“The grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” So St. Paul in the 2nd reading wishes the faithful of the local church in Corinth. That is a declaration of belief in the Holy Trinity. The love of God the Father, the grace and peace of God the Son, and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit define the fullness of what the relationship with one God in three persons can be. How inviting and how needed are these in our days of doubt, wonderment and worry when the burden of sin and the fallout from poor choices in our families, our society and ourselves can weigh us down.
There is an old hymn with the refrain: “Love lifted me, Love lifted me, when nothing else could help, Love lifted me”. (James Rowe) That love is not the smaltzy emotional love of the culture but that of the Holy Trinity brought close when Jesus Christ became man. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
The doctrine of the Most Blessed Trinity is the central mystery of the faith. It is a truth that separates Christians from other religions including those that believe in one God. Where did the idea of the Trinity come from? It did not come from the philosophical musing of monks or bishops meeting in foreign places. The words of Scripture and those of Jesus revealed it to us. Jesus by becoming man introduced us to the Father; “the Father and I are one” he said and suggested we pray to Our Father. Jesus breathed on the Apostles and they received and were transformed by the Holy Spirit. Jesus then missioned through the Church baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is truth and therefore his teaching is true.
This gift of love we must accept in our hearts if it is to affect us in a meaningful way. We can simply by habit make the sign of the cross or mouth the words. Or we can use those simple gestures and words as prayer, and as a statement of belief, as a guide for how we live and as an encouragement to trust in God’s will and God’s way.
St. Paul describes us as adopted children of God. So, we can pray to the Father in praise and thanksgiving and in petition for our needs and for the needs of others we care about. As disciples of Christ we can pray to the Son, our redeemer, for strength to live His teachings and to follow His example in a world filed with challenge and confusion. As heirs of the Father and the Son we can pray to the Holy Spirit that He will guide, guard and comfort us. Thus as children of God, as disciples, and as heirs we are privileged to pray to the one God in three persons, a mystery of faith that can empower us, help us to become better than we are, and give us hope.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the highest form of prayer. It is no accident that we begin and end each Mass invoking the Trinity. It is a prayer that can bring perspective to the challenges in our world. We need a rootedness of faith that can withstand evil, violence, temptation and loneliness, to reject the war on family life and marriage as God created, to rebuff the attacks on the dignity of every person from conception through natural death, to stand up for religious liberty and freedom of conscience.
The way to be able to accept the mystery of the Trinity is to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who became man that we might know of the depth and breadth of God’s love. While Jesus became human he retained his divinity in the Trinity. He is more than a historic figure come and gone, a great teacher for a while only. A few years ago we were introduced to a revised translation of the Creed to better reflect its meaning in English. Instead of declaring that Jesus is “one in being with the Father” we now declare that Jesus is “consubstantial with the Father”. It is a high falutin word that means of the same substance or of the same essence, divine and therefore with us always. Thus our faith is not based on brick, wood and plaster, though church buildings are special signs because that is where we gather, receive the sacraments and pray in good times and in bad. It is in the person of Jesus Christ who leads us to the Trinity.
Thus our faith in one God in three persons can only be grounded on our relationship with the person of Jesus Christ, human and divine. When we listen to conversion stories we learn how essential was that relationship to be freed from the weight of past sins and which allows us to live in the present with hope in the future.
A woman spoke about a friend named Ruby whom she had grown to admire. She must have a secret to life, the woman thought because Ruby was a good listener, organized, never anxious. She had her act together all the time. The admiring friend visited Ruby’s home and said she learned the secret of her life. Over Ruby’s kitchen sink were two words: “Yes, Lord”. Ruby was everyday living without condition the life the Lord calls us to that leads to eternal life. When we do we will deflect the heaviness to gossip, to jump to conclusions, to strike out with sword or tongue, to assume God’s role of judge but rather to be forgiving, to see the good in others, to offer a helping hand and a consoling presence, to love our neighbors as ourselves. As St. Paul put It: “rejoice, mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you.”
We are given the opportunity every day to say “yes Lord” without condition because we know that his unconditional love is with us wherever we gather in His name.
That hymn I mentioned begins with this verse: “I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more, but the Master of the sea, heard my despairing cry, from the waters lifted me, now safe am I. Love lifted me, Love lifted me, when nothing else could help, Love lifted me.” We too can be lifted out of the waters of sin and doubt into the arms of the healing, consoling and empowering love that is the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
“The grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”