Holy Trinity: Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

One day St Augustine of Hippo was walking along the sea shore and reflecting on the doctrine of the Trinity. He suddenly saw a little child all alone on the shore. The child made a hole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little cup, filled her cup, came and poured it into the hole she had made in the sand. Back and forth she went to the sea, filled her cup and came and poured it into the hole. Augustine went up to her and said, "Little child, what are you doing?" and she replied, "I am trying to empty the sea into this hole." "How do you think," Augustine asked her, "that you can empty this immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny cup?" To which she replied, " And you, how do you suppose that with this your small head you can comprehend the immensity of God?" With that the child disappeared. Augustine was pondering the mystery of Holy Trinity those days.

Like Augustine we may not be able to understand the mystery of the Trinity. But we can describe the mystery, in the words of the Athanasian Creed: "the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God." Jesus knew very well that the disciples and his listeners were not able to understand the meaning of his message. Jesus expressed it in today’s Gospel. "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Jesus revealed himself to the people gradually and as understandable to them. First he taught them to recognize in himself the Eternal Son of God. When his ministry was drawing to a close, he promised that the Father would send another Divine Person, the Holy Spirit, in his place. Finally after his resurrection, he revealed the doctrine in explicit terms, bidding them "go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:18)."

The Fathers of the Church used examples to explain the Trinity. Augustine wrote: "You see the Trinity if you see love."  According to him, the Father is the lover, the Son is the loved one and the Holy Spirit is the personification of the very act of loving. This means that we can understand something of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity more readily with the heart than with our feeble mind.

St. Cyril tried to explain the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity using sun as an example.    He said, "God the Father is that blazing sun. God the Son is its light and God the Holy Spirit is its heat — but there is only one sun. So there are three Persons in the Holy Trinity but God is One and indivisible." St. John Maria Vianney used to explain Holy Trinity using lighted candles and roses on the altar and water in the cruets. “The flame has color, warmth and shape. But these are expressions of one flame. Similarly the rose has color, fragrance and shape. But these are expressions of one reality, namely, rose. Water, steam and ice are three distinct expressions of one reality. In the same way one God revealed Himself to us as Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.”

What each of these illustrations has in common is that they are all analogies, and all our language about God can only hint at the reality never grasp or contain God in one image.

The doctrine of the Trinity underlies all major Christian feasts, including Christmas, the Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter, the Ascension and Pentecost. All the official prayers of the Church, including the Holy Mass and the Sacraments, begin with an address to the Holy Trinity: “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We are baptized, absolved of our sins and anointed in the name of the Blessed Trinity. We bless ourselves with the Sign of the Cross invoking the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and we conclude our prayers glorifying the Holy Trinity, saying “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.” 

We are called to become more like the Triune God through all our relationships.  God does not exist in isolated individualism but in a community of relationships.  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 becomes Trinitarian like that of God. 

The more deeply we ponder and absorb this revelation of God, the more we will love him. And the more we love God, the happier we will be. We were created in order to love God. Whenever we do what we were made to do, we experience meaning and fulfillment. So the more we love him, the more fulfilled we will be. But in order to love him more, we must know him better. An old proverb says, "You cannot love what you do not know."

If we know who God is, if we go beyond vague, fuzzy ideas and really get a clear view of his glory and his goodness, it will stimulate our spiritual taste buds and stir up our love. This is the reason that God has revealed himself to us. Today, on this feast of the Blessed Trinity, we need to ask ourselves: how well do we know God? Have we become satisfied with the bare minimum? Today, when we profess our faith in God, let's really mean it. And let's ask God to stir up our desire to know him better, because if we really want to do so, he will gladly show us how to do so.