There’s a well-known legend about
Saint Augustine that’s likely being told in countless churches on this Solemnity
of the Most Holy Trinity. The legend tells of Saint Augustine contemplating the
Trinity while walking along the beach. As
he struggled to understand this great mystery of our faith, he came upon a
young boy running back and forth from the water to a hole he had dug on the
beach, using a seashell to carry water from the sea and pour it into the hole.
Curious, Augustine asked the boy what he was doing. The boy said, “I’m trying
to put the entire sea into this hole.” “That’s
impossible,” Augustine replied.” The boy
stopped what he was doing, looked Augustine in the eye and said, “It is no more
impossible than trying to comprehend the Holy Trinity with your small
mind.” Well, if it’s impossible for a
Doctor of the Church to understand the Trinity, why should we bother trying at
all? Today’s readings give us the
answer.
This morning’s readings invite us to contemplate God’s triune presence in
every aspect of our lives. In our first reading from Proverbs, we learn that God’s
wisdom permeates creation. Our Psalmist ponders
the magnificence of the work of God’s fingers, amazed that God would give us
dominion and responsibility over it. Saint Paul, in his letter to the Romans,
emphasizes God’s desire for us to be in fellowship with him through Jesus
Christ. And in our Gospel, Jesus acknowledges
that understanding all of God’s ways is more than we can bear at this time but promises
to send the Holy Spirit, who will guide us to all Truth. Our readings, taken together, encourage us to
find God’s revelation in all of creation, in fellowship with Jesus, and in the
workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
People have been thinking about God since the beginning of time, as we
should. A certain curiosity, a desire, a
longing for God is woven into our DNA. People think about God so much that the academic
discipline known as theology has grown up around it. Simply defined, theology is the study of God,
but I think Saint Anselm’s definition captures the theologian’s quest much
better: faith seeking
understanding. “What is handed on to us wants
to be understood. This understanding is not merely logical and rational
comprehension. It entails realization and integration.”[1] Understanding God, then, isn’t just an
academic exercise; it’s a call to action; it helps us change our lives and our
world for the better. Allow me to
explain.
We know from Genesis that we’re created in the image and likeness of
God – that we’re God’s representatives here on earth given the responsibility
to care for his creation. The Trinity is
the model from which we are fashioned, so knowing our triune God helps us to
know ourselves and our responsibilities as stewards of God’s creation better. It helps us recognize God’s movements in our
lives and act in accordance with his divine will. It helps us know right from wrong, Truth from
fiction.
We should also try to understand God because God wants us to be in relationship
with him through Jesus Christ. To enter into
a relationship, we have to know and understand each other. God knows everything about us. We should at least try to know something
about him. Knowing and understanding God
through Jesus leads us into the only relationship that “bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things” (1Corinthians
13:7). It leads us into a relationship
of love, perhaps the most important reason to at least try to understand God.
Saint John tells us that God is love, so the mystery of the
Trinity is a mystery of love. “The
Father is the transcendent Source of Love; the Son is the historical embodiment
of that Love; [and] the Spirit is the accompanying presence of that Love.”[2] The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity we
celebrate today “invites us to contemplate the triune God as love constantly
outpoured.”[3] It reminds us that we were created to love
and to be loved. Yes, there are truths
about God and life and love that we can’t know through our own efforts, but our
loving God continues to reveal himself to us through his Word, through the
Sacraments, and through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so we can know and
understand and love him better. It’s up
to us to bother to try.
I think about God a lot, particularly in light of my roles as
husband, father, and deacon, and it has served me well. Since it’s Father’s Day, I’d like to share
with you a few things that I’ve come to understand about our triune God that
have helped me to be a better father:
+ From God the Father, I’ve learned the power of calm, quiet presence when
life seems out of control. A few weeks
ago, a young man who knows me as the father of two daughters asked me what he
should do when girls act crazy. I told
him that I had no idea what he was talking about. Then, when my daughters were out of earshot,
I told him that in one of my favorite Old Testament passages, God appears to
Elijah not in a roaring wind, not in an earthquake, not in a fire, but in a
small still voice. Calm, quiet presence may
not always be the desired response, but if it works for God, it works for me.
+ From God the Son, I’ve
learned to teach by example. Jesus
taught best by practicing what he preached.
He came to show us not only that it’s possible to live life as God
commands, but that it’s the best and only way to reach our full human potential.
Like most parents, I am not shy about
telling my children what to do and what not to do, but sometimes children don’t
listen. They imitate really well,
though, kind of like monkeys. So with Jesus
as a model, I’ve found that the most enduring lessons I’ve taught my daughters
came not from my words, but from my example, and I’m proudest when my daughters
make good choices not because I told them what to do, but because they paid
attention, and made the right choice by themselves.
+ Finally, from the Holy Spirit, I’ve learned the value of wise counsel. Some time ago, my daughter decided not to try
out for an activity she loves. She had
valid reasons for coming to that conclusion, but I thought she was making a
mistake. I could have criticized her
decision or forced her to try out, but I turned to the example of the Holy
Spirit as Counselor to give her some simple advice born of knowledge and
experience, while making clear that in the end, the decision was hers. She changed her mind; she tried out, and she
was accepted.
It takes time and
effort to think about God, and even more to integrate the fruits of our
contemplation into our lives, but I can tell you that I am a happier man, and
hopefully a better husband, father, and deacon, as a result.
It’s easy for us to think that contemplating the Trinity is best
reserved to the ivory towers of academia or the chapter halls of monasteries or
seminaries, but remember, that Jesus chose ordinary people to receive his
revelations. Our small minds have no
excuse then. That little boy in the
Saint Augustine legend knew that it was impossible to pour the entire sea into a
hole on the beach, but he didn’t stop trying.
Saint Augustine didn’t stop trying to understand the Trinity either: he
spent 30 years working on De Trinitate, his monumental treatise that
remains one of the most comprehensive works on the Holy Trinity some 1,600
years later. No, we will never
understand everything there is to know about our triune God but trying is still
worth the effort. Why bother? Because just trying to understand God,
leads us to the Truth, it leads us to fellowship with God, and it leads us to everlasting
love.
[1] John Shea, The Spiritual Wisdom of the
Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers, Following Love into Mystery
(Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2010), p. 204.
[2] Shea, p. 202.
[3] Mary M. McGlone, “All the Names of Love,” National
Catholic Reporter, vol. 55, no 17, May 31-June 13, 2019, p. 17.
