The Trinity: Our Model for Community - A Reflection on the Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity

Dearly beloved parishioners,

We celebrate this weekend the mystery of the Godhead. We celebrate that God is a Trinity of distinct, yet undivided, persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These three are not three Gods but one. God is one but not solitary. He is a community of persons. And each person is equal in substance, in majesty, and power. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life, because it is the mystery of God himself (CCC 234).Furthermore, the faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity (CCC 232).

This mystery of the triune God models for us what the human community ought to be – a community of love. Just like the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity are united in love, we, who have been created in God’s image, ought to live in love for one another. This love goes deeper than mere fleeting emotions. It is the very life of God in us, for God is love and everyone who abides in love abides in God and God in them (1 John 4:16). Of the three cardinal virtues – faith, hope and love, it is love that makes us more like unto God. God the Father created the world out of love and continues to hold it in existence because of love. Jesus Christ came into the world for love of humanity and gave his life in obedience to the Father, and as a proof of his love for humanity (John 15:13). The Holy Spirit, who is the love between the Father and the Son, animates the world and pours out God’s love into our hearts (Romans 5:5). When we love sincerely, we are manifesting the presence of God in our hearts.

But how can we love when everywhere we turn we see hate and people intentionally inflicting pain on others? How can we love genuinely when we seek to use others to satisfy our own selfish ends? How can we love when war continues to ravage innocent lives and destroy whole nations, while the world watches on? How can we love when it has become normal to inflict pain and suffering, even death, on the most vulnerable among us, the unborn, the elderly and the infirm? Where is the love and compassion in our hearts when we support policies and laws that treat immigrants as though they are expendables, or just statistics? Where is our love when we allow ourselves to be guided by policies that are in clear opposition to the Gospel? Where is our love when we impose our wills on others rather than encountering them in their uniqueness and respecting the fact that they hold different opinions than we do? Where is the love…(fill in the blank)?

In theology, the activities of creation, redemption and sanctification are often attributed to the individual persons of the Blessed Trinity, but because we believe in the unity of the Trinity, it is also theologically sound to hold that these activities are carried out by all three members of the Godhead. This reasoning is supported by a doctrine known as perichoresis, which speaks of the eternal relations of reciprocity that exists among the three persons of the Trinity. Whereas the works of creation and redemption have been completed, in time, the work of sanctification is ongoing, as the Spirit continues to recreate the world anew. Let us therefore pray the Holy Spirit to renew our hearts that we may love just as the Blessed Trinity does.

Next Sunday, after the 11:30 a.m. Mass, contingents from our parish would be participating in the diocesan Corpus Christi Eucharistic Procession in Warsaw. By this procession we profess our faith in the Real Presence of Christ, body, blood, soul and divinity in the Holy Eucharist. We declare by our public procession that we are subjects of the Kingdom that Christ came to establish, and we surrender ourselves to him as our victorious King. We are not ashamed to profess him and to do so for the world to see. This is what we do when we gather next Sunday. We have arranged for a bus to convey our parishioners to the event and back. I encourage as many of our parishioners as are able to participate in this diocesewide event. You would be glad you did.

May Jesus bless you, and may Our Lady protect you!