Today, we commemorate the fact that God, although one, is not alone because in God there are three persons. The notion of Trinity is difficult to explain and even if I used shamrocks, I would not be able to fully explain this dogma since we do not know much about God. Yet this I do know; none of us, including God, likes to be completely alone. The Trinity reminds us that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in an intimate relationship with one another and us.
We Catholics have many routine practices, and one of them is the way we begin and end our prayers. We rarely pray without making the sign of the Cross, which reminds us of the nature of God. Whether those prayers are at the start of the Mass or grace before meals, we often begin with, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Some make the sign of the cross as they enter a pew or at the holy water font, mindful that we were baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity. In the same way, we end our prayers, including the Mass, by invoking the Trinity.
Why this focus on the Holy Trinity? We make the sign of the cross as a statement of faith. Our belief in the Trinity encompasses not only our notion of God but also who we are and what we are about, made in God’s image.
What distinguished the ancient Hebrews from other ancient peoples was their belief in one God. The rest of the world looked to various gods to explain their questions about life. The Romans, the Greeks, even the ancient Babylonians had elaborate creation stories and gods for every purpose.
The ancient Hebrews were the only ones who believed in one God, a God who was spiritual, a God who was just, a God who created mankind in His image and likeness, namely the image and likeness of love. This God gave humanity the ability to return love to Him, but that meant humankind also had the ability to reject God since love cannot exist without free will. So the first aspect of the Sign of the Cross is that we believe in the God who created us and loves us, the Father.
We make the sign of the cross to affirm that the One who was crucified has saved us. We believe that God’s love for us was so intense that He became one of us while remaining One with the Father. Jesus Christ is our Savior. Without him we would still be in the grips of hatred, sin and death. When we say “He frees us from sin,” we mean that he frees us from the misery that makes life intolerable, leading us to his Presence, Peace, and Happiness.
He became one of us, Christmas. He died for us, Good Friday. He conquered death and restored eternal life for us, Easter. He ascended to the Father, but His Spirit and the Spirit of the Father, the Holy Spirit, was given to us and remains with each of us, Pentecost. Thus, by virtue of our baptism, we each have the Presence and Power of God within us. When Christians follow Jesus’ example and teaching, they make God present on earth to others.
And so we begin our prayers in the Name of the Father who loves us unconditionally, and of the Son who made this love concrete by becoming one of us, dying for us and bringing God’s forgiveness to us and of the Holy Spirit who is God dwelling within us, empowering us here and now. The sign of the cross is an affirmation of our faith; a declaration of who we are: people whom God loves, forgives and empowers.
As we grow in the knowledge that God loves us, and as we experience His Love more and more in our lives, we are transformed. We want nothing more than to spread this Love and we do that whenever we heed God’s command to love one another.
When we recognize that God forgives us, we realize that His Love is infinitely greater than our sins. Some people give up on life because they have given up on themselves. When that happens they go into a downward spin. They continue to do things that lead to spiritual disaster, convinced that God won’t forgive them but Christ came to save us from our sins. He forgives us and calls us to spread that good news to others to let them know that God will forgive them too.
The Holy Spirit gives us the power to lead others to Christ. Every one of us has a unique ability to reflect God’s love in the world. Every one of us is capable of instilling the seed of God’s love in others, making them mindful that they are not alone; that God is with them. We can lead them from a meaningless life to a life of eternal fulfillment.
And so we begin and end our prayers with a statement of who we are and what we are about. We are people who are loved, forgiven and empowered. We find our meaning in life in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
If you have ever seen the play, Godspell, you may recall one of its most famous songs was called Day by Day. The lyrics came from a prayer written by a thirteenth century Englishman, St. Richard Chichester:
“Day by day. Three things do I pray. To see thee more clearly; to love thee more dearly; to follow thee more nearly, Day by day.”