The Most Holy Trinity

05-26-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Stephen Yusko

On the first Sunday after Pentecost of each liturgical year, the Church bids us celebrate in a special manner “the central mystery of the Christian faith and life,” the mystery from which “all the other mysteries of the faith flow” (CCC 234). The mystery in whose name we sign ourselves with the sign of the cross and receive the Sacrament of Baptism. The mystery of God in Himself. That is, the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. The mystery that God is one in three and three in one. One in essence and three in persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity” as the Athanasian Creed tells us.

Though the Church dedicates every Sunday, and indeed, every second of every day to the Most Holy Trinity, it is fitting that we commemorate this mystery on this, the first Sunday after Pentecost because it was with the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost that the mystery of mysteries was fully revealed (CCC 732).

Now, this is not to say that God did not reveal himself before this. In fact, from the very beginning of creation God, “who dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim 6:16) has stooped down to human beings to communicate His very life to them, choosing them as “His heritage” (Psalm 33:12): guarding them; protecting them; saving them; forgiving them. Gradually revealing himself to them by speaking “in many and various ways” (Heb 1:1–2). Yet, it was only with the sending of the only-begotten Son of God, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, and through Him, the Holy Spirit, that the hidden life of God was shown forth in all of its splendor. For before Jesus one could have said that the one true God loves, but no one possessed the knowledge to declare with the beloved disciple: “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). “That God Himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and He has destined us to share in that exchange” (CCC 221). Yes, God has revealed Himself fully to us by sending His Son and the Spirit of Love, yet even now we cannot fully comprehend this mystery. For the mystery of the Holy Trinity is a mystery in the strict sense of the word; that is, it is a supernatural truth that is hidden in God, which can never be known unless it is revealed by God, and even when revealed is still only partially comprehensible through faith.

The truth of this is beautifully illustrated in a story about St. Augustine. Legend has it that while St. Augustine was working on his treatise De Trinitate (On the Trinity), he was walking along the seashore, meditating on how the one God could possibly be three Persons, when he happened upon a child who was attempting to pour all the water of the sea into a tiny hole he had dug in the sand. In reply to the child’s strange pursuit Augustine said, “That is impossible. Obviously, the sea is too large and the hole too small.” To which the child replied, “Indeed, 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.”

While Augustine’s faith was not undone by his inability to comprehend the incomprehensible mystery of the Holy Trinity, there are many whose faith is. Unlike Augustine, they do not believe in order to understand, but they seek to understand in order to believe. And so, the limit of their minds strangles the love in their hearts. It is as if they say, “I do not understand you, so I cannot love you.” Unable to fit the sea into their tiny hole, they conclude that there is no sea, so they settle for what is in the hole. In so doing, they exchange the one true Triune God for an idol, a work of human hands that can be grasped by the mind. In the fear induced by the obscurity of the brilliance of the mystery of the Trinity, then, they shrink back and protest to the Spirit of God that seeks to lead them into the exchange of divine love. They refuse to be defined by their relation to God, as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are defined by their relation to one another. They reject the invitation to plunge into the depths of the mystery of love, and thus, refuse to become children of God (Rom 8:14–17).

We who have been immersed in the unfathomable depths of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity and baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” may ponder the above description and say, “That is not us. We have taken the plunge. We have leapt where reason could not go.” To this I ask: Have we truly? Yes, we may have intellectually assented to the truth that there is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe that God is love. But have we handed God our hearts as well as our minds? Do we say we believe in God, but live contrary to Him? Do we honor Him with our lips, but find that our hearts are far from Him (Mt 15:8)? God wills to communicate His own divine life to us, and He truly does so when we are baptized in His Name, but this communication demands that we observe all that Jesus has commanded us (Mt 28:16–20). In other words, it demands nothing less than the free gift of our entire selves — body and soul; intellect and will. Love demands love.

This Trinity Sunday, then, do not settle for the idols that you have made with your own hearts and minds; rather, allow yourself to be taken up into the mystery of the exchange of Divine love. For, having freely given yourself to the “love that moves the sun and other stars” (Dante, Paradiso), you too will be moved to go out and invite all who believe to enter into this life of love. The life of the Most Holy Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The life of God Himself.