SOUL SEARCH

Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity

By Fr. Johnny Go, SJ

School Director

Posted Thursday, 26-May-2005 12:15 PM

Homily delivered by Fr. Johnny Go, SJ on 22 May 2005 in Mary the Queen Parish Church

This doctrine of the Blessed Trinity can be a major source of headache for those of us who have to preach about it. I’m sure we’ve all memorized the correct formula: “There are three Persons in one God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” But how many of us can say we understand what it means? The usual objection to it is: “How can 1 plus 1 plus 1 be equal to 1?” And the usual Catholic answer, of course, is: “It’s a mystery of our faith.” In other words: “Just shut up and believe.”

OK, but just for today, let’s not just shut up and believe. Let’s try to figure it out as much as we can. Of course since it’s a mystery, we must be humble enough to recognize that there’s no way we can ever totally understand this doctrine. But maybe if we ask some questions, we might be able to learn a few more valuable things about God and about ourselves.

So what does it mean to say that there are ‘3 Persons in one God’? To answer this question, I propose that we do some kind of numbers game. Let’s ask ourselves about the significance of the number `3’. Let’s ask ourselves why God isn’t just one person or two persons instead of three persons. (Of course we can go on and ask why God isn’t four Persons or five, etc., but we really don’t want to do that since we don’t have time. Besides, it’ll be too complicated. Try making the Sign of the Cross if there were more than 3 Persons!)

Anyway, first question: “Why isn’t God just one Person instead of three Persons? ” Why not indeed? For centuries, prophet after prophet, God precisely tried to convince the Jews to do away with their contemporaries’ pantheons of gods and to believe in one and only one God. The way Yahweh put it to Moses and the Israelites in the Book of Exodus is: “You shall have no other gods before me.” Now, after finally getting the Jews to subscribe to monotheism, here comes Christianity complicating things by claiming that by the way, in that one God, there are actually three Divine Persons. Wouldn’t it be simpler and less mysterious to say that there is just one Person in one God? Besides, if God is truly all-powerful, wouldn’t it be best that there is only one Person in one God because after all, He should be totally self-sufficient and can simply isolate Himself completely from others?

Well, here’s the first lesson that we can learn from the Blessed Trinity: Put simply, God isn’t a loner. God is indeed all powerful and self-sufficient, but He does not exist in solitary confinement all by Himself. When you think about it , He has every capacity and every right to be self-centered or self-absorbed. But He is not. His very nature as a Triune God tells us that He is a God Who is always relating and sharing even within Himself.

Now, we understand better why “no man is an island.” It’s because God Himself isn’t an island. Just like God, we should not exist only for ourselves. We are not meant to withdraw from the world and isolate ourselves from others. We are not meant to be self-centered or self-absorbed, thinking only of our own needs and working only for our own interests. Just like God, we are meant to live with other persons and for other persons.

Second question: “Why can’t He be two Persons instead of three?” Why not indeed? After all, isn’t there a saying that “two’s company; but three’s a crowd.” Why can’t God simply be Father and Son? If that’s the case, there’s no way that God can be misconstrued as self-centered or self-absorbed anymore. That’s still a bit complicated but certainly much easier to explain that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

Here we find our second lesson: It’s true that two is better than one because there can be sharing and love between two persons. However, Divine Love—i.e., God’s brand of love—cannot be exclusive. When two people are in love, sometimes it’s a case of `you and me against the world.’  God’s love can’t be like that. Even the greatest love between two people can end up being too unhealthy. Love between two persons to the exclusion of the rest of the world can be an excuse to fill each other’s needs and to fuel each other’s needs—and sometimes such a love can be pretty selfish too. It seems that true love—the love that God calls us to—does not exclude others.

In other words, “two’s company, but three’s a community.” If we want to become more like God, we ought to love others with a love that is not so exclusive. Love is at its best and at its most divine when it is more inclusive and more universal. A love that is more universal is more divine because God’s love is all-embracing. If we want to become more like God, our love must go beyond our immediate inner circle of families and friends; i.e., it must go beyond #2.

True and divine love requires three partners. For the Blessed Trinity, it means total and mutual love and sharing among the three Divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For us, it means love and sharing among three parties too: God, ourselves, and our neighbor. This communal way of loving can truly be called Trinitarian.

So, when you think about it, the numbers 1 to 3 may well be symbols of three levels of loving—from the most basic, to the more human, to the most divine.

And so, let’s ask ourselves this question: If you had to assign a number to the way you love, which one would it be?

Would it be #1—which symbolizes the most basic kind of love characterized by self-centeredness and self-absorption?

Would it be #2—which symbolizes a more human kind of love, characterized by giving and sharing but also by exclusivity—reserved only for a select group of people—perhaps my family, barkada, and an inner circle of people?

Or would it be #3—which represents a more divine kind of love—God’s brand of loving—giving and sharing with a love that’s less exclusive, and more communal and universal?

On this Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, let us pray for #3: That our love and our lives may become more and more Trinitarian.

JOHNNY C. GO, SJ

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