The Holy Trinity is a mystery

by Shiu Lan
2018-05-27
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40


Romans 8:14-17


Matthew 28:16-20


There is a story about St. Augustine walking on a beach as he contemplated the mystery of the Trinity. He saw a boy digging a hole in the sand and going out to the sea again and again to bring water from the ocean to pour into the hole. The boy told St. Augustine that he was pouring the entire ocean into the hole. When St. Augustine said the whole ocean would not fit in the hole, the boy replied, “You cannot fit the Trinity in your tiny little brain.” The story ends when the boy disappears and St. Augustine is said to have been talking to an angel. (The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine)

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. The Holy Trinity is a mystery that is beyond human comprehension. As Christians, we believe with faith in The Holy Trinity, one God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is Jesus Himself who asks His apostles to believe, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me” (Jn 14:11) and He was in the glory of God the Father’s presence before the world began (cf John 17:5). Jesus also tells them about the Holy Spirit “whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of all I have told you (Jn 14:26). Indeed, on the day of Pentecost, the disciples received the Holy Spirit in the form of “tongues as if of fire which parted and came to rest upon each of them” (Acts 2:3).

In the Gospel Reading of this Sunday, we hear that Jesus tells his apostles to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). We who are blessed with the gift of faith to believe and who have received the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation have been redeemed; our sins have been forgiven. We have become the adopted children of God (second reading). Jesus has His apostles teach us “to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:20). Now it is up to us to obey and live out faithfully what Jesus teaches us so that we can live in holiness and are worthy of being called the children of God.

As a profession of faith in our daily lives, outward signs are important. Would you consider making our faith more visible to other people by making the sign of the Cross in appropriate circumstances, for example in a restaurant before a meal? As we make the sign of the Cross, we are proudly telling others that we are Catholics and we believe in the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

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