Faith Filled Friday: Understanding The Trinity by St. Hildegard of Bingen

I was just reading the Mass readings from Trinity Sunday last week in the devotional monthly magazine, Magnificat. The meditation was particularly penetrating, taken from the writings of St. Hildegard of Bingen.

The creator and Lord of all so loved his people that for their salvation he sent his Son, the Prince and Savior of the faithful, who washed and dried our wounds.  And he exuded the sweetest balm, from which flow all good things for salvation...For the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and these three Persons are indivisible in the Unity of the Divinity...

As the flame of a fire has three qualities, so there is one God in three Persons.  How? A flame is made up of brilliant light and red power and fiery heat.  It has a brilliant light that it may shine, and red power that it may endure, and fiery heat that it may burn.  Therefore, by the brilliant light understand the Father, who with paternal love opens his brightness to his faithful; and by the red power, which is the flame that it may be strong, understand the Son, who took on body born from a Virgin, in which his divine wonders were shown; and by the fiery heat understand the Holy Spirit, who burns ardently in the minds of the faithful....Therefore as these three qualities are found in one flame, so three Persons must be understood in the Unity of the Divinity.

And as three causes for the production of words are seen, so the Trinity in the Unity of the Divinity is to be inferred.  How?  In a word there is sound, meaning, and breath.  It has sound that it may be heard, meaning that it may be understood, and breath that it may be pronounced.  In the sound, then, observe the Father, who manifests all things with ineffable power, in the meaning; the Son, who was miraculously; and in the breath, the Holy Spirit, who sweetly burns in them....Therefore, in these three Persons recognize you God, who created you in the power of his divinity and redeemed you.

--St. Hildegard of Bigen, from Scivias, translated by Mother Columba Hart and Jane Bishop [taken from Magnificat magazine, June 2020, p. 106-107]

I have said that truly understanding the Trinity is nearly impossible, probably the hardest thing in Christianity to conceptualize and accept. St. Hildegard’s explanation is possibly the best I have ever heard.