Friar’s Corner: The Mystery of the Trinity
Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR
Proverbs 8:22-31; Psalms 8:4-9; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15
Happy Father’s Day! Marriage and parenthood are great gifts from God and a great challenge. God designed this process to help him continue creating the human race. Once a married couple settles down being married, there are many challenges to bring two different lives and backgrounds together. There must be a lot of give, take, yielding and forgiveness to move forward. Couples have to create a “new relationship” (or world) that didn’t exist before. The sacrament of marriage gives couples a lot of God’s help. Once a couple begins a family, at first, the mother has the most responsibility. As the sons reach at least two, the father slowly begins to take more of a role.
Fathers have a lot of responsibility for loving their wives more and not just bringing home the money and doing some maintenance. Parents learn a lot by experience since each child is different. Sensing those differences and their different gifts is necessary. Fathers need to guide in consultation with their wives. They must also take a religious responsibility to grow to become also a spiritual leader. Getting closer to Jesus and having some prayer and a little study time is very important. Because many partners have difficulty in yielding to the other, couples separate. That is very difficult for the children, especially the boys. Sons need their father’s direction and love. If that isn’t there, they are deficient in learning how to raise a family when they grow up.
Fathers, I pray for you to allow the Holy Spirit to give you all the tools you need to be the spiritual heads of your family and work at more love and forgiveness with your wives.
The mystery of the Trinity
The Trinity is the greatest revealed mystery of our Christian faith. This feast of the Holy Trinity is a major belief of Christians, which separates us from all other religious beliefs. Most religions have some understanding of a god or gods, often who are more human than divine. The understanding of a God in three persons was alien even to ancient Jews. Reading the Old Testament is a background for understanding what God revealed in Jesus Christ and their Holy Spirit.
The belief in God as one in three came only gradually by degrees. Exodus, the first book actually was written only five hundred years before Jesus came, tells us how God created everything in the universe from nothing. He designed it, brought it into being and continues to bring things into being and mostly in order. He is, as it were, the glue or energy that holds all things and beings together. If not, we would simply disappear.
The interesting feature of the thoughts about God in the New Testament is relationships with himself. God revealed a desire to have personal relationships in the life of those persons who accept baptism. God’s love for us is the cause of our being freed from the sin of our first parents and the collective sin of humanity. Especially in St. John’s gospel, the Trinitarian idea is situated in an account of what God did for the world (humanity) in sending us his Son to heal, teach, guide and die on the cross for our sins. The Father showed us that he accepted the sacrifices of his Son by raising him from the dead and together the Father and Jesus sent their Holy Spirit to guide all humanity the world over until Christ returns for the final judgment.
Dogmas
We call the major beliefs of our faith “dogmas.” This is the major one. The early followers of Jesus put together these major things that Jesus Christ taught them. We could not reason this one out. God revealed that in them, “There is only One Nature in our God, there are three distinct Persons in that nature: The Father, the Son Who proceeds from the Father by generation, and the Holy Spirit Who proceeds from the Father and the Son by spiration. These three Divine Persons are coequal, coeternal, and consubstantial; hence, they deserve coequal glory and adoration. All life begins in (God the) Trinity, comes from the Trinity and is destined to end in the Trinity,” if we follow God’s plan for our life. The above quote is in short, precise theological language. It is taken from the “Dictionary of the Liturgy,” page 624 by Rev. Jovian P. Lang, OFM.
Our baptism is done in the name of the Holy Trinity. And our Eucharistic Liturgy (Mass) begins and ends with this Trinitarian phrase. We gather and are blessed in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are also sent out into the world blessed by the Trinity to bring their love to others. The beginning of this celebration of the Holy Trinity goes back to the 8th century and by the 14th century was extended to the entire church on the first Sunday after Pentecost.
May our gift of understanding given to us by the Holy Spirit at our baptism bring us to have a deeper faith and joy in this mystery. We can have a deep personal relationship with each member of the Holy Trinity. My good earthly father passed to eternity several years ago. Now God, the Father, frequently offers me encouragement and direction. May our Father, Son and Holy Spirit draw us deeper into a relationship with each of them.
Blessings to all of you and most especially on this Father’s Day, I pray for all of you.
+ Father Bob Hilz
fbhilz@gmail.com
(© 2019 Father Bob Hilz, TOR)
