The Mystery and Necessity of the Holy Trinity
Summary of Headings
- The Feast of the Holy Trinity
- The Mystery of the Trinity
- The Trinity as the Source of All
- Contemplation and Love
- Living in the Image of God
- The Trinity and Our Mission
The Feast of the Holy Trinity
We have a truly glorious feast day with the feast of the Holy Trinity today. It's important that we don't let it get lost in what oftentimes happens when we celebrate the feast of the Blessed Trinity. We're so conscious of the fact that it's the end of the liturgical Paschal year. It's the end of Paschal Tide. It's the end of the Octave of Pentecost. It seems almost like a letdown, but it shouldn't be. On the contrary, it's the next start -off. Because now that the Holy Ghost has come into the Church, now the Church needs to actually perform its function. So after Christ's Ascension, He sends the Holy Ghost down to the Apostles ten days after His Ascension on the feast of Pentecost.
The Mystery of the Trinity
They are filled with the Holy Ghost and they immediately go out and preach. And the very next thing that we receive from the Church in the liturgical year is the feast of the Holy Trinity. Why is that? Why is that the first feast? It is because it is the essence and core of what Catholic doctrine is. It is the very first doctrine in importance and insofar as it is the source of all other doctrines. Without the doctrine of the Trinity, we do not have the Incarnation. Without the Incarnation, we do not have the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and then the Redemption.
Without Redemption, we don't have hope or salvation. So therefore, the Trinity is the source of all things. It is the end of all things. At the end of the day, when we consider what the mystery of the Blessed Trinity is, we are confronted with a couple of different aspects. The first is that it is a mystery. I am sure I have told this anecdote many times, but it is always good to hear it. Archbishop Sheen, when he was performing a convert class, had the convert before him and he was explaining to him the mystery of the Trinity. And he went through the processions and he went through the different missions of the three persons, and he explained everything.
And at the end of about a half hour, 40 minutes, he said, Okay, so now, do you understand the Trinity? And the convert said, Yes, I think so. Then Archbishop Sheen said, Then we are going to have to start again because I must have done something wrong. Because we are not supposed to understand the Trinity. St. Patrick famously used the three -leaf clover to try to explain to the Irish what the Trinity can look like. Shall we say? Three persons, three leaves, one plant, one God. It is the closest thing we can come to an example in nature, shall we say, of what the Trinity is.
But of course it doesn't even compare. It is not the same thing whatsoever. However, we don't have any other way to understand or appreciate or comprehend what this is, because it is a mystery. By its very essence, we cannot understand it. We cannot comprehend it. We can define it. We can identify what it is. We can believe in it and we can define. But that is about it. We cannot actually know with full comprehension what the Blessed Trinity is. Why is that? Because the Trinity is God. God is infinite. And our brains are not meant for the infinite. We are not supposed to comprehend or know the infinite.
The Trinity as the Source of All
It is impossible. We are supposed to be able to see some part of infinity through the beatific vision and the existence of the light of glory. But God is too big. The only person who could comprehend the immensity of God is God himself. No one else, not even the most glorious and most powerful of all of the angels, would have that power. God is too much. He is infinite. And that is an impossibility for us to comprehend. So that is one of the first things we are supposed to confront. The absolute impossibility of the task before us of trying to get to know the Blessed Trinity better.
But yet that is still our job. We are supposed to unite ourselves to the Blessed Trinity eternally. Because we are supposed to go to heaven. So for us to understand that, we have to know the next thing, which is the Blessed Trinity is necessary for us, for our faith, specifically because it is the source of all spirituality, of all everything. The Trinity is the source. The Trinity is the source. Of our lives. God is the three persons of the Blessed Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They are each and every one eternal. They are not separate in substance or essence whatsoever.
The only thing that distinguishes them is their personality. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Ghost, and neither is the Father. So rather, we have to contemplate a different aspect. Because we cannot, they are self -sufficient. They do not owe their existence to anyone or anything. They are absolute. They are eternal. They cannot not be. If one of us were to wink out of existence, if we were perfectly annihilated, that would be it. The world would keep going. Nothing much would change. God cannot stop being. He cannot start being. He is being. He is existence and essence itself.
The necessity of God is something that we do not contemplate sufficiently. We often times think of ourselves, accidentally albeit, as the center of all creation. This is what the essence of pride is. We put ourselves as the center of any interaction we experience. We judge every interaction around us as how it affects us. But the fact of the matter is, that is not how we should perceive anything because we are inconsequential. The famous phrase now is I am the main actor in my own drama. That is not the case whatsoever. That is narcissism. Nothing else. God is the only being that matters.
We are the blessed beneficiaries of God. God, the Father, contemplating himself generates the Son. And the contemplation between the two of them produces and generates a movement of love which is the Holy Ghost. This eternal procession of contemplation and love is the essence of what the Blessed Trinity is. But as St. Thomas Aquinas points out, charity is self -effusive. Love is self -effusive. It gives of itself to others. Because the Blessed Trinity is perfectly happy within itself, because it has everything it needs, it is perfectly self -sufficient, and because it cannot not be, it decides, the Blessed Trinity decides
Contemplation and Love
to share his glory and his generosity and his love with others. And hence, creation. We owe our existence to the Trinity. More than that, we owe our vocation to the Trinity. God didn't call us here just to have a good time on earth. He called us to be eternally happy with him in heaven. Bound forever, eternally part of the divine procession of the three persons. That is why we are here. So God gave us that opportunity to have not just life here on this earth, but eternal life forever in heaven, which is the essence of who he is. He offers himself to us. Eternity to us. Perfection, joy, happiness to us.
