and women as guidance, judgment,
salvation, brought about through the power of the Word.38 Therefore the Word of
God is both with God and closely in communion with the human community.
The Spirit as ruah in Hebrew (pneuma in Greek) is used nearly 400 times in
the Old Testament. The Spirit also is seen in the creative, revelatory, and redemptive
activity of God. At the time of Creation it hovered over the surface of the water (Gen
1:2). In delivering the Word of God and the message of God the prophets were
empowered and possessed by the Spirit of God. Leonardo Boff says, This power is
seen in creation, in political leaders, in the prophets, and most obviously in the
Messiah, the privileged bearer of the spirit (see Is 42:1-3; 61:1-2).39 Hence the Spirit
of God is closely related to God and to the human community.
In the Old Testament we observe Wisdom, Word and Spirit are used
synonymously as Gods manifestation and powerful action in human history
especially in the life of Israelites (Ps 33:6; 147:18; 104:29-30; Judith 16:14; Wis 9:17;
1:4-5; 7:7; 22, 25; Deut 34:9; Job 32:8-9). Therefore it is clear that Wisdom, Word
and Spirit are involved with the human community in the divine activity not as
abstract principles but as vivid personifications, which leads us to establish the
understanding of God in the Old Testament as a tripersonal God. As Gerald OCollins

rightly says, The vivid personifications of Wisdom/Word and Spirit, in as much as

they were both identified with God and the divine activity and distinguished from
God, opened up the way toward recognizing God to be tripersonal.40 Therefore we
can conclude by saying that the existence of and understanding of God as trinity is
foreshadowed in the Old Testament. The mystery is foreshadowed but not expressly
revealed in the Old Testament (Gen 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; Num 6:23-26, Is 6:1-9). It is
only in the New Testament that it is explicitly proclaimed (Mt 3:16; 10:20; 17:5;
28:19; Lk 4:18; Jn 3:35; 15:26; 2Cor 13:13; 1Jn 5:7).
2.2 The Triune God in the New Testament
This truth is evident in the life and mission of Jesus Christ starting from the
virginal conception till his death and after his death and during the formation of the
Christian community, the reality of the interpersonal relationship of the Trinity Father,
Son and Spirit. In the New Testament texts (Jn 1:1-18; Heb 1:1-3) we find a
preexistence of Jesus Christ before he was born as a (hu)man, as the One previously
with God and is now made flesh. The virginal conception is the basis for us to
acknowledge from our faith point of view the divine origin of Jesus and his identity
without denying his true humanity.41 After that at the baptism of Jesus (Mk 1:9-10;
Mt 3:13-17; Lk 3:22) we find the clear sign and revelation of the Trinity. In the
Baptism of Jesus the Father is the voice, the revealer, the obedient Son is the revealed,
and the Spirit is the power which brings liberation.42 Each synoptic writer views this
experience of Jesus in the Baptism differently. Mark presents it as Jesus own
visionary experience and personal hearing of a heavenly voice, whereas the other two
synoptic writers namely Mathew and Luke do not bother about Jesus inner
experience. In Luke we observe that the whole episode is narrated as a prayer
experience of Jesus. In the baptism Jesus was empowered by the Spirit to begin his
earthly ministry.
During the public ministry of Jesus we realize how he was conscious of his
sonship of the Father. Jesus always referred to God as his Father and to himself as His
Son. Jesus never said that he is the Son of God but always as the Son (Mt.11:25-30;
Lk 10:21-22). His consciousness as the Son reveals his unique sonship of God the
Father, and thereby this mutual relationship furthermore reveals that Jesus alone

knows God fully and really (Mt 11:27).43 We have seen in the above subtitle that God
is addressed as Father only 20 times. Whereas in the case of Jesus we find that he
always addressed God as his Father/abba in a more filial and familiar manner. Even
if abba was not merely a childs address to its male parent, Jesus evidently spoke of
and with God as his Father in a direct, familial way that was unique, or at least highly
unusual, in Palestinian Judaism.44 The spontaneous prayer that Jesus taught his
disciples (Mt 6:9-13; Lk 11:2-4) is obviously from his unique experience of God as
Abba. Here in these two and other passages (Mt 11:25-26; 16:17) Jesus address to
God as Father stands for the original Abba. Altogether in the synoptic Gospels
(excluding merely parallel cases), Jesus speaks of Father, my (heavenly) Father,
your (heavenly) Father or our Father 51 times.45
Another distinct aspect that we observe in the sonship of God is that Jesus
maintained till the end that his sonship of God was unique and not equivalent to our
sonship of God despite his acceptance of us as his brothers and sisters. Further, Jesus
explicitly called those who did Gods will his brother and sister and mother, but not
his father (Mk 3:31-35; Mt 12:46-50; Lk 8:19-21). Furthermore Jesus distinguished
our relationship with God the Father by saying my father (Jn 10:29) and your
father (Jn 8:42) by which this relationship reflects that Jesus sonship and ours of
God is not identical.46 Jesus invited everyone: his disciples and his hearers to enter
into this new relationship with God as Father depending on his filial relationship with
his father (Mt 6:7-13; Lk 11: 1-4; 22:29-30).
Jesus revealed his unique experience of God as Abba47 Father and himself as
the Son. Jesus also reveals the Holy Spirit, Leonardo Boff says, More than in his
words, it is in Jesus actions and his liberating practice that the Holy Spirit is revealed.
His own references to the Spirit are few (see Mk 3:28-30; Jn 14:16ff), but this does
not mean that the reality of the Spirit is not made plain throughout.48 This we find in
the very incarnation of the Son (Lk 1:35; Mt 1:20), during the baptism (Mk 1:9-11; Lk
3:21-22; Jn 1:32-33), while launching his messianic programme (Lk 4:18), the power
and authority of Jesus in his performing miracles and liberating works (Mk 3:20-30;
5:30; Mt 12:28). Besides Jesus revelation of God as Father and himself as Son and

the experience of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit himself reveals the Father and the Son.
The Holy Spirit leads us to and deepens our experience of the Trinity.49
The triadic formulas that we find in the New Testament help us to note how
the early Christian community experienced God as Father, Son and Spirit and also the
development of their faith in the Trinity. Leonardo Boff cites along with the Pauline
(Gal 3:11-14; 2Cor 1:21-22; 3:3; Rom 14:17-18; 15:16, 30; Phil 3:3; Eph 2:18; 3:1417)50 and other New Testament (Titus 3:4-6; 1 Pet 1:2; Jude 20:21; Rev 1:4-5; Heb
6:4)51 triadic formulas, four triadic formulas as foundational ones which directly make
mention of the Trinity. They are: (a) Mt 28:1952 reveals how a Christian through
baptism is introduced to live in the Trinitarian communion.53 (b) 2Cor 13:1354 has
been widely used in the liturgy and the celebrations of the early Church. In this text
grace, love and fellowship that guide our Christian living show how we participate in
the Trinitarian communion. Three distinct persons refer to various aspects of Christian
life. (c) 2 Thess 2:13-1455 verses show how in Pauls mind that everything is built
around the three sources of grace and salvation: the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit. (d) 1Cor 12:4-656 explains how the ministries, those undertaken in the Christian
community centered on the Trinity.
2.3 Development of the Trinitarian Communion in the Church Documents
The God who revealed himself in the Old Testament is YHWH. The basic
experience that developed in the Israelite community of YHWH as the Almighty God
was their deliverance from the Egyptian slavery. The polytheistic understanding of
God among the surrounding nations is another significant factor that influenced Israel
to develop her monotheistic understanding of YHWH. Therefore Israel believed in
and worshipped the One Godhead.
In the early Christian community Jesus was experienced as the Lord and
Saviour (Rom 10:9). The whole Christian community was centered, built upon and
lived on the person of Jesus Christ, his message, and life. Jesus Christ was
worshipped by the Christian community on the basis of his resurrection event. Jesus

