The Mystery of the Holy Trinity

Sisters and brothers, we begin in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The simplest and first prayer of our Faith, the one that reflects the most central teaching of our Faith, and that is the teaching and our understanding of God is a Trinity,

one God in three persons. That's the formula we use when we talk from the Catechism and our tradition about how we understand the very nature of God. In the Old Testament, we first encounter God and in the creation account and the story of the relationship to the patriarchs all the way through the prophets to the end of the Old Testament. This journey of sin and failing and restoration and hope. And in that experience, we understand and come to understand God is one. God is unique. God is powerful. God has a salvific will, and that God is called Father. Recognized as one who is the Father of the people of Israel, the Father of the Fathers, as it were, when we think of the patriarchs. 

We come to the New Testament, that singular Revelation of Jesus Christ is the Son of God, which unfolds over stories of the gospel that we come to understand. We hear in the Gospels are these words, this is my beloved Son. And so we understand in a new way. The Father is related to the Son, the Son related to the Father, this unique relationship of Jesus to the Father.

And so we have Father and Son.

Later in the New Testament, we have, the appearance of the Holy Spirit and ever, kind of hints of the Holy Spirit's presence. It's interesting that it takes centuries before we fully come to understand the Divinity of Christ and His humanity and the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. But seen in the scriptures, we have Father, Son, and Spirit, that unique relationship with the Trinity.

Now when we say three persons in one God, we have to be careful that we're not saying three personalities. There aren't three personalities in God. Rather, there's this relationship of Father to Son. If you have a father, he has a son. If you have a son, you have a father. The Father and Son share a relationship that is exactly of the nature of God, which is a love for one another.

That love of Father and Son expressed is the Spirit. So the Spirit is the love of Father and Son, and you have that relationship of the three Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not personalities, but relations.

It's important for us to understand what we say. God is present at creation. It is Father, Son and Spirit, in redemption, Father, Son and Spirit have a role in sanctification, in making us holy and guiding the Church. Father, Son and Spirit have a role. When God acts Father, Son and Spirit, we can know that those acts are free acts of an all-powerful God who is love and mercy.

Pope Francis is known to say love and mercy is the ways of reflecting God. Because that is certainly evident in His love. But it is most powerful presence often is shown in His mercy and His ability to save us from sin and restore us to the life of grace. The singular act of God for us.

Sisters and brothers, sometimes along in our Christian journey, we encounter, certain kinds of, heresy, certain problematic understandings of God. One of them is pantheism. And we want to make sure that when we understand God's presence in the world, it isn't God's presence in everything, as if God is divided into all the parts of creation, it's rather everything in creation reflects the fact that they were loved into being by God. From the Big Bang to the individual creation of each human person. 

The other is a dualism. That there's like a good god and there's an evil god, that God and Satan, they're like two gods, no not the case. There is only one God who is all good, all loving, all merciful for us. 

And finally, there's the understanding that's so prevalent in our day to day and is a deism, and that is a belief that there is indeed a God. But God sort of created the world, launched the Big Bang and said, “Hey guys, take care of yourselves, love one another. I'm staying up in heaven,”and it's disconnected from the world. 

What we believe, sisters and brothers, when we come to say the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is that God's providential care and love exists for us today, that God can indeed and does enter into history to guide us and to shepherd us, that God indeed can and does work miracles in our lives. From the smallest miracles of love, the birth of our children, lives of our families, to the miracles of personal healings, to the miracles of personal conversion. 

Sisters and brothers, we're invited in our Christian life to identify not just with Father, with Son, or with Holy Spirit, but with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for it is by those names and by that sign that we are indeed renewed.

Reflection Questions:

1. How does understanding the Trinity deepen your personal relationship with God?

2. In what ways can you recognize the roles of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in your daily life?

3. What challenges or misconceptions about the Trinity can you clarify for others through your faith?