Trinity Sunday

by David Lins  |  06/12/2022  |  (Being) Catholic Matters

This weekend’s Gospel focuses on the central mystery of our Catholic Faith—the Trinity. The eternal Creator. The eternal Redeemer. The eternal Advocate. Three in one. Eternally.

The quick definition of mystery is “something that is difficult or impossible to understand or explain.” So, yeah. I’m not going to try and explain the Trinity in a small column. I’ll leave that to the ordained professionals. Instead, I want to focus in on that one word: “mystery.”

I’ve noticed lately that most of my close friends are geniuses. I’m serious. If Kim Jong gets us with a missile, I’ve got a friend who failed. Another friend is basically MacGyver and the government regularly asks him to invent things. And the list goes on.

Why most of my friends are so smart might be because I’m secretly a genius. So much so, I don’t even know it. Or it might be that I hope intellectual osmosis is a thing. I really don’t know. It’s a mystery. But I digress...

If you’ve got an IQ like mine, mysteries aren’t that frustrating. But for the band of mensas I call friends, mysteries must be like a mosquito that gets into their bedroom just before they turn out the lamp. Annoying little pests that won’t leave them in peace.

This is because no matter how hard they study... no matter how intellectually advanced they might be... they still need the Holy Spirit to grasp certain realities. They still need help.

And that is okay.

This is something to think about during personal prayer: We need God’s help in every worthwhile arena of life, even our very salvation.

We need to continue learning. We must continue responding to the call of God. We have to live our lives soaked in the sacraments and prayer.

But we cannot do it on our own. And don’t let your protestant friends convince you the Church believes anything other than this: our need for all three Persons of the Trinity. We need the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Advocate. After all, without God first, what would there be for us to respond to?

Comments, concerns, questions? Email David at dlins@oloj.org