TRINITY SUNDAY : CELEBRATING OUR BELIEF IN THE TRIUNE GOD..........

The week following my graduation from California State University Sacramento, in 1979, I sat down with Msgr. Edward J. Kavanagh, my Pastor at St. Rose's Church in South Sacramento, to discuss the possibility of his sending me on behalf of the parish, to a Youth Ministry Convention, in San Diego that summer. After more than an hour of trying to convince him of the merits of what to him was a new fangled concept, and not the tried and true CYO, the Catholic Youth Organizatiion, of which he was and is, a big fan and supporter of, he agreed to send me to see what it was all about. It was a wonderful week and among its many memorable moments for me was a video tape they showed us on, The Holy Trinity. It was produced by the Paulist Fathers, for their Sunday morning television program, "INSIGHT". For three decades the Insight television program presented 30 minute dramas with a moral lesson to impart, performed by Catholic actors in Hollywood. Paulist Father Elwood Kieser, was the host of the program. The Holy Trinity episode offered an understanding of the Trinity that custom made to the young, but helpful to all ages in grasping how God can be One Being and Yet Three Persons. God the Father was protrayed an a very old man ,white headed and gray bearded, who was firm, yet fair. God the Son was a young man, full of ideas and energy, ever obedient to his Father. The Holy Spirit was portrayed by a young black woman, named Grace. The three of them were distinct persons, but with a oneness of being as they interacted with each other. That is one analogy to help us enter the sublime mystery of the Holy Trinity, which is thought by many theologians to be our most complex of Catholic-Christian doctrines. Let me speak about two more analogies that enlighten us about the Holy Trinity. Thanks to St. Patrick and his evangelization and conversion of Ireland in the 4th Century, we have the example of the Shamrock. A shamrock helps explain the doctrine of the Trinity, for a shamrock is one flowering plant, with three distinct portions, like the One God in Three Persons. Or perhaps a more scientific example will help underscore our doctrinal belief in the Holy Trinity. The example of H2O, Water - that is fluid liquid, yet also frozen ice, and evaporated steam; three different manifestations of one substance. As we celebrate our Catholic-Christian Sunday especially focused on The Holy Trinity, how do you understand or explain your belief in a Triune God ? One of the ways I see it is as the Unity and Diversity of the completeness and the perfection of the Supreme Being of the Universe, is so wholistically magnificent as to be manifested in the fullness of Love, and the power and splendor of a Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, who gloriously interact, so as to commune with humankind now and always..........In The Love And Peace Of The Eternal Holy Trinity Of God, Fr. Troy