All of us experience the power of love in many and varied ways. For my wife and me, over these past few weeks, we truly have experienced the power of love! We recently spent 5 glorious days playing, chasing and loving and being loved by our #1 grandson Calvin Tyler! We witnessed the joy of marital love at the recent wedding of a beautiful young couple, the bride being a childhood and life-long friend of our daughter Elizabeth. And we also participated in the power of love of family and a community at the funeral of Wendy’s Uncle Collins. Yes, in all three of these examples, we experienced the power of love.
As people of faith, we are called to experience the ultimate power of Love: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, three persons in one God: oh most Holy Trinity, undivided unity, Holy God, Mighty God, God Immortal be Adored!
Every year, immediately after Pentecost and at the beginning of Ordinary Time, the Church gives us this Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The Most Holy Trinity is a mystery, the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in Himself! It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith (CCC 234). The Most Holy Trinity is indeed the power of love.
For centuries explaining the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity has proven to be a challenge for many. It may be important to remember the following truths of the Most Holy Trinity:
The Trinity is one! Three Persons in One God! And each person is wholly and completely God.
Each person of the Trinity is different from the other two. In other words, they simply are not different roles of the same person, each person has a distinct origin.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit share one nature and each of them is fully God.
The Most Holy Trinity is truly the power of love. The Trinity is a communion of love, existing as communion (community) of persons.
For us today, living a life of faith in an increasing hostile world to all things faith, we are called to reflect this communion of love present in the Most Holy Trinity. Nothing in our present day reality is more under attack than family life and marriage. Today, on this Solemnity, we should look to the Most Holy Trinity as our supreme model for Christian family life and the Sacrament of Marriage. The family is also a communion of love, existing as a communion of persons. Not one, as God is one, the family is still called to a loving unity. Like the Trinity, family is called to love by a complete and total gift of self, love that loves for the good of the other. Each of us is called to empty ourselves for the love of another. There is a certain Trinitarian formula to family life in the love of parents, children and grandchildren or perhaps grandparents, parents and children!
In marriage, for the love of a couple to truly love, there is that reality that marriage takes three, not two, but three. For any Christian marriage to endure, Jesus must be at the center of that marriage; again, a kind of Trinitarian formula exists in marriage where the Most Holy Trinity is our model. The Trinity is all about love and unity. The Catechism tells us that the Trinity is inseparable in what they are and inseparable in what they do (CCC 267). This inseparable unity is what God deems present in the Sacrament of Matrimony.
There is not one Sacrament of service but two. Marriage is indeed a Sacrament that is ordered to the salvation of others. It is the responsibility of the one to assist in the journey of salvation of the other. This too is true of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. For those called to give their lives in service to the Church, the Most Holy Trinity is also their supreme model. In Holy Orders, we also see a Trinitarian formula, as the three orders of Bishop, Priest and Deacon exists. In Holy Orders, the ordained kneels before the Trinity and pledges His life for the salvation of others. To be faithful to this vocation, the ordained must reflect the power of love of the Most Holy Trinity in who he is and what he does.
As we leave this celebration today and go out to face our realities this week, let’s take the Most Holy Trinity along with us. Something as simple as praying the Glory Be throughout this week may help us be mindful that the Trinity is with us in all that we do. What about reverently and prayerfully making the sign of the Cross every time we pray? And maybe in the week ahead, we can remember the power of love by doing one simple act of love for one person the world deems unlovable. In our words and actions this week, how well will I reflect the power of that love?
And with a little help from above you feel the power of love, can you feel it? That’s the power, that’s the power of love!
Oh Most Holy Trinity, undivided unity, Holy God, Mighty God, God Immortal be Adored!
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