The Holy Trinity
Fr Dominic’s Homily
Next Sunday we celebrate Corpus Christi – body and blood of Christ. And today we celebrate the most central mystery of our Faith. The most holy Trinity.
Over the past few weeks we have been celebrating everything that God has done for us. How he died for us and rose again on the third day. But today we celebrate simply who God is.
Today we celebrate God in a different way as being the Trinity: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And this is actually the most important mystery of our Catholic Faith.
You might say that surely the incarnation – God becoming Man – is the most important mystery of our faith. Or the Holy Eucharist is the most important. But the trinity actually gives rise to all these other mysteries of our faith.
All of us try to make sense of God in our various different ways. We have to in order to try and understand who and what he is. We try and put him into a box of our own understanding. But this is difficult because from our human understanding God is quite a paradox:
He is both hidden and revealed at the same time.
He is three persons but one God at the same time.
And he has existed for all eternity and always will.
These mysteries are impossible for our brains to fully grasp. So we can never really describe him. But the Trinity isn’t a problem to be solved but a mystery to be loved!
Who is God? Father, son and Holy Spirit. A community. Three person all with a divine nature.
We might not find the word Trinity in scriptures. But the idea is there. He is Father to the children of Israel. The Holy Spirit is the breath of God that hovers over the surface of the waters. He breathes a spirit into the mouth of Adam and He inspires the prophets to speak the word of God.
In the New Testament at the baptism of Jesus we see the Father and Holy Spirit. All three together. He is a loving community and the original and perfect example of what family is.
In the 4th century we had the Arian heresy that said that Jesus was actually created by the Father. This, of course, would mean that the Trinity didn’t exist at one point. That’s why we refute this in the creed when we say begotten not made. We uphold what we believe God to be.
The Son is co-eternal with the Father. Not younger than him. He is the same in every way. Of the same substance and essence. He also became a human being at a point in history who was like us in every way but sin. But also performed many miracles.
This is what Jesus tries to explain to his disciples in that mysterious Gospel. We can only really understand when the spirit of truth enlightens us. This is what happens at our baptism. We are enlightened by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to believe in the trinity. This is a gift and a grace.
St Augustine says that if you think you have understood God then what you have understood is not God. St Aquinas says whatever can be known or understood by us is always going to be less than who God really is. The essence of God is always hidden from us. He transcends everything that we can think of him. We can never work him out intellectually.
St Aquinas tells us that being communicates images of itself. The higher you go the more perfect it becomes. At the lowest level we have rocks. These create an image as an impression on the ground. Or as a reflection in a mirror. Then you have plants that can produce seeds that are an even better image. Or shoots that sprout from the sides of plants.
Animals have their young which are even more sophisticated replicas or images of themselves. Then Humans can construct images in their minds. Interior worlds. We can step aside from ourselves and speak about ourselves in the third person.
God, however, as the perfect being can make the perfect image. In Jesus the Father generates a perfect image of himself. The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the will or intention of God. We can think of him as the love that exists between the Father and the Son.
And this Trinitarian community wants to communicate its family and unity and love with us. He is our ultimate destiny and we are defined by him.
So let us Let us make sure that we have hearts that are truly ready to participate in this mystery. And may we grow in the love of God not just because of what he has done for us in our lives, but for the great mystery of who he actually is.