unique experience of God as Abba is the generating source for Christians to venture
into the understanding of and belief in the Old Testament understanding of God
YHWH. Here comes the problem of having two gods.
The Trinity is a mystery. As a mystery nobody can fully explore or understand
it57 but rather one can experience it. It has to be recognized that the Trinitarian
doctrine arose as the spontaneous expression of the Christian experience. The early
Christians knew themselves to be reconciled to God the Father, and that the
reconciliation was secured for them by the atoning work of the Son, and that it was
mediated to them as an experience by the Holy Spirit. Thus the Trinity was for them a
fact before it became a doctrine, but in order to preserve it in the creedal faith of the
Church the doctrine had to be formulated. As Walter Kasper rightly sums up with
regard to the how of the doctrine of Trinity, The doctrine of the Trinity seeks,
therefore, to reconcile the Trinitarian statements of scripture and tradition, to bring to
light their internal harmony and logic, and thus to make them plausible in the eyes of
faith.58
The early Christians were faced with the fact of the Trinity in their lives. Many
Christian intellectuals and Fathers of the Church made attempts to understand it and
articulate it as a doctrine in a more palpable way to the common woman and man but
failed because of its depth in itself and its inexhaustible inaccessibility for human
knowledge. Hence many Christian intellectuals understood the mystery of the Trinity
and at the same time misunderstood it as well. Thereby heresies59 surfaced which
were refuted by the Fathers of the Church. However through the heresies the need of
the times the evolution of the understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity has come
into existence. Based on inspiration and guidance from God, the Church has
formulated the official doctrine60 which remains as the norm and way for our belief
and faith in the Triune god.
The whole question in the patristic period was with regard to the Oneness (in
the West) and the real distinction of the three persons (in the East).61 Many false
interpretations and concepts emerged in their discussion over these truths; thereby
heresies developed and the Church corrected the heretics and set right doctrine of the

Trinity. The development of the Trinitarian doctrine took nearly 150 years from the
second century until the Council of Constantinople 381. The discussions and
conclusions on the triune God delved into the formulation of both the doctrine of the
Trinity and the doctrine concerning Christ as Son of God consubstantial with the
Father,62 beginning with Pope Dionysius (259-268), who strikes the correct balance
between the distinction of the divine persons and their unity and equality63 until the
Council of Constantinople (381).
The Council of Nicaea (325) finally decided and spelled out the Christian faith
in Triune God.64 It condemned of Arius heresy Subordinationism.65 Based on the
Councils declaration Leonardo Boff has drawn four conclusions: faith in the Triune
God is expressed, the Triune Gods relation is defined, the word hypostasis is used as
synonymous with ousia or substance but later it is used as synonymous with prosopon
i.e., person and finally the Holy Spirit is mentioned without any objective
description.66 Therefore much of the formation of the doctrine of the Trinity was
developed by the Council of Nicaea from which the Church later developed along
with the doctrine of Trinity also Christology. Based on the Nicaean Creed the Council
of Constantinople (381)67 completed the doctrine of the Trinity, in which the council
fathers stated the unity of substance or nature between the three with equal clarity and
procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father. The clause and the Son, was added in
the Council of Toledo (589) and Florence (1442) (Filioque). At the Council of Rome
in the Tome of Damasus (382) the divinity of the Son and of the Spirit is explained
and clarified. Later on until Vatican II many heresies evolved and were condemned
with regard to the understanding of the Trinity the relations, distinction, essence, and
personhood and they were condemned, leading to the correct way of understanding
the Trinity. Vatican II has not entered into the heresies in particular but declared that
the unity of the Church (people) derives from the unity of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit (LG 2-4; AG 2-4) and that the Trinitarian life is the model and source of
the interpersonal relations in human society (GS 24).68 From the above discussion
on the formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity we move on to the relations of the

Trinitarian life in a more detailed way to draw the source for communion with God
and among ourselves.
2.4 The Triune Gods Relationship as Persons
The God whom we believe in is a living God (Ps 18:46). S/he is the source of
life (Ps 36:9) and the life giver (Gen 2:7). Our supreme goal is to enter into and share
in the life of God (cf.1 Pet 1:4). The living God enters into human history and
establishes a relationship based on love, peace and justice with humans.
The highest revelation in Scripture is that the absolute mystery is a
communion of persons69 - a radical relativity, an absolute intercommunion. Scripture
reveals to us the relationship between Father, Son and the Spirit. It is an absolute
loving relationship; it cannot be understood except in terms of personal relationship.
We are created in the image and likeness of God, the Trinity. We are images of the
community therefore we are persons. We are related to one another in society. We
are not individual entities but rather relational. Our existence is possible in our
relation to others. As Catherine Mowry LaCugna says, A person is thus not an
individual but an open and ecstatic reality, referred to others for his or her
existence.70 Therefore each person as relation-to-another is the basic given of
existence, experience, and identity.71 Adding to this D.John Zizioulas affirms that the
very notion of being itself is relational. He says, The notion of being itself is
relational, to be and to be in relation becomes identical.72 Therefore our very being
is in relation to others and we are related to others. Hence God, who is Triune in
nature and essence, is the highest form and perfect model of all relationships.
The Triune God forms, as persons in their relation to one another, a perfect
community. As persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not separate but are distinct,
in the sense that in the being of God there are not three individuals, but three personal
self-distinctions within the one divine essence. The three persons are in eternal
communion, interrelatedness, oneness. Unity of communion is due to the Father as
giving or surrendering everything to the Son and the Spirit except that which cannot
be surrendered, that is the Fatherhood. And the Son surrendering everything to Father
and Spirit except which cannot be surrendered is his surrenders everything to the
Father and the Spirit except that which cannot be surrendered i.e., his Sonhood. And

in the same way the Holy Spirit surrenders everything to the Son and the Father
except which cannot be surrendered i.e., his Spirithood. Hence they are related as One
and at the same time they are distinct.73
The Trinity as persons relate to one another in love, fraternity and equality.
Though they are distinct from one another yet they live in perfect harmony, fidelity,
peace and unity. They live in interpenetration of one another. Their union is expressed
as an eternal perichoresis i.e., each person contains the other two; each one
penetrates the others and is penetrated by them, one lives in the other and viceversa.74 Theirs is not a static relationship being in one another but a dynamic
relationship i.e., an active interpenetration of one another.75

Further they are a

community of equals, a community of love and community for justice. The

foundation of perichoresic relationship is the mutual surrender of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit.76 In this way the Father gives everything to the Son except his
Fatherhood. In the same way the Son gives everything to the Father except his
Sonship. Likewise the Holy Spirit gives everything to the Father and the Son except
his Spirithood. Therefore we acknowledge in the Triune Gods relationships the
perfect equal, love and just community. We will explore further the relationships in
the Triune God.
2.4.1. Community of Equals
Community always comprises of persons. In human communities we observe
always and everywhere inequality based on characters, personality, caste, race,
gender, language, economic, social, ethnic dimensions. But within the Godhead there
is perfect equality and the persons are equal in all spheres. The community of the
Triune God is a community of equals. They are equal in all ways: the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit have one Godhead, one might, one majesty, one power, one glory,
one Lordship, one Kingdom, one will and truth.77 The Father is God, the Son is God
and the Holy Spirit is God; they are not three gods but one God. In essence (ousia),
nature and dignity as persons they are equal.
There is perfect equality in nature and dignity between the Persons.
Fatherhood belongs to the very essence of the first Person and it was so from all

