The Paradox of Love

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

St Augustine once wrote this about the Most Holy Trinity, that “in no other subject is error more dangerous, or inquiry more laborious, or the discovery of truth more profitable.” Yet, the Most Holy Trinity is not some obscure concept which is alien to us. On the contrary, it pervades every aspect of our faith life - from the sign of the cross made in the name of the three persons of the Triune God, to the Trinitarian Pauline greeting which the priest uses at the beginning of the Mass and the blessing at its end, to how prayers (especially liturgical ones) are formulated, to the Creed which we profess, and to the formula used when we were baptised. And yet, it’s one of those topics which many, including us clergy, would attempt to avoid talking about, because it’s one of those things that we find most challenging to explain. Of course, to be honest, the greater challenge is for us priest, to wrap our heads around it before attempting to unpack it for others.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity as the central mystery of our faith, which is a huge claim. The doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity is not just one teaching among many. It is the Christian teaching of the very nature of God … the core belief and the essence of our Christian faith. Everything a Christian does, flows from this teaching, is centred upon this teaching and leads back to this teaching. Yet, we have to acknowledge that this mystery seems to be the most mysterious among the hierarchy of truths which the Church professes and teaches. But how should we understand it as a mystery?

There is a misconception that the mystery of the Trinity is difficult to understand and therefore difficult to teach. We have to get past that. The “mystery” is no mystery in the sense of a puzzle – it isn’t like an impossibly complex mathematical riddle to be solved. Rather, it is a mystery in the same way love is a mystery. We all understand love. Yet, love is inexplicably hard to describe without resorting to metaphors, analogies or symbolic and poetic language. And like love, we don’t need to be able to fully articulate it before we can grasp it. While I can never fully comprehend the incomprehensible, I can be loved by it. The mystery of love is that it is a paradox—the more we give of ourselves to another, the more we receive; the more we unite ourselves to another, the more we become our true self. The Trinity is a mystery in the very same way.

Some may argue that if our Lord Jesus truly wanted us to understand this profound concept, which is the mystery of the inner being and relationship between Him and the Father and the Holy Spirit, He should have spelt it out clearly leaving no room for ambiguity. But He did not do so because as pointed out in today’s Gospel passage, Christ still has “many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now.”

But this would change with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, because when “the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself but will say only what he has learnt…” Our Lord knew that the Church had to do more than repeat His words and tell stories about His deeds and the adventures of the early community. That is why He gave His apostles and their successors “the Spirit of truth” to guide them as they sought to make His saving truths known in every time and place.

What is this “complete truth” which our Lord is referring to? For one, it is objective and eternal. In other words, truth is not a matter of consensus. We don’t fashion truth to suit our opinions or desires. It is common today to speak of “your truth” and “my truth,” and that is instead of looking at objective facts, we often hear people speaking of their “lived experiences,” suggesting that every person’s truth is unique and irreplaceable and therefore, infallible and unchallengeable. The complete Truth of the Lord, however, cannot be something malleable, easily moulded according to our personal agenda, our likes and dislikes. Rather, it is we who must conform to the objective Truths revealed to us by God; and if we are humble and strive to be faithful, then the Holy Spirit will gently lead us and transform us with that Truth, into God’s own likeness.

But the most complete Truth is not like any other objective truth which we can speak of. The self-revelation of God is in fact that “complete truth,” for above the Truth of God, there can never be any other truth, and all truth found in the created world is only a shadow and a reflexion of His Truth. The inner Truth of God is this: that the most original and unconditional love of the Father is matched and answered by the equally absolute reciprocal love of the Son. We can understand and participate inwardly in this mystery of love, if the Spirit, who is both the mutuality and fruit of this eternal love, is made to penetrate us. The Spirit binds us to divine love itself. Indeed, this is what St Paul proclaims to the Romans in the second reading, that “the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us.”

It is an undeniable reality that we who believe in the primacy of the Truth revealed to us by God, are now engaged in a direct confrontation with the greater culture which denies the existence of objective truth, what more the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity that finds no equivalent correspondence in this life. Perhaps, the world continues to reject the revelation of the Trinity, precisely because we have been bad witnesses - our lack of love or care for others, our penchant to be selfish and individualistic, our tendency to pander to the maddening crowd, rather than stand up to defend the Truth. How wonderful it would be if we could just reflect the life of the Most Holy Trinity in our own lives? That would be our most convincing and effective way of evangelising - not just with eloquently profound theological explanations (which are undeniably necessary) but, simply through the way we live our lives.

And so on this day, we affirm once again the truth of the One True God in three persons, co-equal in dignity and substance, we recognise that it is less important to focus on the math of the Trinity and more important to focus on the why. Why would God go to all the trouble of creating the world, creating us, and then sending His Son to save us and His Holy Spirit to guide, inspire and sanctify the Church? We arrive at the same answer as the early disciples. God is love. “God has no other reason for creating than his love and goodness: ‘Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened his hand’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 293). That is the complete Truth, and nothing less than the complete Truth. That is the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. May His Holy Name be praised!