Today, we honor God for who God is for without God, we simply would not be. The feast of the Trinity celebrates the mystery that this God whom we believe in has three persons, whom Jesus identifies in this Gospel passage as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Since the Trinity cannot be fully understood, we use symbols, such as shamrocks and triangles, to describe this mystery of who God is. While symbols may help us to see how three can be one, they fall short of conveying the real lesson here. One sensible way to understand the Trinity would be to use human comparisons.
A classic icon painted by Andrei Rublev, a 15thcentury Russian monk, presents the Trinity as three angels sitting at a table. Here we find the three persons of the Trinity in a harmonious and interdependent relationship with one another. This image suggests that we think of the Trinity as a committee!
Perhaps such a metaphor sounds shocking yet picture these three persons sitting at the table, discussing the feasibility of creation, the time and place for redemptive intervention, and the best way to keep in touch with the human community. That could be a sensible way of imagining the ongoing relationship amongst the three persons of the Trinity.
Moses asked, “Did anything so great ever happen before?” As wonderful as God’s great deeds are, we can never forget that our God is a very personal one who, as the gospel notes, is with us always. God is not solitary and aloof like the pagan gods. Nor is God capricious or immoral like the Greek gods. No, the Trinity tells us that God is the epitome of a loving relationship. The Father is the lover, the Son is the beloved, and the Spirit is the love that unites them. Since we are made in the image of God, it is no wonder then, that we are most divine, most happy, most fulfilled, when we too are in a loving relationship.
Consciously or unconsciously, we rely on role models, such as our parents and peers, to become who we are. With the Trinity, God provides another crucial role model to show us the value and importance of relationships in our lives. God is who God is because the three persons of the Trinity are in an intimate relationship with one another.
The mystery of the Trinity communicates that God is a family so closely united that although they are three persons, they are one God. But this God does not act alone, otherwise, he would cease to exist. There is nothing Christian about the individualist who needs nobody else and is concerned about nobody else, just as there can be no family if its members don’t care about one another. In much the same way, the three persons of the Trinity cannot be separated from one another. They complement each other. The father cannot be one unless he has a son and the two, father and son, are drawn together by the Spirit.
Just as God cannot exist alone, we cannot survive alone. To be whole, we need relationships in our lives. Think of the most satisfying moments in your life. I am certain that these moments were savored with someone else. When you were held, when you were hugged, when you were affirmed, when you were loved, when you were in the silent presence of someone who cared about you. Our hearts are made for one another and for God.
Now think of the worst moments in your life. When you felt rejected, when you were abandoned, when your marriage or a close friendship ended, when you ached for a hug but none was forthcoming, or when you were betrayed. Rejection is such an intolerable hurt because we desperately need to be connected.
When I was a teenager, I never once thought that a gun would ever be found in a classmate’s locker. Now you wonder if a gun is as a common on campus as yesterday’s uneaten lunch. I wager that the common motive behind many recent school shootings has been that shooters isolate themselves from family and potential friends.
Do you get the point? If God can’t survive alone, neither can we. Every reaching out to others, every urge to embrace, every act of love gives witness to the Trinity. We imitate God most when we are in love, give love, and receive love. As St. Augustine once said, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you.”
No wonder then that Jesus gives the command for his followers to go and baptize others in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, inviting them to feel God’s presence. Since love is the message of the Good News, love is also the model for us to use. The Trinity is an expression of who we are called to be, people of love, followers of Christ, interacting with one another, and always mindful that, like the Trinity, all creation is linked together and interdependent on one another.
This means being alert to the common good rather than the solo pursuit of private gain; cooperating with one another rather than competing, mindful as Paul tells us that we are children of God, blessed with an awesome Father whose love for all creation is unconditional and forever, redeemed by his son who opened the way for us to live forever and empowered by his advocate, the Holy Spirit, to keep his commandments as our response to God’s love.