The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
The Trinitarian nature of God is one of the great mysteries of theology. How can God be three Persons and yet one? This appears to be a paradox, but certain traits of God reveal how necessary it is that God be Trinitarian. For God is love. The truest form of love is self-gift, offering one’s efforts for the good of another. Therefore, one cannot love if there is no other to receive that love. And God exists before all other things. So, if God was love even before creating the universe, then God must be multiple persons. The Father pours himself out as a gift to the Son, who receives the goodness of the Father and, in turn, pours himself out to the Father. It is a cycle of perfect self-gift.
Further, Jesus makes clear that he and the Father are one, and not in the way that a family is a unit made up of individual pieces. Rather, Jesus and the Father are so united that they are inseparable from each other. They share themselves so completely with each other through their gift of self that they are perfectly united and alike. Jesus does not let the temptations of the world pull him away from the Father and his will. Rather, he reveals the depths of God’s love through his sacrifice on the cross, the total gift of self.
The Spirit, meanwhile, is the love itself. Love is not a finite thing but always bears fruit. The perfect gift of self made by the Father and the Son does not remain between them but proceeds from them, an overflowing of love that bears fruit in creation for the glory of God. To receive the Spirit is to receive the love of God, that perfect love that will bring about goodness in our lives. For it unites us to the one, perfect God, who gives of himself so that we might have life.
Reflection by Fr. Victor Schinstock, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections