Since I don’t have a screen up here, use your imagination with me:
Picture an adult walking with children behind,
all of them holding onto a rope, the end of which mom or dad is holding.
I’ve actually seen this in action.
It’s a simple but effective way for a parent, teacher, or scout leader
to keep the children close — and that can be really important.
I hope this image helps us keep today’s feast of the Holy Trinity
closely linked to Easter and Pentecost.
This feast emphasizes the “why” behind
Jesus giving us the Holy Spirit:
to bring us into the very life of the Holy Trinity.
Jesus’ whole mission — becoming human, dying on the Cross,
rising from the dead, and sending the Holy Spirit —
is to bring us into relationship with God.
Today we focus on who that God is.
Some people say, “Who cares if God is a Trinity?
I just believe in God — that’s enough.”
But think about it: the Romans called Julius Caesar a god.
Is that the God you believe in? Not mine.
A god is not the same as the God.
And since God himself tells us who He is,
wouldn’t it be rude to reply, “Oh, I don’t care”?
The reason we profess God as Trinity
is because Jesus himself revealed it. He didn’t use the word “Trinity,”
but He commanded us to baptize
“in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
But let me illustrate why clarity matters.
I have a friend who I hadn’t seen for many years;
and we got talking and he caught me up.
He’d gotten married, and it turned out, his wife was Muslim.
Then he told me, he became a Muslim; he renounced Jesus!
And he tried to say, oh, it’s all the same.
My heart broke when I heard this!
No disrespect to our Muslim neighbors, but it’s not the same —
and Muslims would be the first to tell you so.
They do not accept that Jesus is God the Son,
or that the Father sends the Holy Spirit through Jesus.
This goes to the heart of Christianity:
God is not a solitary “other,”
but a relationship of Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The whole mission of Jesus
is to draw us into that relationship, that divine Life.
Of course we ask: How can I possibly “relate” to God?
Without grace, it’s impossible — no more than a gnat can relate to us.
Yet this is the point:
God descends, down, down, down, way, way down, to our level.
But not to say “hi” and leave; but to take us with him, back …
Up, up, up, in, deeper, deeper, all the way into the heart of God!
*** At 11 am only ***
At this Mass, we have a young man
who is making his profession of faith as a Catholic,
receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation and his first Holy Communion.
____, you entered this Divine Life through baptism.
Through confession and Holy Communion,
God will nourish this life in you.
Maybe right now, you’re thinking, “oh I’m so nervous!
I don’t know what’s happening!” That’s okay!
God himself, with our help, is doing all the work for you.
In confirmation – and you’ll hear this in the prayer in a moment –
He “seals” you with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
God wants to “seal” that Divine Life in you, and you, in Him!
Thank you for being here, today,
so the rest of us can see God’s Plan unfolding before our very eyes.
***
Saint Paul said, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
what God has prepared for those who love him.”
That “what” is nothing less than sharing in the life of the Holy Trinity.
Jesus came to show us the Father. He and the Father are one.
Through Him the Father gives us the Holy Spirit.
He is the Vine, we are the branches — sharing His very Life.
Not two different forms of life: one Divine Life.
You might say, wow, how then do I receive this Life?
God gives it to us through baptism, confirmation,
the Holy Eucharist, and all the sacraments.
We repair the damage from sin, through confession and conversion.
We share this Life together as Christians, nourishing each other.
This is who we are as Catholics! We share this Divine Life.
And we tell others in our own words what we have been given,
and what we are eager to share.
So, short answer: why do we believe God is a Trinity?
Two reasons: because Jesus told us so.
And because that Trinitarian life is where Jesus is leading us.
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