SOLEMNITY ON THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

Brothers and sisters, we gather on this 1^st Sunday after Pentecost and many of you probably don’t realize that this Sunday is a liturgical return to Ordinary Time. O/T as we know, is the liturgical season where we are given this sacred opportunity to walk alongside Jesus in his daily ministry and the Church’s own way to invite us to grow in our faith.

Today, this invitation is deepened because we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. And it is not a coincidence that the celebration begins this Sunday as we begin our faith journey anew.

Perhaps the most beautiful image from the Greek Fathers, notably St. John of Damascus is the image of The Divine Dance (Perichoresis in Greek, the word which shares roots with the word "choreography") to describe the inner life of God.

The Image: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are caught up in an eternal, perfect, dynamic dance of mutual love and surrender.

The Father is the lead dancer, who loves the Son eternally.

the Son the follower, who receives and returns that love.

the Holy Spirit is the Dance itself, who unites the dancers in the living bond of love.

They move so perfectly in sync that they are completely one, yet each "player" retains their distinct identity.

The Lesson: God is not a static monument or a lonely monarch. God is a dynamic, ever young and ever in joyful relationship of love that is constantly in motion. And this is what is beautiful of what we celebrate today. The reality that we were made to enter this communion with God, we are invited to join the dance.

The CCC tells us that when God communicates, he does not just communicate information – he communicates his very self to us. This Sunday, the Church invites us not simply to explain God, but to stand in awe before Him. Because Trinity is not a puzzle to solve. It is the deepest truth about reality itself, that:

God is love.

God is relationship.

God is communion.

 

In the next 24 weeks this O/T, as we see Jesus move from village to village, hear him speak in parables, watch him heal and how he calls ordinary people to follow him, we will realize that this God who communicates himself does not talk to us as mathematician, nor as a businessman, most especially, not as politician.

It is true that when we hear Jesus speaks about a shepherd leaving the 99 sheep in search of the one missing sheep - does not make any business sense. But this is the same to that of a father or a mother – pouring all their time, resources and attention to that one child who is terminally sick but does not mean that the other children are not important.  

Because this God’s own revelation of himself to us only makes sense when we understand who Trinity is and of which we are all have been made in his image: love - communion – relationship.

In today’s Gospel from John, perhaps the most popular verse in all of New Testament, if not of all the Scriptures, Jesus tells Nicodemus:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

For lack of human words and ways to express this beautiful reality: the Trinity breaks the eternal dance to enter time and space, to bring back what was lost. And this move is deliberate, planned from the time of the fall:

The Trinity moves toward sinners.

Toward the wounded.

Toward the fearful.

Toward those quietly carrying shame.

And maybe that is important for some of us to hear today. Because many people secretly live with fear of God. We imagine God disappointed or angry, and waiting to punish. But when God reveals Himself to Moses in today’s First Reading from Book of Exodus, He says:

“The Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

 

That is who God is. That is who Trinity is. This is why the next time we hear the story of the Prodigal Son will make sense. That we can understand why the father who have lost his son kept watch until his return.  

And Jesus came not simply to tell us about the Father, but to bring us home to Him. And perhaps that is why the human heart aches so deeply for love, for belonging, for communion. Because we were created in the image of a relational God.

Now we understand that the loneliness of our world is not merely psychological - it is spiritual. Humanity suffers whenever it forgets that we are made for communion with God and with one another.

You know, recently I listened to a reflection by Fr. Donald Calloway about what happens to the soul immediately after death. He reflected on those first moments after we leave this world. And while the Church does not describe every detail scientifically, Catholic teaching is clear: the soul stands before Christ.

And what struck me deeply was this: the first face we encounter after death is not darkness. It is Jesus. Imagine that. The first reality after our final breath is not emptiness, not annihilation, not nothingness. But an encounter.

And in that moment, everything becomes clear. No more masks. No more pretending. The illusions of this world fall away, the illusion that it is my body therefore it is my choice, the illusion that I am entitled to almost anything and we finally see our life in the light of God’s truth and love - that we are not god, we are not in control, that we are dust.

And suddenly Trinity Sunday becomes very personal.

Because eternal life is not merely living forever somewhere. Eternal life is entering fully into the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Heaven is the Trinity. Heaven is finally being home.

Brothers and sisters, one day every one of us will take our final breath. One day, others will gather around our casket. One day, all the noise of this world will fade.

 

And in that moment, only love will remain.

So today, as we celebrate, let this also be a gentle invitation for all of us. Trinity Sunday invites us to learn how to live inside divine communion while we still live. This invitation to live in divine communion we first received in our own baptism.

From the very beginning of our Christian life, we were drawn into divine communion. The Father adopted us. The Son redeemed us. The Holy Spirit was poured into our hearts.

At Baptism, the priest poured water over us and spoke the words:

“I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

The Trinity was not simply explained to us. The Trinity claimed us. Sometimes we forget who we are.  We begin defining ourselves by our failures, our wounds, our regrets, our fears. Some people spend years carrying hidden shame. Others quietly believe they are too far gone for God.

But Trinity Sunday reminds us:

Our identity is not that we are sinners alone.
Our deepest identity is that we are the beloved sons and daughters of God.

Maybe some of us were baptized long ago, but somewhere along the way, we drifted. Life happened. Faith became routine… or maybe even forgotten. We became busy surviving, busy working, busy carrying burdens. And slowly the fire faded.

Today is a chance to remember. To remember that we were once carried to the font, we were claimed, we were called beloved. And that identity has never been taken away.

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity – we celebrate a love that will never fade.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

Amen.