Today as we celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity, we have to first realize that the doctrine of the Trinity does not attempt to explain God. It only explains to us in a very elementary way what God has so far revealed to us about himself. To describe the tip of an iceberg, which is that small portion above the water, is in no way a description of the entire iceberg. So then, when we affirm the Trinity, it is not an explanation of God, but rather, a simple way of describing what we know about him.

The celebration of the Trinity is the celebration of perhaps the deepest mystery of our faith. The church has been trying to understand and explain this mystery for over 2000 years with minimal success. We sometimes confuse the mysteries of our faith as problems that need to be solved. The difference between mystery and problem is immense. A problem is something that we can solve, like managing to pay our monthly bills. But mystery is not something that can be solved or even managed; it is beyond our reason and comprehension. We human beings dislike not being able to understand something, and consequently, in that sense, this is perhaps a true celebration of our faith.

The Trinity is the most astonishing, mind-bending truth of all: that although there is only one God, yet in this one God, there are three persons. We could never have known this on our own, except that it was revealed to us through Jesus. In the Gospel Jesus speaks of himself as the Son, sent into the world by the Father; and at the end of his earthly life, Jesus will reveal that the Holy Spirit is to be poured out upon us, as a joint gift of the Father and Son.

Although we speak of 3 persons in God, they are not persons like we are, and yet, in a certain sense, like us, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct from each other, and they relate to each other. God does not live alone in some solitary, isolated splendor; God is an intimate circle of love and understanding.

Despite the fact that we state our belief in the Trinity within the context of the Creed, which we recite at each Mass, it is difficult for us to recognize God as a person, let alone 3 persons in one. As Christians we do not believe in God as a power or force like in Star Wars – “May the force be with you.” Rather, we believe that God can and does become involved in our lives and that we can relate to God as we do with other people. Our ability to have a personal relationship with God is wonderfully illustrated in today’s 1^st reading. We hear Moses in a conversation with God on Mt. Sinai, where he, in a wonderfully familiar and almost naïve manner, speaks intimately with God. Obviously, Moses felt free enough to speak to God as a friend when he says, “If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company.” Indeed, God was not remote, uncaring and impersonal. This is evident from what God said to Moses, “The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” These are the qualities found in a loving relationship.

The Book of Genesis says that we are created in the image and likeness of God. The image in which we have been created, the image in which we are called to live out our lives, is that of an intimate community of persons, bound together in love. The Holy Trinity is not a doctrine to be studied; it is a reality to be lived. In the words of today’s Gospel, we are called to love one another, precisely as God loves us; that is what it means to live in His image, for that is His image. And if we do, then the life of the Trinity is indeed our life.

St. Paul in today’s 2^nd reading, in begging the Church at Corinth to love each other, has no difficulty in appealing to the mystery of the Trinity, when he says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” For Paul that mighty mystery is not some vague, bewildering truth without any relevance to daily living. On the contrary, St. Paul suggests that the loving union between the 3 Divine persons should inspire us to live together in unity and love. Our God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – dwells within us, “a God of tenderness and compassion,” as today’s 1^st reading described him. And we are called to reflect some of that God-like love in our dealings with others.

Unfortunately, there isn’t any real yardstick with which to measure the quality of our love in relationship with others, because love is really indefinable, but it does have certain necessary qualities.

Love, whatever else it may or may not be, is necessarily gentle. There is nothing more directly opposed to love than to intentionally hurt someone, be it physically, emotionally or spiritually. If the quality of gentleness is missing, then whatever else that relationship might be, it is not love.

Love is also not a need. It is free choice that a person makes because he or she wants to, because there is a value, a goodness seen in their choice. A person is in a loving relationship when that is where he or she wants to be; not needs to be. That is the only way our love can be what the gospel describes today, as God’s love for us -- a free self-giving love, which is realistic for us. St. Thomas Aquinas once wrote in commenting on God’s love, “Love is the ultimate truth. It moves us to see things and people as they really are. It moves us to see the goodness and the beauty that is already there, even when that is not so obvious sometimes. But more, it moves us to see empty spaces, the flaws as well, and to affirm, to insist on the goodness and beauty that can and should be there.”

Love is also an intimate relationship where there is ease in self-revelation, and a confidence in the gentleness of the other person, knowing that what was revealed will not be misused, and where there is a sense of companionship. And love is never a struggle for power, for that after all is violence, which is opposed to love.

It is precisely a life marked by relationships that are gentle, freely chosen, that are truthful, realistic, centered on goodness of those around us, that are intimate, and seek companionship rather than the submission of the other, that God wants for us. It is then that we reflect the image of the Triune God who created us. It is only that living and life that really works, for nothing else stirs up in us the life of the Trinity, and gives us a share in that life forever.