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Today we celebrate the greatest mystery of our Christian faith, the Holy Trinity. This celebration reminds us that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are working together. They are never separated, though, each one of them is a distinct divine person. There is unity of essence and relation within the three divine persons.
No amount of philosophical debate or scientific research can fully explain it. It is a mystery and can best be appreciated only with the “eyes of faith.” As a dogma, “it is an article of faith revealed by God, which the Magisterium of the Church presents as necessary to be believed…” Hence, Paul’s prayer becomes important today: “May the Lord enlighten the eyes of your minds…” (Eph 1, 18).
What so many people lack in their lives is a sense of the mystery of God and of the mystery of the life that God gives to them. We keep trying to develop one simple mental picture of God, one simple portrait of what our life in God is like or ought to be like. Most of us like to think that things are either black or white - and we will go to incredible lengths to fit things around us into one or the other category -but God is greater than any category - any system of thought or classification, and so is our life in him. God is just and holy - demanding perfect obedience - yet God is merciful and forgiving - willing to forgive unto the seventh generation. I am a sinner - unworthy to enter into his presence, much less to minister at his altar, yet I am a child of God - intimately acquainted with his Spirit, a joint heir with his Son of all the riches of heaven. Our God is a mystery and the life that our God gives to us is a mystery, but because God, within that mystery, touches us, it is mystery that we can experience and savor and know something of.
We are made in God’s image and likeness. Just as God is God only in a Trinitarian relationship, so we can be fully human only as one member of a relationship of three partners. The self needs to be in a horizontal relationship with all other people and in a vertical relationship with God. In that way our life Trinitarian like that of God. Modern society follows the so-called “I-and-I” principle of unbridled individualism and the resulting consumerism. But the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity challenges us to adopt an “I-and-God-and-neighbor” principle: “I am a Christian insofar as I live in a relationship of love with God and other people.” Like God the Father, we are called upon to be productive and creative persons by contributing to the building up of the fabric of life and love in our family, our Church, our community, and our nation. Like God the Son, we are called to a life of sacrificial love and service so that we may help Him to reconcile, to be peacemakers, to put back together that which has been broken, and to restore what has been shattered. Like God the Holy Spirit, we are called, with His help, to uncover and teach Truth and to dispel ignorance.
The Trinity is more than a theological dogma about God. It is also a doctrine about us. It is an expression of who we are. We are baptized in the name of God. The goal of our lives is to find the unique expression of God's love that we have been empowered to make present in the world. So, the choices we make in our life must be colored by our final destination and who we are in this mystery. We live our lives and treat one another with profound respect. The greatest hurts of our life will be those that broke our relationships of the ‘love-principle’ and disrespected the mystery of God’s presence in every life.