The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home

May 26, 2024 – The Most Holy Trinity -Matthew 28:16-20

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There are three major monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But there must be an additional footnote connected with Christianity because it also holds that within the one God, there is diversity, or as the Creed states: three persons in one God. Today is celebrated the feast of the Trinity where we bring to mind this dimension of our belief about God. Here’s why I think this is important and timely.

Allow me to use a human analogy. Government structures can take on many forms, but the big question always seem to focus on who is at the top. Who rules? Who is the king or queen, the one who has the ultimate deciding opinion? The one whose word is considered final, decisive and absolute. To illustrate that form of government, the pyramid shape is often used, with the tip of it occupied by one person, sometimes called a monarch.

But that’s not the way Christianity understands the nature of God. Yes, there is one God but within God there is plurality. The Creed most Christians accept speaks of three persons in one God. And here’s what I think is important for us to think about. We should focus our attention not on the three individuals, but on the relationship between them. What holds them together? The answer is profound. They are all united in love, always!!

And that is also why there is you and me. Why there is creation of matter and energy. Why there is something rather than nothing. It is all because God, before all other qualities, is loving. And we don’t have to ask God to be that way because God will not be otherwise than one who loves.

I know that our belief in God’s love can sometimes be challenging. After all, there is much suffering in the world every day. There is widespread inequality between individuals and social groupings. Every day we learn of personal and communal tragedies throughout the world. And we all have our troubles as well.  

All of which can tempt us to suspect that underneath all that happens is some kind of sinister presence or cause. Add to this is that we daily witness all kinds of what appears as imperfections in our created world. Did not Jesus himself question the existence of God’s love, and even God’s presence as he breathed his last breath on the cross? Taking all these negatives into account, we can easily be led to doubt that God loves. Consider the simple (yet challenging) belief that God is love itself. Yet that is exactly what we are called to do.

David M. Thomas, PhD