With the beautiful gift of sharing in the Divine Triune life (CLICK HERE to read more) comes the notion of the “indwelling Trinity”. As Christ speaks of at the Last Supper in John’s Gospel, those who love God and follow His Commandments will be a place wherein He and the Father make their home – John 14:23, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” The Triune God dwells within those in the state of grace. St. Paul depicts this with another image, that of the Jerusalem Temple – 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”, as well later in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” In the Old Testament, the Jerusalem Temple was the only place on earth that God dwelt. Yet Paul now uses the idea for God’s dwelling for us – we are the Temples of the Lord now, wherein God dwells on earth! The indwelling Trinity, the great gift of grace!
Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalene writes in his masterful work Divine Intimacy – “‘If any one love Me, he will keep my word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him’ (Jn 14:23). This is the great mystery of the Divine indwelling, which assures us, in Jesus’ own words, that the one, triune God is not far away from a soul who loves Him, but rather lives in it and makes His abode in it. Catholic doctrine teaches that God is necessarily present in all His creatures. In fact, in order to exist, they need not only to be created by Him, but also to be kept in existence by Him. God conserves them by operating in them, that is, by continually communicating existence to them. Since He operates by His substance, He is present wherever He operates, and therefore, in all His creatures. Thus God is everywhere, even in the souls of unbelievers and sinners. However, in the case of the soul filled with sanctifying grace and charity, there is a special presence of God, which was promised by Jesus, and which is called indwelling. ‘The Divine Persons are said to be indwelling in as much as They are present to intellectual creatures in a way that lies beyond human comprehension, and are known and loved by them in a purely supernatural manner alone, within the deepest sanctuary of the soul’ (Mystici Corporis). In other words, the three Divine Persons are present in the soul that is in the state of grace, so that it may know Them by faith, and love Them by charity, and that They may even make Themselves known to the soul by the intimate illumination of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.” While God must be present to all creatures, preserving them in their existence, He is certainly present in a special manner to those in His grace. And this is how grace helps us, by giving us a share in the Divine Triune life, elevating us beyond the purely natural order and into the supernatural. And by that, making the impossible possible – if sharing in God’s life here and now, so we can for all of eternity!
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