Trinity Sunday
John 16, 12-15
Whenever we pray, we start and end our prayers with our acknowledgement of the Trinity. Whenever we say, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”, we believe of the one true God who revealed himself in three distinct persons. However, whenever we’re asked why is that so, we can never seem to explain it fully.
Throughout the centuries, we have intelligent theologians who have wrestled with the topic and yet could never fully explain this mystery. One of the most famous theologians, St. Augustine, tried extensively to be able to explain this mystery. However, he admitted his limitation after that famous dream that he had. When he fell asleep, in his dream he saw himself walking on a beach and saw a small child digging a hole on the sand. Then the saint observed what the child was doing. After digging a hole on the sand, he started collecting sea water with his bucket and putting the water he had in his bucket on the hole that he has just dug. And the child would do this over and over again. Then the saint asked the child, “Son, what are you doing?” The child replied, “I’m putting all the water of the ocean in my little hole.” Then St. Augustine laughed and said, “you can’t possibly fit all the water of the ocean into that little hole.” Then the child replied, “And you can’t fit the Trinity in your little brain.” Then St. Augustine realised that he was talking to an angel and then the boy disappeared.
Another saint who tried to explain the Trinity or at least made a vague attempt of doing so is St. Patrick. St. Patrick saw a shamrock in the fields of Ireland. And in this simple plant that is almost insignificant, he used its three leaves coming from a single stem to explain the Trinity to his people in Ireland.
When I was a seminarian, my professor, the now Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, asked us how to explain the Trinity. And of course, there are many ways of explaining it even though one can never fully explain the mystery of the Trinity. One classmate of mine, tried to explain it that the Trinity could be like the three states of matter of water. Water has a solid form which is ice. Water could also take a liquid form in room temperature and when you heat it up and it boils it takes the form of a gas as water vapour. And we are talking of the same water but with three different states. When my professor asked me how I would explain the Trinity, I said, “It is like a three-bladed electric fan.” If you observe an electric fan that has three blades, it is separate but when you spin it seems to be becoming one. That’s my explanation of the Trinity.
So with this, what’s the relevance of the Trinity in our lives? Well firstly, this is what makes Christianity very unique. While we believe in one God, we also believe that he revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three distinct Persons in one God. Secondly, with the Blessed Trinity, we are assured that God is always with us. As we attribute the Father as the Creator and the Son as the Redeemer, the Holy Spirit is the Advocate who is always with us until now. And lastly, this perfect community is an example of how we should live: That all of us could be one and united like the Blessed Trinity. We are all different and distinct but we can also be one like the community of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.