THE HOLY TRINITY B

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Some truths, like the very existence of God, can be known by human reason alone. Others, like the fact that God is One in Three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – can only be known if God reveals them to us. We could never conclude on our own that God is a Trinity. In Christianity one plus one plus one equals one: one God. So, in the Creed we recite, we affirm that we believe in One God and then go on to talk about “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” For centuries on this day the church recited the long and complicated Creed of St. Athanasius.  In one section it states, “Father incomprehensible, Son incomprehensible, Holy Ghost incomprehensible.” George Bernard Shaw used to mutter, “the whole thing is incomprehensible.” 

It may be helpful to turn to those Christians throughout the ages we call saints and mystics on the topic of the Trinity. Take, for instance, Julian of Norwich, a woman in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries who lived in a cell, attached to the outer wall of St. Julian’s Church in Norwich.  Julian received a series of visions or “showings” and wrote them down in the first book ever written in English by a woman: Revelations of Divine Love.

The text begins:
“And our good Lord answered to all the questions and doubts which I could raise, saying most comfortingly: I may make all things well, and I can make all things well, and I shall make all things well, and I will make all things well; and you will see yourself that every kind of thing will be well. When he says, ‘I may’, I understand this to apply to the Father; and when he says ‘I can’, I understand it for the Son; and when he says, ‘I will’, I understand it for the Holy spirit; and when he says, ‘I shall”, I understand it for the unity of the blessed Trinity, three persons and one truth; and when he says, ‘You will see yourself’, I understand it for the union of all men who will be saved in the blessed Trinity. And in these five words God wishes us to be enclosed in rest and peace.”
 
She refers to “these five words” which are: I may, I can, I will, I shall, you will. With these five words, we learn that God’s wish for us is to be “enclosed” in rest and peace! God wants to surround us with Divine Love, and each persona of the Holy Trinity is forever and constantly involved in this enclosing or surrounding us with Love.  It is a quality that humans are to share with God: that generous ability to put the interests of another weaker party before one’s own, most especially the needs of the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers from other countries who are sojourning in the land. That is, God’s Divine Love, as revealed to Julian, is acting with love on behalf of others just as God acts with love on our behalf.

Since scripture says we are made in God’s image, then we are to be those people who exemplify  acts of faith and love toward others in the same way that God desires to enclose us – surround us – with God’s own Divine Love, rest, and peace. This suggests that the five words are, in the end, meant for us.  To be made in God’s image is to wake up each morning and say the five words: I may, I can, I will, I shall, you will see yourself. Then we  go about our days, generously putting the interests of others ahead of our own. We will then be enclosed and surrounded by God’s Divine Love in rest and peace as we share that Divine Love with others.

In this receiving and giving of God’s Divine Love, we discover that all shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of thing shall be well; we find ourselves enclosed in rest and peace.

Today’s Feast is not only an opportunity for thanking God for telling us more about himself. It is an occasion to take courage as we strive for deeper unity within the human family. God reveals himself to us in order to make us more like himself – not just as individuals, but as families, nations, and an international community. We grow in unity as we give ourselves away to one another, just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit give themselves to each other completely.