Experiencing the Love of the Trinity
June 11, 2006 Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity (B) - White
Liturgy of the Word
First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:32-34,39-40
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33 "Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own"
Second Reading: Romans 8:14-17
Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
“For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.”
St. Augustine was walking along the seashore, meditating on the unfathomable mystery of the Holy Trinity – the source and summit of the life of the Church. He saw a young boy using a shell to pour seawater into a little hole dug on the sand. When St. Augustine asked the young boy what he is doing, he received a reply, “I am emptying the sea into this hole.”
The Holy Trinity – a mystery that remains a mystery up to now – is the source and summit of our Christian life. Vatican II explains that a mystery is something that we may understand partially, and no matter how unclear our understanding of it, we still accept and make our own as part of God’s divine revelation. Therefore, we may not understand the mystery of the Trinity, but knowing it and having heard of it, we believe in it.
We summarize the Trinitarian dogma: We have one God consisting of three divine persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three persons are “equal in majesty, undivided in splendor” and perceived to be “one Lord, one God” deemed “ever to be adored” (Preface of the Holy Trinity). In work, the Father is Creator and revealed himself through his prophets, the Son is eternally begotten by the Father who did not only reveal the Father as Creator but also Father, and the Holy Spirit is the intercessor, who revealed the Father and the Son (cf. CCC 240, 243-244). No matter when and how they work, the works of the Trinity are inseparable to each other. In nature, “the Father is the origin from whom all things come, the Son is eternally begotten of the Father by an eternal generation, and the Holy Spirit precedes by an eternal procession from the Father and the Son” (St. Augustine on the Blessed Trinity).
The Holy Trinity is united in communion by love. This is actually what God gives us. That’s why we have the saying, “Where there is love, there is God.” If there weren’t love, then there would not be any existing Trinity. In effect, there would be no God. But this love innate in the Trinity makes them united as one in being with each other. Out of love, God created the world. Out of love, God sent us his Son. The Son died for our sins out of love – the greatest love there is. Out of love, the Holy Spirit came to empower us to live as Christ did and to live as Christians. Love is actually the answer to the mystery of the Trinity. Of all the writings that the early Church Fathers handed down to us, of the beliefs that we have, the bottom line is love. Love is the ultimate and best definition to the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
In life, we encounter mysteries that we cannot sometimes comprehend nor understand. What is important is that we believe that we have a God that loves us and cares for us as we journey on earth and after earth. St. Augustine then realized that his efforts to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity were as futile as the child’s attempt to get the sea into the hole. St. Augustine realized, after talking to the young boy, that the Lord has given him a sign regarding his meditations on the Trinity: “All that we can know of God is always far less than what, in this life, we can never know.”
