On Sunday, June 4, the Church celebrates a magnificent mystery: the Most Holy Trinity. The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity falls one week after Pentecost. It is as if one could say, now that the Holy Spirit has come at Pentecost, we can gather and rejoice in all Three Persons of the Trinity!

Trinity Sunday is a beautiful day to recall our baptism “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” It’s a good time to ask ourselves: How well do we know each person of the Holy Trinity? How can we come to know the Father, Son and Holy Spirit better?

To ask how we can grow in knowledge of God is also to ask how we can grow in love. At the heart of our relationship with the Most Holy Trinity is love. To come to know God is to come to know love.

The entire inner life of God is love. The greatest joy of the human person is to be welcomed into this life of love. God invites every human person into a loving relationship with Him.

As The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) reminds us, our “desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God.” (CCC 27) 

Moreover, “the dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being.  For if man exists, it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence.” (Gaudium et Spes 19,1, cf. CCC 27)

On Trinity Sunday, we rejoice that the Son has revealed the Father and that the love they share has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. (cf. Romans 5:5) This abundant life of love is ours for the receiving, thanks to the Father’s generosity in sending Jesus to redeem us. (John 10:10)

“In a plan of sheer goodness,” God “freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.” (CCC 1) It is encouraging to know that “at every time and in every place, God draws close to man.” (CCC 1)   

It is worth pausing to let that sink into our hearts and minds. There will never be a time when God is not seeking us and loving us. It is the desire of His heart to love us and welcome us into His embrace. 

God’s plan for our lives is that we experience His Trinitarian love and share this love with others. We encounter God most especially through our reception of the sacraments, when we are in a state of grace. God desires to dwell within us now so that we will be prepared to be with Him forever in heaven. 

“We are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity,” the catechism reminds us. (CCC 260) Jesus tells us, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)

How do we make room for God’s dwelling in our lives and in our hearts? What actions are we taking to seek out the Lord and to root out all that does not belong to Him in our daily lives?  How are we disposing ourselves to receive grace and to grow in virtue?

As we recall the great mystery of the Holy Trinity, let us make time to adore God and to give Him our thanks. Let us ponder His Love and offer God a loving gift of self through prayers, sacrifices and works of mercy for our neighbor.

Notes: For further reading, consider The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 232-267, and the encyclicals of Pope St. John Paul II on each person of the Trinity: Redemptor Hominis, 1979 on Christ; Dives in Misericordia, 1980 on the Father; and Dominum et Vivificantem, 1986 on the Holy Spirit. (www.vatican.va)

Australian theologian Tracey Rowland describes the Trinitarian encyclicals as “a summary of two millenia of theological reflection,” explaining “how the human person stands in relation to each particular Person of the Trinity.” (Rowland, Trac ey A., 2014, “Catholic Education and the Bureaucratic Usurpation of Grace,” Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics: Vol. 4: Issue 1, Article 3)

Sister John Paul Maher, OP, is principal of Worthington St. Michael School and a member of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.