ACC ~ Acts 10 v16

A SYMBOL OF THE TRINITY. BEDE: For the mystery of the holy Trinity was to be preached throughout the four regions of the world by the twelve apostles. It is for this reason that four linen cords were let down from heaven three times. Or, as it is interpreted by the blessed Ambrose, “The third repetition of the figure expressed the operation of the Trinity. And so in the mysteries a threefold question is put and a threefold confirmation is proclaimed. Nor can anyone be purified except by a threefold confession. Hence in the gospel Peter himself was asked three times whether he loved the Lord, so that his threefold response might loose the bonds with which he had bound himself by denying the Lord.” These things shown to Peter were very appropriate to the situation, since the Gentile Cornelius appealed to him to show him that he should not hesitate to entrust the Christian faith to the uncircumcised. For he was from among those living things that were manifested in the evangelical vessel. Hence it was confirmed by the Holy Spirit that he should act in the same way. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 10.16A.

THE CHURCH AS PILGRIM. BEDE: After the threefold lowering the vessel was taken up to heaven, since after the affairs of this world, through which the church travels as a pilgrim who has been cleansed by faith and baptism, there then follows a happy and everlasting heavenly dwelling. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 10.16B.

A THREEFOLD REMINDER OF SALVATION. ARATOR: Three times the voice of the Lord resounds. This is repeated for [our] salvation: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit do this together. Arius, contentious against this faith, fell by denying that the One is in three Persons; Sabellius admitted the One, but [it is] the Father, he said, who then in turn is called Son and Holy Spirit, being the same, but so that the whole is the Father himself; and what the One greatest contains in its threefold order the former divides and the latter abandons. Both lie vanquished; for the threefold command of the [Lord’s] bidding indicates a single number in [three] Persons, with their own qualities, [and] by this command he calls the Gentiles: to believe this is right, if we wish to believe perfectly. ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 1.

CLEANSED THROUGH BAPTISM. ORIGEN: For the things made clean are made clean not by a single invocation nor by a second, but unless a third invocation is pronounced, no one is cleansed. For unless you were cleansed in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you could not be clean. HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7.4.5.