Reflection From

Fr. John

June 15, 2025

This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Traditionally celebrated the weekend following Pentecost, this solemnity didn’t enter the liturgical calendar until the 14th century.

While there were earlier forms of recognizing the mystery of the Holy Trinity, Pope John XXII made Trinity Sunday a universal feast for the entire Church.

Through the celebration of Trinity Sunday, we recognize that God is a community of Persons. With the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, God fully revealed Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is a great mystery. The term mystery comes from the Greek word “mysterion”, meaning something hidden or secret. With the coming of Christ, the mystery of who God is, in His essence, has been fully revealed.

The truth that God is a trinity of persons is not something that is deducible from the natural world or physical knowledge. It is a truth that had to be revealed through Christ, His teachings and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Through divine revelation, our minds have been enlightened to grasp supernatural realities. Approaching the Holy Trinity as a divinely revealed mystery means that it is something that we cannot fully grasp with our human intellect. Even the greatest theological minds and the greatest saints could never fully understand this deepest reality of our faith. If they could have understood it, they would not have been reflecting on God but on their man made idea or concept of Him.

St. Augustine of Hippo, the famous saint and theologian, who wrote the work De Trinitate, “On the Holy Trinity”, is one such example of someone who grappled with this reality. One day while walking along the seashore, he was meditating on the Holy Trinity and God being three Persons in one. In the midst of his thoughts, he saw a small boy digging a hole in the sand. The boy was carrying a bucket of water and filling the hole with seawater, however as soon as he filled the hole, the water would drain out and the boy would have to run back to refill the bucket. The boy kept repeating this process. Eventually, St. Augustine went up to the boy and asked him, “Son, what are you doing? Why do you keep refilling the bucket and pouring water into this hole you dug?” The boy responded, “I’m trying to fit the entire ocean into my well.” St. Augustine laughed and said, “You will never be able to fit this entire ocean into your small hole.” The boy looked up at him and replied, “That is what you are trying to do by trying to fit the entirety of the mystery of the Trinity into your mind.” Then the boy vanished.

This story shows us that while we can grasp aspects of the reality of God and the reality of the Trinity, we will never be able to fully grasp it. That is the meaning of mystery. We can know certain facts about God and come to deeper knowledge of Him and His ways, but we will never fully exhaust the reality. God as Three Persons in One is a mystery to be lived out and best understood through a relationship with Him. This is why, to truly begin to understand God and divine truth, we must first begin with prayer. God is a living reality, not a concept we can “figure” out. To approach the reality of the Holy Trinity, we must first recognize in humility that some of the deepest aspects of reality are beyond full human comprehension. The truths of our faith and especially the truth of the Holy Trinity are realities and beauties to be beheld and entered into, like the endlessness of the sea.

Father John

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