eternity. It is a personal property of God from whom every family in heaven and on
earth is named (Eph 3:15). The Son is called the only-begotten may be to suggest
uniqueness rather than derivation. Christ always claimed for himself a unique
relationship to God as Father (Abba), and the Jews who listened to him apparently had
no illusions about his claims. Indeed they sought to kill him because he called God
his own Father, making himself equal with God (Jn 5:18). The Spirit is revealed as
the One who alone knows the depths of Gods nature: For the Spirit searches
everything, even the depths of GodNo one comprehends the thoughts of God except
the Spirit of God (1Cor 2:10f). This implies that the Spirit is just God himself in the
innermost essence of his being. This puts the seal of the New Testament teaching
upon the doctrine of the equality of the three Persons. Adding further to this Leonardo
Boff, while discussing the equality that exists in the Trinity and the relationship that
develop the Trinitarian community, says In the three persons, nothing is anterior,
superior, greater, lesser or posterior. They are co-eternal, co-almighty. The reason
adduced by the magisterium is that the unity of nature, substance or essence is shared
by all three. Because of this one nature, each of the Persons is wholly in others,
penetrates and is penetrated by the others.78 Therefore all the three persons in the
Trinity are equal in everything and equality exists in them from all eternity. Love is
the foundation for this equality.
2.4.2. Community of Love
The highest revelation in Scripture is that the absolute mystery is a
communion of persons a radical relativity, an absolute intercommunion. Scripture
reveals to us the relationship between Father, Son and the Spirit. God is a mystery of
love, Trinitarian love. The Father loves the Son in the bond of the Holy Spirit, who is
their reciprocal love.79 It is an absolute loving relationship; it cannot be understood
except in terms of personal relationship. We are called to enter into this loving
relationship of and to live in communion with the Trinitarian communion by our
having been created in the image and likeness of God.80
Love is possible only among persons.81 We are persons by birth itself are
related with one another. A person in a family is related first of all with her/his
parents, then with her/his siblings and with the whole community. This relationship is

mostly built upon love which in a way leads us to commune with the other persons in
the community, and thereby a bond of love among the persons in a community
develops. The aspect of love in a person grows out of freedom. Each person is related
to others in love by her/his free will in a family and community. A person is one who
loves in freedom,82 says Karl Barth. Therefore love is a binding force, the uniting
element which remains at the centre and foundation level of human relationships.
Love is an essential principle that we observe in the relationship of the Triune God.
God is love (1Jn 4:8, 16). This text of the evangelist John reveals the essence
of the Godhead that is love. Walter Kasper relying on the significance of this text in
our communion in love with the Triune God says, Only because God is love can he
reveal and communicate himself to us as love.83 Therefore the primordial aspect that
unites and remains in the Godhead is love. The Trinitarian community is based on
love. Love is the very basic characterization of God, a binding relationship and a
powerful dimension of Gods nature that unites the Godhead.84
God always expressed his love to humanity beginning with the election of the
Israelites as his own people, by making a covenantal relationship with them and by
being faithful to his promises to them as their God. God has all the more explicitly
shown his love for us by sending his Son to save us while we were sinners (1Jn 4:910). Jesus Christ who experienced the love of God in a unique way on this earth
addressed God as abba.85 We are all invited to share this unconditional love of God 86
through Jesus Christ. Further Jesus suffered and died for the expiation of our sins
(1Tim 2:5-6) and has drawn us to enjoy the lost love of God. The Paraclete, who
proceeds from the Father and the Son, is himself a gift of love. He inspires and
generates love within us so that we can take part in the Trinitarian community of love.
In this way the whole of humanity is included in this community of love, the Trinity.
This community of love generates standing for justice for the victims of unjust
societal structures in this world.
2.4.3. Community of Justice
The very nature, essence and character of the Triune God is love. Gods love
for us was clearly shown in liberating the Israelites and us through Jesus from sinful

unjust structures. This is because God loves us. As Philip Land says, Love
transforms justice from within. More fundamentally, the doing of justice stems from
the fundamental option for God who loves me and wants me to love others as God
loves them, and out of this love to give them full due in the community of social
living.87 Therefore the love of God that is there in the Godhead necessarily motivates
us to be involved in doing justice to the oppressed. As partakers in the love of God we
Christians, as persons in the community, need to do the work of justice and lead a just
life. The response and approach of a person towards oppression, is not I think but I
do, and this immediately gets involved us with others in a social life, in a universe
which is structured in terms of relations.88 Hence, Justice means, firstly, giving every
human what is due to him/her. What we are bound to do or to give in justice
something that is not our own, but belongs rightly to the other person.89 The Triune
God who is liberator of the oppressed from economic, social, political and religious
unjust structures, is a community for justice.
God the Father is the liberator of the oppressed and is against any injustice
done to people. In the Old Testament God reveals Himself to us as the liberator of
the oppressed and the defender of the poor, demanding from human faith in Him and
justice towards humans neighbour. It is only in the observance of the duties of justice
that God is truly recognized as the liberator of the oppressed.90 In the Old Testament
God as Father is seen as the one who frees the people from bondage, and is the refuge
and protector of the devout, deserted, and sinners.91 Jesus Christ, begotten of the
Father, who experienced God as abba, preached:92 the Good News to the poor, the
values of the Kingdom of God (through parables93and miracles). He showed
inclusiveness of all in his table fellowship94 and finally died for our sins to save us
from the bondage of sin. The Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son
helps us in establishing justice and fellowship in the Church and society. Hence the
Triune community which is of justice is related to and involved in the liberative
activities of the oppressed in the human community.

2.5 Human Beings Communion with the Triune God

The Triune God, who revealed him/herself to humanity as community of
equals, and love, establishes a loving relationship with us. Trinity is the source, model
and reference point for all the relationships and the communities in this world. It is the
criterion to judge the authenticity of any relationship and community. In response to
the self-communication of God as Trinity, we explore the Trinitarian communion to
acknowledge that we are related to the Triune God.
2.5.1 Communion with God the Father
God the Father as the creator and originator of everything that exists in this
world is related to us as our source of life here on earth. The whole creation is a fruit
of God and expresses the ineffable presence of God. Through the sonship of Jesus we
become sons and daughters of God and realize the universal brotherhood and
sisterhood.95 In John we find that the authors mentioning of the communion with the
Father (1Jn 1:3) denotes that we have communion with the Father through the Son.
The sending of his Son Jesus Christ is the initiative of the Father to give life to the
world. This initiative of the Father imparts life to humans in his Son. This life-giving
act of the Father through the Son is seen in terms of divine filiation. It is the central
theme of the section (1Jn 2:29-3:10), where the fellowship is considered in terms of
Father-Children relationship with the criteria of doing righteousness and avoiding
sin.96 The other aspect of the Fathers act is his immanence in the believers. George
Panikulam says, This immanence of the Father stands in strict relation with the
criteria of the fellowship. Thus 1Jn 2:5b-6 the norm of being in God is to observe the
commandments as Christ did. In 1Jn 3:24 the one who keeps the commandments
remains in God and God in him.97 Therefore a person who shares communion with
Christ is expected to be like Christ in his relationship with the Father.
2.5.2 Communion with God the Son
God the Father calls us to communion with the Son to be sanctified (1Cor 1:2)
and to be Christs alone (1Cor 7:22). This calling of God has an Old Testament
background, where each of Gods calls is given with a particular purpose and mission
(Is 45:3; 46:11; 48:15; 51:2). The specific purpose of Gods calling is involved with
salvation (1Thess 2:12, 1Cor 7:17; Rom 8:28-29). This he has set forth through His

