The Great Mystery of the Trinity

June 12, Sunday, Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Daily Readings:  Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

The book of Proverbs says, "Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth." Before he established the heavens, I was there. In the gospel, Jesus says to his disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but cannot bear them now." When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his authority, but whatever he hears, he will say, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Leo Tolstoy tells the story of three Russian monks who lived on a faraway island. Nobody ever went there. However, one day, their bishop decided to make a pastoral visit to learn more about their religious life. But when he arrived, he discovered that they did not know even the Lord’s Prayer. So he spent all his time and energy teaching them the Our Father and then left them, satisfied with his pastoral visit. But when his small ship left the island and was back in the open sea, he suddenly noticed the three hermits walking on water; in fact, they were running after the ship. When they approached it, they cried out. "Dear Bishop, we have forgotten the Lord’s prayer you taught us. The bishop asked them, overwhelmed by what he was seeing and hearing. But dear brothers, how then do you pray? They answered, "We say, there are three of us and three of you. Have mercy on us. " The bishop, surprised by their simplicity, said, "Go back to your island and be at peace."

Simplicity is the hallmark of Christianity. The third person of the Trinity is a mystery that one cannot comprehend. Mystery means that we can never say the final word about God; there is always more to discover, there is always more to share, there is always more to experience. It is the dogma of our faith. Our minds are too small to grasp the intricacies, and, therefore, we have to accept this dogma in faith and trust in the Lord. The three Russian monks prayed to the Trinity in their simple way and recognized the third person of the Trinity as God.

In the first reading, the book of Proverbs speaks about wisdom, which was with God at the world's creation. Wisdom is the ability to judge a situation and choose the correct action rightly. Wisdom is personified as a woman. God gave man the honor of beholding his wisdom and contemplating his thoughts. Wisdom did not evolve. It is God’s creation.

There is infinite wisdom and a perfect understanding of all things. All of man's learning is the result of revelation from Him alone. It was not discovered by human effort. There is so much material available today on the Internet, and we are living in an information explosion. This information is nowhere compared to the wisdom or knowledge of God.

In this passage, Jesus speaks once more of the unique relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the great mystery of the Trinity. Three people share everything, even divinity, so there is only one God. I worship God, whose secret is too big for me to understand, yet it is even more mysteriously open to me.

I hear Jesus say that he has much more to say to me. What would Jesus say to me right now? What would be too much for me to hear? What things to come will the spirit tell me? How do I feel about that? Am I perhaps afraid of what Jesus might ask of me? Am I afraid to listen to him if I hear something I don’t want to hear? I ask the Holy Spirit to guide me into the truth and to help me trust that what Jesus wants will always be life-giving for me.