Trinity Sunday

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

1.The ecstatic existence of the Trinity is the supreme confidence of love that love offered will be returned and more than returned, that in giving being is replenished not diminished or exhausted. In Latin: Esse deus dare: to be God is to give.

e.g. Florence Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing. In war time, for example, at night she made her systematic rounds of all the medical tents, which were also cleaned regularly.

She said, "I have very ordinary ability.... God has done all, and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that's it, and I have never refused God anything."

Like the Most Holy Trinity: the universe, including human beings, are intrinsically relational. For example, a writer in a current journal says, "Most persons find that their faith in a future life is a belief only, not a conviction. And why? Because the self for whose immortality they hope is an unreal abstraction." (H. Heath Bawden, in the Review of Religion, May 1950, p. 410)

To illustrate, somebody asked, “I heard the Catechism teaches that human beings can become God. How is this possible?” The answer is that we make our soul a habitation for God beginning at baptism. No matter how busy you are: you can have a cloistered heart. We have heaven within us. This is the core of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity’s message. She wanted us to understand that if union with God is our end, then heaven is not a destination but rather a completion, a perfection of a state of being. This blessed existence can begin now, anticipating the eternal present.

2. Matt Chandler said, “God doesn’t need to have emergency meetings. He’s never gathered the Trinity and asked, `What happened there?’”

If you want to sense the Trinity dwelling in you, 2 Peter 1:4 gives a clue: “….that…you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

The Trinity is our protection.

E.g. A painting called “Shield of the Trinity” featured in manuscripts and in many stained-glass windows has the word, “Deus,” inscribed in the center with lines leading out to three points, which are labeled:

“The Father is God”

“The Son is God”

“The Holy Spirit is God”

“God is the Father”

“God is the Son”

“God is the Holy Spirit”

The whole purpose of liberation from spiritual bondage, in the battlefield of our thoughts, by renouncing sinful thoughts and desires, is that it frees us to receive the blessing God has given us in his Son so we might live for the praise of His glory. This is what our Second Reading says, which speaks of “a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…”

It is perfectly acceptable to pray to the Son or the Spirit in our prayers even though all prayer is ultimately oriented to the Father.

E.g. “Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth…”

Prayers to Jesus are very common. For example, prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that begin, “Most sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus;” and the Fatima prayer after each decade of the Rosary, “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need of your mercy.”

In Summary:

1. Try and Refuse God nothing in your service to Him.

2. Understand that heaven can dwell within you when you are in the state of grace. This blessed existence can begin now by indwelling of the Holy Trinity.

3. A spiritual militancy is required daily in this life though renunciation and faith by the “Shield of the Trinity.”

AMEN.