Reflection from Deacon Russ on Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Have you ever tried to explain the mystery of the Trinity to another person? To a child? To someone who doesn’t believe in Christ? Even to someone who does believe? We can find the right words – three persons in one God – but to really explain it and understand it is a most difficult challenge. When all else fails, we just say, “It’s a mystery.”

The mystery of the Trinity tells us that God is defined by relationship and communion. The Father, Son and Spirit exist in relationship to one another. And God also lives in relationship with us. The depth and intimacy with which God loves us and cares for us goes to the core of our own identity. St. Paul reminds us in one of his letters that we are children of God and encourages us to cry out to God, “Abba” – which in Hebrew is the equivalent of “Daddy.” It’s a pretty special relationship!

We read in Scripture that God is Love. God’s love overflows into the world, creating us and then becoming one with us. God reaches out to all people – the laughing and the crying, the sad and the joyful – and embraces them with his love. And like God, we are each called upon to have a heart of love, to reach out and embrace no matter what. In a certain way, on this the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, we celebrate a kind of “window” --- a window into the very life of God.

Today we are very conscious of social distancing. In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that God never distances himself from us; we distance ourselves from him. Despite this, he comes in his Son to help us draw close to him again. Today we get to glimpse into the divine, to peer into one of the greatest mysteries, to understand a little more deeply who our God is --- Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father sent the Son into the world to reveal to us that we had distanced ourselves from him and to give us a way to close the gap. The Son doesn’t condemn us. The distance speaks for itself. Through faith in the Son, we close the gap and enable the Lord to be with us in our hearts.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” And God doesn’t have to do this. He does it as a gift to us, as an opportunity for us to draw a little bit closer to him, to enter into a more perfect communion with the one who is life, the one who is truth, the one who is love.

If God chose not to reveal this, humankind would not have the capacity to ascertain this knowledge on its own. It’s not as if we could have just racked our brains long enough and deduced it through a sheer act of our reason. No, the only way for us to gain this insight, to experience this profound mystery, is for God to provide the opening, the window into his very being. God has revealed the Trinity to us through an act of his will - an act of generosity toward those he loves ---- you and me. “Abba.”

But that doesn’t mean that the things we hold in faith --- particularly that God is Father, Son, and Spirit --- need to be empty words, simple statements that have little impact on our lives. Rather, God revealing himself to us in this way is a window into something and someone who wants nothing but the best for us, someone who desires an intimate connection with every single one of us. God wants us to know him more deeply not for his benefit, but for ours. “Abba.”

And so, in a very real way, a window into the life of God is also a window into ourselves. After all, we are created in God’s image. And we are called to do God-like things, to strive to love unconditionally as he does. Therefore, the more we know God, the more we realize that God is a community of love, the more we will know our place in this world and how best to serve him. And if all else fails, just say “It’s a mystery!”

If you have a brief faith reflection on today’s reading that you would like to share, please send it to me at deaconruss@holyspiritunoh.org.