Blog Post - 6/13/2022 - Reflection on THE MOST HOLY TRINITY [continued]

 

Today the Monday after Trinity Sunday, I would like to offer a few additional thoughts on the Trinity for your reflection, but first let join with me and pray:

Lord, open my lips to praise your holy name, cleanse my heart from all worthless, evil, or distracting thoughts.

Grant me the wisdom and love, I need, to pray this Office with reverence and devotion. 

Father let my prayer be heard in your presence, for it is offered through Christ Our Lord, please fill me with Your Love that I may shine Your Radiance in this world.

Come, Holy Spirit, [Come] fill the hearts of Your faithful. 

And enkindle in us the fire of Your love.

Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be created.

And You will renew the face of the earth.  Amen.

 

Now that we have prayed let’s look at the Compendium of the Catholic Church for some insight on the Most Holy Trinity.

 

“44. What is the central mystery of Christian faith and life?

‘… the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity.’”

 

“45. Can the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity be known by the light of human reason alone?

‘God has left some traces of his trinitarian being in creation and in the Old Testament but his inmost being as the Holy Trinity is a mystery which is inaccessible to reason alone ….  This mystery was revealed by Jesus Christ, and it is the source of all other mysteries.’”  [Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church]

Tertullian, one of the theologians of the early church, who explained the Trinity this way, God the Father is "a deep root, the Son as the shoot that breaks forth into the world, and the Spirit as that which spreads beauty and fragrance.”

Today’s reflection on the Trinity comes from an ancient story about St. Augustine, one day he took a break from writing about the Trinity to walk along the seashore. There he came across a child with a little pail, intently scooping up a pail full of water out of the ocean, then walking up the beach and dumping it out into the sand, then going back down to scoop out another pail of water to pour into the sand.

Augustine asked the child what he was doing, and the child explained that he was "emptying the sea out into the sand."  The Bishop gently tried to point out the impossibility of this task, the child replied, "Ah, but I'll drain the sea before you understand the Trinity."

There's truth to that child's comment. We don't understand the Trinity, but we're ready to go to war to defend it. Well, maybe not anymore. But there was a time when battles were fought over church doctrine, and even today churches are being split over whose interpretation of the Word is correct. And it's tragic.

God in three persons--Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Do we fully understand this wonderful doctrine? No, it is a mystery to be lived and loved because it is perfect LOVE.

May God Be Praised, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.