Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
May 27, 2018 Cycle B
by Rev. Jose Maria Cortes, F.S.C.E.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we are celebrating the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The mystery of the Trinity is the center of our faith. God revealed himself as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as the mystery of the communion of persons. Today we are invited to contemplate and worship the blessed Trinity, God three times holy.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus sends the apostles forth, saying: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). The communion lived between Jesus and the Twelve is now shared with all the peoples of the earth. Jesus introduced the disciples to the Trinitarian life. Now they have the mission of doing the same. The Church’s mission consists of introducing humankind to the Trinitarian communion.

One thing that has always impressed me is the fact that through Baptism we become temples of God. Since the day of our Baptism, the Holy Trinity has inhabited us, not as a metaphor but as a reality. As creatures, we are in God’s image but through Baptism, God dwells in us, in the deepest dimension of our soul. This is amazing! We can say with Saint Augustine: “But you, you were more intimate than the intimacy found in myself, and higher than the heights of myself” (Confessions). Through grace, the living presence of the Trinity inhabits our hearts.

When Jesus says, “I am with you always” (Mt 28:20), he is saying that he is within us. In the Gospel of John, Christ says: “[…] He [the Spirit] dwells with you, and will be with you. […] If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and make our home with him” (Jn 14:23). Saint Paul says: “[…] It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

Almost a contemporary of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity had a profound experience of God. The Blessed Elizabeth was very talented, intelligent, sensitive, an excellent pianist and esteemed by many friends. She entered the Carmelite order at the age of 21 and died at only 26, following a painful illness. The Blessed Elizabeth had a clear awareness of the presence of the Trinity in her soul. With her mystical experience, she reminds us of a forgotten truth, that God is present in us. She wrote: “It is there, right in the depths, in the Heaven of my soul, that I love to find him, since He never leaves me. God in me, I in him, oh! That is my life!” (Blessed Elizabeth, June 14, 1901, Letter 62).

We live in a time when it is necessary to rediscover the gift of our faith, the richness of our Baptism. We need to marvel at what we are. We need to understand how great and beautiful it is to be Christian. Our time requires a personal joyful experience of the truths of our faith, allowing us to bear witness to what we believe. Blessed Elizabeth also wrote: “A soul united to Jesus is a living smile which radiates him and which gives him.” (Blessed Elizabeth, December 1905, Letter 252).

To understand what we are, we need silence and prayer. Without silence, it is impossible to be aware of the presence of the Trinity within us.

May the guidance and intercession of the Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity help us discover the closeness and the love of God. Let us accept the invitation: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20). Amen.