Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. It's the feast day of God which
immediately follows after Pentecost Sunday and the ending of Easter.
And in today's gospel, it's interesting, this passage from St. John's gospel, because
it really only mentions the Father and the Son, and specifically it talks about how the
Son was sent into the world.
That God might manifest his love to the world, and that we might receive our salvation in
the name of the Son of God.
But that really is the revelation of the Trinity, and if we think about how sacred history progressed
from the Old Testament to the New, we can appreciate it, because in the Old Testament,
the central message of God to his people was,
was that he was the true God, the one and only God.
Abraham was called out of a land that was full of paganism, idolatry, and even human
sacrifice to demons.
And God called him away, sent him away from his own people, and separated him from the
other nations so that he might come to learn to worship the one true God.
And that was the problem, you might say, that you see.
The drama of the Old Testament largely was about whether or not his people were going
to follow him and follow him alone.
And so in the law written by Moses, the central tenant of the law that they were supposed
to remember, that they were supposed to wear on their foreheads and have written on their
arms and on their doorposts, and remember when they were awake and walking around and
when they were lying down to sleep, was that there is only one God.
The prophets had to drum this into them in the Old Testament.
And that was the message, you know, that there is only one God and that he reveals himself
to his people.
And also in the context of the sinfulness of idolatry and the turning away from the
worship of God.
through sin and disobedience, God promised a Redeemer.
God promised his people that he would send his only begotten son into the world
and that God's family would be increased, that it wouldn't just be one nation.
It would be the whole people of the world that were to be drawn into the family of God.
And in the Old Testament, the reason for that separation, the reason God concentrated on one people,
why he called the Jews in a particular way to be his people,
was because it was so difficult to get people away from idolatry, from sinfulness.
So God had to withdraw them from the nations.
But the ultimate plan, as we see in the coming of Jesus and the establishment of the church,
was to bring everyone into the fold, to bring everyone into the family
after that lesson of the unity of God.
The oneness of God had been established and made clear.
And when Jesus came, he revealed the fullness of the truth about the one true God,
that God is a family, that God is our Father.
That concept was present, you know, the fatherhood of God was present also among the Jews,
but it became even more clear and profound when Jesus came,
because Jesus showed us that it was the will of God that we should share in his life.
That is, God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
So we are called to be God's children.
He shares his life with us.
He sends his only begotten Son into the world that we might have life.
And so when our Lord in the Gospel of John talks about having been sent by his Father,
he really is revealing the mystery of the Trinity to us.
There is an inner life.
There is an inner life.
There is an inner life of God, and that inner life is a life of knowledge and of love.
The Second Vatican Council talked a lot about the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
that the inner life of God is a communion of knowing one another and of loving one another.
And that inner life becomes an outer life when God the Father sends his only begotten Son,
and afterwards our Lord ascends.
He ascends into heaven, and the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
So now we reflect upon the fact that in this way, God has drawn us into that communion.
We know God.
We know who he is.
We know the fullness of truth about him, even though it remains a mystery.
The Trinity remains something we can't fully understand,
and yet we have been blessed with the revelation that God loves us and that he calls us into his family.
And the whole idea behind...
the fact that Jesus became one of us and has left us, for example, the Mass and the rest of the sacraments,
is that we're called into that life.
Jesus came down.
God sent his only begotten Son down into the world, so that we might be drawn up.
We share his life now on earth, and we will be with him forever in heaven,
in communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
God became a member of our family, so that we can become members of...
of...
of...
of God's family.
And that's what we...
we celebrate today.
That's what we profess as we...
as we reflect on the Holy Trinity.
Sometimes people will say, you know, it really doesn't matter if you believe these things.
Of course, it's a heresy, but...
you know, it seems to be very abstract, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We can't understand how it is that there's only one God, but there's three persons and one God.
And yet the whole of our...
our spiritual life is based on the fact...
that he has revealed himself to us, and that we live in communion with him,
and that we are not alone.
God is not alone.
God is not solitary in the sense of no communion.
God is communion, and our...
our life, whether it be the life of our union with God,
or our connectedness to one another in Christ,
is meant to be a communion.
And Jesus tells us it's only in him that we can find the peace,
and the joy that comes from that communion.
Even, you know, the social problems that we experience in the world today.
Our Lord proclaims the truth,
that he is the only way
to obtain peace and happiness, and ultimately salvation.
So today, as we celebrate the mystery and also the great truth of our faith,
the blessed trinity,
we give thanks for the fact that God has made us members of his family,
that he has sent his only begotten Son into the world to redeem us,
and to make us his children.
This is the rock upon which our faith is built,
and it is our profession as we continue in this holy sacrifice of the Mass.
The whole creed is based upon our profession in the faith,
our faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Let's pray.
Praise to the Lord.