Growing up, I was quite an inquisitive child. There were always questions that I needed answered. Questions like:
What does God look like? How do airplanes fly? How does TV work? Why does cutting onions make you cry? Why am I left-handed while the rest of my family is right-handed? Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight? And the biggie: What exactly is The Holy Trinity?
I asked my father that last question. He told me, “Ask your mother.” So, I did. “Mom, can you explain The Holy Trinity?” She said, “You should really ask your religion teacher.” So, I did. I asked Sister Ann Rose, “Sister, would you please explain The Holy Trinity to me?” She responded, “It’s a mystery.” (Thank you, Sister.)
This question continued to gnaw at my heart for many years. Then during diaconate formation, the subject of The Trinity came up. Still perplexed, I asked our priest-professor, “Father, The Holy Trinity – I just don’t get it. One God, three persons. It just doesn’t make any sense.” He didn’t say a word. I replied, “You’re not going to explain it to me, are you?” He shook his head left and right. We stood there looking at each other until he finally uttered these four words that completely changed the perspective of my faith. He said, “You think too much.”
This might be the case for many of us – that we spend too much time thinking about The Trinity instead of experiencing The Trinity. Let me try to explain what I mean.
We, as Catholics, believe in one God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These three Divine Persons are inseparable both in who they are and in what they do. Confusing as this may sound, The Holy Trinity is simply a story of love.
In fact, there is this old, beautiful Celtic prayer that expresses the different qualities of the three persons of The Holy Trinity: “O Father who sought me, O Son who bought me, O Holy Spirit who taught me.”
God the Father creates and provides for his creatures out of love. God’s very essence is relationship and love. Therefore, God seeks out each one of us because he loves each one of us.
God the Son redeems us and reconciles us with God the Father. Jesus is the bridge between the human and divine. God’s love becomes real in the person of Jesus, making it easier for us to follow and imitate that love. Jesus laid down his life for us so that we might understand the reality that God wants to have a relationship with us.
God the Holy Spirit teaches us, strengthens us, comforts us, transforms us, and ultimately points us to God. We find God through the Holy Spirit acting in us, through us, and around us. And it is the Holy Spirit that sends us out into world to preach and teach about overwhelming and never-ending love of God.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” God didn’t have to save us, but he did. God didn’t have to give us the gift of his Son so that we might have eternal life, but he did. God loves us that much!
The Holy Trinity is far less confusing if we understand that it’s all about a relationship of love. The Holy Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are so in love with each other that this love they share creates a perfect unity between them. God needs to be three persons so that the love has someplace to go. That’s why The Holy Trinity is not something to be explained but a relationship that we enter into.
And just as you and I were created in the image and likeness of God, we too were made to be in perfect union with one another – in complete and total relational love.
So, how do you and I stop thinking too much so that we can enter into and live out this Trinitarian relationship in our own lives?
I want you to reflect for a moment on this question: Who is the one person with whom you have the closest, deepest, and most intimate relationship? (Have you pictured him or her in your mind? Good.) Now, when you are with this person, are you thinking about him or her? (The answer should be no.) Why? Because we don’t think our way into our relationships – we actively share ourselves into our relationships. We open ourselves to each other. We give ourselves to each other and we receive the other into ourselves. The line between them and us is completely blurred by our living witness of love. That’s how we live out the Trinitarian life.
When we place ourselves in the service of others, experiencing the world through their eyes and by walking in their shoes; when we witness their joys and sorrows as if these were our own, we share a common bond through our solidarity. When we truly love our neighbor, that’s how we live out the Trinitarian life.
When we find ourselves so deep in prayer that we are no longer conscious of the fact that we are even praying; where we no longer see ourselves talking to or even thinking about God because we have become one with God and God has become one with us. That’s how we live out the Trinitarian life.
Everything we do should lead us to living a Trinitarian life – and it all begins through this relationship of love. The Father is always with us, the Son is one with us because he became one of us, and the Holy Spirit completes us by teaching us everything we need to know in order to care for each other and to love each other.
It’s time for us to stop thinking and start experiencing. The Holy Trinity is not a concept to be explained or defined. It’s a life to be lived. It’s a love to be shared. It’s a beautiful mystery to be revealed. We may never fully understand it, but we can be drawn more fully into this beautiful relationship of love.
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” – now and forever. Amen.
How can we be open to the Holy Spirit? Find out here.
