This Sunday is the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, a major feast of the Church. Christianity is the only trinitarian religion, and belief in the Trinity, i.e., that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the most important teaching that distinguishes Christianity from all other religions in history. It is therefore the most important reason that all religions are not alike.

No other religion thinks about God the way that Christianity does, not Judaism, not Islam, not any other faith. Jesus himself taught us that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not three gods, but one and the same God.

St. Augustine wrote a long book trying to explain God as Trinity. He only half succeeded. There’s an anecdote about his attempt. He is pictured walking along the Mediterranean coast while trying to understand the Trinity. A little boy was digging a whole with a tiny shovel in the sand on the shore. Augustine asked the child what he was doing. The boy replied that he was going to empty the sea into the hole. Augustine smiled and said, “You’re never going to be able to do that.” The child replied, “I’ll do it before you’re able to understand the Trinity.”

Notwithstanding the difficulty, Augustine came up with an explanation that may come closest to succeeding. St. John the Apostle wrote that God is love (1 John 4). Augustine reflected on love as the essence of God. His trinitarian formula posits Love as the subject, Love as the object, and Love as the bond between the subject and object. Hence, love loves love. The Father, considered as subject, loves the Son, considered as object. And the love shared between them is the Holy Spirit. At the same time, considered inversely, the Son loves the Father, and the love between them, once again, is the Holy Spirit. Both the Father and the Son love us, and that love is the Holy Spirit.

St. Augustine continues his explanation. The Father sends the Son as Jesus to show us what love is by dying for us. But the Son is not constrained to do this by the Father, because the Son loves the Father and also loves us. So the Son willingly dies out of love for us. The Father and the Son then send us the Holy Spirit through baptism, thus enabling us to love God and our neighbour.

Fortunately, we don’t have to understand the Trinity, because as the child told St. Augustine, it’s not likely that we will. But we should be able to marvel in wonder at the reality of that same God who is love and whose love for us in Christ fills our souls with love “poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5).

Enjoy your weekend,
Fr. Robert Dodaro