A Relationship of Love

A reflection on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The readings are Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40; Psalm 33; Romans 8:14-17 and Matthew 28:16-20.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, a day in which we celebrate and meditate on the mystery of the Trinity, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #234 (easy to remember) describes as the “central mystery of the Christian faith and life.” That means it’s pretty important. It is foundational and fundamental to all the other mysteries of our Faith – because it is the mystery of God in himself.

This central mystery is the mystery that says that God is one God, three persons: God is one God, three persons. It’s not three gods – ONE God. Three persons –not three different parts of God, like the Shamrock that St. Patrick uses to explain the Trinity. It is not three different states of God like water (that’s sometimes also used to describe the Trinity); liquid, solid and gas. It’s not three aspects or qualities of God: creator, redeemer, sanctifier – no, it’s three PERSONS. One God. It’s hard to understand.

That’s why we call it a mystery. But it’s not a mystery like a murder mystery, Agatha Christie or Scooby Doo mystery that we have to solve. No, when the Church talks about mystery, it means something that it’s so amazing, so wonderful that it cannot be fully described in human terms. It cannot be fully understood. In the Church we use the word ‘mysteries’ a lot. Pay attention at Mass to see how many times you hear the priest use the word ‘mysteries’: “as we prepare to celebrate these sacred mysteries” – or “the mystery of faith”. When we pray the Rosary, we pray the “mysteries of the Rosary”.  And we have a few Mysteries that are hard to explain: the Mystery of the Eucharist, the Mystery of the Incarnation, the Mystery of the Cross… and the mystery of the Trinity is the central one and, probably, the hardest one to understand: ONE God; and at the same time THREE completely distinct persons who are each independently, fully ONE God. “Oh most Holy Trinity, undivided unity” we sometimes sing.

St. Augustine, one of the greatest theologians in the early church (around the 4^th century) gives us some of the most beautiful teachings on the Trinity in his De Trinitate. There’s a legend that says that he was walking along the beach trying to figure out how to best explain the Trinity: One God, yet three fully distinct persons who are, at the same time, fully God, and he was distracted by a little boy who was going back and forth between the water and some place on the sand. As Augustine got closer, he noticed that the boy had a bucket. He was filling it with water and dumping the water into a hole in the sand. Augustine asked the boy what he was doing and the boy said he was going to empty all the water of the ocean into the hole in the sand. Augustine smiled at the innocence of a child and gently told him that this was impossible, “you’ll never be able to empty all the water of this immense ocean into that little hole in the sand.” The boy stopped and looked at him and said, “It easier for me to empty all the water of this immense ocean into this hole, than it is for you to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity.” And then he disappeared.

And so yes, the Trinity is a mystery because it is impossible to understand fully. But we can understand it in part. We can understand the Trinity, as St. Augustine later figured out, because we can understand love.  We can’t fully understand God; but we can understand love and God is love.

Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to define, describe, explain God. All the readings today, show us some aspect or something about God. In the first reading, Moses describes God in terms of what God does: God is creator, God speaks out of a fire, God saves the nation of Israel. Even though he doesn’t use the word love, we understand that God does all these things because He loves Israel. He wants to be in relationship with the people of Israel. In the second reading, St. Paul tells the Romans a little bit about God – it is through the Spirit that we can call God “Abba”, Father. Again, this is because God is love. God is the Father; He wants to be in relationship with us, like a parent with a child. God the Father, through the Spirit wants to be in a loving relationship with us. The Gospel also tells us a bit about what kind of god God is. He is a God who is with us always, until the end of the age. And it reveals a bit about what this Trinitarian God is: God, the Father, the Great “I AM”, is with us, in the Son, Emmanuel, God-with-us, always until the end of time, in the Holy Spirit. See how that is the Trinity? And God is with us always because God loves us and He wants to be in relationship with us.

And so, to me, the Trinity makes perfect sense, because God is a love. Think about it: Love has to exist in relationship. Love cannot exist in isolation. If God is love, then God can’t be alone. You can’t be love in isolation. Love demands relationship. If God is love, it makes sense that God is a relationship; a community of persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is what St. Augustine discovered. God is a community of love: the lover, the beloved and the love they share.

And if we are created in that Trinitarian image, we too have to be a people of love – a people of relationship. That’s why everyone, no matter who you are, feels drawn to loving relationships – and I don’t mean romantic relationships, I don’t mean marriage, although for most of us that’s true, but even if you are not called to Married Life – and not everyone is – you are drawn to loving relationships. I think we all get that.

So, the question today for all of us is: How are we living our lives as an image of the Trinity? In everything that we say and do, are we living as a people of Trinity – a people of love?  A people of relationship with God and with others?

God loves you. God loves you more than you can ever imagine being loved. And He wants to have a personal relationship with you. God is not the “Force” from Star Wars; He is a personal God and you can have a personal relationship with God just as you can have a personal relationship with anyone you love. 

Jesus says in today’s Gospel that we are to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; we are baptised into the life of the Trinity. By virtue of our Baptism we are inside the very Trinitarian life of Love of God.  We are not outside of God; we are inside the life of God. That’s the kind of relationship God wants to have with us. A Trinity of lover, beloved and the love they share: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

It’s not that hard to understand.

And it’s not hard at all to live.

Actually, it’s easier than trying to empty all the water of the immense ocean into a hole in the sand.