This Sunday, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (and we read from Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40; Psalm 33; Romans 8:14-17; and Matthew 28:16-20). “By sending His only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed His innermost secret: God Himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and He has destined us to share in that exchange” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #221). God has called us to share in His eternal love! He has made each of us in His image – and, through our baptism, the Holy Trinity dwells in us giving us the grace to live the virtuous life of faith, hope and love.
Every time we pray, we invoke the Holy Trinity, for we often begin our prayers by making the sign of the Cross, “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Yet, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI asks, “How often have we made the sign of the Cross, invoking without really adverting to it, the Name of the Triune God? In its original meaning, the sign of the Cross was, each time it was made, a renewal of our baptism, a repetition of the words by which we became Christians, and an assimilation into our personal life of what was given us in baptism… Water was poured over us and, at the same time, the words were spoken: ‘I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’ The Church makes us Christians by calling on the name of the Trinitarian God. From her beginning, the Church has expressed in this way what she regards as the truly definitive mark of our Christianity: faith in the Triune God. We might find that disappointing. It seems so remote from our life. It seems so useless and so hard to understand. If there must be short formulas for expressing the tenets of our faith, then they should at least be attractive, exciting, something whose importance for men and for our lives is immediately apparent. Yet, in the last analysis, this is what we are saying here: Christianity is not first concerned with the Church or with men, but with God. Its proper orientation is not to our hopes, our fears, or our wishes, but to God, to His majesty and His power. The first article of Christian faith, the basic orientation of Christian conversion, is that God exists. We must, therefore, learn again to understand from God’s perspective what being a Christian really means – that is, believing that He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” (Co-Workers of the Truth, Ignatius Press).
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen. In God we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28), and, remember, He is with us always (Matthew 28:16-20). Amen.
With prayers and peace in the Most Holy Trinity,
Fr. William
Saint Clement Parish 