THE TRINITY IN MAN

THE TRINITY IN MAN

     Man is triune being composed of a body and soul and spirit. The body and soul are from the earth and the spirit breathed into him from God. The soul of man has also has three faculties, the intellect, the heart oir feelings and the will. The intellect or mind processes information, while the heart being  the affective faculty is the seat of many affections and feelings. The will being informed by the other two powers makes decisions,  based on what the intellect accepts or rejects and what the  heart  feels as being good. Usually if the intellect agrees and the heart likes something, the will acts on this information with an affirmative decision. If the intellect agrees but the heart disagrees, the soul may or may not take action.  An example of the latter is when you think or know that something is a good idea but you don’t like it, in many cases you will decide against it, but sometimes, we know through our intellect that something is good but is not to our liking, so we may decide to do what we know to be good, even if our hearts disagree and don’t like it.

     These three, the intellect, the heart and the will are also an image of the Divine Trinity. No man has seen the Father says our Lord, and no man has seen the mind of another man. The Son declares the Father and what’s in His mind, and the body and speech of a man declares what’s in the man’s mind

     The heart is the seat of our desires and needs to be carefully guarded, for sin is sugar-coated and offered to the heart. If we are offered evil and the heart accepts it, then evil will enter into our souls corrupting them and striving to lead to many sins. For this reason spiritual advisors urge us to carefully guard the heart, that it will not desire what is evil. 

     Scriptures say: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things” (Matt. 12:35). These are words of the Lord who fills the treasury of your heart with His riches. Who is this good man? He who has a good treasure in his heart. Who is this evil man? He who has evil treasure in his heart.  “For out of the heart (of an evil man) proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies” (Matt. 15:19). But from a good heart come forth “peace, forbearance, meekness, goodness, faith, temperance” (Gal. 5:22-23).

      Christ teaches us that the human heart is a storehouse and that all manner of things can be stored therein. We can have in our hearts the gracious gifts from the Holy Spirit or an evil spirit from the devil and demons, which pollutes our souls. The heart that receives and nourishes the Holy Spirit given by God, will have a most important ally to keep the evil spirit far away. But the evil and stubborn spirit upon entering the soul strives to lead it to wickedness and iniquity. The Spirit of God desires to dwell in our hearts, bringing with Him many wonderful gifts and strong assistance which he gives to all who welcome and obey Him.  

     Every man is capable, if he so desires, of judging what spirit will be in his soul, being very important for the spirit contributes to his likes and dislikes. If a man has a good spirit in his soul coming from God, he will be inclined to desire and seek what is good, but if he has an evil spirit he will be inclined to seek what is evil. These facts help to explain the many differences we usually see among men. Some have a holy spirit and always speak and act well. Some have an evil spirit and speak and act badly. Christ defined these things when he spoke of the good man’s heart and the evil man’s heart.

     The days allotted to us in this present life need to be utilized  not only for supporting   and caring for our families, but also for teaching them these things and striving to eliminate all traces of evil in all our souls that they may become the abodes of Holy Spirit, who desires to enter and dwell within our souls.  God awaits for us to prepare our hearts to gladly welcome Him, to make our heart a temple of Holy Spirit. We must make every effort to guard our hearts and keep them clean by always obeying Christ’s commandments and replacing that which we ourselves will with that which God wills for us, let God’s will always be done. Let our hearts be filled with the grace of the Spirit and may the joy and praise of our Lord brighten every day of our lives in this world and in the world to come. Amen.