Son Jesus Christ (Jn 3:16-17). Gods call always expects from us a proper response, a
commitment and a dynamic involvement in his plan. For us Christians, fellowship
with his Son our Lord Jesus Christ is the goal of Gods call. We are called by the
Father to participate in or to share in the spiritual blessings and salvation that are
available in his Son. The communion with the Son implies with immediate effect our
sonship of the Father. This sonship of the Father is not hereditary as in the juridical
line but it is the free choice and election of God the Father who adopted us. Paul
understands Christian filiation in God through Jesus Christ in the same manner (Rom
9:4). Our life of sonship is expressed concretely in our life of faith in Christ (Gal
3:26). Our communion with the Son has both a present aspect and a future aspect. In
the present life it begins and grows and reaches its final consummation in the future
i.e., in the Parousia. This communion with the Son leads us to have a communion
with one another as daughters and sons of the same God.
2.5.3 Communion in God the Holy Spirit
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion
(fellowship) of the Holy Spirit be with all of you (2Cor 13:13). The call of God the
Father to koinonia with the Son can be responded to only on the level on which the
Spirit moves and prepares one for such a response. Moreover, the very fact of our
becoming the children in the Son is to be attributed to the Spirit, as the entire Chapter
8 of Romans proves. Romans 8 is completely dedicated to the radiant description of
the life in the Spirit, which eradicates from the Christian everything that is carnal,
makes of humans loving children of God, heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ, and
makes them hope for the eternal glory and everything that brings them towards it and
makes them more than conquerors in the midst of tribulations.98
It is in the Spirit that we become partakers of Christ and we become a
fellowship among ourselves.99

Perichoresis in the Trinity corresponds to the

experience of the Christian community which the Spirit unites. Moltmann says, The
more open mindedly people live with one another, for one another and in one another
in the fellowship of the Spirit, the more they will become one with the Son and the
Father, and one in the Son and the Father (Jn 17:21).100 Further, our baptism is the
decisive moment of this fellowship, which is effected by the working of the Holy

Spirit himself.101 Thereby our communion in the Spirit will reflect the perichoresic
communion of the Triune God.
3. Trinity as the God of Communion
The Trinity as mystery is revealed to us through the Bible. Many theologians
who have explored this mystery come across many concepts, understandings and
definitions which have deepened the growth of faith in God. Despite rigorous attempts
made in this regard to understand the Trinitarian mystery, there still remains an
ambiguity and inadequacy in defining this unfathomable reality. Yet the Triune God is
revealing and communicating to us through the Word of God and the teaching of the
Church, to some extent the mystery of Trinitarian communion.
Based on the revelation of God as Father, God as Son, and God as Holy Spirit
we believe in the doctrine of Trinity. We proceed with the Economic Trinity i.e., the
revelation of God as Triune in human history and realize the existence of the Triune
God within the Godhead i.e., Immanent Trinity, which in a way lays the foundation
for our faith in the Triune God. Then the modern understanding of the Trinity as
Persons who live in eternal perichoresis, being one in the others, through the others,
with the others and for the others,102 necessarily leads us to reflect on the
interpenetration of persons with one another in the community. This present
understanding of God as Persons distinguishes us from the understanding of the
Triune God as three gods and helps us to believe in God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit as persons who are distinct and in communion with one another.
This understanding of the Triune God as persons and their eternal perichoresis will
motivate us to commit ourselves for the liberation of the oppressed in our society.
3.1 Foundation of Communion Ecclesiology
Going back to the original experience of the Church during the first three
centuries of its life, Joseph Kallarangatt says,
The theological slogan going back to the source (ressourcement) enables
the theologians to re-establish the original nature of the Church as
communion. During the first millennium, the Church was primarily
understood as a sacramental and spiritual reality. The one Church of God was
a communion of saints realized in the communion of churchesThe
expression church as communion concretely materializes this return to the
very ancient, original and primordial character of the Church of God. This is

the principle of perestroika, reconstruction, and re-structuring, that the

council has made of.103

Hence the need of going back to the original experience of the Early Church is
our task to rebuild the Church of today based on the Triune Gods communion that the
Apostles experienced.
3.2 Significant Factors of Communion
While

explaining

the

contents

necessary

for

Catholic

communion

ecclesiology, Dennis M. Doyle combines different views and understanding of some

authors and the theological points of views104 and draws some conclusions.105 It is
understood from his conclusions that the communion builds the relationship between
God and human beings and among human beings themselves. The human person
whose dignity and freedom are mostly dependent upon his interpersonal relationship
with God and with his fellow human persons is important in society. As B.C. Butler
rightly says, Human personhood grows towards its own perfection in the
development of personal relations and particularly in the development from
relatedness as a fact to interpersonal relationships in which that relatedness is more
fully lived.106 The aspect of interpersonal relationship is emphasized in the biblical
understanding of communion with God and human beings and among human beings
themselves. As Joseph Kallarangatt says, Koinonia is not a mere image or model of
the Church. It is a theological principle which is indicative of a profound biblical
spirituality, Eucharistic centrality and internal life.107
3.3 Understanding of Communion in the Bible
The faith of the whole Christian community in God stems both from the Word
of God and teaching of the Church. The Word of God remains the source of our
Christian living. We shall examine how the aspect of communion in the Church is
emphasized in the Bible.
3.3.1. Communion of the People in the Old Testament
The Greek word koinonia cognate with the Hebrew word haber refers to the
relationship of humans with other humans. G.V. Jourdain observes, Nowhere in the
Old Testament had any mention of a God-human fellowship. In Jewish literature

koinonia took the place of Hebrew haber and like it, was descriptive of the bond
which existed among worshippers of God. It is noticeable that haber had to do with
the relationship of human to human. But nowhere in the Old Testament does haber
and its cognates ever connote the relationship of (hu)man to God.108
It is also used on occasion to indicate the union among gods and human
beings, but never with God (Yahweh). This act of union with gods or fellowship with
gods is considered adultery against God, and is religiously offensive (Hos 4:17; Is
44:11; 1Cor 10:18, 20). Another aspect of Old Testament findings is that neither
haber nor koinon is used for the relation to God, as it is often in the Greek world.
Here is expressed the sense of distance which the righteous Israelite feels from God,
as distinct from the Greek. The righteous woman/man of the Old Testament regards
himself as haber in a relationship of trust. But s/he never regards himself as the haber
of God.109 However, in the Israelite sacrifices and the sacrificial meal we find a
sacral fellowship between God and human being.110 This is because of the influence
of existing cultic traditions of the other nations living along with the Israelites.
Through the righteous Israelites keeps her/his distance from God, the idea of
fellowship with God is known to the Israelites.
3.3.2. Communion of the People in the New Testament
In the New Testament we find the word group koinon (genitive plural of
koinos) used in different aspects, and meanings denoting its richness in relation to our
Christian living. The word group koinon is used mainly by Paul to express our
fellowship with God through Jesus in the Holy Spirit, which in turn certainly leads us
to fellowship among ourselves. The word koinon is used in Lk 5:10 expressing
partnership in work or also legal partnership. Human nature that is received is under
bondage and it needs to be liberated. Christ entered into full communion with human
nature to liberate us from the mortality that we shared with our first parents (Heb
2:14; 2Pet 1:4).
Pauls usage of the term koinon has a religious content. He employs it for the
religious communion of the believer in Christ and in Christian blessings, and for the
mutual fellowship of the believers. According to Paul we are called to fellowship with
the Son (1Cor 1:9). This calling is seen in two aspects, both as present reality and as a

