The Most Holy Trinity
Sunday, May 31, 2026

Watch this homily! (begins at 23:40)

 
I like this little story about St. Augustine, fifth century bishop, one of the Church’s greatest theologians, and Pope Leo’s father in faith. It seems that one day Augustine was walking along the seashore pondering the mystery of the Trinity (theologians actually do such things!) and he came across a young boy who had dug a large hole in the sand and was watching it fill with water. “I’m going to put the entire ocean into that hole,” the boy said. Augustine told him that that was impossible, that the hole in the sand was way too small to contain all the vast ocean. To which the boy replied, “And neither can you fit the Trinity into your little brain!” The boy then vanished, and Augustine realized that he had been speaking with an angel.  

In one way or another, I think we all try to fit the Trinity into our too small brains, and when we find we are unable to - that it simply won’t fit because it completely overflows our brains – well, we tend to give up on the Trinity altogether. We relegate it to the outer perimeters of our life of faith.

 But the Trinity belongs at the very heart of our faith, not at the margins. And it’s not a puzzle, a conundrum, an equation, or a problem to be solved. The Trinity is a mystery, a profound mystery that we can explore but never exhaust - a mystery not about numbers (three is one, one is three); no, a mystery about persons, a community of persons, Father, Son and Spirit, forever locked in a loving, life-giving embrace, forever involved in an intricate, dynamic dance – a passionate embrace that encompasses all of creation and includes each one of us. It is by the power of the Trinity that you and I were created and it is in the name of the Trinity that we were baptized - becoming God’s beloved children, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, made holy by the Spirit of God who lives within us. Lives within us!

 So, should it make a difference to us that there is a Trinity? It should make all the difference. The Blessed Trinity is not only the source of all that we are, the Trinity is the pattern for all that we do. The endless, mutual giving and receiving of love within the Godhead not only models the love to which we are called, it’s what makes that love possible. God’s love for us is what makes it possible for us to love God. Or in the words of scripture, ”We love because God first loved us.” And it’s that love that draws us into loving relationships with others. And, my friends, that love is going on within us all the time whether we know it or not. Our great challenge is to wake up to it.

A priest I worked with in my early years of ministry had a unique way of making himself aware of the presence of the Trinity. On his desk, and near his easy chair, and on his bathroom mirror, and on his bedside table were little framed pieces with the words, “You three are here!”  Now, I’m not proposing that you do that but I think it worked for him…!

 My friends, the mystery of the Trinity is the mystery that reveals God, but it is also the mystery that embraces us. In ways we will never understand, the eternal God, a community of persons locked in an embrace of love, opens the divine embrace to include the likes of us. And in embracing us, God makes it possible for us to embrace others – to reach out beyond ourselves in the same way God does, enfolding in our embrace all those whom God puts in our path: family, friends, strangers - even enemies.

 In a few moments we will stand and make our profession of faith in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. After that, we will pray the great Eucharistic Prayer and come to the table to receive the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation – food for our journey and a sharing in the very life of the triune God. On this Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, let us bask in the blessing that St. Paul gave so long ago to his beloved community at Corinth, the blessing we heard in today’s second reading, the blessing with which we began this Mass and begin every Mass: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all!”

Father Michael G. Ryan
Pastor Emeritus