“You must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other” (Deuteronomy 4:39).
Today we celebrate who God is. As the first reading reminds us, there is one God; and that God has been revealed to us in the three persons of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God is relational. It is by looking at the relationship between Father, Son and the Holy Spirit that we begin to get a deep sense of who God is, namely love. It is a love that we are made in, and receive daily from God, and a love that we can hand out to all.
Throughout history, many of the mystics have reflected and contemplated on God and our relationship with God. Deep, meaningful relationships are grounded in honest communication.
We communicate with God through prayer and, as St. Teresa of Ávila teaches us, “prayer is an act of love; words are not needed… all that is needed is the will to love” because prayer “is nothing else but an intimate sharing between friends.” We only have intimate conversations with those we love and trust. God, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has revealed Himself as one we can trust because God is a relationship of love.
In a similar way, St. Clare of Assisi teaches us to love God because “we become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.” The Holy Trinity reveals to us that God is love, therefore, if we follow the advice of St. Clare, we too become agents of this love.
Jesus spent his three years of ministry teaching about love and forgiveness and he followed this up by how he treated everyone he met and reached out to. He showed through his actions and words, that God was for all and loved all. By loving God and letting this love shape us, we can answer Jesus’ call to go “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).
On this Trinity Sunday, it is God’s love, and our invitation to share in it and give it out, that we should be celebrating.
Image: The Trinity by Andrei Rublev. Tretyakov Gallery Date: 1411 / 1425 / between 1408 and 1427
Victoria Byrne
