The Most Holy Trinity (Year A)
June 3, 2023
Sacred Heart, EGF. Saturday – 5 PM. Sunday – 8 AM, 10 AM

Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: the central mystery of Christian life and faith, because it is the mystery of God in himself.
In the Catechism, the Church has a beautiful saying about the mystery of the Holy Trinity:
By sending his Only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time,
God has revealed his innermost secret:
God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
and he has destined us to share in that exchange (CCC 221).
Moses asks God today: “Do come along in our company…forgive our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own.” And God does. He destines us to share in the exchange of love of the Trinity. He receives us as his own.
Of everything that our faith teaches us, this is the central mystery: the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. If we get this wrong, we get God wrong. We get God wrong, we get ourselves wrong, because we are made in his image.
This is why we pray the Creed every Sunday. The Creed reminds us of what we believe of God.
What is the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity?
I believe in One God.
One God.
The Trinity is One.[1] Of one substance. One essence. One God. Not three gods.
We pray In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
We do not pray “In the Names of”…
Three persons in one God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The three persons are really distinct from each other.[2] They are distinct in their relationships.
- The Father is not the Son.
- The Son is not the Holy Spirit.
- The Holy Spirit is not the Father.
Yet they are of one essence. They are one God:
- The Father is God.
- The Son is God.
- The Holy Spirit is God.
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of Heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages,
God from God, Light from Light,
True God from True God,
Begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
Through him all things were made.
In the early church, there were some who were trying to say that the Father existed before the Son, that the Son was created, that he had a beginning.
A Father once looked at his son and said, “Son, I existed before you. You would not have come into being without me.”
The son replied, “That’s true. But you did not become a father until I became a son.”
In that human relationship, one man (a father) did exist before another man (his son), but he became a father at the same time his son became a son.
It is similar in God, except that the Father and the Son both always have been, are, and will always be. We proclaim this when we pray:
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. (Past, Present, Future – Eternally)
The only begotten Son of God. The Father generates the Son. Eternally. Always. He did not have a beginning. That is why he is born of the Father before all ages.
Like the Father, the Son is also God (the Son) from God (the Father), Light from Light, True God (the Son) from True God (the Father).
The Church is reigning in those who claim otherwise.
Begotten, not made, consubstantial (of the same substance/essence) with the Father.
The Son is begotten of the Father, but he is not created. He did not have a beginning.
And he is of the same essence as the Father. The Son has the essence of God.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
The Son ascends to Heaven. He is seated at the right hand of the Father, and the Spirit is sent forth for us.
The Father sent the Son to give us the Holy Spirit.
We pray TO the Father, THROUGH the Son, IN THE POWER OF the Holy Spirit.
God has now fully revealed himself: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
God has also equipped us. He has given us the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit is sent forth for mission.
The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the Central Mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in Himself.
The Father sent the Son. The Son revealed the Father to us.
The Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is now with us to teach us and to guide us into all truth. He teaches us how to pray when we do not know how to pray as we ought. The Spirit prays within us with groanings that cannot be expressed in speech.
God not only reveals himself to us.
He also reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin.
He wants us to share in his inner life. To share in the life of the Trinity. To share in the inner life of God.
It happens in baptism.
We are baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
We become brothers and sisters in Christ,
sharing of the same Spirit,
grafted into the Body of Christ, which is the Church.
What Jesus is by nature (the Son of the Father),
you and I become by grace (sons and daughters of the Father).
This is the Central Mystery of our Christian Faith.
You are not made for this world alone.
You are made for Communion, for “union with”, for union with God.
You are made to be caught up in the life of the Blessed Trinity.
He will join you to himself. You will be divinized by the life of God in you.
Christian, remember your dignity.[3]
We renew it today by our communion with the Body and Blood of the Son,
who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
and who, again, today, becomes one with you in the Eucharist.
[1] CCC 253
[2] CCC 254
[3] Leo the Great.