Dt. 4:32-34, 39-40; Ps. 33:4-6, 18-20, 22; Rom. 8:14-17; Mt. 28:16-20
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is the mystery of God’s salvation in the history of the world revealed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, Moses asked his people, “Did anything so great ever happen before?” The people heard the voice of God the Father, they experienced the hand of God coming to save them as a nation among nations and how he tested them. Now they “must keep his statutes and commandments” that they may prosper. No nothing so great happened before Moses, but a greater thing has happened in the history of salvation with the incarnation of Jesus, God the Son coming to his people. Not only that but with his ascension into heaven came the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit to remain in us, who he calls his own.
Who can explain the mystery of one God in three persons? Early in church history this was the center of the debate trying to make sense of who was Jesus. How could he claim to be God and yet pray to the Father? In the same way he would say “The Father and I are one” (Jn. 10:30). In what is known as the prayer of Jesus, he prayed to the Father, “Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began–that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us” (Jn. 17: 5, 21). Jesus always was before the world began and is for all eternity. The Catechism of the Catholic church teaches us that “God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation” (CCC 237). The work of creation in which we can seek him is from within ourselves.
We can seek to know the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit from within, from our own nature though imperfect as it is. The nature of humanity is that it exists as body, soul, and spirit. The body is not the soul for the body dies and the soul remains alive. The body has a brain but the mind comes from the soul and yet body and soul are one for what affects the body affects the soul and what affects the soul affects the body. The body and soul however are not separate from God their creator who gives us the breath of life and who without his breath we would immediately die. His breath is the spirit of life that dwells within and yet it remains the spirit of God who is the life giver and still we are one person in a multitude of humanity.
The Catechism teaches us that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are consubstantially one God in three persons, one in being of the same substance in relation to each other CCC 251-254). Our calling is to bring our humanity, body and soul in unity with the Trinity, to be perfect as God is perfect. To the degree we remain a sinful people this cannot be, for the flesh and the will are weak. Our flesh and soul are in battle for we now have the Word given to us by God the Father, made flesh to be one with us in the Son and strengthened by the Spirit of truth and yet we resist. We carry our sins beginning with pride before us and turn away from God’s revelation to his people.
We do have hope, but our time is limited. When we see the visible sign from saints who remain incorruptible, we see how the soul overcame the flesh by the power of love. A soul that is perfected by God gives witness to his call to perfection. This is the prayer of Jesus that we may be one with the Trinity but also one within ourselves body, soul, and spirit. The battle is won when we turn to him with all our love and desire.
The day is coming when those who have responded to the call to perfection will be transformed and receive a resurrected imperishable body. Then we will see God as he is and come to know him in his glory. Let us prepare ourselves that we will be numbered among his own in his kingdom for all eternity. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and we are called this day to be one in being with the Trinity.
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