[0:00] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
[0:18] Sometimes words are imprecise, like when someone you love asks you to explain exactly why you love them. Any explanation you give just ends up sounding insufficient, incomplete, and trite.
[0:36] One time when I was a kid, I asked my mother why she loved me, to which she smiled, gave me a hug, and just said, because I do. And honestly, I thought that was a great answer, because some things are hard to explain, and some things are just better known by experiencing them, rather than explaining them. And the Holy Trinity is kind of like that.
[1:07] Most of our explanations for the Holy Trinity are somewhat imprecise. The Athanasian Creed, in my opinion, is probably the best explanation of the Holy Trinity that we have, but even that doesn't quite capture the indescribable majesty of the Trinity in unity, and unity in Trinity. Which isn't to say that we shouldn't try to explain who God is, or try to understand what God we worship, three in one, and one in three. After all, it's important for us to know exactly what God we worship.
[1:45] And God isn't Buddha, or Allah, or Zeus. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's just that if we truly want to know God, and I mean really know God, and not just a bunch of things about God, if we truly, truly want to know God, then we will know him better by experiencing him, rather than describing him.
[2:23] Which brings us to this morning's gospel, where a certain Pharisee named Nicodemus tells our Lord, Rabbi, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. To which our Lord responds by saying, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
[2:52] And that is clearly, clearly a reference to Holy Baptism. For to truly know God is to experience him, to become a part of his family, to be born again by water and the Spirit, and to continually worship and to live with him, and in him, in his kingdom forever.
[3:19] For God is triune, three in one, and one in three, a union or communion of persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
[3:35] And if we are to truly know God, then we must be in union or communion with him as well. And the first step toward entering that communion is holy baptism, whereby we are born anew in God's name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[4:00] For it is in holy baptism that we first receive the Spirit of God who strengthens us to follow and believe in God's Son, and it is only through God's Son that we have access to God the Father.
[4:17] And that, that is all of our life. All of our life now is one and the same. When we pray, we pray in the Spirit through the Son to God the Father.
[4:30] When we celebrate Mass, we worship the Spirit both in and with the body of Christ in order to stand in the presence of God our Father as forgiven and God-pleasing saints.
[4:45] For all of our life is now a three-fold action of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. For all of our life now is a liturgy both in and with the Triune God.
[5:01] For again, God is three in one and one in three. A union or communion of persons.
[5:12] And if we are to truly know God, then we must be in union or communion with Him as well. Therefore, in 1 John chapter 4, we read, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.
[5:31] And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God for God is love.
[5:45] For love, true love, is not selfish. True love is not just someone staring into a mirror alone and repeating over and over again, I love me.
[6:00] I really, really love me. true love. No, true love always looks to another, always thinks of another, and always yearns both to serve and to honor another, which perhaps is why the God who is love is also triune.
[6:25] For the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father. and this procession of love from Father to Son and from Son to Father is the procession of the Holy Spirit.
[6:41] For God is love. Three persons who are so bound together in love that they are three and at the same time one, and one and at the same time three.
[6:57] which is why God calls us not only to know things about him, but to also be in communion with him and with one another as well.
[7:13] For Trinity Sunday is not just about a doctrine or an explanation or about some complex theological treatise. Trinity Sunday is first and foremost about God.
[7:29] A God we are called to believe in. A God we are called to trust. And a God who by the strength and power of his Holy Spirit calls us to love what he loves and to be holy as he is holy.
[7:48] for in John chapter 17 our Lord once said I pray father that they may be one just as we are one for God is love and his love never fails therefore we will never fail if we abide in his love for we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
[8:21] For that is what it truly means to know the Trinity in unity and the unity in Trinity to love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself to be of one heart one mind one body to be one as God himself is one in the name of the father and of the son of the holy ghost amen