by Fr. Tommy Lane
St. Augustine wrote a long book on the Holy Trinity. There is an interesting story or legend about him. Augustine was wandering one day on the seashore pondering the mystery of the Trinity and a child was digging a hole in the sand with a seashell. He asked the child what he was doing, and the child responded that he was going to put all the water of the ocean into that hole. Then Augustine heard a voice inside him tell him that just as the waters of the ocean could not fit into that hole, neither could Augustine understand the mystery of God. (Joseph Ratzinger, Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977 p154)
Even though the Trinity is a mystery, the New Testament gives us some understanding of the Trinity. We see in the New Testament that God is a Trinity of persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. God the Father loved the world so much he became one of us in Jesus to save us and the Father and Jesus sent us the Spirit as God’s continuing presence. Because of the New Testament, we can understand much about the Holy Trinity and our belief in God as a Trinity is central to our faith. But people of non-Christian faiths who do not have the New Testament, such as the Jewish people and Muslims, are baffled by our belief in God as a Trinity and our faith seems to them almost like polytheism. I know a priest who was traveling in a non-Christian country and when he was stopped at a checkpoint and they discovered he was a Catholic priest, they were about to kill him precisely because of his belief that God is a Trinity. It was offensive to them. But one of them intervened and his life was spared, and he was let go.
Pope John Paul II wrote what we might call a trilogy of encyclicals on the Holy Trinity: an encyclical on the Father, an encyclical on Jesus, and an encyclical on the Holy Spirit. In his encyclical on the Father (Dives in Misericordia), Pope John Paul II focused on the mercy of God and part of his writing is about the Parable of the Prodigal Son (§5-6). The prodigal son decided to return to his father’s house, not as a son, but as a hired employee because he no longer deserved to be treated as a son. Of course this is humiliating for the prodigal son, but he realizes he no longer has a right to anything except to be treated as an employee. But the father in the parable, representing our heavenly Father, is faithful to his fatherhood and to the love has always lavished on his son. So he welcomes him back immediately and throws such a generous party that the elder brother becomes angry. Pope John Paul II wrote:
This love is able to reach down to every prodigal son, to every human misery, and above all to every form of moral misery, to sin. When this happens, the person who is the object of mercy does not feel humiliated, but rather found again and “restored to value.” (Dives in Misericordia 6)
In his encyclical on Jesus (Redemptor Hominis), Pope John Paul II wrote that Jesus reveals to us who we really are and brings to light our most high calling (§8). Jesus restored the image of God in us that had been disfigured since the sin of Adam. The very fact that Jesus became one of us raises us to a dignity beyond compare (§8). By becoming one of us, in a certain way, Jesus united himself with every one of us:
He worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin”, he, the Redeemer of man. (Redemptor Hominis 8, quoting Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 22)
Above all, Jesus made reparation to the Father for our sins by his death on Calvary. His self-sacrifice in exchange for our sins made reparation to the Father for us. Pope John Paul II wrote that Jesus became
our reconciliation with the Father. He it was, and he alone, who satisfied the Father’s eternal love...He and he alone also satisfied that fatherhood of God and that love which man in a way rejected by breaking the first Covenant and the later covenants that God “again and again offered to man” (Redemptor Hominis 9)
In his encyclical on the Holy Spirit (Dominum et Vivificantem), Pope John Paul II wrote about the Holy Spirit as “the giver of life” as we say every time we pray the Creed. While the Holy Spirit was at work in the world before Pentecost, it was at Pentecost that the Spirit came upon Jesus’ followers “to remain with them forever.” (§7) The Holy Spirit comes upon us in Baptism and Confirmation and so Pentecost continues in the Church and the Holy Spirit is at work when we pray. Through the influence of the Holy Spirit, prayer rises in our hearts. (§65)
God the Father loved the world so much he became one of us in Jesus to save us by making reparation for us on Calvary, and the Father and Jesus sent us the Spirit as God’s continuing presence.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2024
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Year A: The Holy Trinity rescuing us 2023
We are drawn into the love at the heart of the Trinity
Tear 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