Reflection From

Fr. Davis

May 31, 2026

This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. We celebrate the divine revelation of God as three Persons in One. Having just completed the Easter Season with the Feast of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit, we now rejoice in the fullness of God’s revelation as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Officially dedicated as a Feast within the Church by Pope John XXII in 1334, the establishment of Holy Trinity Sunday bids us time to honor and contemplate the profound mystery of God. The placing of the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity on the Sunday following Pentecost emphasizes the fullness of Divine Revelation through the Incarnation of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The Trinity, being the essence of God, is the central mystery at the heart of our faith and at the heart of our prayer. God didn’t reveal Himself as a single Divine Person but as a unity of Persons. We see this throughout Scripture. It is mentioned most directly in the New Testament. St. Matthew mentions at the end of His Gospel, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) In John's Gospel, Jesus makes multiple references to His relationship with God the Father. In John 10:30, Jesus mentions, “The Father and I are one.” During the Last Supper Discourse in John’s Gospel, which we read throughout the Easter Season, Jesus makes continual reference to His Father. He mentions, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father…Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.” (John 14:9-10) Jesus then goes on to mention, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth,...” (John 14:16-17)

The Church Fathers explain to us that this difference between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is not one based on substance, all three are Divine Persons, rather the difference is based on the relation of the Divine Persons with one another. St. Augustine mentions, “Although the Father and the Son are different this is not a difference in the substance but in the relationship.” While this can seem very abstract, one analogy that is useful in understanding God as three in one is sunlight. Sunlight originates from the sun, its source. It travels in the form of light into the earth’s atmosphere and is dissipated in the form of heat upon hitting an object. In its essence, sunlight is a form of energy, it exists in three distinct forms. First as radiation emitted from the surface of the sun, then as visible and ultraviolet light when it enters our atmosphere and finally as heat when it hits the earth’s surface. While insufficient for explaining the mystery of God, this analogy helps us understand how one element or substance can exist in three different forms or states.

In a similar way, the love of the Father for the Son distinguishes the Father from the Son and vice versa, though both are Divine. It is the love of both the Father and the Son which leads to the distinguished outpouring of the Holy Spirit. While such explanations and analogies are useful and help us to focus on and contemplate the reality of the Trinity, we are called not just into an intellectual understanding of God, but into union with Him. Through our personal prayer and through participation in the Sacramental life of the Church we participate in an active relationship with the Three Persons of the Trinity. We pray not just to Jesus, but through Jesus to the Father and the Holy Spirit. At every Mass and at every Sacrament, the priest or minister invokes the three Persons of the Trinity. We begin every prayer in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Today, may we cultivate a relationship not just with Jesus but with the Father and the Holy Spirit. May we come to know in the depths of our hearts and in the midst of our day, the reality the presence of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Father John

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