Solemnity of Holy Trinity Year B ~ MAY 26, 2024

THE DIVINE RELATIONSHIP

 

Last Sunday we celebrated the Solemnity of Pentecost and reflected on the role of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity who not only takes the fear away from our lives but also encourages us to stand for the faith and to proclaim it. Let me share a very inspiring “Memo from God” by an unknown author to really understand the mystery of the Divine Relationship of Three Persons in One substance and then examine our own relationship with them.

From: God
To: All His Children

I am God.

Today, I will be handling all your problems. Please remember that I do not need your help.

If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. All situations will be resolved in My time, not yours.

Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now.

If you find yourself stuck in traffic, don’t despair. There are people in this world for whom driving is an unheard-of privilege.

Should you have a bad day at work, think of the man who has been out of work for years.

Should you despair over a relationship gone bad, think of the person who has never known what it’s like to love and be loved in return.

Should you grieve the passing of another weekend, think of the woman in dire straits, working twelve hours a day, seven days a week to feed her children.

Should your car break down, leaving you miles away from assistance; think of the paraplegic who would love the opportunity to take that walk.

Should you notice a new gray hair in the mirror, think of the cancer patient in chemo who wishes she had hair to examine.

Should you find yourself at a loss and pondering what is life all about, asking what is my purpose? Be thankful. There are those who didn’t live long enough to get the opportunity.

Should you find yourself the victim of other people’s bitterness, ignorance, smallness, or insecurities; remember, things could be worse. You could be one of them!

Should you decide to send this to a friend, thank you. You may have touched a life in ways you will never know!

Today as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, we could feel the love and protection of Three Persons in the Holy Trinity. The Preface of the Holy Mass is so powerful to reflect on the role of the three persons in the Holy Trinity: “For with your Only Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit you are one God one Lord: not in the unity of a single person, but in a Trinity of one substance. For what you have revealed to us of your glory we believe equally of your Son and the Holy Spirit, so that, in the confessing of the true and eternal Godhead, you might be adored in what is proper to each Person, their unity in substance, and their equality in majesty”.

The Holy Trinity makes us realize who we are and how we need to be united in them as three Persons are One in substance. We should understand this little guy in the story about our relationship and unity with the Holy Trinity.

There was a boy, whose family was very wealthy. One day his father took him on a trip to the country, where he aimed to show his son, how poor people live. So, they arrived at a farm of a very poor family, as he considered. They spent there several days. On their return, the father asked his son, did he like the trip.

“Oh, it was great, dad” – the boy replied. “Did you notice how poor people live?” “Yeah, I did “– said the boy. The father asked his son to tell in more details about his impressions from their trip “.

“Well, we have only one dog, and they have four of them. In our garden there is a pool, while they have a river that has no end. We’ve got expensive lanterns, but they have stars above their heads at night. We have the patio, and they have the whole horizon. We have only a small piece of land, while they have the endless fields. We buy food, but they grow it. We have high fence for protection of our property, and they don’t need it, as their friends protect them.”

The father was stunned. He could not say a word. Then the boy added: “Thank you, dad, for letting me see how poor we are.”

Let us see the mystery of Holy Trinity through the wisdom and understanding of some saints:

In dozens of places in her Diary Sister Faustina wrote about the Holy Trinity, but let’s survey just a few of the principal ones here. First, she says that has she advanced in her journey with Jesus Christ and came to appreciate more deeply the compassion of His Heart, “His Trinitarian Being enveloped me entirely” (Diary, 1056). In other words, the more she grew closer to Jesus, the more she felt enveloped in the Holy Trinity. For example, on the Feast of the Ascension, 1937, she wrote:
After Holy Communion I communed for a while with the heavenly Father. My soul was drawn into the glowing center of love. I understood that no exterior works could stand comparison with the pure love of God. … I saw the joy of the Incarnate Word, and I was immersed in the Divine Trinity. When I came to myself, longing filled my soul, and I yearned to be united with God (Diary, 1121).

Notice in the last quote how she connects a deeper appreciation for the Trinitarian mystery of God with an appreciation of the “glowing center of love” in God.

