The Most Holy Trinity

“Let yourself be loved.” – St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Brothers and sisters, this Sunday we celebrate in the liturgy the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. In back-to-back weekends we will allow ourselves to be immersed into the two greatest mysteries of our Catholic Christian faith: The Holy Trinity and the Holy Eucharist.

Early in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in paragraph 261, we read that “the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life.” Just because the mysteries of our faith are not accessible in their entirety to our human minds does not for one second make them entirely unattainable or unknowable. In fact, this is one of the extraordinary gifts of being a Catholic is that there is no mystery or phenomenon that is beyond the capacity of our exploration. The intellectual tradition of the Church is so vast and beautiful that one could spend his or her whole life reading tomes on the Trinity and would only comprehend but a small swatch of the tapestry of the Church’s understanding. For a concise exposition on the Trinity, paragraphs 249 to 267 of the Catechism are a wonderful place to start if you’re hoping to grasp some key elements of this essential dogma.

The rational understanding of the Triune God is of course one way that we might come to live in the presence of the Divine. But, there are many other ways that God Himself makes His presence and power known to us. Primary among these ways is through the Sacrament of Baptism. As I mentioned in my homily last weekend, the reception of Baptism is the basis for our Catholic identity. It is the words of our Gospel reading this weekend which seal the truth about the words used in the formula for the sacrament and have spelled out the commencement address for Christians throughout the millennia.

“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-20

This is why we make disciples. This is why we baptize. This is why teach what he commanded us to observe. We do this because he told us to. And when we live these words in love, how will God respond?

“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

Yes, God will love us. He will pour His love into our hearts. Because God is love. 

Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heav'n to earth come down, fix in us your humble dwelling; all your faithful mercies crown!

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