The Most Holy Trinity (Fr. Francis)

The mystery of the most Holy Trinity is a basic doctrine of Faith in Christianity, understandable not with our heads but with our hearts.

All prayers in the Church begin in the Name of the Holy Trinity and end glorifying the Trinity. All Sacraments are administered (we are baptized, confirmed, anointed, our sins are forgiven, our marriage is blessed, and our Bishops, priests and deacons are ordained) in the name of the Holy Trinity. We bless ourselves, and the priest blesses us, in the Name of the Holy Trinity.

There are only vague and hidden references to the Trinity in the Old Testament. But the New Testament gives clear teachings on the Holy Trinity.

At the Annunciation, God the Father sends His angel to Mary, God the Holy Spirit comes upon her, the Power of the Most High overshadows her, and God the Son becomes Incarnate in her womb. At the baptism of Jesus, when the Son receives baptism from John the Baptist, the Father’s Voice is heard, and the Holy Spirit appears as a Dove and descends upon Jesus. At the Ascension, Jesus gives the missionary command to his disciples to baptize those who believe, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

In John’s Gospel, chapters 15–18, we have a detailed account of Jesus’ teaching of the role of each Person of the Holy Trinity: a) God the Father creates and provides for His creatures. b) God the Son redeems us and reconciles us with God. c) God the Holy Spirit sanctifies us, strengthens us, teaches us, and guides us to God.

I get asked a lot of questions, but not the kind that you would expect. Rarely does anyone ask me what happened at the Council of Ephesus in 431. I know the answer: a fight broke out. Rarely does anyone ask me what happened at the Finance Council meeting or the Presbyteral Council meeting. Most of the questions are simple: “Does it bother you to have to wear the same thing every day?” My favorite of these simple questions and one that I get asked on an annual basis begins, “Since you only work on weekends . . .”

But sometimes the questions are a little more pointed. Sometimes the questions are a little more personal. “Are you ever lonely, Father?” “Do you ever feel isolated, Father?” Those are more than questions of history and clothing, aren’t they? Those are the questions you cannot run from too easily. Those are the questions for which we all have an answer and ultimately, those are the questions we all must answer.

Adam was alone in the garden, but then the Lord gave him some animals to name. But Adam still felt like he was alone in the garden, and the Lord created Eve. We remember that beautiful scene in the garden when Adam first sees Eve and says, “At last, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” At last, Adam was not alone in the garden.

But when Eve was alone in the garden, the serpent came to tempt her. When King David was alone in the palace and he gazed on the rooftop of his neighbor, he embraced temptation and sin. When the Lord Jesus was alone in the desert, and later when he was alone in the garden, the devil came to tempt him. Temptation, it seems, often finds us and searches for us in isolation and in loneliness.

But we were not created for isolation and loneliness. We certainly experience them. We certainly suffer from them. Sometimes the people who were supposed to be there with us are the ones who place us in isolation and separate us. Sometimes the ones who are supposed to gather us are the ones who separate us. We experience it. We suffer from it. We fight against it. But we weren’t created for isolation and loneliness. We were created for something else. We were created for something better because God was not alone when we were created. We are not the result of the Lord God looking for company. We were not created as the answer to the question of God being lonely and isolated. From all eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have lived in perfect harmony, perfect blessedness, and perfect communion. Nothing is needed. Nothing is lacking. There is no loneliness. There is no isolation. There is only love.

The Holy Trinity needs absolutely nothing for blessedness, happiness, perfect communion, and harmony, and yet, we exist — because from that love and for that love, we were created. We are not needed, we are wanted. We are not needed, but we are loved. We are not needed, but we are desired by the God of heaven and earth. For God created us not for isolation and loneliness, but for communion with Him and with creation and with each other. The tragedy of sin, the echo of the “No” of Adam and Eve, fractures the communion, it damages those relationships. Sin leaves us at times in isolation and loneliness. But the triumph of God’s grace, the echo of the “Yes” of Mary, the ever-present reality of the “Yes” of Lord Jesus, and the continual “Yes” of the Church to her Lord, our “Yes,” draws us step by step and day by day into the communion for which we were created.

The Lord Jesus who conquered sin and death by the blood of his cross desires to conquer our loneliness and our isolation. Now, as he draws us into the mystery of the Eucharist, into that holy communion where the choirs of angels and the citizens of heaven above sing in exultation, we admit our need. We admit our loneliness and our isolation. We cast the brokenness of our hearts into the fires of his Sacred Heart. As we do, Jesus will say to you and he will say to me, as he said to Peter and Andrew and Matthew and John, “Come, follow me.”

As I come to the end of my ministry here in USA, I would like to thank you all in the name of Holy Trinity for all that you have been to me for the past five years. Your love for God, faith, prayers, support, encouragement, and friendship are appreciated very much. You all will be remembered at the Altar of the Lord as I offer my daily Mass.

May the blessings of Almighty God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit come down on you and remain with you forever. Amen.

Fr. A. Francis HGN