Holy Trinity
By Fr. Julio Gonzalez, SF.
The feast of the Holy Trinity is the feast of the
feasts. A week ago, we celebrated Pentecost, a feast related to the
coming of the Holy Spirit. Next Sunday we'll celebrate Corpus Christi,
a feast related to the Son of God. When we honor the martyrs and
saints, actually, we recognize the presence of the Spirit in their
lives. When we honor Mary, we praise the faithfulness of the mother of
the Son of God. Besides, if we don't know the Father and the Son,
Christmas and Holy Week are only a time of vacation. If we don't know
the Holy Spirit, then, the church is another corporation, like IBM or
Microsoft.
So, the feast of the Holy Trinity is an occasion
for us to tell God: Thank you, we now know you, and we acknowledge you
as our source of life, faith and love. The Book of Genesis says that we
live because the spirit of God, "God's breath," it is said,
is within us.
The Spirit not only brings us to life, but also
brings us together. In the Bible, in God's
plan, to be together is so important, that a person separated from his
family, his neighbors, his community and church, is already dead. We
cannot live without acknowledging and welcoming one another. Our spirit
is not meant to exalt our personality or our ego. As a matter of fact,
the spirit is not to be kept within but to be given. I will say this as
it is said in the Bible: we are not created for ourselves but to give
ourselves to one another. This is the way to learn to give our lives to
God.
The Bible puts it also in this way: we are
created to give ourselves to one another, because we are created in
God's image; God is not a possessive being but a self-giver.
When Jesus speaks about his Father, he doesn't
talk about a distant Father, or a solitary God. The relationship
between Jesus and God was so personal, so unique, that the disciples
saw through Jesus a kind of love that is not related to our feelings
but to our spirit.
When we hurt a friend, we may hear from him:
"You have hurt my feelings." Even when this friend says
nothing, we may feel that he is hurt, that we hurt him. Well, Jesus'
love was not only in his feelings. Jesus didn't love us inspired only
by his feelings. He loved us inspired by his Father's love for all
creatures, especially for his lost children. This kind of love was not
only a feeling (feelings come and go), but came from the spirit, the
spirit Jesus shared with his Father.
When Jesus commanded his disciples to: "Go
and make disciples of all nations," He told them: "Baptize
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit."
Jesus could have said: baptize them in my name; or
baptize them in the name of my father. Instead Jesus said to them:
"Baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit." Why? Because the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
are and work, so as to say, together, in communion of life and love.
What is the difference between one God and the
Holy Trinity, namely, one God in Three persons? We may mistake God with
one almighty ego, with one almighty will. Can you imagine three
almighty egos living together? Impossible!
Sometimes we feel ourselves like this God whose
ego or will is above everything and everybody. But this God is not the
Father or Jesus, but a liar that cannot make us happy. Why? Because true and lasting joy only comes to us when life blossoms
around us and within us. And life only blossoms when we give ourselves
to one another, sharing on earth the communion of life and love that
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit share in heaven.