future one. It is present because our fellowship with the son begins now and grows
and it comes to its complete consummation in the future i.e., in the Parousia. Paul
incorporates this fellowship with our participation in the Lords Supper (1Cor
10:16ff), where we have fellowship with the body and blood of Christ and with our
fellow human beings. Christian fellowship necessarily leads to communion with other
Christians, to the mutual fellowship of members of the community. This gives us a
good basis for understanding how God enters into our interpersonal relationships
through Jesus Christ, and perfects our interpersonal relationships.
We proceed to the understanding of Communion in Vatican II and other ecclesiastical
post conciliar documents. In these documents too we find the Churchs emphasis on
human beings relationship with God and among human beings themselves, and also
among the Christian communities themselves.
3.3.3 Understanding of Communion in the Church Documents
Communion is an essential aspect that we find in Vatican II documents,
without which it is difficult to understand Vatican II documents. As K.McDonnell
says, Koinonia is the central theme of Vatican II and already much has been written
on this. It is impossible to speak of any ecclesiological theme without connecting it
with the aspect of koinonia. It is an integral, all-pervading and multivalent category in
the documents of Vatican II.111
There is a clear shift in Vatican IIs understanding of the Church which moves
from the institutional, juridical and hierarchical aspect to the communion aspect. As
Avery Dulles says, Instead of a mere universalistic, western, papal, sacral, hierarchic,
monolithic, polemic and juridical ecclesiology, Vatican II brings out the revolutionary
notion of the Church as communion.112 We find the same understanding in Nihal
Abeyasingha, who says, the Church opted to describe herself as a kind of sacrament
or sign of intimate union with God and of the unity of all humankind (LG 1). This
option marked a definite shift from a juridical ecclesiology to an ecclesiology of
communionThus the institutional and the juridical would be at the service of the
vital and contribute towards growth and communion.113 He proceeds from this option
of Vatican II to explain the twofold dimensions of the Church envisaged in Vatican II
as vertical and horizontal. He says, The communion envisaged by Vatican II has

twofold dimension: the one vertical, participation in the life of the Trinity, which
transforms men into a new creation; the other horizontal, which is a fruit and
consequence of this participation and transformation, constituting men into one
people, one family, one fellowship.114 The dimensions of vertical and horizontal
communion envisioned by Vatican II highlights the aspect of human interpersonal
relationships. The same aspect of communion is stated in Ecclesia in Asia (24) that
once a human person has a vertical communion with God that would enhance ones
horizontal communion with the others.
3.4. Dimensions of Communion Ecclesiology in the Church Documents
The five dimensions of communion ecclesiology, divine, mystical,
sacramental, historical and social, are brought out in the documents of the Church. In
the divine dimension the relationship with the Trinity is expressed. Another word for
communion is love. Chapter five of Lumen Gentium, on the universal call to holiness,
finds love to be at the heart of what the Church is. Love is described in terms of a
Trinitarian spirituality that seeks the will of the Father, the path of the Son, and the
prompting of the Holy Spirit. In the Mystical dimension the relationship with God and
with fellow humans both living and dead, is expressed. The Church is the Mystical
body of Christ and a communion of saints (LG chapter 8). The Churchs sacramental
dimension is found in the very first paragraph of Lumen Gentium. Section eight goes
on to say that the Church has visible and invisible elements, which unite to form one
mysterious reality. The relationship between the local churches (dioceses) and the
Church universal is spelled out sacramentally in the connection with the ongoing
presence of Christ and in connection with the Eucharist

(SC 2; LG 23). In the

historical dimension we find a great shift in the Churchs self-understanding from

exclusive to inclusive. In the image of the People of God along with the Catholics,
other denominations, and the whole humanity at large are included in the Church. In
Unitatis Redintegratio, the Church is first described historically and organically as a
communion in Christ and the Spirit. In the social dimension we find the Churchs
recognition and acceptance of the dignity and freedom of all humanity (Dignitatis
Humanae 1). In the first chapter of Gaudum et Spes the Church speaks of how
Christians and all others share the same joys and hopes, the same sorrows and
anxieties. It says God has a parents care for every individual and has willed that all

should constitute a single family, treating one another as brothers and sisters (GS
24). In this document the Council calls first for solidarity with all human beings and a
communion between women and men and a basic human solidarity in Christ (GS 32).
This solidarity and communion is more clearly explained in Ecclesia in Asia (24) by
quoting both from Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici and Lumen
Gentium, that at the heart of the mystery of the Church is the bond of communion
which unites Christ the Bridegroom to all the baptized. Through this living and lifegiving communion, Christians no longer belong to themselves but are the Lords
very own. (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici [December 30
1988], 18: AAS 81 91989), 421). United to the Son in the Spirits bond of love,
Christians are united to the Father, and from this communion flows the communion
which Christians share with one another through Christ in the Holy Spirit (LG 4, EA
24). Therefore the communion that is emphasized in the Church document Ecclesia in
Asia is on three levels: Communion within the human person, Communion among the
Christians which flows from the communion with the Father, the Son Jesus Christ,
and the Holy Spirit, and finally communion with the whole human race (EA 24-25).115
Communion is the main thrust of Vatican II and its aftermath. This we have
considered until now and this communion has its roots in the Triune God, who is the
model for our communion both in the Church and Society, with God and human
beings, and among human beings themselves. Our understanding of the Trinitarian
communion and its inspiration motivates us to enter into this communion to
experience the love of God and the neighbour.
Conclusion
Human life in a community or a society grows in relationship with ones
parents, family members, neighbours and other human beings. Human beings do not
live an isolated life but a communitarian life. This is a web of interpersonal
relationships from which each human person accumulates her/his personality and
grows as a person. Therefore each person in the community is related to the other
persons. Human life grows in the soil of interpersonal relationships whence the life of
communion/fellowship develops from it. Thereby a person learns about the other and
enters into the others life and establishes fellowship with the other. This takes place
not by learning the facts of that persons past or present life but by seeing with the

eyes of the heart who that person is, grasping through love and ongoing relationship
his or her ineffable and inexhaustible mystery. The more intimate our knowledge of
another, the more we are drawn to that persons unique mystery, and the deeper that
mystery becomes.116 The Christian experience understands the mystery of human
relationships as based on our experience of God as communion of the three Persons
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Our experience in the world and in the Church necessarily impels us to explore
the mystery of God to find meaning for our lives and the goal of our lives. When we
reflect on our understanding of the Trinitarian communion we realize that there is a
meaningful way out. Our life as a reflection of the Trinitarian perichoresis reflects our
interpenetration in our lives with others, and the whole created universe, and it
remains as a model for our affected interpersonal relationships in our society. From
this basic understanding of Trinity as persons we move on to see how this Trinitarian
communion as source and model to unite us in our interpersonal relationships with
one another, with others, and with the universe. It is from here that an egalitarian
society is established for including everyone as persons with equal dignity and equal
right to love and to be loved as human persons. While professing faith in the Trinity
we are one but in practicing our faith we are divided. Therefore mutual love,
humility and self-offering, which has God the Father as its foundation with the Son,
and the Spirit, is what provides the model for human community,117 which will
enlighten, inspire and lead us into an egalitarian society where equality, justice and
love are practiced.

Notes:
1.
2.
3.

Daniel W. Hardy, Church, The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, ed., Adrian
Hastings, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 118.
Ibid.
The terms Local Church and Individual Church are also often used to refer to a diocese.
One observes much ambiguity in the use and understanding of terms: Particular, Local and
Individual Church in the conciliar documents. Vatican II almost always identifies ecclesia
particularis with a diocese that includes a portion of the people of God entrusted to a bishop

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.

25.
26.
27.
28.

