A religion teacher introduces the lesson of the day with these words, “Class, today we are going to understand what the Trinity is.” A student raises his hand and says, “Teacher, we’re not supposed to understand it. The Trinity is a mystery!”
Yes, the Trinity is a mystery, but it does not mean that we cannot have some insight into this most beautiful Mystery.
Gabriel Marcel, a French philosopher, says that we can have access to mystery not through abstract reasoning, but through our concrete experience of the mystery. Today’s Scripture readings report three concrete experiences that reveal three essential characteristics of the mystery of the Trinity.
MERCY OF THE FATHER. In the First Reading (Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9), we hear the account of the personal experience of Moses with God who reveals His name to him describing Himself as “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity” (Ex 34:6). Here we catch a glimpse of God revealing an essential dimension of His personality: a merciful God offering a covenant relationship to “stiff-necked people.”
This God who appeared to Moses was fully revealed by Jesus through His own Person, His actions and words such as the Parable of the Prodigal Son as the Father of Mercy.
LOVE OF THE SON. In today’s Gospel (Jn 3:16-18), Saint John reports the most important words that Jesus says to Nicodemus. Jesus’ long discussion with his secret follower provides the context for the most quoted biblical passage – John 3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” The word “gave” does not only refer to the incarnation when “the Word was made flesh,” but also to the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross. John, the beloved disciple, was with the Mother of Jesus at the foot of the cross. He personally witnessed how Jesus, the “only Son” of the Father, totally gave his life out of love for us.
The love of the Son, “who has come from God” (Jn 3:2), is the key to unlock the mystery of God. Saint John insists that we have to believe in the Son, we have to accept him, we have to love so that we can know God. Our salvation or damnation depends on this. “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 Jn 4:7-8). As Saint Paul confessed, “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).
JOY OF THE SPIRIT. In the Second Reading (2 Cor 13:11-13), Saint Paul urges us to “rejoice.” After his conversion, he realized that “the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17). Having personally experienced the mercy of the Father and the love of the Son and the joy of the Spirit, Saint Paul greets us with a Trinitarian greeting that that would be defined by the Church in the fourth century as the Blessed Trinity: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Cor 13:13).
Created in the image of the one God in three divine Persons, let us reflect that image by being merciful, loving, and joyful.