THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
15 JUNE 2025
Today’s
Gospel speaks of a tender moment between Jesus and his disciples. Jesus and his disciples know that things are
tense for them in Jerusalem. The
authorities want to put an end to the work of Jesus, most likely in a violent
manner. This causes a shadow of worry to
hang over the disciples. They have so
much more to learn, so much that they do not understand. They want their relationship with Jesus to
continue.
Jesus
acknowledges their concern and says, “I have much more to tell you, but you
cannot bear it now.” He too wants the
relationship to continue. Over the three
years they have traveled together, he has grown close to them because of who he
is. He is the Second Person of the
Trinity. He is God. God is love.
Love is being in relationship. As
the Second Person of the Trinity, he promises to send the Third Person of the
Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit will come as the Spirit of Truth and will guide them to all truth. The Holy Spirit will connect them with the
Father, with whom Jesus and the Holy Spirit have an intimate bond. His words fulfill the Book of Proverbs. The wisdom of God is Trinitarian: One God in three distinct Persons, an eternal
exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Throughout
the course of ninety days, we have entered more deeply into the saving action
of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We spent forty days preparing to renew our
baptismal promises, knowing that we have failed to live them many times. We spent three days in the Sacred Paschal
Triduum celebrating the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Then we spent forty days
rejoicing in the victory of the resurrection, culminating in the Mystery of the
Ascension. We completed the Easter
Season last Sunday with the Feast of Pentecost, assuring us that the same Holy
Spirit given to the original disciples is given to us.
Today we
reflect more deeply on the Mystery of the Trinity. We attribute to the Father the work of Creation,
to the Son the work of redemption, and to the Holy Spirit the work of
sanctification. But in making those
distinctions, we become more aware that the Trinitarian God has been involved
in all of those works. As Saint Paul
reminds us, we have been justified by faith and given the gift of peace. Because of the action of the three Persons in
One God, our faith allows us to boast in hope of the glory of God.
Pope
Francis has designated this Holy Year as a Year of hope, a virtue which we need
desperately in our broken, fractured, and violent age. Confronted with so much evil in the world and
so many divisions, it is easy to give up and retreat into our safe places. As Saint Paul says to the Romans, the wisdom
of the Triune God allows us to boast of our afflictions. No matter how heavy our crosses may become or
how dark the way we must walk may appear, the wisdom of God remains in us a
strong belief that our afflictions will produce endurance. Saint Paul himself boasted of his
afflictions, because they allowed him to endure so many obstacles in his
travels. His afflictions helped the
persecuted Church in Rome to endure the persecutions and suffering with
hope. Saint Paul promises us that our
endurance will produce proven character also.
At the
highest level of being, there is perfect love and absolute communion in three
distinct and different Persons. At our
level of being, we know painfully well that we do not have perfect love and
that our differences often cause divisions.
But, we cannot lose hope, which does not disappoint. We have been created, redeemed, and
sanctified so that we can eventually share the perfect love of Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit in eternity.
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