29.

and the presbyterate for pastoral care. The Revised Code of Canon Law invariably uses
Particular Church to denote a diocese (cf.CCL.368-374).
Raimundo Panikkar, The Trinity and the Religious Experience of Man: Icon-Person-Mystery
(New York: Orbis Books, 1973), 42.
J.M.R.Tillard, Flesh of the Church, Flesh of Christ, At the Source of Ecclesiology of
Communion (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1992), 1.
John D.Zizioulas, Being as Communion (New York: St.Vladimirs Seminary Press, 1985), 17.
J.M.R.Tillard, Flesh of the Church, Flesh of Christ, At the Source of Ecclesiology of
Communion, 1-12.
Jacob Parappally, Communion Among Individual Churches: A Theological Reflection
Vidyajyoti Vol. 59, No.11 (November 1995), 755.
John D. Zizioulas, Being as Communion (New York: St.Vladimirs Seminary Press 1985), 17.
Jacob Parappally, Communion Among The Individual Churches: A Theological Reflection,
753.
Ernest Skublics, Communion Ecclesiology: The Church As Sacramentum Mundi, in One in
Christ Vol. 34, No. 2, (1988), 129.
Ernest Skublics, Communion Ecclesiology: The Church As Sacramentum Mundi, 129-130.
Ibid., also cf. R.Gilsdorf, Koinonia: Communion or Fellowship. Gilsdorf writes about the
divine communion as follows; The relational actsconstitute the essence of this divine
communion, which thereby constitutes a community of three persons: this is the Trinity, a
community of three co-equal, co-eternal Persons, possessing one undivided, limitless life, one
Essence, one Existence, related together in the bonds of infinite Truth and Love. pp. 25-32.
Susan K.Wood, The Church as Communion, The Gift of the Church: A Textbook on
Ecclesiology, ed., Peter C.Phan (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 2000), 160.
B.C.Butler, The Church and Unity (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1979) 38.
Ibid., 36-37.
Thomas Marsh, The Triune God: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Study (Connecticut:
Twenty-Third Publications, 1994), 9.
Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ (London: SCM Press, 1984), 223.
Catherine Mowry LaCugna, God For Us. The Trinity and Christian Life (New York: Harper
Collins Publishers, 1991), 1.
George H.Tavard, The Vision of the Trinity (Washington: University Press of America, 1981),
93.
Catherine Mowry LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life, 1.
Ernest Skublics, Communion Ecclesiology: The Church As Sacramentum Mundi, 129.
Ibid., 128.
Ibid., 129. He writes, Baptism constitutes the individual as person and member of the Body,
the communion. Chrismation/confirmation fills out a number of meanings in this
incorporation, and the Eucharist completes it. Penance/reconciliation restores that communion
of it should be lost or broken, and the anointing of the sick brings healing (whole-making) to
it. Holy orders of course assign a place and function to a person in and for the sake of the
Body, while matrimony images and sacramentalizes the very reality of the Church for a
specific couple and family. Each and every sacrament is a particular moment of bestowing,
restoring or enhancing communion, and thereby being, life and salvation.
Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, Trans. Paul Burns, (New York: Orbis Books, 1986), 2526.
J.P.Arendzen, The Holy Trinity: A Theological Treatise for Modern Layman (London: Seed &
Ward, 1937), 38.
J.P. Arendzen, The Holy Trinity: A Theological Treatise for Modern Layman (London: Seed
& Ward, 1937), 33.
In other words the name represented the person. To know the name meant to know the
person, to know his very essenceThus the name was not only a picture of the (hu)man who
owned it; it was in sense a representation of that (hu)man, a reflexion of him/her, his/her alter
ego, separable from him/her, yet of meaningless without the (hu)man to whom the name
belonged (Deut 7:24, 9:14; Ps 109:13; Prov 10:7; Is 56:5). G.A.F. Knight, A Biblical
Approach to the Doctrine of the Trinity (London: Oliver and Boyd, 1957), 12.
In the Old Testament scriptures, God is known through many names, above all through the
personal name of YHWH (e.g.,Ex 3:14; 6:6-8), the most sacred of names that is used about
6800 times in the Old Testament, both by itself or in compounds like YHWH Malak (King:
e.g., Ps 93:1). God is also generically known as El (divinity), as in El Shaddai (God, the

30.
31.

32.

33.
34.
35.

36.

37.
38.
39.
40.
41.

42.
43.

44.
45.
46.
47.

One of the Mountain(s): e.g., Ex 6:3; Nm 24:4,16), the intensified plural Elohim (divine
God; e.g., Gn 1:1), and El Elyon (God Most High). Gerald OCollins, The Personal God:
Understanding and Interpreting the Trinity (New York: Paulist Press, 1999), 13.
Thomas Marsh, The Triune God: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Stud, (Connecticut:
Twenty-Third Publications, 1994), 29.
Rather in Jewish revelation Fatherhood appeared as a quality or attribute of God. Jean
Galot, Abba Father, We Long to See Your Face: Theological Insights into the First Person of
the Trinity (Mumbai: Pauline Publications, 1998), 69.
Metaphor extends the use of language beyond its ordinary meaning(s) to generate new
perspectives on reality by asserting an identity between two subjects (and not merely by
comparing two aspects). Gerald OCollins, The Personal God: Understanding and
Interpreting the Trinity, 13.
Thomas Marsh, The Triune God: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Study, 30.
Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is he not your Father, who
formed you, who made you and established you? (Deut 32:6).
naming God Father expressed his deep involvement in the story of Israel, its kingly
leaders, and its righteous ones The use of the Father metaphor centered on Gods free and
creative choice of the people. This name conveyed the steadfast commitment and
compassionate love of God in protecting, cherishing, and nourishing a people whose infidelity
could also call for discipline. Gerald OCollins, The Personal God: Understanding and
Interpreting the Trinity, (New York: Paulist Press, 1999), 23.
Where as in the book of Proverbs, Sirach, and Wisdom that wisdom is available and
accessible to those who are invited to her banquet (Prov 9:1-6), those who love her yet the
initiative remains hers. Wisdoms pre-existence before the creation and its close relation with
God are seen in the book of Proverbs. In the book of Sirach we find that Wisdom, coming
from the mouth of God as a word, dwells with God, enthroned in the highest place like God,
all pervasive and omnipotent (Sir 24: 3-7).
Gerald OCollins, The Personal God: Understanding and Interpreting the Trinity, 25.
Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, Trans. Paul Burns, (New York: Orbis Books, 1986), 41.
Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, 41.
Gerald OCollins, The Personal God: Understanding and Interpreting the Trinity, 34.
We observe the intervention of the Holy Spirit and not human sexuality in conceiving Jesus in
the womb of mother Mary. Thus the event of the virginal conception plays its revealing and
clarifying a central truth: from the beginning to the end, there is a Trinitarian face to the story
of Jesus. Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, 38.
Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ (London: SCM Press, 1984), 245.
Apart from Jesus consciousness of his sonship, the synoptic Gospel writers present others
realizing Jesus divine sonship (Mt 5:9, 44-45; Lk 6:3; 20:36). Jesus frequently addressing
God abba Father is a rare phenomenon that we observe in a Jew.
Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ, 44.
Ibid.
Thomas Marsh, The Triune God: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Study, 32.
The title, Abba, expresses, in the Aramaic of the times, the close relationship of a child to
his/her father in an endearing way similar to the English usage of the word, dad or daddy.
George H.Tavard, The Vision of the Trinity, (Washington: University Press of America, 1981),
2. The Church Fathers Chrysostom, Theodor of Mopsuestia, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus who
originated from Antioch (where the populace spoke the west Syrian dialect of Aramaic) and
who probably had Aramaic speaking nurses, testify unanimously that "Abba" was the address
of the small child to his father. And the Talmud confirms this when it says, "When a child
experiences the taste of wheat (i.e. when it is weaned) it learns to say "abba" and "imma"
("Daddy" and "Mommy"). Abba" and "Imma" are thus the first sounds which the child
stammers. But these terms were not limited to small children; grown-up sons and daughters
also used them to address their parents. "Abba" was an everyday word, a homely, family word,
a secular word, the tender, filial address to a father: "Dear Father." No Jew would have dared
to address God in this manner. Jesus did it always, in all His prayers which are handed down
to us, with one single exception, the cry from the cross, "My God, My God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46); here the term of address for God was prescribed
by the fact that Jesus was quoting Psalm 22:1. Jesus thus spoke with God as a son would with
his father, simply, intimately, securely, filial in manner. But His invocation of God as "Abba"
is not to be understood merely psychologically, as a step toward growing apprehension of

48.
49.
50.

