The Holy Trinity

I accepted the theology of the Trinity as a child easily. I didn't have deep questions about how that works - that God can be One God and yet be three persons.

And I didn't wonder why the New Testament didn't really have much to go on beyond the brief references to how the Apostles should go into all nations and baptize in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Or that the word Trinity is never used in Holy Scripture. (We receive the word "Trinity" from the Church, and She is also our source for a deeper/fuller expanation than what is given in Scripture.)

In fact, I didn't give it much thought at all until recently. This Sunday is the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. And I wanted to pass along something I read recently (and I looked the phrase up in the Catechism just to be sure of its veracity).

The Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Godhead, is the immediacy of God. Isn't that wonderful. I think I get it, too. I can be anywhere, and whether or not I sense it, God is there. And especially if I call upon Him, He is with me. Come, Holy Spirit. The immediacy of God is made present to anyone, anywhere.

That quality belongs to the First and Second Persons of the Godhead, the Father and the Son, but it is a richly defining quality of the Holy Spirit.

Just as Jesus, the Second person of the Blessed Trinity, is God Made Flesh. We can touch Him. Some have touched the hem of His garment. We can receive Him in the Eucharist. His tangibility is a richly defining quality of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity - and it doesn't diminish the fact that He is fully God, body - blood - soul - and divinity.

I'm still trying to figure out how to articulate the First Person of the Trinity, God the Father.

But Fathers are mysterious, aren't they? I know He is real, and I sense His Presence, but I cannot quite put it into words. And I guess that is why the Church has always called it the mystery of the Holy Trinity. It isn't something that we readily understand. And even my brief descriptions of the Son and the Holy Spirit are lacking, aren't they? One can only try.

The theology and mystery is richly layered. Deep in meaning. Almost too much to grasp. But there is joy in trying.

Blessed Feast of the Most Holy Trinity