During my first year of my studies in theology, my classmates and I were very excited to get started on our coursework for the year. We knew we had finally graduated the arduous studies that we had in the area of philosophy, and had gone through our summer break, and we were finally ready to move on. We got our class schedule, and wouldn’t you know it, what was one of the first classes that we had on that schedule?
Triune God.
Now, when we saw that, many of us were slightly terrified. What is this all about? Why are we studying God in this particular way? What can one say about this God that we always know as a Trinity- and what does that mean for us exactly? While that class may not have given an entirely exhaustive view of something that is infinitely above us, even though we only know just a little bit about it, it did work hard to tell us not only what the Trinity was, but why it also mattered. That is where we find ourselves today. We have ended our celebrations of Easter, and now we celebrate one of the central mysteries of our faith: the Trinity. What does it teach us, and why does it matter so much, though?
The first reading this week starts us back into the Old Testament, and we are in the book of Exodus to begin. Moses is going up Mount Sinai, that place of encounter with the Lord. When he does so, the Lord comes down to meet Him, and Moses solemnly addresses Him by His Name: Lord. Yet, in this encounter, as Moses addresses the Lord, the Lord calls out back to Him: the Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and rich in kindness and fidelity.” Moses responds in this dialogue and says to Him: “If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. Pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own.” What this dialogue is, then, is a sort of petition to the Lord to be heard- and not just in a general way, but as children who seek out their father. They need his kindness and fidelity. They need His mercy.
In this dialogue, too, we find a sort of call and response. Moses calls out to the Lord with His Name, and the Lord responds with not just His Name, but so many of his different characteristics as well. So, when it comes down to it, the Lord wants to reveal Himself in a fuller way to the people. These people have been lead about by the Lord in the desert, and as He is leading them, He is slowly telling them more and more about who He is as a God- and how that God wants to continue to be known more and more by them- and because of that, Moses is able to call out to God in these very specific ways.
We continue to the Psalm for just a moment, and this is actually a passage that is not taken from the Psalms but is rather from the book of Daniel- and it is the account of what the three young men who were cast into the white hot furnace said when they were delivered from it said immediately after that encounter. So, they speak out praising the Lord- and it is very clear that the Lord has revealed more about who He is even to these young men, as they were saved even from the clutches of an evil ruler.
The second reading comes from Saint Paul and his second letter to the Corinthians. In this reading, Paul addresses something that would seem like it falls outside the realm of religion- relationships with others. While that may seem like a rather odd topic for Him to address, it is nonetheless something that he feels the church in Corinth needs to hear at that time. So he tells them to mend their ways, encourage one another, agree,, live in peace, and God will be with you. Notice- he doesn’t separate out the ways that human beings interact and with each other and with God- but he rather says that the way that we interact with one another in some way is an invitation or a hinderance to the Lord being with us. Then in the second part, we hear this sort of benediction- or blessing: the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Even at this early time, Paul knows the formula for what it is that makes up the threefold Godhead, even though the Trinity may not be very clearly defined at this point- just yet.
Finally we arrive at the Gospel. This passage is likely fairly well known, and by the Church’s tradition, it has been proclaimed to be at the heart of the Gospel: 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. God did not send his Son to condemn the world, but to save the world. Whoever believes will not be condemned. He lays out several of these important points as reminders of how the interaction occurs between the Father and the Son, and these in no small way not only reflect the love of the Father and the Son, but they also serve to reflect the immense love that the Father and the Son have for each of us as parts of the human family as well. So, this serves to remind us in no small way of God’s powerful and intimate love for each of us- and how important and central that is to our faith.
Yet, how does this really invite us to consider the Trinity? It doesn’t seem like there is a lot of high-level theology going on here- is there?
Well, while it may not explicitly appear so, there actually is a lot that is happening in these three readings- and it all centers around relationship. If we go back to the Gospel for just a moment- what do we find there? The Gospel is entirely centered around the relationship that God the Father and the Son with to experience to each and every one of us. It is not as if God does nothing to express this love, but in fact, God sends His Son to give us all an experience in a deep and profound way of that love that is so deep that He does not wish us to be separated from Him but united to Him in every way. So, even in the worst moments of humanity- and even in the ways it may seem to fall so short, humanity is still invited into relationship with God.
The second way that this Trinity affects us, though, is through our relationship with God from our end as well. Notice, when the reading from Exodus comes up, it recognizes Moses calling out to the Lord, and then, the Lord responds, and then Moses calls out to the Lord again. The Lord is always seeking relationship with us, but what about us with the Lord? The reality of this invitation is that the Lord does seek relationship with us, but we have to be willing to seek after Him ourselves. We cannot just presume that the Lord is going to force Himself on us- but we should be seeking ways to grow and strengthen that relationship at all times. We should enter into prayer, we should read scriptures, and we should enter into the sacraments frequently, to ask the Lord to come to is in these ways!
Finally, though, we should notice something that may seem a bit unusual, but it is nonetheless important to us: we should enter into deeper relationships with one another by this relationship with our God. If we treat one another well, then we will not only be doing a service to one another, but we will also be paying honor and respect to our Lord and our God. The reality of our creation is that we are not designed to be isolated invdividuals, but are rather supposed to be connected to one another as social beings. We are not meant to exist as an island but rather in communion with one another. In no small way, we imitate the Trinity in a powerful way when we live in communion with each other- and we seek to live in harmony with one another as well.
And, perhaps, my brothers and sisters, that is an important takeaway for us to consider today. As we celebrate the Trinity- we aren’t just celebrating a bit of theological knowledge. Rather, we are celebrating a God who is a communion of persons and a social being, who wants to be one with us, who connect with Him, and then with each other as well. May we not simply leave this as the communion of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, but may we truly live out that same communion and not division, seeking to be one with one another and in true communion and harmony.