51.
52.
53.
54.
55.

56.

57.

58.
59.

60.
61.

God. Rather, we learn from Matthew 11:27 that Jesus Himself viewed this form of address for
God as the heart of that revelation which had been granted Him by the Father. In this term
"Abba" the ultimate mystery of His mission and His authority is expressed. He, to whom the
Father had granted full knowledge of God, had the messianic prerogative of addressing him
with the familiar address of a Son. This term "Abba" is a manner of speaking unique to Jesus
and contains in a nutshell His message and His claim to have been sent from the Father. The
final point, and the most astonishing of all, however, has yet to be mentioned; in the Lord's
Prayer the Lord Jesus authorizes His disciples to repeat the word "Abba" after Him. He gives
them a share in His Sonship and empowers them, as His disciples, to speak with their
heavenly Father in just such a familiar, trusting way as a child would with his father. Yet He
goes so far as to say that it is this new childlike relationship which first opens the doors to
God's reign: "Truly, I say to you, unless you become like children again, you will not find
entrance into the kingdom of God" (Matthew 18:3). Children can say "Abba"! Only he who,
through Jesus, lets himself be given the childlike trust which resides in the word "abba" finds
his way into the kingdom of God. This the apostle Paul also understood; he says twice that
there is no surer sign or guarantee of the possession of the Holy Spirit and of the gift of
sonship than this, that a man makes bold to repeat this one word, "Abba, dear Father"
(Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). Perhaps at this point we get some inkling why the Lord's Prayer
was not a commonplace in the early church and why it was spoken with such reverence and
awe. "Make us worthy, O Lord, that we joyously and without presumption may make bold to
invoke Thee, the heavenly God, as Father, and to say, Our Father."
Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, 32-33.
Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, 34-35.
These texts are not directly Trinitarian in themselves but deal with the Trinitarian thought and
they are significant in developing the doctrine of Trinity later by the Fathers of the Church and
others.
These texts deal slightly with the understanding of God as Trinity. But they are useful to know
for the development of Trinitarian understanding.
Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19).
Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ, 245.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with you all. (2 Cor 13:13).
But we feel that we must be continually thanking God for you, brothers whom the Lord
loves, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctifying Spirit and by
faith in the truth. Through the Good News that we brought he called you to this so that we
should share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess 2:13-14).
There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of services to be done,
but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the
same God who is working in all of them. (1 Cor 12:4-6).
The dogma of the Trinity is an absolute mystery which we do not understand even after it has
been revealed. Raimundo Panikkar, The Trinity and the Religious Experience of Man: IconPerson-Mystery (New York: Orbis Books, 1973), 50.
Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ, 251.
Heresies are doctrines which do not allow faith to find itself in them or devotion to recognize
itself in them, or formulations which contradict the normative data of the scriptures. They
constitute a grave danger to faith; nevertheless, they also enable theology to move forward,
since their refutation requires careful study and a more precise deepening of faith itself.
Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, 46.
Doctrine as a noun means a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political
party, or other group.
From the early times Trinitarian theology developed two different approaches. In the patristic
theology of the East the idea prevailed that the one God is God of the Father, and that the Son
and the Spirit share with Him His divine life. This conception had the merit of being based on
Scripture, but it could lend itself to misinterpretations. It could lead to subordinationist ideas
which, in fact, did spring up in the east and came to a climax with the heresy of Arius. The
other conception, prominent in the West, conceived God as the one divine substance,
comprising of Father, Son and Spirit. In this view, the unity of God and the equality of the
Father, Son and Spirit were easily safeguarded; but, the basic truth of the oneness of the divine
nature could be misunderstood in such a way as to lead to the denial of the real distinction of

62.
63.

64.

65.

66.
67.

68.
69.

70.
71.
72.
73.

74.

the three persons. J.Neuner and J.Dupuis, The Christian Faith, In the Doctrinal Documents of
the Catholic Church (Bangalore: Theological Publications in India, 2001), 103-104.
Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, 65.
The Word of God must necessarily be united with the God of all, and the Holy Spirit must
abide and dwell in God; it is also necessary that the divine Trinity be recapitulated and led
back to One, as to a supreme point, that is to the almighty God all things. J.Neuner and
J.Dupuis, The Christian Faith, 106.
We believe in one God the Father almighty, creator of all things visible and invisible. And in
our one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, the only begotten born of the Father, that is of the
substance of the Father, God of God, light of light, true God of true God, born, not made, of
one substance with the Father (which they call in Greek homoousion), by whom all things
were made, which are in heaven and on earth, who for our salvation came down, and became
incarnate and was made man, and suffered, and arose again on the third day, and ascended into
heaven, and will come to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit. But those who
say: There was [a time] when he was not, and, Before he was born, he was not, and
Because he was made from nonexisting matter, he is either of another substance or essence,
and those who call God the Son of God changeable and mutable, these the Catholic Church
anathematizes. (DS 54).
Problem: We can venerate Jesus Christ, but not to the point of equating him with God, since
such an excess would destroy the true meaning of God. He can be like God (homoiousios), but
never equal to God (homoousios). He is the first creature, the prototype of all creatures, but
not God Arius and his disciples stressed the fact that Jesus a most perfect human being,
since in him the Word had pitched tent, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He reached the
pinnacle of human perfection, to the point where he deserved a divine name. The Father
adopted him as his Son, but compared to the abyss of mystery that is the Father, the Son
remains subordinate (subordinationism, because he was created and generated by the Father,
or adoptionist subordinationism, since he deserved to be adopted by the Father). Leonardo
Boff, Trinity and Society, 48.
Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, 66.
We believe in one God, Father omnipotent, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things
visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the
Father before all ages, light of light, true God of true God, begotten not made consubstantial
with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came
from heaven and was made flesh by the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary, and became man,
and was crucified for us by Pontius Pilate, suffered, and was buried and arose again the third
day, according to the Scripture, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the
Father, and is coming again with glory to judge the living and the dead; of whose kingdom
there shall be no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from
the Father, who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, who spoke
through the prophets. We believe in one holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. We confess
one baptism for the remission of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of
eternity to come. Amen (DS 86).
J.Neuner and J.Dupuis, The Christian Faith, 121.
Community is the deepest and most foundational reality that exists. It is because of
community that love, friendship, benevolence, and giving exist between human and divine
persons. Leonardo Boff, Holy Trinity, Perfect Community, 3.
Catherine Mowry LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life, (New York: Harper
Collins Publishers, 1991), 260.
Ibid., 266.
D.John Zizioulas, Being As Communion (New York: St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, 1985),
88.
Paul S.Fiddes summarizes the central idea of the otherness of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit by Athanasius, He (Athanasius) was more captivated by the relations of the Father, Son
and the Holy Spirit. To the skeptical Arian question as what the difference could be between
the persons if they are one in divine essence (ousia), he gave a different kind of answer: the
Father is other (heteros) in that he alone begets the Son, the Son is other in that he alone is
begotten, and the Spirit is other in that he alone proceeds from the Father. They are different
in the way that they are related to each other. Paul S.Fiddes, Participating in God: A Pastoral
Doctrine of the Trinity (London: Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd., 2000), 20.
Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, 5.

