GOD IS TRINITY, A COMMUNION OF SERVICE AND LOVE.

May 30, 2021
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity - B.

Readings: Dt 4:32-34, 39-40; Ps 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22; Rom 8:14-17; Mt 28:16-20.

An Italian proverb says, “A solitary man is either a brute or an angel.” And a Romanian proverb adds, “A threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

“Blest be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God, and also the Holy Spirit, for he has shown us his merciful love.” Here is the entrance antiphon that opens us to this solemn celebration of our God.

Is God three in one or one in three? Some people will say it is all the same. But for the truth, the difference is great. To say three in one (3 in 1) means three different entities gathered in one reality, a common wrapper. For example, we have the Nescafe 3 in 1. It is about coffee, creamer, and sugar sharing one common bag. And because they are mixed, they lose their individuality. On the other hand, to say one in three (1 in 3) goes deeper. It is about one substantial being shared by three entities. In the end, each entity has its singularity and identity, but deriving from a unique substantial being.

Our God is a One in Three (1 in 3), one God in Three Persons. We are people of a trinitarian faith. The great St. Gregory of Nazianzus has a beautiful summary of that faith that the Catechism quotes. He says, “Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it, I am soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that casts down... the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely God... the three considered together... I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendour. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me.” CCC. 256.

We are born unto faith in the Trinity. Because baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We live that faith in the Trinity. And we suffer and die in the Trinity. The Christian life in that sense is a Trinitarian life.

There is no mystery more difficult to explain than this one of the Holy Trinity. How can you explain that One in Three (1 in 3)? Today’s liturgy gives us, however, some clues. In the first reading, Moses, in the Deuteronomy, tells the children of Israel in their pilgrimage in the desert that the Lord their God is in the heavens above and on earth below and there is no other. It is a solemn proclamation of the monotheistic faith. God is one.

Christianism is an exclusive monotheism. We do not profess three gods, but one God in Three Persons. It might sound hard for some people to comprehend, but Trinity is not an algebraic axiom. It does not obey any principles or formula of addition or division or subtraction. Moreover, as we said before, it is biblical by essence. St. Paul, in the second reading, gives one of the biblical foundations of that belief. He speaks of the Spirit leading believers to become sons of God by adoption. Therefore, through the powerful work of the Spirit, the believers can yell to the Father after the example of Christ His Son, calling him “Abba, Father!” So, for the believers, God is a Father, and not only is he a Father, he does have a Son and a Spirit with Him. Three persons, interacting and interconnected.

The Holy Trinity is manifested to as through its work in us. The Father through creating us, the Son through redeeming us, and the Spirit through protecting and guiding us.

The Gospel comes to emphasize the fact that we are a trinitarian people, born into a trinitarian faith. The Risen Lord, before being taken away from his disciples gives them a mandate. He says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...” This recommendation is what is performed by the Catholic Church in baptizing people. Through our Baptism, we are immersed into the Holy Trinity to become children of God by adoption, and so trinitarian children.

God is not three. And the Trinity is not an invention unless we take the Bible itself as human creation or fruit of a fertile imagination. From Genesis to Revelation, the God who is at work is Triune. Creation is a Trinitarian work. Redemption is a Trinitarian work. And Protection or Recreation is as well, a Trinitarian work. The refusal to believe this makes the skeptic an idolater.

In a Tweeter message date on June 16, 2019, Pope Francis said, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity tells us that we do not have a solitary God up there in heaven, far away; no, He is the Father who gave us his Son, who became man like us, and who sends his own Spirit to be even closer to us.” Trinity, therefore, is a mystery of communion and love. It is the mystery of saving love at the service of our broken humanity. Through this mystery, we feel truly that God is not indifferent to our situations and trials we go through today. He is even closer to us, more than we are to each other. God has a personality. He shares in our crises and joys, glories and sorrows, trials and successes. And because our God shows no indifference toward us, we should also break all barriers that lead us to indifference, selfishness, solitary, isolation, and build communion of service and love.