FAUSTO GOMEZ OP
“Master, where do you live today?” Jesus is present in all people, in those who live honest, loving lives. In a most special way in those who have the grace and the love of God through Jesus in the Spirit: “If you love me, you will keep my Word and my Father and I will come to you and make our home with you” (Jn 14:23). With the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit, who is the love of the Father and the Son. With divine grace and love come into our hearts the Blessed Trinity. Thus, the Blessed Trinity dwells in us: the One and Triune God is present in our souls. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor 3:16).
(What is the meaning of the Blessed Trinity in our life?) The Mystery of the Blessed Trinity is indeed the central mystery of our faith. The Holy Trinity is a constant presence in our life. We were baptized “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We often make the Sign of the Cross: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We end the recitation of the Psalms, of the Mysteries of the Rosary and of our prayers with “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.” The priest addresses all the prayers to the Father, through the Son in the Holy Spirit. And we make acts of faith, hope and love to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
The mystery of the Trinity is an unfathomable mystery. An old priest who was hard of hearing asked his high school class of religion: “Who is the Trinity?” A boy at the back of the class, on the last row, who had a soft voice, answered: “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” The good old priest tells him: “I cannot understand.” The smart boy answered him: “Father, you are not supposed to understand; it is a mystery.” Yes, a deep mystery we strongly believe in and cannot understand – a mystery we can unveil, little by little, the more we live our hopeful faith in love, as the saints tell us.
Our God is One and Triune, One God and Three different Persons. We say: “In the name…” and not in the names of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Absolute unity and real distinction among the Three, absolute equality and communion: paternity of God the Father, filiation of God the Son and love of the Father and the Son, or the Holy Spirit. One God and three different Persons, or three different relationships: of the Father to the Son, of the Son to the Father, and of the Father and the Son to the Holy Spirit. Like three faces of the same God, “three caresses of love,” “one love and three lovers,” “three Persons one love have.”
God the Father is the First Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is our Creator and our Father, the Father of the prodigal son and of the lost sheep. Before ascending into heaven, Jesus the Only-Begotten Son says: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father…” (Jn 20:17). We are adopted children of God, our Father, our Father/Mother. We do not pray: my Father, but our Father. St. John Paul I: “God is Father and – still more – Mother.”
God the Son is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity whoreveals to us God as Father and sends with the Father, to his disciples, the Holy Spirit, He is Jesus Christ: God and Man, our Savior and Redeemer, our brother, our friend. In Him, we are each other’s brother or sister. Jesus isour Way and Truth and Life, and our light for the journey. He died for the whole of humanity and lives as the Risen Lord.
God the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Love of the Father and the Son, our advocate and consoler. He dwells in us with the Father and the Son: the awesome indwelling of the Blessed Trinity! He is the grace that helps us to pray, to be in solidarity with one another, especially with the needy, and to carry our cross patiently and joyfully.
Our God is not a solitary or lonely God: One and Triune God. He is communion, and we are community: the community of disciples, the Church which is our Mother and Teacher.
We are Christians! Who is really a Christian? He or she who is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and is faithful to his or her baptism. S/he is a person who knows God as Father, confesses Jesus as the Son of God and a Man-for-Others, and experiences the Holy Spirit who tells them that Jesus is alive, that we are called to live in Him, and that outside Him there is only darkness (O. González de Cardedal).
What is the nature of our faith, our devotion to the Blessed Trinity? We are urged to examine the primordial Trinitarian attitude in our life. The filial attitude: we are children of God. The fraternal attitude: we are brothers and sisters of Christ and in Christ of one another. And the charismatic attitude: we are prophets, witnesses of the love of God the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.
May persevering prayer strengthen our faith in the Holy Trinity, our communal and personal prayer directed to God our Father, through Jesus His Son and our brother, and in the Holy Spirit our consoler.
With St. Paul, we say joyfully: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
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