75. Ibid.
76. Nonna Verma Harrison, An Orthodox Approach to the Mystery of the Trinity: Questions for
the Twenty-First Century, Concilium, Vol.1, (2001), 62.
77. J.Neuner and J.Dupuis, The Christian Faith, 109.
78. Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, 75.
79. Robert R.Barr, God, the Father of Mercy: Prepared by the Theological-Historical
Commission for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 (Mumbai: Pauline Publications, 1998), 20.
80. Jacob Parappally, Communion Among Individual Churches, 755.
81. Antony Kelly, The Trinity of Love: A Theology of the Christian God (Delaware: Michael
Glazier, 1989), 185.
82. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics II/I, 301-5; Cf. IV/I 186-8.
83. Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ, 248.
84. Millard J.Erickson, Making Sense of the Trinity: Three Crucial Questions (Michigan: Baker
Books, 2000), 58.
85. Jacob Kavunkal, The Abba Experience of Jesus, (Indore: Satpakashan Sanchar Kendra,
1995), 14.
86. George M. Soares-Prabhu., A Biblical Theology For India, ed., Francis X.DSa Vol.4 (Pune:
Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 1999), 281.
87. Philip Land, Justice, The New Dictionary of Theology, ed., Joseph A. Komonchak, Mary
Collins & Dermot A. Lane, (Bangalore: Theological Publications in India, 1994), 552.
88. John Mac Murray, Persons in Relation (London: Faber & Faber, 1961), 64-76.
89. The Work of Justice, Irish Bishops Pastoral, (Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1977), 20.
90. Justice in the World, Synod of Bishops 01-11-1971.
91. Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society,177.
92. In His preaching He proclaimed the fatherhood of God towards all human beings and the
intervention of Gods justice on behalf of the needy and the oppressed (Lk 6:21-23). In this
way He identified Himself with His least brethren, as He stated: As you did it to one of the
least of these my brethren, you did it to me (Mt 25:40). Justice in the World, Synod of
Bishops, 01-11-1971.
93. Jesus used the parables to reveal the truths and values of the Kingdom of God, which can be
understood by all. These stimulated and motivated the listeners of his time. They could
experience Jesus authority and power in what he said. Jesus presents the Kingdom of God in
the parables as eschatological and at the same time present now i.e., already begun and it is
in process leading to the final fulfillment. In Mathew the instruction on the Christian life (Chs
5-7; 18) and mission (Ch 10) is given to wait for the Parousia (Mt 24:45-51; 25:1-30).
Therefore it has already started but is not yet fulfilled. The dynamic understanding of the
Kingdom of God as present stressing the present life is seen throughout the New Testament. It
is also seen as a gift as it comes (Mk 1:15; Lk 11:2), from God and draws near all (Lk 10:9;
Mt 10:7), it grows like a mustard seed (Mk 4:30-32); it spreads like the leaven (Lk 13:21; Mt
13:33); it is found like a treasure (Mt 13:44); and it is seen and received with simplicity of a
child (Mk 9:1,10;15). It is also spoken of as a task to be achieved by specific attitudes or
actions (Mt 5:3-12, 5:20).
94. George M. Soares- Prabhu, A Biblical Theology for India, ed., Isaac Padinjarekuttu, Vol.1,
(Pune: Jnana- Deepa Vidyapeeth, 1999), 223-240.
95. Catherine Mowry LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life, 174-177.
96. George Panikulam, Koinonia in the New Testament, A Dynamic Expression of Christian Life
(Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1979), 134.
97. George Panikulam, Koinonia in the New Testament, A Dynamic Expression of Christian Life,
135.
98. George Panikulam, Koinonia in the New Testament, A Dynamic Expression of Christian Life,
78.
99. Holy Spirit is related in and through the Christian life and plays a greater role in generating
and strengthening the bonds of love and communion with God the Father, Son Jesus Christ
and among ourselves. The Spirit is fully involved in our communion with God and fellow
humans. (Rom 8:23) J.M.R.Tillard, Flesh of the Church, Flesh of Christ, At the Source of
Ecclesiology of Communion, 4.
100. Juergen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom of God. Trans. Margaret Kohl, (London:
SCM Press, 1981), 158.
101. The growth in this fellowship that is caused by the response to the call to koinonia in its
different levels is also attributed to the Spirit because the Spirit makes with the sons of God a

fellowship alive to Christ and to the brethren. This community then is brought to a growth
towards God which in our context is again attributed to the working of the Spirit. Thus the
Spirit becomes the dynamic force behind the whole koinonia process. In its God-ward and
brother-ward dimensions the Spirit becomes the activating and dynamic principle making the
concept of koinonia itself a dynamic reality. George Panikulam, Koinonia in the New
Testament, A Dynamic Expression of Christian Life, 78.
102. Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, 234-235.
103. Joseph Kallarangatt, Koinonia/Communion as the Ecclesiological Perestroika in Vatican II,
Christian Orient, Vol.XIV, No.1 (March 1993), 3.
104. 1. A CDF version, notable for its emphasis on the priority of the Church universal and the
importance of certain visible church structures, 2. A Rahnerian version, notable for its
emphasis on the sacramentality of the world and on the communion with God that exists
within all of human kind. 3. A Balthasarian version, notable for its emphasis on the
uniqueness of Christian revelation and its aesthetic character. 4. A liberation version, notable
for its emphasis on gender, ethnicity, and social location as the context for appreciating
relationality. 6. A reforming version, notable for its emphasis on the need for Roman
Catholics to challenge radically their own ecclesiological presuppositions in the interest of
ecumenical progress. Dennis M.Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology, Vision and Versions (New
York: Orbis Books, 2000), 19.
105. They are: 1. Amidst various divisions among the Christians communion ecclesiology
involves the retrieval of a vision of the Church presupposed by Christians of the first
millennium. 2. Communion ecclesiology emphasizes the spiritual fellowship or the
communion between God and human beings and human beings among themselves. 3.
Communion ecclesiology looks for a visible unity among the Christians as symbolically seen
in the sharing experience of the Eucharist. 4. Communion ecclesiology promotes a dynamic
and healthy interplay between unity and diversity in the Church. Dennis M.Doyle,
Communion Ecclesiology, Vision and Versions, 13.
106. B.C.Butler, The Church and Unity (London: Geoffrey Chapman1979), 39.
107. Joseph Kallarangatt, Koinonia/Communion as the Ecclesiological Perestroika in Vatican II,
Christian Orient, 4.
108. George Panikulam, Koinonia in the New Testament, A Dynamic Expression of Christian Life,
4.
109. Gerhard Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Trans. & ed., Geoffrey W.
Bromiley, Vol. III, (Michigan: B.Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), 801.
110. The entry of God into sacral fellowship is herein expressed by the sprinkling of blood on the
alter. Only to the serious detriment of the one responsible can the fellowship be thus broken.
Yet in respect of the close sharing and fellowship actualized in the sacrificial meal the word
group koinon is avoided. Gerhard Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 802.
111. Mc Donnell, Vatican II (1962-1964); Pueblo (1979); Synod (1985); Koinonia/ Communion
as an Integral Ecclesiology: Journal of Ecumenical Studies 25 (1988), 400.
112. A. Dulles, Catholic Ecclesiology since Vatican II: Synod 1985 An Evaluation, Concilium
(1986), 11-12.
113. Nihal Abeyasingha, What has the Ecclesiology of Communion of Vatican II Meant for
India? Jeevadhara, Vol.IX, No.52 (July-August 1979), 286-287.
114. Nihal Abeyasingha, What has the Ecclesiology of Communion of Vatican II Meant for India?,
286-287.
115. The Churchs first purpose then is to be the sacrament of the inner union of the human person
with God, and, because peoples communion with one another is rooted in that union with
God, the Church is also the sacrament of the unity of the human race. In her this unity has
already begun; and at the same time she is the sign and instrument of the full realization of
the unity yet to come (EA 24).
116. Catherine Mowry LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life, 324.
117. Nonna Verma Harrison, An Orthdox Approach to the Mystery of the Trinity: Questions for
the Twenty-First Century, Concilium (2001/1), 61.

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(Fr.Tharian Njaliath, belongs to the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly,

is currently doing Ph.D in Ecclesiology at Papal Athenaeum [Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth], Pune.)