TRINITY SUNDAY: ​​​​​​​FOSTERING INTIMACY WITH OUR TRIUNE GOD

TRINITY SUNDAY:
FOSTERING INTIMACY WITH OUR TRIUNE GOD

I always longed for love and intimacy in life — to be deeply known and loved by another. Thus, all growing up, I desired to get married.

“Then why have you chosen the celibate vocation where you vow to God alone rather than man?” One might ask.

My response: because I have found the love and intimacy for which my soul was all the while longing.

This is in no way to discredit the great beauty of the Sacrament of Matrimony. For, truly, the love and intimacy to be shared between husband and wife is a gift from God, and can be a human reflection (to a limited degree) of the love God has for us. So, husbands and wives, may you love one another ever-more deeply.

BUT, AS FOR MYSELF - as a religious now, a bride of Christ, I am to be a witness to the world of the espousal relationship we are all ultimately called to have with God for all eternity. I, along with all religious and priests, am meant to be a sign to all that God is not only someone off in the heavens to meet when we die, but He is alive and in our midst now - and, He wants to draw every soul on earth into an intimacy with Him, beginning in this life. 

We celebrate the great Solemnity of Trinity Sunday today in honor of God the Holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Church teaches that the ultimate end of our whole lives as God’s creatures, is to enter into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. “But even now, we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity” (CCC260, cf Jn 17:21-23).

This is what the Sacrament of Baptism is all about. Through the Blood of Christ we are re-invited into a fellowship with God that (many say) can be even deeper than what Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden, because the Triune God now dwells within us who are baptized. Of course, though the Sacrament of Baptism places an indelible mark on our souls, through sin we cut off our communion with God. This is why repentance is so important, and why confession is of the utmost importance for Catholics, in order to be reunited in this fellowship.

The Holy Trinity is the perfect family, because all three members are in perfect love and unity with one another. It’s not only surface love, but all-knowing, all-giving, all consuming love.

And, when we are baptized, we are invited into this family of love. God doesn’t intend to be a distant Father (or Savior or Sanctifier) who works all day and comes home at night to have little interaction with us His children. No, He is a Father, present at every moment to us, always ready to embrace us, and to welcome us back when we stray (as with the Prodigal Son, Lk 15;11-32).  God knows us through and through, more than we know ourselves.

“Lord, you have examined me and you know me. You know everything I do; from far away you understand all my thoughts. You see me, whether I am working or resting; you know all my actions. Even before I speak, you already know what I will say … Your knowledge of me is too deep; it is beyond my understanding … You created every part of me; you put me together in my mother’s womb … when I was growing there in secret, you knew that I was there - you saw me before I was born … The days allotted to me had all been recorded in your book, before any of them ever began … A wonder am I made” (Ps 139).

The HOLY TRINITY, three distinct persons in one God, is the CENTRAL MYSTERY OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, to which everything else points. “There is one … God and Father of all, who is over all (as Father), and works through all (as Son) and is in all (as Spirit)” (Eph 4:6).

To give a few limited analogies of this mystery: Imagine H2O as ice, drinking water and mist — three distinct natures, but it’s all the same substance. Imagine a cherry pie cut into three pieces - the filling is all the same, and even runs together, but the pieces are distinct. And, then there’s the famous three leaf clover of St. Patrick, who, trying to explain the mystery of the Trinity to someone, picked up a clover and said, look, three in one!

What’s most important for us is not that we understand the mystery, but that we enter into an ever-more personal relationship with God as we come to know Him in His three distinct persons. Through our knowledge of Him as such, we no longer have a God who is too abstract and hard to relate to, but, we have a God we are able to relate to on different levels in each of His persons.

We come to know Him as Father and Creator, as Savior, Brother and Bridegroom, and as Sanctifier and Giver of life (there are many more titles for each of them that can be found in different Litanies). Each of these persons longs to have intimacy with us, deeper than the closest friendship we can imagine having (even between husband and wife).

At times we may need God as a Father, at times as a Redeemer or Brother or Perfect Lover, and at times as the Spirit who fills us and inspires us in the way of selfless love. Though they are three distinct persons, where one is, the other two are always there as well.

The graces that we receive through baptism go so deep that we can never fully grasp them in this life. But, we can and should continually deepen our relationship with these three guests who reside within us through the Sacrament. They know and love us through and through, but it is up to us to open ourselves to Them and allow Their graces to penetrate us, as we come to know them more deeply as well.  For, “we do not belong to ourselves alone, but we are one in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” (S. Missalette), and They want to satisfy our deepest longings as only They can do.

To grow in relationship with the Holy Trinity is to spend time alone, sharing our hearts with each Person, just as we would with our closest friend, coming to them just as we are (with no masks or pretending), in all sincerity and truth; and, we’ll be surprised how They will reveal themselves to us, in the quiet and depth of our hearts. 

For it is just such communion of life with our Triune God that allowed St. Elizabeth of the Trinity to say, “It no longer matters now whether I live or die, I’m living Heaven on earth.”

And, it is Our Lady of the Holy Trinity who helps us to foster this deepest communion of life, the fullest living out of our Baptismal Vows. As Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mary has a profound and perfect communion of Life with our Triune God; and her Heart is the “New Garden” into which we have been invited, in order to encounter our Triune God most fully.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2Cor 13:13)!