Eternally. And even when we fail, he comes himself. He sends the second person, the Son, down to earth to take our nature, to bind himself perfectly to us, to take all of our sins upon him, to be able to die for our sins, and to be able to redeem our souls. That is what the action of the Blessed Trinity causes. Acts of love. Creation and redemption. But more than that, it gives us a guideline. Our nature. We claim that we are created in the image and likeness of God. What are the two actions of the Blessed Trinity? I just mentioned them. Contemplation and love. These are the two human actions that we are able to perform that no other creature is able to perform.
Contemplation. No other creature on this earth. Contemplation and love. To be able to understand and appreciate why we are here and to love the one who gave it to us. To be able to find the source of love and to be able to follow him.
Living in the Image of God
This is what we are created for. That also gives us an insight about how to accomplish salvation. Contemplation and love. In a word, prayer, and works. Contemplation. Why do we pray? As mentioned many times before, we don't pray to present God with a wish list. We pray to God so that we may be able to subject ourselves to him. To accept his rule. To accept his commandments. To accept his teachings and accept his grace and his life by sacrificing our own to him. The only way to be truly free is to subjugate ourselves entirely to him. So therefore, it is necessary for us to contemplate and love him.
We have to know God. We have to learn about him. We have to be able to see him. That is what we are. We are created in his image and likeness so that we may be able to contemplate him and love him. That is the very essence of what it means to be human and what it means to be the son of God. We are supposed to live in contemplation and love. And just knowing him is not enough. But that knowledge has to convert into action. Because we know who God is and we see all the love that he has given to us the immediate response should be one of love back to him. As Saint John says, to return love for love.
If we appreciate and understand and see just how much we owe God we will naturally want to give something back to him. And the more that we get to know him and we see how lovable and perfectly wonderful he is awesome in the true sense of the word that he causes awe and wonder in us the more we will want to give to him in action. We will obey his commandments. We will serve him faithfully. We will be overfilled with the love that he has given to us so that we may be able to share it with others. Through our example, through our teaching, through our efforts and sacrifices.
That is what the goal is. This Holy Trinity gives us natural life, it gives us supernatural life it gives us redemption it gives us a guide of how to pray and how to behave it gives us an inspiration and a guide
The Trinity and Our Mission
to be able to find heaven even when we are trapped and caught by so many sins and by the world the flesh and the devil. The Holy Trinity is the doctrine that unifies all aspects of the Catholic faith and guides us to absolute salvation. And the Lord is with us. Lastly, the Blessed Trinity is heaven itself. When we go to heaven we will be part and parcel of the union that is the Blessed Trinity. We will be a part of the adoration the movement of contemplation and love between the three persons. We will be a part of their glory we will be a part of their happiness, of their joy.
We don't add anything to them but in their mercy and in their love and compassion for us they will actually make us a part of that same movement. That needs to be the inspiration for us to push ourselves beyond everything of this world. But it is also the thing that gives us our mission. Going therefore teach ye all nations baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. We have been the recipients of the love of God and we must give love for love. But that love needs to go to others not just ourselves. We need to share it. We need to preach it and teach it with our actions and with the way that we behave ourselves and with our prayers and our good deeds and the charity that we show to everybody around us.
Not niceness, charity. The fact that we are faithful to the truth we are faithful to the faith we are faithful to the message of Christ no matter what the world, the flesh and the devil say. The fact that we are absolutely dedicated to the service of God no matter how much it costs us. That is what we must search for. That is what the Trinity is supposed to give to us. That is the example we are supposed to follow until we can possess Him perfectly. The Blessed Trinity is the source of all things but please note our faith is based upon the Trinity which is why the baptism formula is triune.
We have to say when we are baptizing somebody in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. We cannot change their titles we cannot change their names we cannot omit that without affecting the validity of the sacrament. The Catholic faith, the faith is based upon the Trinity. The entrance into the church through the sacrament of baptism is based upon the Trinity. The mission of the church to go out and teach all nations is based upon teaching in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. It is the core and the essence of the entirety of our faith and it is something that we cannot neglect or overlook or think enough upon.
This devotion to the Trinity must carry us to the extremes of our lives so that we may be able to live a life of virtue a life dedicated and consecrated entirely to the service of God just as He has given us everything, we give everything back to Him so that we may be able to be eternally a part of His processions and of His joy in heaven. In the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.
Summary
The homily begins by emphasizing the significance of the Feast of the Holy Trinity, which marks the culmination of the liturgical Paschal year. It highlights the importance of the Trinity as the core of Catholic doctrine, being the source of all other doctrines and the foundation of our faith. The preacher explores the mystery of the Trinity, acknowledging its incomprehensibility while emphasizing its necessity for our spiritual lives. Through anecdotes and teachings, the homily illustrates the eternal procession of love and contemplation within the Trinity, which serves as a model for our own spiritual journey. Finally, the homily calls us to live out our faith through contemplation and love, urging us to return love for love. By understanding the Trinity's role in our lives, we are inspired to serve God and others with dedication, embodying the virtues and teachings of the Catholic faith.