THE POWER OF THREE IN ONE : THE HOLY TRINITY AND HUMANKIND.........

On the first Sunday after the conclusion of the Easter Season, we celebrate as Catholic-Christians the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, perhaps the most complex doctrine in all of Christianity. It is a sacred mystery how one God can simultaneously be three Persons at the same time. All of the major Christian creeds proclaim belief in a monotheistic, supreme, living, and true, God and not a multiplicity of lesser gods. Yet, at the same time we also believe this one God is manifested in three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Striving to comprehend and explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity through the centuries has given us various examples of how one can be three and three can be one. Perhaps the most famous of these analogies is that of St. Patrick in the 4th century. Patrick taught the newly converted Irish of the 4th Century that the mystery of the Trinity is like a shamrock. A shamrock is comprised of one stem, but one stem with three separate contiguous leaves joined interdependently as a singular, wholistic, existence. The scientific sphere produces another concrete analogy defining the Holy Trinity. It is the example of H2O. H2O is the unity of one set of chemical elements, that is manifested in three distinct appearances. It can be liquid, as is water; and can be frozen, as is ice; and it can be a mist, as is steam. Again, three distinct occurrences, while remaining one specific constituent.
Another comparable, more lighthearted example of the three in one reality is neapolitan ice cream. Neapolitan is one kind of ice cream, but is constituted of three different flavors, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. These are three examples that allow us to begin to discern the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The sacred mystery of the Trinity in Catholic-Christian Faith we can only begin to pierce in our human existence on earth. Only once we are in the eternal presence of God in the Kingdom of Heaven will we ever fully comprehend the certainty and the sublimnity of the Holy Trinity. As we renew our commemoration of the doctrine that God is one Being in three Persons, let us pray with renewed hearts and minds, that the power of the 3 in 1 may become ever more evident in your lives, just as are shamrocks, H2O, and neapolitan ice cream. For the manifestation of the Father, Son, and Spirit, is akin to the theological reality of Creation, Salvation, and Sanctification. They too, are three unique occurrences of the one Living and True God, in three individual movements in the redemptive history of humankind. May the power of the Holy Trinity reign supreme in your experiences this week and always.........Fr. Troy