Word to the Wise
Sunday, June 11, 2017 - Sunday after Pentecost: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity - A
[Exod 34:4b-6, 8-9; 2 Cor 13:11-13; John 3:16-18]The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. [2 Corinthians]
The Holy Trinity gets into everything - at least into everything Catholic! Every time we make the Sign of the Cross, we are making a profession of faith in the Holy Trinity! It is in the name of the Holy Trinity that we are baptized! But when we go beyond acknowledging those facts, we get into some pretty deep theological waters. The Bible only gives us hints of what the Church took a long time to understand about the Holy Trinity. This understanding eventually comes down to what St. Augustine had to say, "It's not a lie, but a mystery!"
Theologians like to speak of the "immanent Trinity" and the "economic Trinity." The first concerns the inner dynamics of the relationship amongst the "One in three and three in one." For that, we can go to St. Thomas Aquinas and his Summa Theologica. The second concerns how the Holy Trinity is working in creation and in our lives. After all, as Genesis reminds us, we are made in the image and likness of God. It is this second aspect that I find a lot easier to digest because it's really all about how God's love shapes and forms creation and our lives. Although St. Paul was nowhere near the formal teaching our Church has today about the Holy Trinity, he puts his finger on the grace, love and fellowship that comes with God's presence in our lives. The gospel scripture today from the Gospel According to John also hints about this when it says, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life." As a dear friend of mine once said to me, "It's all about the love!"
Making the Sign of the Cross is second nature to us Catholics, but perhaps once in awhile we might pause and realize that this gesture is an acknowledgment of God's love and continual presence in our lives, "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN"