The Most Holy Trinity

With great joy, today the liturgy of the Church celebrates God’s revelation of Himself to us, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. God is the Awesome One who existed before all time and Who in His Goodness created the universe and all within it. God the Creator is God that we refer to when we say, “God the Father”[1].

But this Awesome God, is also and Awesome Lover. St. John tells us how God sent his Son to save the world from the evil that the world had turned to. Our Lord is sent not just to the world in general, but to each of us so that we might be saved through him.

The Power of Love, the Power that binds us as One is itself the very Spirit of God. The Unity that we enjoy, the power of God that we possess, is the Presence of God acting in our lives, the Presence of the Holy Spirit.

My brothers and sisters, we belong to this Awesome God, this Awesome Love, this Awesome Presence. We are baptized in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God’s life dwells within us. God dwells within us.

We carry God in the fragile vessel of our humanity. We seek his Presence and Love and Power and pray to Him within us and all around us. He is Ours and we are His. This is the Gift of the Almighty to each of us, a gift that should not be trivialized with concepts of Force, but a gift that should be treasured with reverence and respect. With love.

How beautiful it is to be alive to God! How sad it is when we forget His presence, and how devastating it is when we lose His Presence.

The celebration of the Most Holy Trinity is a celebration of the Dignity we have received by being admitted into Mystery. The Mystery is God. His Power and Love and Presence are greater than our minds’ capabilities. He possesses Us, and we possess Him, not for ourselves, but to continue His Presence in the world.

[1] 18th May, 2008, Trinity Sunday. St John I. Readings: Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9. Glory and praise for ever!—Daniel 2:52-56. 2 Corinthians 13:11-13. John 3:16-18.

Ilustration: Master of the Votive Picture of Sankt Lambrecht, The Holy Trinity (1430), Linden, 25 x 21,5 cm, Museum mittelalterlicher österreichischer Kunst (Vienna).

The small picture is an early work of the Master of the Votive Picture of Sankt Lambrecht, who for a long time was known to scholars by the name of Hans von Tübingen. In front of the golden background, which also extends over the frame, God the Father is supporting the tortured body of the dead Christ by His armpits. Though dead, Christ holds up His pierced right hand. The Dove of the Holy Ghost is hovering between them. Six angels are fluttering around the figures of the Holy Trinity, their gestures being directed towards Christ. The role of the Father is twofold. On the one hand, He is taking His Son back, thus accepting his sacrifice for mankind. Yet, the very same gesture serves to present and recommend this offering. This type of representation had developed in the surroundings of the French and Burgundian courts. In fact a tondo showing the same theme, by Jean Malouel, may have had a direct influence on the Vienna master. This is evinced not only by the iconographic resemblance of the two pictures; the memory of the round painting by Malouel may also have contributed to the composition of the Vienna panel. The representation seems to be opening up like a funnel from the green drapery of the bottom right corner. The helpless falling forward of the body of Christ appears to create a vortex, which sweeps the angels along too: it pushes away the one in the bottom right corner, while the one in the turquoise blue robe collapses backwards as though fainting. The symmetrical axis of the composition is the diagonal line running from the bottom right to the top left corner; the figures of Christ and of God the Father diverge at equal distances; the two angels in red also look like mirrored images of each other. The representation itself becomes condensed in the triangle under the other diagonal line. The almost tactile modelling of the bodies and the fact that not even the interpretation of the angels and of the Holy Ghost is stylized, but is based as much as possible on observed experience, are signs pointing to a further development of painting.