God Is Love

Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Today we celebrate the truth of the Trinity. Most of us find this mystery very confusing and perhaps the most difficult idea in our faith. Indeed, this mystery is the most precious and practical and beloved of all; namely, the Trinity can only be explained by the truth that states that God is love.

All four of the readings that we proclaim today on this solemnity have been chosen in order to help us put our faith in this truth. God is one, yet God is also three. Practically speaking, this conundrum is impossible for us to comprehend. Consequently, down through the ages we have heard various sources try to explain this reality. Perhaps the most famous source is St. Patrick who held up a shamrock, a simple piece of vegetation that has three leaves that is one plant. Others have used a triangle with each person of the Trinity sitting at the angled sides of this geometric figure. Of course, God is not a shamrock, nor is God a triangle. As St. John the evangelist tells us in his first letter, God is love, and that truth is the only possible answer to this mystery. Rather than trying to understand, we must simply put our faith in the God that we know of as Love.

If you were paying close attention to the reading from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, you surely recognized one of the options for the greeting with which the presider at the Eucharist welcomes the congregation. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship or communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The Gospel proclaims the verse that has become the most widely known Scripture. “God so loved the world that God gave his son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” The reading from the book of Exodus reveals God by name, a name that is so sacred to our Jewish brothers and sisters that no Jew has ever said God’s name out loud. They truly believe that anyone who speaks this name lays claim to possessing it. Consequently, they regard the one who speaks that name as a blasphemer. When Jesus declared, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” they tried to stone him to death. If Jesus was not divine, that was the most blasphemous thing anyone had ever said or could ever say. Because Christians believe that Jesus is divine, he had every right to speak it.

The Book of Exodus tells us that God cried out when passing Moses atop Mount Sinai. Having come down in a cloud, the Lord stood with Moses there and proclaimed his name. “The Lord, the Lord, and merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness.” God’s self-definition includes God’s personality. God is merciful, forgiving, and kind. St. John simplifies that for us when he tells us that God is love.

God expresses love for us when God creates us. Because God is our Creator, we call God “Father.” God also express his love for us when God died on a cross to redeem us. Because God is our Redeemer, we call God “the Son.” God expresses love for us by remaining with us at all times and in every situation. We call God the Holy Spirit which has been poured into us at our baptism and confirmation. The creator formed us out of the earth and breathed life into us, creating us in God’s image and likeness. Looking upon this creation of man and woman, God uttered those famous words: “This is very good.” The Ten Commandments only makes sense when we look at them from this perspective. Good people love God, honor their parents, do not kill others, do not steal from others, do not lie, do not commit adultery or covet the things that others have, etc. These commandments are simply a covenant that tells us that just as God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and rich in kindness, so, too, are we called to being merciful, gracious, patient, and kind. It is only in this way that we can live up to the Creator’s words that identify us as being very good.

God is the Trinity because God is love. God’s love is expressed in the same way that we express love, in the same way that fathers and mothers love their children, in the same way that fathers and mothers would do anything to keep their children from harm. The depth of God’s love is expressed in every crucifix that hangs upon the walls of every Catholic’s home. The crucifix tells us what God has done for us. It also asks us a question. What will you do for God.