I understand the spiritual espousal of a soul with God, which has no exterior manifestation. It is a purely interior act between the soul and God. This grace has drawn me into the very burning center of God’s love. I have come to understand His Trinitarian quality and the absolute Oneness of His Being.

Often, she received a deeper understanding of the Blessed Trinity during the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. She tells how one time she heard an angel singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” at the moment when the elevation of the Host, and then she received new light into the mystery of the Trinity:

I knew more distinctly than ever before the Three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But their being, their equality, and their majesty are one. My soul is in communion with these Three; but I do not know how to express this in words; yet my soul understands this well. Whoever is united to One of the Three Persons is thereby united to the whole Blessed Trinity, for this Oneness is indivisible.

One time, after receiving Holy Communion, she began to understand that the entire Holy Trinity came to dwell within her soul: Once after Holy Communion, I heard these words: You are our dwelling place. At that moment I felt in my soul the presence of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I felt that I was the Temple of God. I felt that I was a child of the Father. I cannot explain all this, but the Spirit understands this well (451).

Sister Faustina even tells us that in heaven the souls of the saints forever contemplate the wonder of the Holy Trinity:

Today I was in heaven, in spirit, and I saw its inconceivable beauties and the happiness that awaits us after death. I saw how all creatures give ceaseless praise and glory to God. I saw how great happiness in God is, which spreads to all creatures making them happy; and then all the glory and praise which springs from this happiness returns to its source; and they enter the depths of God, contemplating the inner life of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, whom they will never comprehend nor fathom. This source of happiness is unchanging in its essence, but it is always new, gushing forth happiness for all creatures. Now I understand St. Paul who said, “Eye has not seen, not has ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him” (777).

What does the Trinity really mean? How can God be One in being and essence, but Three Persons at the same time? And what difference does it really make if we believe all this or not?” Well, St. Faustina wanted to know more, too! Listen to what she wrote near the very start of her Diary:

On one occasion I was reflecting on the Holy Trinity, on the essence of God. I absolutely wanted to know and fathom who God is. … In an instant my spirit was caught up into what seemed to be the next world. I saw an inaccessible light, and in this light, what appeared like three sources of light that I could not understand. And out of this light came words in the form of lightning which encircled heaven and earth. Not understanding anything, I was very sad. Suddenly, from this sea of inaccessible light came our dearly beloved Savior, unutterably beautiful with His shining Wounds. And from this light there came a voice which said, Who God is in His Essence, no one will fathom, neither the mind of angels nor of man. Jesus said to me, get to know God by contemplating His attributes. A moment later, He traced the sign of the cross with His hand and vanished (30).

“For with God were always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son, and the Spirit, by Whom and in Whom, freely and spontaneously, He made all things, to Whom also He speaks, saying, ‘Let Us make man after Our image and likeness’.” St. Irenaeus

“There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is His subsistent Wisdom and Power and Eternal Image: perfect Begetter of the perfect Begotten, Father of the only Begotten Son. There is one Lord, Only of the Only, God of God, Image and Likeness of Deity, Efficient Word, Wisdom comprehensive of the constitution of all things, and Power formative of the whole creation, true Son of true Father, Invisible of Invisible, and Incorruptible of Incorruptible, and Immortal of Immortal, and Eternal of Eternal. And there is One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence from God, and being made manifest by the Son to men: Image of the Son, Perfect Image of the Perfect; Life, the Cause of the living; Holy Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier, or Leader, of Sanctification; in Whom is manifested God the Father, Who is above all and in all, and God the Son, Who is through all. There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged.” St. Gregory

“To us there is One God, for the Godhead is One, and all that proceeds from Him is referred to One, though we believe in Three Persons. For one is not more and another less God; nor is One before and another after; nor are They divided in will or parted in power; nor can you find here any of the qualities of divisible things; but the Godhead is, to speak concisely, undivided in separate Persons; and there is one mingling of Light, as it were of three suns joined to each other.” St. Gregory of Nazianzen

“They ought to confess that the Father is God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God, as they have been taught by the divine words, and by those who have understood them in their highest sense.” St. Basil the Great

“He who has the Spirit not only is called Christ’s, but even has Christ Himself. For it cannot but be that where the Spirit is, there Christ is also. For wheresoever one Person of the Trinity is, there the whole Trinity is present. For It is undivided and has a most entire Oneness.” St. John Chrysostom

