The Solemnity Of The Most Holy Trinity

Michael A. Harbin remembered that “one night during my time at the Naval Academy, the brigade was lined up for evening formation at the end of the weekend. All of the midshipmen were dressed in white uniforms freshly washed and pressed at the academy laundry. They were an impressive sight as they fell into ranks.

Then one individual who had been on weekend liberty came rushing up. While home, he had sent his uniform to a commercial laundry that had used bluing in the washing process. His uniform was a brilliant bluish white, and suddenly the uniforms of the rest of the midshipmen looked yellow and dirty. Although in fresh white uniforms, they felt somewhat dirty in a physical sense.”

This is a little of what Isaiah must have experienced in his vision of seeing the six-winged seraphim closest to God who were calling out to one another three times in reference to the Most Holy Trinity: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts…”

Except Isaiah felt dirty in a moral sense, saying: “woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips.”

He had just got done pronouncing judgment against others, saying “woe” to them six times.

e.g. He lamented their unjust affuence, their drunkenness, their business dishonesty. He rebuked their moral relativism, saying “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (v. 20). He chastised their intellectual pride: “Woe to you who think you're so smart, who hold such a high opinion of yourselves!” (v. 21).

And he spoke against their injustice: “Woe to those who . . . deprive the innocent of his right!” (verses 22–23).

And, in fact, Isaiah does pronounce a seventh woe! It is the famous woe in chapter 6, verse 5: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.”

So here is a challenge for us: take any one area of your life and ask the Holy Spirit to convict you of sin.

Because of the Cross, and Jesus’ resurrection and Ascension, we no longer need to say, “Woe is me!” Instead, we can say, “Thank you, Jesus.” Then and only then will we be ready to say what Isaiah said next: “Here I am! Send me to do your will.”

2. What Isaiah experienced in his vision of heaven was the primary meaning of holiness which denotes the morally pure relationship of the three Persons of the Trinity.

Morally pure means inherently pure without sin or corruption and right action or right behavior.

In the Most Holy Trinity, the Father gives himself so fully that the Son thus has His Divine Being.

From the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit.

The mutual giving between the Father and Son is another Divine Person: The Holy Spirit.

The true benchmark and model of true holiness is by recognizing the relationship of the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity.

That is why Leviticus 11:44 tells us: Be holy as I am holy.

God is saying, “Because I, the Lord, am distinct in terms of my moral purity, you, as my people, must be distinct in terms of your moral purity as well.”

While culture can restrain personal immorality, culture itself can establish moral standards that are problematic and promote immorality.

Holiness is to be understood not just as moral purity, but also in actions and behavior. As such, holiness is also a collective concept as when God uses the plural “you” in directing the nation to be holy.

Ultimately, as we heard in our Gospel, that God did not send his Son, who is the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

The Trinity acts in love. “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

E.g. Thomas Parlette shared that there was once a very compassionate woman named Rene Denfield who adopted a little girl from the foster care system in her city. Three years later, a case worker called and said she had another child Rene might be interested in. He was a toddler, but he’d already suffered a great deal in his short life. The little boy named Tony had bounced from one foster home to another. His rage and his acting out were too much for other families to handle. But the caseworker believed that Rene, who had grown up in an abusive home herself, had the love and toughness to get through to this angry, scared little boy.

As Rene wrote in an article for the New York Times, “When he raged, I told him I loved him. I told him over and over.” Rene reports that it took years before Tony’s rages subsided. But one day, he was in the middle of playing on the floor when he looked up at Rene and said, “You brought me home. I love you too.”