Trinity Sunday

I’m not really going to attempt to get into some deep explanation of the Holy Trinity here.  I would leave that to those with greater theological knowledge and wisdom than I have.  Besides, the one thing I have learned in my own faith journey is that understanding him is not as important or as necessary as just living in his love.

And that’s what the Trinitarian God makes possible for us.  To live in his love. Living in his love is what He seeks for us, and living in his love will bring each of us the fullness of our human dignity.  This is what God wants for us and this is what he calls us to do.

Saint Paul understood this.  This is what he means in the letter to the Romans,  “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”   

Sons of God. In the family.  The FAther loves his children, sons and daiughters.  This perfect Father, who's essence is love, loves us so much he calls us to be with him, but in his love.  And as Paul says, it is the Spirit working in us to bring us to this union of love.

As Paul goes on to say, “You did not recieeve a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through whom we cry “Abba, FAther."  We are close to Him as Sons and daughters..   We call him "Abba," a term  of praise and glory...and of intimate love.

Paul continues by saying “the Spirit bears witness with our spirit. that we are Children of God...joint heirs with Christ, if only suffer with hime so that we may be glorified.

Paul is telling us that the essence of the Trinity is our loving Father who gives us life out of that love,

Jesus Christ, the Son, who suffered and died for us and by joining ourselves to his suffering and death, we are also joined to his resurrection and like Christ become sons and daughters of God and can share in the inheritance of the Father...the love of the Father.  

Finally the Holy Spirit is the presence of God with us, in us,  that guides us and leads us as children of God.    

I once heard this descirbed as the Father who loves, the Son who is loved and the Spirit who is the love.   The Father sends the Son out of Love, the Son sacrifices himself for us to the Father out of love, and the Spirit is the love that is ours through baptism.

"God is love" is more than just some feel good sounding phrase on a banner.  God’s love allows us to find joy in the darkest hours, peace in the most difficult times, purpose in a world devoid of purpose and hope for a future that we have yet to arrive at.

God's love allows us be in him, to live in him, to have him with us always, not some distant God who's favor we seek and controls us like puppets, but the loving parent who guides us, gifts us and cherishes us.

God’s love comes to us in the graces of the sacraments, starting with baptism and especially in the eucharist.  Grace is that gift of God to his children that enables us to share in this life of love.  It is grace that leads us to humility, to charity, to hope.  It is grace that leads us to act in love to those around us.  Grace is the life of the Church, the presence of Christ here and now.

In Matthew's Gospel, we read his account of the ascension.  The Son, Jesus Christ, continues his work of freeing us from sin, now with the Church as his body on earth.  As members of that Body, the apostles are commissioned to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  We are baptized in that way and we are sent as the apostles were sent.  

Jesus final words are  "I am with you always."  This is what the Father, Son and Holy Spirit give us...the love that comes from being with God always.