Deacon Kevin Gingras
June 15th, 2025
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061525.cfm
Proverbs 8:22-31 Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. That was the sign-off to Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, so Paul knew of the Trinity early on.
We also see the Holy Trinity in Genesis during creation. God, the Creator, starts to speak things into existence. Then God said, “Let there be light, and there was light”. Then the dome, land, vegetation, the sun, moon, fish, birds, and living creatures on the earth. All these things God spoke into being, and suddenly it changed.
Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.
When it comes time to create male and female, God uses a plural term; the Trinity was there at creation because the Trinity is eternal.
We can see the Trinity in Scripture at the Baptism of the Lord:
After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened [for him], and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove [and] coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son,* with whom I am well pleased.”
We also see the Trinity in the Transfiguration of the Lord:
While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
God is the Father almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth. Jesus Christ is his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is of the same substance, consubstantial, as God. Jesus is our teacher and redeemer. By his passion, death, and resurrection, he is our salvation, our ticket back into the paradise of Heaven lost by Adam and Eve. Jesus, along with his mother Mary, reversed the damage done by that first sin of disobedience to God.
The Holy Spirit is the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son and has spoken through the prophets. It is the Holy Spirit who animates us in the Church today. We read in 1 Corinthians:
No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
Bishop Robert Barron spoke on the Trinity, saying:
This means that God must be, in his own life, an interplay of lover (the Father), beloved (the Son), and shared love (the Holy Spirit)
It’s like an infinite relationship between the divine creator, God, and the divine Son, Jesus, and each pours that love back and forth without reservation, and that is the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. Fortunately for us, that love then spills over onto us! The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are co-equal parts of God. The Father is God, but is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, but is not the Son. The Son is God, but is not the Father. Confused yet? I certainly am. I guess sometimes we really need to trust the Church’s teachings with faith like a child, and sometimes that can be really difficult.
Especially because a few weeks ago, in the Gospel of John, we heard Jesus say, “My Father is greater than I”. That can be confusing, but we have to understand context here. Jesus was talking about his human nature in that statement, not His divine nature, which is equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit. There are so many things in Catholic teachings that require faith like a child, as they defy logic. As an overly logical person, this is difficult for me. I need to see the Trinity at work.
If we pay attention, we can see the entire Trinity at work in certain points of our lives. Take confession, for example. God the Father created all, created us, God created the priest we are about to confess to. Jesus the Son is present as the priest, in persona Christi - in the person of Christ - during the sacrament. There have been times, after the confession and absolution, the priest has given me wisdom vital to my spiritual life, that wisdom is a gift to us from the Holy Spirit. That’s the Trinity in action in one sacrament.
Mass is another example where we see the Trinity in action. The prayers often invoke the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, especially during the epicleses when the priest prays for the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into the body and blood of the Son. We bless ourselves and get blessed often at Mass, and we do so in the simplest of all prayers - “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. So, invoke the trinity often with that prayer, not just at Mass but as you begin and end each and every day.
St. Ambrose said: “Rise, you who were lying fast asleep … Rise and hurry to the Church: Here is the Father, here is the Son, here is the Holy Spirit.”
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