Holy Trinity

By Fr. Tom Zelinski, OFM Capuchin

This Sunday we honor the Holy Trinity. Don’t try to “understand” the Trinity. It’s natural to try to think about the Trinity, to imagine what God “looks like.” We tend to think in pictures, but we are dealing in the realm of spirit and mystery.

We have all seen the old pictures: an old man along with a younger man along with a dove. That is someone’s poor attempt at picturing what can’t be pictured.

What does the Bible say? In the First Letter of John we are told that God is love and that whoever lives in love lives in God, and God lives in that person. If God equals love, then we seem to be dealing with relationship. God is a constant, dynamic, interactive relationship of love, which then invites us to be a part of that love.

We say God is a mystery. That does not mean we can’t understand God at all. We can understand in part, but then we are invited to go in deeper. If God is love, then what do we already know of love? We look around at good people. We see kindness,  compassion, service, sympathy. These are signs of the loving presence of God in people. So with God we “understand” by getting involved in the mystery. We see and receive love, and we share love with others. We do not so much “think God” as we “act God” in participating in the flow of love in the world. Creator, Savior, Sanctifier, You, Me.