God is mystery. Infinitely happy in himself, he willed to create us to share in his life, happiness and love. He even wanted to draw back the veil that surrounds his divine nature and to show us that he is three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are other mysteries that God has revealed to us, but this is the greatest of them all: the truth that there are Three Persons in the one true God.
As with the other mysteries of our faith: the fact that the Son of God willed to become man and dwell among us, to redeem us by his suffering and death, to establish his Church in order to continue his work on earth, to give us his Mother Mary to be our mother, we will never be able fully to understand this mystery.
But basing ourselves on the Bible and Tradition and following the great theologians we can say that God the Father, in knowing himself, has a perfect idea of himself, an image so perfect that it is equal to himself, another subsisting Person: God the Son. The mutual love between the Father and the Son is so perfect that it likewise is a subsisting Person: God the Holy Spirit. And these three Persons are one God, not three gods, for they all have the one same divine intellect and will. Our Lord shows that all three Persons are equal when he tells us: “When he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will teach you all the truth… All things that the Father has are mine. That is why I have said that he (the Holy Spirit) will receive of what is mine, and will declare it to you.”(Jh 16:13-14) St. Paul also shows this very clearly when he says: “May the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God (the Father) and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”(2 Cor. 13:13).
The Church has always placed the Blessed Trinity in the center of her worship, baptizing, blessing, forgiving, and administering grace “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
God wants me to enter into an intimate, family-like friendship with him, with each one of the divine Persons. God is my Father, the best of fathers, and I must try to live as his son/daughter, worthy to have such a wonderful Father. Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, is my friend who loves me more than all the mothers in this world put together could love their children. God the Holy Spirit wants to dwell in my soul, to enlighten my mind and enflame my heart and guide me on the way to holiness.
I want to express my faith and my devotion to the Blessed Trinity each time that I make the Sign of the Cross and each time that I pray the ‘Glory be.” But I know that the most important moment for me to get close to the Blessed Trinity is the Holy Mass. There the Holy Spirit inspires me to join closely with Christ in renewing the sacrifice he offered on the Cross to the Father for our redemption. In the Mass, Jesus offers to the Father a perfect act of adoration and thanksgiving and begs the Father to forgive us our sins and to shower his gifts upon us.
What is expressed in the Mass should truly be the motto of my life: “through him (Jesus Christ), and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever.”
I want to fall more in love each day with each Person of the Most Blessed Trinity. And so with St. Josemaria I will pray: “May I love the Father. May I hunger for you, my Jesus, in a permanent Communion. May the Holy Spirit set me on fire.” (The Forge 122) rjs
Resources: Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 232-267
St. Josemaria Escriva: Christ is Passing By, nn.83-94; The Forge 2, 122, 296, 555.
Website: opusdei.org.