“And it is by thought that He creates, and thought is the basis of the work, the Word filling it and the Spirit perfecting it.” St. John of Damascus

“The Holy Spirit as Love and Gift comes down, in a certain sense, into the very heart of the sacrifice which is offered on the Cross. Referring here to the biblical tradition we can say: He consumes this sacrifice with the fire of the love which unites the Son with the Father in the Trinitarian communion. And since the sacrifice of the Cross is an act proper to Christ, also in this sacrifice He ‘receives’ the Holy Spirit. He receives the Holy Spirit in such a way that afterwards – and He alone with God the Father – can ‘give Him’ to the Apostles, to the Church, to humanity.” Pope St. John Paul II

Even today’s liturgy opens with these words “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”.

For the Apostle Paul, as we have heard in the second reading, holiness is a gift which the Father communicates to us through Jesus Christ. Faith in him is the principle of sanctification. By faith man enters the order of grace; by faith he hopes to take part in the glory of God. This hope is not a vein illusion, but the sure fruit of an ascetic path through many trials, that are faced with patience and proven virtue.

Pope Francis beautifully has explained the mystery of the Holy Trinity in these words: it leads us to contemplate and worship the divine life of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: a life of communion and perfect love, origin and aim of all the universe and of every creature: God. We also recognize in the Trinity the model for the Church, in which we are called to love each other as Jesus loved us. And love is the concrete sign that demonstrates faith in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And love is the badge of the Christian, as Jesus told us: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). It’s a contradiction to think of Christians who hate. It’s a contradiction. And the devil always seeks this: to make us hate, because he’s always a troublemaker; he doesn’t know love; God is love! 

Living in an Islamic country I have notice this dogma of our faith is always challenged by our non-Christian brethren that “How is it possible to worship three gods at the same time”? Are we (Christian) not committing blaspheming by making Jesus and Holy Spirit equal to God whereas God is only One? Do we worship three God(s) or only One? My answer to the above questions is we believe and worship only One God and in him there are three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Their unity and love are beyond comparison. Holy Father Pope Francis explains this oneness in an amazing way “The Father is the beginning, the Father who created all things, who created us. What did Jesus do on earth? He saved us! And Jesus came to give his life for us. The Father creates the world; Jesus saves us. And what does the Holy Spirit do? He loves us!   The Father creates all, he creates the world; Jesus saves us; and the Holy Spirit? He loves us! And this is Christian life: talking to the Father, talking to the Son, and talking to the Holy Spirit. Jesus has saved us, but he also walks beside us in life”.

Saint Athanasius explains the mystery of Holy Trinity in these words:

It will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles, and guarded by the fathers. For upon this faith the Church is built, and if anyone were to lapse from it, he would no longer be a Christian either in fact or in name. We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a blend of creative and created being. It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and undivided in its active power, for the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit, and in this way the unity of the holy Trinity is preserved. Accordingly, in the Church, one God is preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is above all things as Father, for he is principle and source; he is through all things through the Word; and he is in all things in the Holy Spirit. Writing to the Corinthians about spiritual matters, Paul traces all reality back to one God, the Father, saying: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in everyone.

Let me end my reflection with the words of M.S Lowndes “Who I am in God” to help us to have strong relationship with Holy Trinity.

I am an overcomer—because You have overcome.

I am victorious—because of Your resurrection victory.

I am Your child—because You have adopted me.

I am free from sin—because Your blood has redeemed me.

I am forgiven—because You have washed me clean.

I am healed—because of Your wounds.

I am justified—through faith in You.

I am revived—through the water of Your Word.

I am wonderfully made—because Your works are wonderful.

I am Your workmanship—designed with a purpose and destiny.

I am at peace—because I look to You, not my circumstances.

I am contented—because my satisfaction is in You.

I am a new creation—because You make all things new.

I am FREE—because Your truth sets me FREE!

Today as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, let us work on our relationship with them so that we gain the crown of eternal glory and be one with them.  May the Holy Trinity continue to bless, heal, and protect us. Amen

How do we see our relationship with Hol Trinity?