The Most Holy Trinity

Homily for the Solemnity of Most Holy Trinity

The relationship between the lectionary readings and the theological themes of this day is the reverse of what it is found throughout most of the Liturgical Year. At other times the themes found in the readings constitute the theological meaning of the day. It is just the reverse with this particular feast day. The readings are chosen because something in them either exemplifies or elucidates the doctrinal theology of the feast.

The first reading for today from the Book of Proverbs presents us with the mysterious figure of Dame Wisdom. Throughout the Book of Proverbs, Dame Wisdom is contrasted with the oppositional figure of Dame Folly. Dame Wisdom appears alongside God at the time of the creation of the universe. Several characteristics about her have always been puzzling and never really adequately explained. First, it is clear she is not human, but is she divine? Only a deity would have been present before creation began, and yet the Hebrew word used to explain her relationship to the creator is translated as “possessed.” God the creator possesses Wisdom, and she is present and active during God’s wondrous acts of creation. However, as active as she may have been in these primordial events, it is God who really creates.

In the Book of Exodus, we learn God’s name. When Moses asks what name should he should use to identify God to the Israelites, God says, “I am who am.” In other words, God’s name is “Being.” God is, and God is One.

We then turn to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans in which the overarching theme is justification by faith. Every blessing in the passage rests on the believers having been justified by faith in Jesus Christ. St. Paul also introduces the concept of the Holy Spirit through whom God’s love has been poured out into our hearts. Again and again, St. Paul emphasizes the role Christ plays in this transformation from guilt to justification. Because we have been reconciled with God, we are now in right relationship with God. There is also a touch of St. Paul’s already-but-not-yet eschatological thinking. Those who have been justified by faith already have peace with God, already have access to grace. However, they still wait in hope for the ultimate glory of God. The Trinitarian nature of St. Paul’s faith and teaching is clear. It is faith in Christ that justifies us with God; it is faith in Christ that gives us peace with God; it is faith in Christ that grants us access to the grace of God. Because of the reconciliation won for us by Christ, the love of God is poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. In other words, Christ brings us to God, and the Spirit comes to us from that same God. God, Christ, and the Spirit are all involved in our ultimate union with God.

It is our Gospel reading that attempts to show the relationship between the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit. St. John introduces the third person of the Trinity as the Spirit of truth. That Spirit will lead us to truth. The spirit is somehow to fill the void caused by the absence of Jesus and to fill it not so much with the presence as with a form of teaching. Jesus insists that the Spirit will not bring new teaching but teaching the Spirit has heard from another. However, the Spirit of truth is more than a messenger who merely repeats the words of another. Jesus says that this Spirit will also announce things that are to come. In other words, the Spirit will unfold the mysteries that Jesus has announced when he was with the apostles, mysteries that had not yet been brought to completion.

Even though the Hebrew Scriptures contain absolutely no reference to a Trinitarian God, this mystery is implied throughout the Old Testament. In the Book of Genesis, God says, “Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.” Notice that God’s words imply the fact that human beings are made not in his image but in our image, after our likeness. It is these words through which we profess our faith in one God, one Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son. The very word “Trinitas” (the Latin word for Trinity) is a combination of the Latin words for “three” or “Trios” and the word “one” or “Unitas.” We do not believe in the three gods but in one God in three persons.

The theology that lies behind our faith has been proclaimed by the great theologians of the past: St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard, Alexander of Hales, St. Albertus Magnus, Bl. Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, St. Bonaventure, and St. Thomas Aquinas. However, despite their efforts to explain who God is, we are still left with this impenetrable mystery. St. Thomas Aquinas himself said at the end of his life that all his writing was so much straw in the wind when we are faced with the image of our God hanging on a cross and dying for us. This is precisely why we cling to the image that is given to us by St. John the evangelist who taught us that God is Love.

As St. Paul has taught us, we are people of who are now-but-not-yet. We will all come to understand when we stand in the presence of God and realize how much God has loved us.