Today, we are called to contemplate one of the greatest mysteries of our faith, to seek to understand, if even a little, the very essence of God Himself. For, we are called to celebrate and to reflect on the very mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. A mystery that has eluded countless scholars, theologians, Doctors of the Church, and some of our greatest saints and has been the cause of the many early heresies of the Church.

In fact, I once a heard a homily on this very topic today, where the priest gave handouts to the Congregation, (something I will not be doing), but it gives you an idea of the difficulties in trying to explain such a profound mystery.

In fact, St. Augustine, a great saint, theologian and Doctor of the Church, and someone from whom the Church gets a lot of its theology and philosophy understood this difficulty as well.

It is said, he was walking on the beach one day, contemplating the mystery of the Trinity, when he came across a little child who dug a hole in the beach close to the water. He watched as this little child took a spoon and went back and forth with a spoonful of the ocean and dumped it into the hole. Finally, St. Augustine went over to this child and asked him what he was doing, to which the child responded that he was trying to empty the sea into the hole. St. Augustine told him it couldn’t be done, to which the child responded that he would be more successful in doing this than St. Augustine would be in comprehending and fully understanding the Blessed Trinity.

So, then the question is why even bother trying to contemplate such a great mystery as the Trinity in the first place?

It was the great Catholic author and apologist, Frank Sheed, who gives us the answer, he says: “The doctrine of the Trinity is…the innermost life of God. His profoundest secret. He did not have to reveal it to us. We could have been saved without knowing that ultimate truth. In the strictest sense it is His business, not ours.” Sheed then explains that even given this, it was revealed to us for no other reason, than out of love, for, as Sheed beautifully puts it: “It is the surest mark of love to want to be known.”

God then revealed Himself as a Trinity not to cause confusion and frustration, but to help us to grow in love of Him and to come know Him better, for, truly, God wants to be known.

And, so then the next logical question is what does He want us to know?

Simply stated, He wants us to know that words like “eternity” that “infinity” are not fancy scientific terms, they are where He dwells, and that despite being outside from where we are, we are being held in existence, at this very moment, by Him, so that as remote as that may feel, He is, at the same time, closer to us than anyone could ever be. And that though Jesus became man, He is only the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, that while not the entire Trinity, still God, for the Trinity, is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In fact, this is what we are saying when we profess our faith in the creed, saying things like “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, Consubstantial with the Father,” because we are saying that Jesus, while God, was not created by the Father, but begotten of the Father.

What that means is that Jesus was not made, but begotten, and, while repetitious, that is the best word we have to explain what happened because to speak of something that happened in eternity with language bound by time, we can never translate it perfectly, because in eternity there is no past, present or future, which is, elsewhere, when Moses asked God His name the only proper response was simply “I AM WHO AM.”  

And, when we talk about Jesus being Consubstantial with the Father, an intentional change, during the new translation, it underscores that the Father and Jesus are both God, sharing in the same substance, the same divine nature, but still distinct Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

That, too, is why we say that the Holy Spirit “proceeds” from the Father and the Son. To proceed implies a continuation, so that, in essence, the Holy Spirit is the “continuation” of the perfect love of the Father and Son, equally infinite, eternal, and living.

That is why each Person of the Blessed Trinity can be worshipped and adored and as distinct Persons have a function, so that the Father creates, the Son redeems and the Holy Spirit sanctifies.

And while difficult to understand, the question is then, why would God want to reveal such a deep mystery to us? Why would He want us to ponder the very essence of who He is knowing how limited our minds truly are?

And, while this is a question that has haunted scholars, theologians and saints for centuries, perhaps, it is because by pondering the Trinity we walk into the very mystery of who we are, the deepest, most profound, and most beautiful facet of our identity as Christians, the same in which we were baptized, the same in which we begin any prayer, the same that we bless ourselves with when walking into this church, the same we began our Mass with, marked by God, our soul His own.

Because, even before we could understand the depths of this great mystery, by our Baptism we were children of that same Trinity, marked in His name.

And, every single time we make the sign of the cross, we are not just reminding ourselves of the cross that claimed us, we are opening our souls to the grace that God wants to give.

An early Church Father by the name of Tertullian puts it well, he says: “In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross”

Perhaps, God could have allowed us to understand more, to be a greater part of this mystery, as it were, but maybe that is the mystery itself, or maybe it is because of this that we constantly desire Him, His love, His intimacy, and go to Him in prayer, because, if we can never fully know someone completely here on earth, how much more when it is God Himself?

The Trinity, then, is the heart, the greatest secret of God, yet, it is a secret He has chosen to reveal, if even a little bit, to us, for us, which is why it is more than something, or rather, someone to be understood, studied and written about, it is the very essence, the very heart of who God is and what He wants us to know about Him.

And this is what we celebrate today, this intimate and amazing mystery, knowing that there is always more to learn, always more to contemplate, knowing His depths are, indeed, inexhaustible.

Therefore, let us give thanks and glory this day and all days to this Most Holy Trinity, invoking Him now and always: in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.