Trinity Sunday

I beg your indulgence, once again, as practical matters preclude my composing fresh work. Please accept this earlier reflection for your conideration on this feast of the Trinity.

From time to time it is my privilege to baptize a baby, marking another infant disciple with the sign of our faith. These young Christians’ education in discipleship continues as they grow, and one of their earliest lessons involves the mastery a bit of hand/eye coordination as they dip a hand in holy water to make that sign themselves. But making the sign of the Cross is an important lesson in the faith, and an introduction to theology and philosophy: for with that gesture, however crudely we make it the first few times, we learn about the unity of freedom and love, and about the nature of God. And with that gesture, which dates from the early days of the Church, we proclaim God as Trinity, which feast we celebrate today.

The Trinity, like love, is less something that you talk about and more something that you experience. Indeed you can’t really understand love unless you are in love. In the same way, you cannot begin to understand God unless you allow yourself to experience God.

And this mystery, of the triune nature of God, like any divine mystery, is not something you try to comprehend, but to be comprehended by. We don’t try to surround a mystery with our feeble understanding, but immerse ourselves in, allow ourselves to be surrounded by, the mystery. Sacred mysteries must be approached with humility.

You may talk of God as Father, as source of all creation, all life, and look at the world, at nature, at the universe, as coming fresh from His mighty hand. And you may talk of God as the Son, taking human nature as the man Jesus, suffering like us and for us, and redeeming us by his death. And you may talk of God as Spirit, guiding our steps and filling our souls; leading the Church and enlightening our minds. But as description this is inadequate. Indeed, it is almost useless to attempt description or distinction in this way. For God is not simply divided, with various tasks assigned to one or another person of the Trinity. But God --as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is fully present at all times and in all places --creating, redeeming, and inspiring.

The readings for this Sunday, as for every Sunday, are chosen by the Church deliberately. We are always instructed to compare and contrast the Old and New Testaments, not in order to show that the new supersedes the old, but to show that the new ratifies the old, and deepens our understanding of God. In the first reading we see Moses taking the blank tablets up the mountain to be inscribed with the commandments of God. But the commandments in stone only represent what God has written in the human heart. For the Lord whom Moses encounters on the mountaintop is not like the idols of the nations, with whom one barters sacrifices for benefits, thus reflecting in their relationship to their gods the tyranny and slavery that was common in human relationships. But the God of Moses is a living being who speaks to a people He calls his own, who He delivers out of slavery into the freedom of the children of God. That liberation is completed in Christ, who embraced death to free us from the slavery of sin, and as Spirit compels us to extend that freedom to the nations from whom our ancestors in the faith were delivered in the first place.

All this is heady stuff, you may think. But once again, it is not necessary to get your head around it, but rather to share in the loving mystery that is the Trinity. Doing, as St. Paul suggests: “Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace.” And today’s Gospel shows us the ultimate way in which we can participate in the life of the Trinity: by extending the salvation offered in Christ to all the world, which we do through the Church and by the witness of our lives-- and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, lead those others into the Kingdom, and enable them, too, to enter into the mystery of the triune God.