The Trinitarian mystery and us

WITH the celebration of the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, we are reminded of the most important mystery of our faith, the fount of all the other truths and mysteries of our faith, since it shows us the inmost, intimate life of God in himself, even before being the Creator of the universe.

We have been created in the image and likeness of God, adopted children of his, and therefore made to reflect and, in fact, participate in his life that is Trinitarian. The implications and consequences of this truth are endless, but let's tackle at least a few of them.

Through this mystery, which was revealed to us in full by Christ, we are told that God, though one, are three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, because the absolutely one and simple God is never an idle nor a lonely God. There is an eternal relation within the one God due to his perpetual and perfect knowing and loving within himself and with his creation.

He is rather a God who is full of dynamism, an eternal dynamism of knowing and loving. His knowing and loving are no mere acts that begin and end, that come from potency to act, but are so perfect that they generate the three eternal and subsistent persons in that one and the same God.

His knowing and loving gives rise to the person of the Father who knows and loves, as well to the person of the Son who is the one known and loved, and the person of the Holy Spirit who is the very love between the Father and the Son. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are eternally inseparable in their dynamic life of knowing and loving.

With respect to God's creation, the three persons are also all involved, with the Father being the decider or author of it, the Son as the pattern of creation with us, man, as the masterpiece since we are his image and likeness, and the Holy Spirit as the implementor and the keeper of creation, and thus our sanctifier.

The whole God is involved in our creation and keeps it according to his will, his designs and the natures in which each creature is created. In our case, God created us with the power to know and to love through our intelligence and will, which precisely make us his image and likeness.

He will always respect us the way we are, even if we abuse these powers by making them  as if they are solely our own, to be used exclusively according to our own designs, instead of referring them always to God and his will.

But God, being a Father to us, full of love, mercy and compassion, will also do everything to bring us back to him even if we stray. Just the same, there is always the possibility, given our freedom which can be misused, that in spite of what God is doing for us, we can dare to go against him and his will.

The key relevance of the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity to us is that it's a truth that sets the basic tone and attitude we ought to have toward God and toward everybody and everything else.

Its unfathomability should not hinder us, but should instead spur us to seek God in adoration and in extreme humility. Without this attitude, we expose ourselves to great dangers, as we would dare to venture life on our own, and would likely fail to relate the things of our life, whether favorable or not, to God.

We would be left to our own devices, and to fend for ourselves in all the things of this life and of the world, the trials, challenges, temptations, as well as the successes and accomplishments that can spoil us instead of improve us.

We would miss the real meaning and purpose of our life here on earth, and would simply pursue our own goals. And this is the general world situation today. They call it the post-modern era when God is completely left out of the picture and everyone is free to interpret things the way he wants them.

We have to learn to deal with God in his Trinitarian life. Among the practical implications of this truth are that we need to pray, to live always in the presence of God, to refer everything to him to see how we ought to think, say, or behave. Our knowing and loving God and others should reflect the knowing and loving within God. This will be an endless affair for us!