Just a man.

The explanation given by the nuns was complicated.

God manifested in three forms: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

God the creator made us. God the son became man. God the Holy Ghost was the enlightening communicator. Together they were the Blessed Trinity–or, as we irreverently liked to chant: “Three! Three! Three gods in one!”

We sometimes wondered if, as public school kids, we were getting the complete explanation. We knew we were not favored like the parochial school children at whose desks we sat for catechism class. Weren’t we instructed firmly each week to touch nothing in the desks of those holy children? The nuns had to be withholding something.