Solemnity of the Holy Trinity - A mystery revealed

 

John 3: 16-18

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/053126.cfm

God our Father, who by sending into the world

the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification

made knon to the human race 

your wondrous mystery, grant us, we pray

that in professing the true faith,

we may acknowledge the Trintiy of eternal glory

and adore your Unity, powerful in majesty. 

(from Collect of Mass)

“In the name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.” How often have we proclaimed our faith in the Trinity by the sign of the cross we make to begin and close a prayer. Often, though, it becomes routine. It’s the way a Catholic prays or blesses themselves so it may be done rather quickly, like your swatting flies, or with little thought. Things of faith become routine, like living in a fog if we’re not paying attention.

While we know that fog is basically a cloud much lower than it should be.  On this Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the fundamental mystery of our faith on the nature of God, we do hear again of a cloud; not one that causes great anxiety but rather one that produces great hope and promise.

Our first reading from Exodus finds Moses on Mt. Sinai to commune with God who comes down to Moses in “a cloud.” In Scripture a cloud is a way in which God, though hidden like thick fog, makes himself present.  Hidden from our eyes and understanding yet very present and engaged at the same time. When the Hebrews wandered through the desert a cloud of glory descended on them, when God the Father spoke after Jesus’ baptism and the disciples were on Mt. Tabor at the transfiguration, he did so from a cloud of glory.

From this mysterious divine presence, we hear God proclaim his name “Lord” as he reveals his nature: “merciful and gracious . . . slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” Here Moses pleads with God on behalf of a people who had quickly forgotten the Commandments given on Mt. Sinai, that he would give his people a second chance.  God relents and assures Moses he is Lord who reaches out and desires a renewed covenant with his people for he is merciful, gracious, kind and faithful. And so, we see God revealed through what he says and proven true by what he does.

This weekend on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, always falling on the Sunday after Pentecost, we mark that great uncovering of the nature of the divine. We have come to know of the true God’s existence and nature as three in one from Jesus’ teaching.  He who is the word of God has spoken to us. Like dense fog that suddenly lifts we have a way of seeing that would not have lifted by any other way other than for this truth to be revealed through the Scriptures, the teaching of Jesus, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Belief in the Holy Trinity is uniquely Christian for no other world religion defines God in this way; as a community of persons, yet One and indivisible.

Although limited in our full understanding, we believe God is three yet one; three divine persons yet one in their unity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit One eternal God. Our Jewish brethren, while joining with us in belief that there is only One true God, see him as totally other and single in nature.

 True, this is heady stuff to be sure. Not something a logical human being would have created but a great mystery revealed to humanity. Although revealed to us, it was a bit of time to explain with more clarity. It is the language of later theological development in the Church and by the 4th century, the Council of Nicea in the year 325 A.D. the Church, in direct defense against false understanding about the nature of the Son, Jesus, formally defined the Trinity in what we proclaim as the Nicene Creed we recite each Sunday at Mass.  It should be very familiar to us:

“I believe in one God the Father Almighty. . . in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God . . . consubstantial with the Father. . . I believe in the Holy Spirit the Lord, the giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son . . .”

It is the core truth of the Christian faith on the nature of God and what we profess to believe as Catholic Christians. Believe, yes but importantly, also by how we live.

All the prayers of the Mass, the calling down of the Holy Spirit upon the gifts of bread and wine, our personal prayer, our sacraments such as when we are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the prayer of absolution as our sin is forgiven in penance, and each time we make the sign of the cross we proclaim this core belief of the Christian faith as we do in the profession of the Creed at Mass.

Our Gospel reading from John offers more than theology but an invitation: John writes a very familiar phrase: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”  (Jn 3:16). John tells us: God “loved” and God “sent.”  Those two words to love and to send imply an active God.  A God who reaches out, who extends himself not out of vengeance or punishment but out of love and mercy towards those he reaches to. He communicates with us as a living being. His Son is his Word. 

Like a hand stretched out to rescue a drowning man God has extended himself to us in love to rescue us from our own sin. We see what God as he reveals himself through his own Son in Jesus Christ: merciful, gracious, kind, forgiving and filled with eternal love.

Therefore, we might say that God in his unity creates a community of persons whose very nature is to love us into life.  This unity in community is the great understanding for how we are to live and in eternity where God wants that we dwell in him.  If we as Christians live as God desires, then our own lives will promote unity and not division; faithfulness and not selfishness; love and not violence; inclusiveness and not prejudice; forgiveness and not judgment.  The potential for human society is unlimited if we were to follow the way Christ has shown us.

How blessed are we in our Catholic life which promotes community of persons united by one faith around a common word and altar.  May that unity in community reflect the true nature of this God who loves and reaches out to us continually. In the Holy Eucharist we see God revealed to us as he gathers us as one around his altar to feed and unite us in his mercy, kindness, graciousness and forgiveness.