Celebrating the Trinity

" Jesus said to His disciples: ' Now I am going to Him who sent me, yet none of you asks, 'Where are You going?' Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I will tell you the Truth: It is for your own good that I am going away. Unless I go away, The Counselor will not come to you; but, if I go, I will send Him to you. I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when He comes, the Spirit of Truth, He will guide you to all Truth, He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because He will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason, I told you that He will take from what is mine and declare it to you.' " [John 16: 12-15].

As Catholics and Christians, every Sunday in Mass, we pray the Apostle's Creed: " I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. . . . I believe in the Holy Spirit . . . ."

This Creed declares the simple basics of our Christian belief in a God who is found simultaneously, in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In this Scripture, we see that the Trinity was no accident. It was God's plan to send His only Son to earth so that we could see and understand God, but in human form.

It was also God's plan to send the Spirit of Truth, after Jesus' death and Resurrection.

It is very hard for our human minds to remember the words of a wise loved one, who has passed on. We try to hold their image in our minds, to remember the texture of their hair, the twinkle in their eyes, their height, their build, even their scent.

Many memories of Jesus and his stories are written down in Scripture. We also remember Him and praise our God and His Son-- in the Mass, and with the Sacraments, in liturgy and in prayer.

But real time memories fade and lost loved ones' influence seems to fade with time. How do we keep the memories part of our everyday life?

It is the Holy Spirit who is our constant, daily Companion and Counselor. The Holy Spirit is not a thing or an image, or a concept.

The Holy Spirit is an "alter-ego", if you will, of God and Jesus. The Holy Spirit is a Person.

The Holy Spirit is capable of whispering the Truth in our ear. "He will guide you to all Truth. He will declare to you the things that are coming."

I have lived by the Counsel of the Holy Spirit my whole life. But I never appreciated Him or even knew Him, until one day, I thought that He was gone.

My life had turned upside down after my father died abruptly and without warning, one spring morning. One minute, he was here on earth. The next minute, he died, and my life erupted into chaos.

At the same time, my best friend was dying, only I did not want to admit it at the time. The pain was so very intense.

I ran to my pastor and told him, in a panic, "God is gone! He was always at my side, but now there is only utter silence and total chaos; because suddenly I am alone and I don't know what to do anymore!"

I was instructed to spend time each day in meditation and prayer.

The person I was missing was not my earthly father. It was God, who had been appearing to me in the form of the Holy Spirit for as long as I could remember.

As I began to meditate and pray, my whole life spun out before my eyes:

Suddenly, I understood that when I had nearly drowned at about age 3 or 4, it was my mother's arms that had saved me. But my near drowning was never discussed in the family. When I returned to swimming lessons that next week, I resisted learning more strokes. It was the Counselor who was whispering the Truth, that it was wise for me to stick with simpler strokes until I could feel brave again in the water.. . because no human gave me this advice.

When I was six, I came home from school, and my mother had abruptly given the family dog away. I did not cry, this did not seem "allowed." But as I walked to school that day, I asked myself, "What kind of mother did I get?" I was learning the hard Truth about human love.

By about age 8, in my cruel, harsh life with this family, I had begun to mask my emotions and go off alone and speak less and less, and prepare to make my escape to a wider world. I was living the advice of Jesus that, " "Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet [and leave their town], as a testimony against them." [John 9: 4-6]. Only I did not know this passage at the time. But the Spirit was calling to me, not to hate those who abused me, but instead, simply to leave them.

When I was in graduate school, many years later, I was the victim of a violent crime, during which I came close to dying. My family forbade me to come home to heal. I found myself praying, not for healing, but for Wisdom; because I did not understand how a family could abandon their daughter at such a time of crisis. This was the Prayer of Solomon!  Yet, at the time I had no idea who Solomon was!

And after I finished graduate school, I met the man who would be my husband. From our first meeting, I felt as if I had both "just met him", yet "known him all my life." My family was dead set against this man. How could I defy them? And yet, somehow I "knew" the Truth, that this man who embodied so much love, integrity, patience, and faith, was meant to be my partner in life. I chose the Truth, and yes, I married him.

I really do not believe that, as a mere child growing up, I was THAT smart to figure all this out by myself. By the time I was 14, my parents were refusing to take me to church. I was not receiving Communion, I was not praying, no one was praying for ME. I did not own a Bible. I knew no one who had faith or would teach me anything about Scripture or Jesus.

I simply "knew" the Truth. This Truth called to me and appealed to me in my heart, because the Truth was always leading me to Peace, to Love, to Self-Protection, to Patience, to Gentleness, to Joy, to Strength.

I never realized what this Voice of Truth was. It was just there, guiding me, encouraging me. All I knew was that, I really, really wanted the fruits that this Truth promised.

It turns out. . . all that I wanted -- was God!  And I was oh, so right to follow Him!

[Related postings, "Prayer For Wisdom", July 23, 2011; " Holy Trinity", June 19, 2011; " Most Holy Trinity", June 4, 2012; "I Live by the Spirit", May 19, 2013.]

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