The Trinity Revealed

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Jesus Himself revealed the existence of the Holy Trinity when He acknowledged that He is the Son of God, and in His explanation that the Holy Spirit would come to all His followers, giving them the gifts of wisdom, understanding and counsel so they would be able to understand and embrace divine revelation. Jesus also commanded His disciples to,
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matt 28:19)Every Catholic who makes the sign of the cross is recalling their own baptism, reciting these words of Jesus while tracing the symbol of our faith on their bodies: the cross.
This notion of three Persons in One God is a mystery and paradox that cannot be fully understood by the human mind, and yet we have been created in this very image of a Triune God. In Genesis 1:26, God refers to Himself in the plural, “Let us create man in our image, after our likeness.” The very next verse explains, “God created man in his image; in the divine image He crated him; male and female he created them.” In order to make sense of this, we need to realize that God is a community of persons. God the Father makes an eternal gift of Himself to the Son. Jesus reveals this in Matthew 3:17 where He describes Himself as the “beloved of the Father.” In return, Jesus makes Himself a gift back to the Father. The love of the Father and the Son is so profound that this love is another person: the Holy Spirit.

When we understand that the very nature of God is love, we come to grasp what it means to have been created in this image. We are called to love as God loves, in a communion of persons. The most perfect way of living this ideal is in marriage: male and female, making a complete gift of ourselves to one another in a committed, eternal relationship. Out of this relationship and self-giving love, new life is born. In this sense, marriage is the sacred relationship that enables us to live and love as God lives and loves. In marriage we are privileged to participate in the inner life of the Holy Trinity. Marriage and the intimacy it brings to the couple is a visible sign of the invisible reality of the Holy Trinity. Hence marriage is a Sacrament, a visible sign of the love of God.

This is why the Church points out that a marriage not open to new life, falls short of the sacred image God intends for us. The truth of our bodies reveals that only a man and a women can fulfill this sacred vocation. John Paul the Great explains all this in his seminal work, now referred to as “Theology of the Body.” In that remarkable work, which took him 5 years, and contains nearly 600 pages of anthropology, theology and logic, he instructs us to embrace our sexuality as God‘s greatest gift. His common sense logic is irrefutable. Consider just a few examples of John Paul’s wisdom:

“Life teaches us, in effect, that love -- married love -- is the foundation stone of all life.”

“Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself; his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it.”This catechesis by Blessed John Paul the Great helps us understand the mystery of the Trinity more fully, and gives concrete examples of what it means to embrace our nature as men and women created in the image of God. It also reveals God’s vast love and shows us how to participate in the very love of God by showing us how to love as He loves. When St. John wrote that “God is love” he was acknowledging much more than just one aspect of God. He was revealing the nature of all humanity, created in His image.

Within the context of a sacramental marriage, our sexuality takes on its fullest meaning. Masculinity and femininity are essential to the bond that creates a family, each spouse bringing their gender-based gifts to one another, forming a bond of permanence and security in which new life is both created and nurtured. This requires more than just the natural instincts of our bodies, it requires the spiritual dimensions of our hearts and minds to love one another as God loves us, and to create a proper environment for raising children in love. Children deprived of one parent or the other are likely to struggle to understand the dynamics of life and of love. Marriage and parenting are not without their challenges and struggles, and it is for this reason, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are essential to family life. Inviting God into our marriage, strengthens our resolve to make a gift of ourselves to our spouse and children. The grace of God and the gifts of the Holy Spirit make us better spouses and parents. Consider what St. Paul said about the fruits of the Holy Spirit: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity.” (Galatians 5:22). These are the characteristics of a loving parent and spouse. We need the grace (presence) of God in our lives, to attain this ideal and to love one another as God loves us.

In a world where the only measure of morality with regard to sex, is whether or not it was consensual, the image of God is lost and forgotten. Many years ago, I saw a terrible movie called The Libertine.  I remember it because it was so hard to watch the wretchedness of the leading character. He was a young man whose entire life was based on radical freedom to do anything he wanted, to anyone, at any time, if it suited his purposes. He victimized women, he lied, cheated, manipulated and eventually destroyed every relationship he had, including his family, while running through his inherited fortune. As disturbing as the movie was, it revealed the truth about the consequences of a life lived devoid of morality. Our sexuality has been hijacked by lies and false hopes of happiness rooted not in the sanctity of our gender, but in the pursuit of sexual license and the freedom to do whatever we please with our sexual appetites. Sex has not only been separated from the responsibility for children, through birth control, homosexuality, and abortion, it has been separated from the permanent bonds it was intended to engender in the committed love of spouses.

Lust is no longer considered a vice, but a plaything, and sexual continence is not viewed as a virtue, but a weakness. Passing through the checkout isle in a grocery store yesterday, I saw three magazines each containing articles described on the cover page, touting new sexual techniques to achieve maximum pleasure. Nobody seems to take note of the crushing emotional effects of broken intimate relationships, or the tidal wave of sexually transmitted disease scourging our nation, or the continual stream of unwanted pregnancies and ensuing chemical and surgical abortions. Nobody reports on the significant increase in breast and cervical cancer related to the carcinogens in birth control pills, or the increased risk of cancer caused by abortion. In a committed, monogamous marriage, these risks are negligible. STDs are non-existent among spouses whose only sexual encounters are with each other.

Loving one another as God loves us is live-giving, fulfilling, and gives meaning to our lives precisely because we are not merely thinking animals, but children of God, created in His image, capable of lives of meaning and purpose. The true path to happiness is to discover the secret of love, and that is that “God is love” and we are created to love as He loves. This is the path of faith and hope that is unattainable on our own. We need God because we were are His children, created in His image, in the image of a community of love.