The Most Holy Trinity

Matthew 28:16-20

June 3, 2012

The Trinity and how there can be three persons in one God is indeed a deep and profound mystery.

It is not possible for us to grasp or understand its full meaning.

Yet, there are many things in nature that we do not understand.

For example, we don’t understand how the color red is formed by the vibrations of ether at the rate of 130 million vibrations a second.

 If we were to count all those vibrations, it would take us more than ten thousand years!

Or who of us can explain why a magnet attracts metal?

Rather than trying to understand this profound mystery, it might be wiser for us to be more aware of God’s love and presence in our lives.

Jesus told us that whoever loves me will keep my word, and we will come and make our abode with the individual.

 God loves each one of us from all eternity as the prophet Jeremiah pointed out.

If, at times, we think we are of little value because we become aware of a fault, shortcoming, imperfection, or sin, we should not become discouraged.

God knows our faults but still continues to love us.

God knows us better than we know ourselves.

God knows the alcoholic, the teenager who can’t get along at home, the nagging or angry spouse, the widow or widower battling loneliness.

God is passionately in love with us, and as one spiritual writer expressed it, if we ever deeply experienced God’s love, we would blush.

God’s love is comparable to a beautiful friendship where a friend might tell us some good features about ourselves, but also point out a deficiency.

I once asked some seventh and eighth graders to define friendship.

One of them said, “A friend is a person who can tell you something that you can’t even tell yourself.”

The more we become aware of God’s presence in our lives and experience God’s love for us, the more we should be able to reach out to others in love.

Jesus commissions us as he did his apostles to carry on his ministry.

Jesus told his apostles to make disciples of all nations, so all social and cultural boundaries are erased, no ethnic and gender restrictions exist.

For us it means to reach out to the homeless, people with HIV virus or AIDS, immigrants.

We might feel inadequate as the apostles undoubtedly did.

It reminds me of a cartoon I saw some time ago.

 It depicted the apostles asking Jesus when he was about to leave them, if Plan A does not work, is there a Plan B?

Jesus responds, there is no Plan B!

 If we feel that same inadequacy for a job, Jesus also says to us, there is no Plan B, for you are Plan A.

 I remember a woman once telling me how she did not feel that she could accomplish a certain task.

 I reminded her of Jesus’ words, “I am with always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).

These are some of the most consoling words found in Matthew’s Gospel.

We have the assurance that Jesus will be there to help us.

 Later on she told me that these words inspired her to do the task.

As we are about to recite the Creed, let it be a challenge not to figure out what consubstantial (of one being, of the same substance) means,

but to deepen our faith in this mystery of the Trinity

never doubting how much God loves us, and that Jesus is with us always until the end of the world, inspiring us to show our love to those in need.