Holy Trinity

"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 13: 14]

We hear these words at just about every Mass. These words are the summation of The Trinity. The Holy Trinity is the mysterious unity of three crucial Christian beings, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, into One.

The world started with God: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." [John 1:1].

Then came God's only Son Jesus: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son . . . . [John 3:16].

Last week was Pentecost, the birth of the Holy Spirit in the Christian church. "I will ask the Father and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth." [John 14: 16].

The Trinity is one of the hardest concepts to grasp in the Christian faith. It seems impossible for us to hold in our minds all three of these, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, separately, and yet, to simultaneously understand them as One!

I used to try to define each one for myself and to separate out the roles of each. I would agonize over when a Christian would properly pray to God vs. Jesus vs. the Holy Spirit? I would ask questions like, 'Who is the Great Healer, God or Jesus?' And the person would look at me puzzled and respond, "Both!"

Then I used to become impatient with myself. When would I be a mature enough Christian to truly understand the Holy Trinity?

Then I asked just about every Catholic I knew to define the Holy Trinity and the relationship of the three. If I asked six Catholics, I would get six different answers! I became totally confused.

Then, I would receive answers like, "Oh! It's a mystery!" For a time, I even began to think that Catholics possessed the "Secret if the Trinity", but were holding out on me. I became irritated. I wanted the "Secret" and I wanted it now! None of this gray area for me, I wanted things to be black and white.

Lately, I have begun to see the Holy Trinity with more acceptance. After all, if the Holy Trinity is God + Jesus + the Holy Spirit, what a HUGE, powerful resource for me to go to, anytime I need spiritual sustenance!

I still feel sort of edgy around these great spiritual mysteries, but I am willing to sit with this Mystery for awhile. I can meditate on the Holy Trinity, perhaps examine its vastness, as vast and awe inspiring as looking up at the night sky and seeing the billions of stars. We would not try to pick out every one of the billions of stars, would we? We would simply accept the majesty of them, as is.

If I did have to separate out the three elements of the Trinity, here is what I would sketch out in my feeble, humble, ineptly human way.

God, to me, is like the Head. He is the driver of the plans, the One who knows and  understands and leads us.

Jesus is like our hands. He is the one who ensures that we serve others and that we demonstrate our Love for others.

The Holy Spirit is in our heart. The Holy Spirit is the seat of Truth, what we know in our hearts to be right, to be our conscience, to be who we really are.

It would make no sense to have a complete body without Head, Hands and Heart. Yes, we can talk about them separately, but for there to be true power, in thought, deed and conscience, we need all three. This, to me is the Trinity.

And so, the Holy Trinity, being One in Three, Three in One, brings us full circle. It makes us whole, complete, loving, intentional human beings. It makes us Christians.

God, may I know You, the Creator of all, through the love of Your Son, and through the gentle guidance of the Spirit of Truth.

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