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Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

We celebrate today, my brothers and sisters in Christ, the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. This doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most important in our Christian faith but it is also a doctrine which many of us have difficulty understanding. We refer to it as a mystery. It is  something which we can confirm is true by scripture, even though we cannot explain it exactly. 

 

In the New Testament, the word ‘mystery’ refers to a truth which God has made known to us and which we otherwise would not have discovered. The Trinity, that in God there are three Persons, is a mystery in this sense. It is, of course, difficult for us to understand how one being can be three persons just as it is difficult for us to understand how Jesus can be both God and human, which we see in the mystery of the incarnation.

 

The Trinity, this truth of one God in three persons, is revealed to us in the beginning, back in Genesis. We see in the creation narrative the three persons of the Trinity present.  God created the Heavens and the Earth. The spirit of God moved over the face of the waters.  And finally, God speaks -- Let there be light -- and the Earth begins to take form.  We have the Father of creation, the Holy spirit moving across that creation, and, as noted by John the apostle in the beginning of his Gospel, the Son:  “The Word was with God and was God, with God from the beginning, with all things coming to be through Him, the true light that enlightens every man.”  The trinity is present from the beginning in our relationship with God.

 

While we may not be able to understand completely how God can be three Persons, equal in majesty, undivided in splendor, yet one Lord, one God, He is ever to be adored, for we can understand our relationship with Him, as it is so beautifully revealed in the Gospel passage today.

 

John 3:16 is a verse known by all Christians, a verse which ties us together in our belief, whether we have the fullness of Christian truth or not.  Jesus Himself is speaking to us, revealing to us, the truth of God, the truth of His relationship with us:  For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Jesus continues in the passage, continues in His conversation with Nicodemus: God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

 

What powerful words! God Himself gives His only son for us that we might have eternal life. We read or hear this passage many times in our lives, but do we really hear it?  Do we really ponder what is being said here? Do we ask ourselves why?  Who are we that God would think about us in such a profound way?  Who are we that God would be concerned with us in such a way, concerned to the point that He deemed it necessary to send, to give, to offer His son to us so that we could be saved through the Son and spend eternity with Him?  Who are we?

 

Or better yet, let us make it more personal.  Who am I that God worried so much for me?  Who am I that He sent His only beloved son to die for me so that I might not be condemned? I am unworthy.  I am one of those of whom Moses speaks of in the first reading today, wicked and sinful. Who Am I? Who are we?

 

When God sent His son to save us and to forgive us, we became His adopted children.  The Father, the first person of the Holy Trinity, shows His love for us, His creation, by the sending of His only son to save us.  The Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, unites with the Father in this plan of salvation.  Out of love for us, His adopted brothers and sisters, Christ accepts death on a cross for us, so that we may have that eternal life.  When Christ’s mission is completed, when He returns back to the Father, it is out of love for us that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, is sent, so that we would not be alone.  And out of love for us, the Holy Spirit moves within us, moves us to love one another, moves us towards that imitation of Christ in our own lives as we praise and worship and glorify the Father.

 

We celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity today, that difficult to understand mystery of three persons in one God.  Even though we may not completely understand it, we accept it as doctrine, as truth.  

 

There is another truth to accept, another that is not as mysterious as it may seem, and that is God’s love for us.  We exist because God has created us through love, and through love He continues to hold us in existence.  We cannot live our lives to their fullest unless we acknowledge that love and entrust ourselves to our creator, to the Triune God, to the Most Holy Trinity.

 

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