For Trinity Sunday

Three in one

As you may know , members of the Catholic Women’s League of Canada are holding their annual Diocesan Convention here in Sault Ste. Marie this weekend.  Since Father Trevor is the Diocesan Spiritual Advisor, he has to spend the weekend at the Convention, and I told him that since I would be here for the Convention, but didn’t need to be there for all the meetings, I would come to celebrate Mass with you.

Today, the Church celebrates Trinity Sunday.  Having just completed the liturgical season of Easter, and particularly the Solemnity of Pentecost last weekend, this Sunday is dedicated to one of the most central mysteries of our faith.  Our Church believes and teaches that there is one God, but this one God is made known to us in three persons: God, the Father who has created all things; Jesus, the Son who was sent by the Father to redeem the world; and the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Father and the Son, who was sent on the day of Pentecost to be the enduring gift by which we might know that our God is always with us.

These three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have existed since before the work of creation began (cf Prov 8:22).  Together, these three are united, they are One God, so when we pray to the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit are also receiving our prayer.  When we ask Jesus for some grace, the Father also receives our request, and the Holy Spirit who is present in the hearts of all believers, ever since that first Pentecost, helps us to receive the answers to our prayers by teaching us to be people of faith, people who believe, people who hope, people filled with the joy of knowing that we are not alone.

While he was on earth, Jesus knew that he himself could never teach us everything that we would need to know about God and about the Kingdom.  That’s why he told his disciples: I still have many things to say to you, but he knew that when the Spirit of truth came he would guide the disciples in all truth.  None of us is able to do all the work that we must do without relying on others.  Each of us must do a little bit, and together, if we share our talents and gifts, we can help one another to grow, and we can build our communities of faith into vibrant examples of Christ’s presence in the world.

While in this world, we must face all kinds of trial, but Saint Paul reminds us that because of our belief that God sent his son Jesus to live and die for us, we live by faith and by grace.  Every day of our lives we should give thanks to God for these gifts.  Guided by the light of our faith, we learn to endure the challenges that this world places before us, and if we endure, we also build character.  The inner strength we call character makes us more aware of the grace of Christ in our lives, and therefore we can hope in Him because his love will never fail us (Rom 5:1-5).  He is present to us, made known to us by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us as our companion in this life, until the day that we meet God face to face in heaven.

Pray to God the Father, to Jesus the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  Ask them to take care of those we love.  Ask them to give us the strength of faith and the grace we need to be faithful disciples and witnesses of love in our world.  Let us also pray for one another, and help one another to be more deeply convinced of the joy and love of our God so that the world around us may come to believe that our God, who has always been present in our world, really, truly, deeply loves us and fills us with the radiance of his peace.