o, who do you pray to?  I know – you pray to God, but how do you understand God?  Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. As we profess in our creed, we believe in one God, the Father almighty, in Jesus Christ his only begotten Son and in the Holy Spirit.  One God in three persons, in perfect communion with one another.  It is, indeed, a mystery of our faith and, as we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “[t]he mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life.  It is the mystery of God in himself.  It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them.  It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the ‘hierarchy of the truths of faith’” (CCC, 234).  So, it is really important that we have some understanding and appreciation of this “most fundamental” mystery of our faith.  It helps us understand who it is who hears and answers our prayers.

As we do every Sunday, in a few moments we will recite the Nicene Creed, attesting “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.”  God first revealed himself to Israel as the almighty creator and heavenly father.  The two Genesis creation accounts demonstrate his fatherly care as he prepares the Garden of Eden and places humanity there.  In his final address to Israel before his death, Moses reminds Israel: “Is he not your father who created you?” (Dt 32:6).  So, when we pray, we are assured that our God, the creator of the universe, is also a loving and caring Father who listens attentively to us, his beloved children.

After Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, “the skies opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in visible form like a dove.  A voice from heaven was heard to say: ‘You are my beloved Son.  On you my favor rests’” (Lk 3:22).  And so we see Jesus begin to be revealed as the Son of God, a revelation that is expressed most clearly in Jesus’ address to his apostles on the night before he was crucified when he told them:  “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (Jn 14:11).  He also reveals his divine identity as he prays for his followers that same night: “I pray…that all may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you” (Jn 17:21).   As we profess in the creed, Jesus is “the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages.”

Although the Holy Spirit has been at work since before the creation of the world – as we hear in today’s first reading – and has, as we recognize in the creed when we say he “spoken through the prophets,” it is Jesus who reveals him fully to us.  At the Last Supper, Jesus tells his apostles that “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Paraclete” (Jn 14:16). 

He then assures them that “the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will instruct you in everything, and remind you of all that I told you” (Jn 14:26).  We profess in the creed that we “believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

The three Scripture texts for our liturgy today give us more insight into that Triune God, and demonstrate how they relate to us: the “wisdom of God,” as we hear in today’s first reading, the human and divine natures of Jesus through whom “we have peace with God,” as we hear in the second reading, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from them both and is “the Spirit of truth”, as we hear in the Gospel.  In the totality of Scripture, we can see the hand of our Triune God as he loves and cares for us.

 

All of the Old Testament guided the people of Israel in coming to terms with the reality that there is but one God.  God is seen as the Creator, as the Protector and as the Judge of all creation, especially the greatest of all of his creation – us.  Throughout the Old Testament, God also promises salvation through a messiah.  In the New Testament, we witness God’s promise to bring about salvation become a reality in the person of Jesus Christ.  As Jesus, the Son of God, is completing his mission on earth he makes another promise.  He promises to send the Holy Spirit.  The promise is kept, the Holy Spirit comes upon us and a new Church is born.

We believe in one God, a Trinity of Persons, working in perfect harmony to offer us a way home.  As rational beings, we want to fully understand things.  The mystery of the Trinity is impossible for us to fully understand – at least, in this life.  But having faith in, and being in a relationship with a Triune God is not impossible: for God is a God for us. He created us in his image, dwelt among us, and remains with us in truth and as our strength and guidance.  Everything he does, he does for us.  That’s the God who hears our prayers and answers them for our best outcome, even when we don’t see it

So, as we celebrate this central doctrine of our faith, let us give thanks for the mystery of our redemption by God, through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Let us give thanks for this divine outpouring of the pure gift of the revelation of this divine mystery for our sake.  May we respond by glorifying God living in communion with him and with one another.