Posted on junio 13, 2025 View all Gospel Reflection
What blessings we are in for in the next few weeks. We get to celebrate a number of glorious solemnities and have opportunities to reflect on and deepen our faith.
Today’s solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is one of the more mysterious days to celebrate. We can certainly recognize Jesus as having come among us in human form. We also know about the Father through Revelation and the Old Testament. We might even say that we are familiar with the Holy Spirit through its action in the days of Pentecost and the Acts of the Apostles. But to reflect on the truth of the Holy Trinity is a bit of a leap.
The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is summarized in that the three persons of the Trinity (Father, Son and the Hole Spirit) are one God. This can certainly be difficult to grasp. It is almost like saying 3 equals 1 or 1 equals 3. But the Trinity is more than something which exists in nature. The Trinity is the expression of the great communion of love that is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is only one divine nature, but the three divine persons are distinct in their relations to each other.
The Council of Florence (AD 1338-1445) gave us the language to understand these relations and the procession of one Divine Person to the others. The Son “proceeds” from the Father, and the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and Son.” The dogma of the Trinity was also set forth in the Second Council of Constantinople (553). Many, many theologians have tried to deepen the understanding of the Holy Trinity. I am reminded of a story that one day St. Augustine was walking on the beach and noticed a small child with a shell trying to fill a hole in the sand with water from the ocean. When asked what he was doing, the child said he was trying to scoop all the water of the sea and pour it into his hole. St. Augustine replied that was impossible because the sea is too large and the whole is too small. ‘Indeed,’ said the child, ‘but I will sooner draw all the water from the sea and empty it into this hole than you will succeed in penetrating the mystery of the Holy Trinity with your limited understanding.’ Then the child disappeared.
So if we can’t explain it and understand it, how can we appreciate this mystery in our lives? That, fortunately for us, is much easier. When Jesus sent the Holy Spirit as our advocate into the world, he did so to give us the grace to be able to enter into communion with God. As we are drawn into the mystery of the Divine persons through our participation in the Sacraments (especially Baptism, the Eucharist and Confirmation) we are then transformed beyond our merely natural abilities. Just look at the great things the disciples were able to do. Once willed with the Holy Spirit, they were able to speak different languages, heal the sick, raise the dead and all sorts of miraculous things. None of these was possible because they took some special classes, or had an app on their phone to teach them these languages, nor did they go to college to study medicine, etc.
Therefore, today is a day to thank God for the gift of the Most Holy Trinity. It is an assurance that our salvation comes from the Lord and that he will provide us all the means necessary to get there. But we must be humble and open our hearts to his graces. Our second reading today says it best. We have been justified by faith, hope does not disappoint, rather the love of God that has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit is what will allow us to not only boast of the glory of God, but also allow us to boast of our afflictions so that we can stand firm in his grace on our journey to communion with the Most Holy Trinity and all the saints in heaven.
