When we pray the (Nicene) Creed every Sunday, we express our faith in God as Trinity, our faith in the Father as our creator.
I believe in one God,
the Father
almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
Those who study space and the universe are completely amazed at the immensity of space and that we are nothing by comparison. In space, astronauts experience a sense of God’s plan for the universe in a new way. It was not by accident that the first astronauts who orbited the moon in Apollo 8 in 1968 read the account of creation in Genesis. Buzz Aldrin, during a broadcast back to earth in 1969 from Apollo 11, read this part of Psalm 8:
When I see the heavens, the work of your
fingers,
the moon and the stars which you arranged,
what is
man that you should keep him in mind,
the son of man that you
care for him? (Ps 8:4-5)
As Pope John Paul II said during a Wednesday audience, “when we contemplate with wonder the universe in its grandeur and beauty, we must praise the whole Trinity, but in a special way our thoughts turn to the Father from whom everything flows.” (August 2, 1990, §4)
Part of the mystery of the Trinity is that God did not have a beginning; God was always in existence. It is too much for our minds to take in because everything around us had a beginning and will come to an end. None of the persons of the Blessed Trinity existed before the other and none of them is greater than the other even though, as we say in the Creed, Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Another part of the mystery of the Trinity is that God is outside of time. We divide time into past, present, and future, but it is all present for God—the eternal now.
In the Creed we describe God as Father. Jesus had to use human language when describing the Father so that we could understand at least something of God, so Jesus used the word “Father.” When teaching us to pray, Jesus taught us to begin, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” We all have one Father in heaven. It is interesting that astronauts looking down on planet Earth from space have a new sense of our unity. They see the futility of our divisions and hostilities. We all share one planet created by our Father in heaven. While some religions or viewpoints regard God as distant, like a clockmaker who made the clock but doesn’t get involved, our first reading today reminds us of God’s mercy and love towards us as God said to Moses:
The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and
gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.
(Ex 34:6)
In the Creed we pray:
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
In the Creed we acknowledge that Jesus always existed with the Father. Before he took on our human flesh becoming incarnate in the womb of Mary when she said “Yes” to the angel Gabriel, he was eternally with the Father in heaven. Even while here on earth, he was intimately united with his Father in heaven. This is made very clear for us in John’s Gospel where Jesus said he and the Father are one (John 10:30), whoever has seen him has seen the Father (John 14:9), and the Father is in him and he is in the Father (John 10:38). When Jesus took on our human flesh, he had a mission—to save us. A we heard in the Gospel today:
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.
For God did not send his Son into
the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved
through him. (John 3:16-17)
It is mind-boggling that God who does not need us but out of his generosity and love created us, when we went astray beginning with Adam and Eve, suffered for us in the person of his Son so that we would be saved and not lost. From our human logical point of view, it doesn’t make sense. But God is God and his thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways our ways, as Isaiah says (Isa 55:8). If Jesus shed just one drop of blood, that would have been sufficient to save us, but to prove God’s love, Jesus went all the way to Calvary. However there is a realistic thought in the first reading today when the people are described as “stiff-necked.” As the Hebrews wandered in the desert from Egypt to Canaan, they did not honor God as they ought. Unfortunately every generation has its own stiff-necked people who are stubborn and hard of heart and refuse to respond to God appropriately for all he has done for us. As the Gospel today said, Jesus did not come to condemn the world but if people do not accept God, they bring a condemnation on themselves (John 3:17-18), losing out on God’s blessings.
In the Creed we pray:
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the
Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the
Son.
The Creed describes the Holy Spirit as the giver of life. We receive the life of the Holy Spirit first in baptism and from then God’s Spirit dwells in us. We see the action of the Holy Spirit inspiring fortitude in the martyrs to witness to Jesus even to death and inspiring the Bible to be written. We see the action of the Holy Spirit throughout the whole history of the Church, inspiring missionaries to spread the Gospel, Church councils to explain the truth of our faith with greater clarity, and in the lives and writings of the saints.
The Father is our Creator, and Father of us all. Jesus existed with the Father for all eternity but became one of us to save us. We receive the Holy Spirit first in baptism, and the Spirit has been guiding the Church down through the centuries.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2026
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
The Holy Trinity in our creeds 2025
God rich in mercy, Redeemer of man, Giver of life 2024
Year A: The Holy Trinity rescuing us 2023
We are drawn into the love at the heart of the Trinity
Year B: The Most Holy Trinity: God wants the best for us 2021
We belong to the Holy Trinity since baptism
Year C: Father who sought me, Son who bought me, Spirit who taught me