Trinity Sunday 2014-06-15

There is only One God, but He has revealed to us the richness of His inner Life: He is existentially One and relationally Three. God is One but His Divinity is Possessed threefold. This we called the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity. All mysteries of our faith flow from this one; it is the source of them all.

God, Father and Son, as One Principle, communicates His own infinite nature to a Third Person, in an outpouring, a breathing forth of the love which He has of Himself. This is the mutual Love of the Father and Son. The Fathers of the Church even referred to this Person as the osculum divinum, the Divine Kiss, because He is the expression of Divine Love. "Breathed forth," He is Spirit, the Gift of gifts, Love Divine, substantial, and personal.

God alone knows Himself. He alone can declare this Personal Life to us. Without revelation we would never have been able to discover the inner life of the divinity. We could only know Him otherwise by reason. By this natural knowledge we know Him only as One and not in the full richness of His personal depth. It is God as trinity that comes to live in us and sanctify us into this Reality. This is called by the Church the Divine Indwelling; it is the Divine Life shared with each human being in the state of grace. Indeed, it is the most profound meaning of the term: state of grace. More than simply the absence of sin, it is the participation in God Himself.

This presence within the just soul means that a new relation is created within us, a new relation between God and each sanctified creature. The change is in the creature, not in God. The divine indwelling places a seal on the soul, imprinting the power of the divine Persons.

Each Person of the Trinity is Perfect and Substantial Selflessness. Christian sanctification, which is to make us godlike, therefore develops within us, by charity, a continuing selflessness. The more that we are sanctified, the more selfless we shall necessarily become.

May God grant us all His grace, transform us in perfect charitable selflessness, and bring us all finally into the blessed vision of His Glory.