"you become like the God who you worship."

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. June 3rd. 2012

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity is the central mystery of our faith. And this mystery (of the Trinity) goes to the very heart of the Christian life because it is the mystery of God Himself. He is the Eternal Creator and the sustainer; He is the source of all that is and He holds everything in existence.

No one could have ever figured out that God was a Trinity of persons. Therefore, because God wanted us to know this and Him, He sent His only Son into time as a man to reveal to His apostles, and through them to us, What and Who He really is. And whats more, infinitely more, is that not only have we come from this Trinity, we are called to return and enjoy His Divine Life not in in the life to come but already while we are still breathing, to be partakers in the divine life.

Jesus reveals to us that God is not a solitary being, He is an eternal Family of Divine Persons so perfectly united to each other in love, that they are one. As St. Athanasius said, "Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the Holy Spirit's is still a third. But the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty co-eternal"

This simple passage from Antanasius is difficult to understand. It shows us that the Trinity is most likely the hardest mystery in our faith to attempt to comprehend; in fact, we will never be able to totally comprehend it, but that doesn't mean we can't understand it all. In other words, while we will never completely understand thenTrinity in its fullness here on earth, we can understand it somewhat, get a sliver of a glimpse of It through faith, but we can do so only with God’s help, help known as Divine Grace. By His Divine Grace we can humbly accept the Trinity by faith and in faith we (can) even enter into and so begin to live by this Mystery of Mysteries.

With this being said, its easy to see why we Catholics can’t just say that the Trinity is a mystery and leave it at that. We must try (((again with the help of God’s Divine Grace))) to understand it more deeply; because, how we understand God, affects who we are, what we do and who we become as human beings. For the saying is true, "you become like the God who you worship."

If someone misunderstands God and worships Him as a solitary being who is harsh, as a master who is just waiting to strike down the first sinner he sees with a lightening bolt from heaven, a god who is devoid of any mercy whatsoever, then this person will become like that idea of God. He will become a person who is vengeful and merciless.

If on the other hand, a person sees God only as merciful and not a God who is also just, then that person will do whatever he pleases, because for him, there are no ramifications for his actions.

However, if one sees God as a Trinity, that is as a family of Divine Persons who so perfectly give themselves to one another that they are perfectly united in love as One, and in this unity of Divine Persons are the source of all human families, thence for this same person God becomes more approachable and more lovable and forgiving; and that same person will become more like this approachable lovable, merciful God and give the gift of himself in love for God and others.

In contemplating the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity, it is important to understand as well that God is not like a family--God is the Family; and our families are called to be like God’s Family. To see God as family, is perhaps one of the best ways to try to understand the Most Blessed Trinity to the extent possible on this earth.
God has actually given us our human families on earth so that we might learn to live and love as the Trinity of Divine Person love and live amongst themselves? Our families, united in truth, in love and so in holiness are to revealed the mystery of the Blessed Trinity to the world. So it helps us to try to understand the Family of the Trinity by comparing it to human families, at least human families in the way that God intended.

So, try to think of the Father and the Son’s love for each other as being absolutely perfect. In this perfect divine love, the Father gives all He is and has to the Son, and in return the Son gives all He is and has back to the Father and this love between the two of them is so perfect, so self giving, that it is another person, a Divine Person-the Holy Spirit who is literally the love between the Father and the Son. And these three Persons are so totally united in perfect love that they are One in essence, One in being, yet three in Persons.

Now let us look at a man an woman who truly love one another. They so love each other that they desire to unite themselves together in sacred bond called marriage. In this love for one another they give of themselves totally, sacrificially to each other in a sacred and holy vow in which the two become one. This oneness is shown not only in words but by the two becoming one flesh on their wedding night in the physical intimacy of the marital act. In this sacred act which is suppose to represent or make visible their total gift of self to one another, the two literally become one in another person, a child which is the fruit of their love for one another. Now there are three persons, but still one family. And it is within this human family which mirrors Him, which mysteriously but actually reveals Him, that the Blessed Trinity desires that we learn to love as He does.

As Christians we know that it is through baptism that God invites us into His own Family which is Love. At Baptism we are baptized into the very mystery of the Holy Trinity. When the Church’s minister pours Holy water over the head, he does so in the name of the Trinity--that is in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is by the grace of baptism that we actually begin to share in the Divine inner family life of the Blessed Trinity.

But then if this Trinitarian love is to, not only survive, but grow to perfection, we for our part, must cooperate with this baptismal grace. We are called, each one of us, to participate and grow in that Trinitarian love first of all through our faithfulness to God, as lived bt our faithfulness to His commandments and by following the teachings of Jesus found in the Scriptures and in the teachings of the Church. In other words, we must live our belief and love for the Trinity. And through our love of the Trinity, assisted by the grace we receive in the Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist and confession we are enabled to grow ever deeper in His love. We can then love God with our whole heart, mind, body, soul and strength and live this love by giving our self totally to God in return for His Love, and loving our neighbor for Love of God. We can then possess the hope of enjoying and sharing fully in the love and life of the Trinity in the eternity to come.

The Church places today’s Solemnity after Pentecost in order to show how much we need the help of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds ever deeper into the great mystery of the Blessed Trinity. We need His divine help and light to begin to begin to understand that God is a Divine Family of persons so totally united in love that they are one. Assisted by His divine power, the more we worship and adore this great mystery by adoring the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus in the Holy Eucharist the more we will learn to love in order to share in the love between the Divine Persons who make up this Divine Family. The Holy Eucharist is the way we can enter into more deeply the inner life of the Blessed Trinity by adoring the second Person present in His Humanity.

By adoring the whole Trinity by adoring the Holy Eucharist, we will receive the grace we need; then, we will be able to love one another as God loves us, our families will become holier and stronger families, families that are in love with most Blessed Trinity and as a result are in love with one another. They will reveal the love of God, the love of the Blessed Trinity to the world. This is why, even though I am exhausted on Sunday afternoons, why I make available on Sunday afternoons a Family and Children Holy Hour.

Our families will also become a way for the Church; they will become families united in love, whose members help one another get to heaven. And then as well our parish family, made up of these families will become more fully, a Family of families helping one another get to heaven, to heaven which is not a place but an immersion into the Blessed Trinity Himself, an immersion which we can more and more enjoy in this life and fully in the life to come.

Let us pray: O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest, the indwelling of the Holy Trinity. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.

Blessed Virgin Mary, Daughter of the Father, mother of the Son, and spouse of the Holy Spirit, help us to adore the Blessed Trinity by helping us to adore your Divine Son in the Holy Eucharist...O most Holy Trinity I adore Thee. I love Thee in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Amen...