At first glance, it may seem strange that the Church has a special solemnity in honor of the Most Blessed Trinity.
Liturgically, we celebrate the central events in the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary, the lives of the saints, and the sacred seasons, so to have a day dedicated to God may not seem to fit.
Yet, this Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity is a fitting moment to contemplate the mystery and revelation of God, made known to us through Jesus, and articulated in the Scriptures.
Every culture throughout history has practiced a religion. An innate spiritual sensibility dwells within the human person, drawing us to go beyond ourselves and to seek an ultimate horizon of meaning and purpose.
The ancients often worshiped the elements around them: The sun, moon and stars, trees, oceans, and animals.
The Greeks and Romans invented gods and goddesses who controlled and often manipulated human destiny.
Many offered sacrifices, such as crops, animals, or even humans, to the gods, seeking to call down divine blessings or to appease an angered deity.
The startling novelty of the Jewish religion is its insistence that there is only one God, who is invisible, omnipotent, omniscient, and beyond all created things.
This theological understanding clashed mightily with the religions of the surrounding tribes and clans, whose proximity often led the Jewish people to fall away from God and to worship idols.
While affirming the wonder and mystery of God, the Jews also viewed Him as being profoundly involved in the life of the world and the human race, from creation to the establishment of the covenant with Abraham and the liberation of the Chosen People from slavery in Egypt, to the words of the prophets.
God is mysteriously beyond the world and yet compassionately engaged with it.
Unveiling the Holy Trinity
Jesus, being a Jewish rabbi, fully embraced this understanding of God, but with an astonishing addition.
He revealed Himself as the Son of God, both divine and human, sent to save the entire human race from sin and death, through His life, ministry, death on the Cross, and Resurrection.
While the prophets of the Old Testament longed for a fuller revelation of God to His people, no one expected that God would actually become human!
The Pharisees and religious leaders attacked Jesus for this claim, which they saw as blasphemy, and ultimately conspired in His trial and crucifixion.
As they saw it, they were doing right in putting such a delusional heretic to death.
In His authoritative preaching and mighty deeds, Jesus revealed God as Father, Himself as the Son, and sent the Holy Spirit to form the Church after His Ascension.
Without destroying the understanding of God as radically One, Christ unveils the Blessed Trinity, not as three gods, but as a beautiful Plurality in a blessed Unity.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have perfectly loved each other eternally, but in the divine beneficence, God created us to live forever with Him, and even when sin fractured that relationship, the Son came to our rescue.
Salvation lies in the indwelling of God in our soul through faith, the sacraments, and a life of holiness.
“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” (John 14:23)
A central tenet of our Catholic faith is the transcendence and immanence of God.
On the one hand, God is absolute mystery, eternally dwelling in unapproachable light, beyond thought and comprehension, transcendent and lofty.
On the other hand, in the person of Jesus Christ, God dwells among us and within us, intimately close and bound together with us in the life of the Church and the divine indwelling within the soul, a divine immanence.
God is so beyond us we can never fully grasp Him; He is so close to us we can never fully avoid Him.
This interplay of God’s distance and nearness is the substance and drama of the spiritual life.
Understanding the Trinity
Another central Catholic belief is indeed our understanding of the Trinity.
The Father is the Creator, the Son is the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier.
Each is a distinct Person within the Unity of God with a particular identity and action relative to our salvation.
While being One God, a divine plurality exists within this substantial unity.
God, Himself is the perfection of plurality within oneness.
The Church, the family, a married couple, a diocesan presbyterate, and a Religious community all find their identity within this pattern of the Trinity.
As individuals, we are different and distinct, yet we possess a unity of faith and love within God Himself.
The unity does not crush the legitimate variety of persons and the spiritual diversity of gifts, but the differences do not destroy the unity in the Lord.
In our current environment of raging division, vituperative polarization, and cancel culture, this need to model our human relationships on the very life of God is keenly necessary.
As Christians, we strive to serve as ministers of reconciliation in a world that is gravely wounded by sin and afflicted with a culture of death.
“And all of this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5: 18)
On this Trinity Sunday, rejoice that God loves us so much, he has revealed His inner life and invites us even now to step within it and abide there forever!