The Most Holy Trinity
Scripture:
Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
Romans 8:14-17
Matthew 28:16-20
Reflection:
"In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." That was probably the first prayer our parents had us lisp as they guided our right hand in signing ourselves with the cross. It is also the most profound mystery of our religion. It tells us that our God is one in nature but three in persons. Pope Benedict XVI recently remarked that many Catholics take these words to mean The Divine Persons resemble us and each would be and independent thinker and decider. That, unfortunately, would give us three independent gods!
Our God is beyond our understanding and every word we use to describe God needs to be given a very special meaning! God is more than we can know. But the Father, the Son and the Spirit not only love each of us eternally, they allow us to return that love.
"Jesus, who is both God and Man, told us: "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." Jesus repeats this promise in the concluding words of his farewell address: "Father, I will make your name known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."
When we love God, when we keep his commands, our God comes to us and rejoices in us. We come to know, the power, the presence and something of the eternal joy awaiting us when we have face-to-face completion in eternity. Father, Son and Spirit want to give us a foretaste of the joy of heaven. The nature of our God has been revealed to us, not as the supreme riddle of reality, but as Infinite Love poured into our being. "Taste and see how sweet our God is!"
Fr. Fred Sucher, C.P. is retired and lives in the Passionist community in Louisville, Kentucky. For many years he taught philosophy to Passionist seminarians.