God in a Box

Holy Trinity Sunday 2015

Gospel of Mathew 28:16-20

Then Jesus approached and said to them,“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

"Holy, holy, holy!  Lord God Almighty!  All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth, and sky and sea; Holy, holy, holy!  Merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity..." The words of this beautiful hymn invite me to pause and reflect on the Holy Trinity, one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian Faith.  How can we explain the concept of one God in three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit?  

I like the analogy of the Holy Trinity as an equilateral triangle with all angles at the same degree to one another.  The three end points are the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. The "one" triangle can only be formed when all three angles meet with one another.

This morning after mass I just so happen to drive through "Jack in the Box" for a breakfast platter and coffee.  I thought to myself, "How many times have we thrown God in box, deciding to stow him away like an old toy in a toy box never to be picked up again?  We forget about the amazement the beloved toy used to give us when we were younger.  Now as jaded and disillusioned adults we ignore God, and we don't have time to teach our children about God, much less the concept of The Holy Trinity."

I've been slowly growing my library with some outstanding books, essays, and compiliations written by Dominicans.  I look for good juicy quotes as well as ideas for future blog posts.  I recently came across a brilliant compilation of meditations by Fr. Bede Jarrett, O.P. , an early 20th century English Dominican priest.  In a meditation he wrote titled "God governs every event at every moment" he describes the Blessed Trinity as follows:  

"The Blessed Trinity is, then, the name we give to that mystery of the divine Persons, who are three yet one, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, constituting in Themselves one single God. Of these, the Father represents power, for I begin my Creed by professing belief in "God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth."  To God in the person of the Father, therefore I attribute omnipotence.

Of the Son, I learn that He is the Word...of the Father, that He is the figure of the Father's substance, the brightness of the Father's glory.  By all of this I see that the Son is represented as the reflected image of the Father, the idea that the Father has of Himself, the knowledge of Himself in the mind of the Father, the exact reproduction of Himself begotten of His own intelligence.  To the Son, therefore, I attribute Wisdom..

Hence, also, God's knowledge of Himself must be followed by a second and final act, His love.  That love, then, which proceeds from the Father and the Son (for in love, there are always two) is the Holy Spirit.....

By my belief in the Holy a Trinity, then, I acknowledge, in the one single God, Power, Wisdom, and a Love, and I repeat that these three are one.  Therefore are these three inseparable. "

Wow, this is deep and thought provoking.  What are your impressions?  Are you still mystified by the Holy Trinity?  I think most of us are.  Fortunately, we have Holy Scriptures, writings of the Saints, and the Catechism to help us understand.

The Holy Trinity governs and meets our needs no matter what.  We may not understand the mystery, but we know through faith and trust that these three-persons-in-one, with power, wisdom and love, never abandons us.  

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning and ever shall be world without end.  Amen!

-J.