The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
It would seem that in today’s world, anything of importance must be superlative in some way, as in the biggest, the fastest, the deepest, the highest, the strongest, etc. Perhaps it’s part of our human nature to measure greatness according to size, and that often means trying to supersize everything around us from hamburgers to personal wealth.
The feast of the Most Holy Trinity would perhaps fall into the category of “most sublime” if someone were making the brave attempt to explain it in theological terminology.
A mystery like the Blessed Trinity—Three Persons in One God—becomes more people-friendly when it speaks to our ordinary life experiences and reveals new meaning and value to what has always been there. Sometimes it takes a child to unlock the simple truth hidden in plain sight. An image may be helpful. Imagine a father coming home after a long absence anxious to see his wife and children. As he approaches the front porch of his house the door bursts open and in a blur of childhood energy and delight, his first grader bolts across the porch and leaps out and over the steps and into his father’s outstretched arms while declaring to the whole world “Daddy!” Can we grasp even a glimpse of the mystery of indescribable love being played out in that leap of joy?
Perhaps action is the keyword tying all three of today’s liturgical readings together. It begins with Moses having the pre-Christian vision of God choosing a particular people with the expectation that they respond in fidelity. Then we have St. Paul speaking with great tenderness to all who would receive the Spirit of God’s adoptive love, a love bringing them ever closer to God. And finally, in the Gospel, we have the farewell words of Jesus calling His disciples to their great leap of faith. They are commissioned to announce the Good News which has been fully revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of the person of Jesus.
Perhaps action will always be our best and most practical approach to the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity. While we reverence the Mystery of the Trinity as an essential article of our faith, we choose to follow the Spirit of the Risen Christ teaching us and renewing our world in its greatest needs.
Reflection by Fr. Daniel Petsche, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections