Trinitarian Love

There is nothing more terrifying to a teacher than giving a class on the Trinity. It is one of the easiest teachings to get wrong because it is hard for us as humans to wrap our minds around the absolute majesty of God. St. Augustine was famous for saying, "If you think you understand God, what you understand isn't God." That is to say, if we think our finite minds can fully comprehend the beauty of the Creator, then we are fooling ourselves. 

But how can the Catechism call the Trinity the central mystery of the Christian faith if we can't fully understand it? Well, just because something is a mystery doesn't mean we can't understand certain things about it. We may not understand God in his fullness here on earth, but we can contemplate his love, his peace, and his mercy. We can also enter into the mystery even if we can't fully comprehend it. 

You and I might never fully understand gravity, the rhythm of the heart and what makes it beat, or the feeling of love, but we sure experience these things every day. So the fact that God is so good that he is hard to comprehend should not prevent us from entering into the good and experiencing it as much as we can. 

Catechism 257 states, "God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the 'plan of his loving kindness', conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: 'He destined us in love to be his sons' and 'to be conformed to the image of his Son', through 'the spirit of sonship'. This plan is a 'grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began', stemming immediately from Trinitarian love. It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church."

What poetic language the Church uses to speak about the love of the Trinity and our destiny of sharing in this trinitarian love. But at the end of the day, even though the language is beautiful, it is still human language. It doesn't even begin to encapsulate the love of the Trinity and our sharing in that love. But, like the poet describing his long lost love and falling short, we can use this feast day to look to heaven and thank God in our human language for the love he has for us, as we await the full experience of it at the end of time. 

From all of us here at Diocesan, God bless! 

By Tommy Shultz