The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Readings

Reflection on Scripture

Today, we celebrate the feast of the Blessed Trinity.  Throughout Scripture from ancient times to the present, we are told of God’s existence.  To the ancient Jewish, they only knew of God as one person, as He revealed Himself and began to form His people in His own image.

With the coming of the Savior, we were told that God the Father had sent His only Son to take on our humanity and to show us the way to the Father through the forgiveness of our sins.

And finally, Jesus revealed to us the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of all life.  Jesus told us that the Father would send His Spirit upon the earth to instruct us and lead us in wisdom and understanding of God.

The dogma of one God and three persons in one God, is the first profession of our faith and is found in the Nicene Creed.  From the Blessed Trinity comes forth all truth and light and the grace for each of us to grow in holiness.

St. Augustine tried his best to understand and explain the Blessed Trinity.  In Augustine’s confusion he went for a walk along the beach.  On the beach he encountered a young boy bringing bucket after bucket of water and pouring it into a hole.  Augustine stopped and asked the boy what he was doing and the boy replied that he was going to put the entire ocean into the hole.  Augustine told him it was impossible, and the boy turned to Augustine and told him so was his search to understand the Trinity.  Then the boy vanished from Augustine’s sight.

Yes, Trinity is a mystery we can never understand, and a mystery that we just accept in faith as is.  However, we can understand our own bodies and within each of us are three distinct parts that make us who we are, namely: body, mind, and spirit.  And our task through life is to bring the three parts of us into harmony with each other and with God.

Though we do not understand the Trinity we do know the work of God.  Sometimes, we simplify things by saying that God the Father is the creator of all things, God the Son is the redeemer of human kind, and that God the Spirit is the Lord and giver of all life and the things of heaven.  However, each person in Trinity does not act independently of the others.  All three persons in the Trinity were present at the moment of creation and all three are still present to us today.  Jesus told the apostles that if they knew Jesus, they also knew the Father and the Holy Spirit.

What we do know, is that the Trinity is a community of infinite love and for love to work, love needs a recipient of that love.  The Trinity is a community of love with all three persons in perfect harmony with each other.  All that God creates is created in perfect harmony until sin destroys the harmony with God, but within God.

To model the community of the Blessed Trinity, God gave the first sacrament to our first parents in the Garden of Eden, the sacrament of matrimony.  Our first parents were entrusted with the treasure and the grace to show the world God’s vision of love and community as the couples union mirrors the community of the Blessed Trinity.  And that same grace is given to all couples today.

On the cross on Good Friday, blood and water flowed from Jesus’ side bringing forth the community of church which is also entrusted with the treasure and the grace to show the world God’s vision of love and community as the Church mirrors the community of the Blessed Trinity.

We may not understand the Blessed Trinity, but we can learn to know and love the person of the Trinity through our prayer life.  Actually, knowing the person of the Trinity is paramount to us growing in holiness and becoming acceptable to God through the sacrifice of His son and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit to renew us in body, mind, and spirit as we grow into the very likeness of God incarnate.

Today, welcome God, the Blessed Trinity, into our hearts, our homes, and our communities and may He enlightened us in the things of heaven and lead us on our journey home where He, God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit reigns gloriously forever.

Deacon Phil