Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, a wonderful opportunity to reflect in the fact that God is both close to us and beyond us, Intimate and Transcendent. The Eternal Creator of the universe shocked us by establishing an intimate relationship with us. At baptism we receive His Life. Our bodies are sacred, holy, because we are the dwelling place of God. My favorite verse in Scripture is the concluding verse of the Gospel of Matthew and of our Gospel for this Sunday: Know that I am with you always until the end of time. He is always there. We can pray to Him within us, and in times of crisis ask Him for that power that is beyond us. So we pray for miracles of healing, we pray for miracles of forgiveness, we pray for the miracle of His Body and Blood.

We are made in the image and likeness of God, the Book of Genesis tells us. That means that we share in His Closeness and His Beyond. This is how we make God present in our society. We are given His Presence so that others can find Him in us, and ultimately, enjoy His presence in themselves. At the same time, our focus in life must be transcendent, on things above, on God. Yes, we work hard to provide for ourselves and our children, but only so we can better serve God. After all, the goal of all Christian parents is to allow their children to reach their spiritual potential. The goal of Christian parents is to all their children to live forever as children of God. That is why people have children, correct? Children are created for Love, His Love.

How are we to translate this intimacy and transcendence into our modern context? We can do this by focusing on the One who is intimate and transcendent, Jesus Christ. He is one of us, with us always. He is the eternal Son of the Father, present at the dawn of Creation, sitting at the Right Hand of the Father judging the living and the dead.

Every action of our lives must be grounded in our union with Jesus Christ. We do not worship to experience an emotional release, such as we might experience on Christmas and Easter. We do not worship to keep other people happy. We worship because we need the Lord in our lives and in the lives of our families. Parents worship to ask God to help them make Him real for their children. We all worship to experience His Presence in others and to provide others with an experience of His Presence. We worship to ask God to help us draw closer to Him every day of life that we have left. We worship because we have all absorbing desire to live for God.

After all, we are an intimate part of the Mystery of God. We are part of the Eternal Plan of God for His Creation. We pray today for the humility to accept His Mystery into our lives. We pray today for the courage to live His Mystery. May we be in the world, intimate, yet not of the world, transcendent. May the Lord give us the strength to live in His Image and Likeness ■

Ilustration: Albrecht Durer, The Trinity (c. 1511), WoodcutBritish Museum, London