MOST HOLY TRINITY
27 MAY 2018
The
late Cardinal Richard Cushing told of an incident that happened when he was a
young priest in Boston. He was summoned
to give last rites to a man who had collapsed in a store. Cushing knelt beside the man and began with
the traditional question: “Do you
believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?” The man opened one eye and said, “Here I am
dying, and he asks me a riddle.”
The
Doctrine of the Trinity is not a riddle.
But, it is a Mystery. It took
three centuries for the early Church to define this Mystery with precise
terminology. Throughout the history of
the Church, theologians and scholars have developed very technical theological
language to explore this Mystery of one God and three distinct persons. We may not be trained theologians or experts
in Trinitarian theology, but we have participated in the Mystery for the last
ninety days in the Liturgical life of the Church. We have spent forty days during Lent
reflecting on the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. We focused on the essence of the Paschal
Mystery when we celebrated the three days of the Triduum. We have spent the final fifty days of Easter
renewing our faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In
celebrating this one Solemnity centered on a Doctrine, we know that we will
never fully understand how there is one God and three distinct persons. However, we participate in that Mystery in
our lives of faith. We were baptized in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We bless ourselves with water in the name of
the Trinity every time we enter this church.
We begin all of our prayers with that same Trinitarian sign of the
cross. In our prayers at Mass, we pray to
the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. We pray in this way, not to solve a riddle,
but to allow the love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to guide us as we walk
together in our pilgrimage of faith. At
the highest level of being in the Trinity, there is perfect love, perfect
unity, and perfect diversity. A famous
icon by the Russian painter Andrei Rublev pictures the three persons of the
Trinity seated around a table in a circle.
There is an empty space on the viewer’s side of that table, and all who
gaze on this icon are invited to complete the circle. The table is spread, the door is open. We are invited to join them.
This
invitation is best expressed in today’s Gospel, which is the conclusion of the
Gospel of Saint Matthew. The beginning
of the Gospel announces that the words of the Prophet Isaiah have been
fulfilled with the coming of Jesus, whom he calls Emmanuel (“God with
us”). Even though Saint Matthew wrote
his Gospel for Jewish Christian readers, the pagan Magi were the first to
worship the newborn child. Throughout his
Gospel, Saint Matthew outlines the many ways that Jesus remained absolutely
faithful to the will of his Father, beginning with his ministry in
Galilee. Back in Galilee after the
resurrection, the eleven worship him and receive his great commission. He tells them to go, not just to their Jewish
brothers and sisters, but to all nations and to make disciples of them,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. He promises that he will be with
them always. He will continue to be Emmanuel
(“God with us”) through the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are
gathered here to worship, as did the first disciples. We have our share of doubts, as they
did. The risen Christ gives us the same
commission. During the last three
pontificates, our Popes have spoken of the “new evangelization.” They are calling us to make disciples, not
just by teaching the Mysteries we celebrate here, but more so by making those
Mysteries more evident by the way we live our lives. There is a place at the table in the heavenly
Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit is guiding us
to that table, and he wants us to bring lots of people with us.
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