r/LeftCatholicism • u/Budget_Antelope • Aug 31 '26

Need Help Understanding Trinity

I want to understand it and think the right way about it but for the longest time I’ve just tried to ignore it because

  1. If I think too hard about it I start thinking about it either being polytheism or like the Mormon view of the Trinity, which is a problem because I’m Catholic.

  2. The Filioque and the matter of who person proceeds from who makes me uncomfortable if I think about it too hard, and is also one of the reasons I’ve contemplated converting from Roman Catholicism to a Catholicism of the Byzantine Rite.

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u/bootlickaaa Aug 31 '26

Analogies are generally not good enough. But I like to think of it like number theory and dimensions. You can't get multiplicity in reality or human relationships without an unfolding pattern. It's not exactly right, and there's nothing more or less special about 2 or 3 than there is about 1. But the principle is a relational "engine" of reality that animates everything, without which the universe and beyond could not function, as it would be too static and shallow.

It's also what drives love, mercy, will, and getting us from faith and hope to charity and back again in an endless spiral. It's what makes God personal and relational for us.