Deepest Truths

It is unfortunate that conversations from the heart seem to be increasingly rare these days. Perhaps it is because we communicate so often online or over the phone. Perhaps we are more guarded than previous generations, only exchanging pleasantries or chatting about passing realities because those feel safer. Even when we do have more serious conversations, they tend to be debates about the news or current affairs, or the like. Rarely do we share something deeply personal – about the deepest truths of ourselves.

However, it is just that type of deep and honest dialogue that we find in our readings today. In the Book of Exodus, Moses speaks to God on Mount Sinai. The leader of the Israelites had returned to seek forgiveness for the people’s idolatry of the golden calf and to receive again the Law – the Ten Commandments – on the stone tablets. For good reason, Moses might have thought God would be angry and vengeful at the people’s betrayal, but instead God assures him that he “is a merciful and gracious God, and rich in kindness and fidelity.” Moreover, God shares with Moses something deeply personal – his own name, “LORD” as it is rendered in English, the same name he shared with him in the burning bush. Having received this insight into just who God is, Moses invites God to accompany the people, as they journey from Sinai closer to the Promised Land.

Moses on Mount Sinai (c. 1900) by Jean-Léon Gérôme

In the Gospel, we jump ahead 1500 years. Here too there is a dialogue and encounter, and Jesus shares with Nicodemus something deeply personal – that the gracious and merciful God, whom Moses met on Sinai, has indeed accompanied his people in a new and radical way: by sending his only Son into the world. Why? To save the world, as he says. That is, God wants all people to come to know him and how rich in kindness and fidelity he is. At the core of his being, God is Love, and by sending his Son Jesus into the world, God desires that every person come to know him as Love and to enter into that Love. Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, recognizing that in Christ, God has revealed the deepest truth of himself: that he is a communion of Love – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and into this relationship of eternal, redeeming love, we have been invited.

The dogma of the Most Holy Trinity is the fundamental mystery of all of reality: that in the one God there are three Divine Persons, each of whom is fully and equally God. Our belief in this mystery may seem very abstract. But just as our human relationships thrive – and in a certain sense, only thrive – when we share the deepest truths of our hearts, and when we receive the same from others, whether friends or relatives or spouses, so too our relationship with God is made stronger and more sincere when we know him as he truly is.

And just as important as the dogma itself is the reason why God has revealed it to us. The idea of “God” can often feel very remote, very unconnected to our daily life. Even when we do think of God, it’s easy to think of him in terms that are overly simplistic or cartoonish – an old man with a long white beard, sitting on a cloud. But in the Trinity, we are shown that God is nothing other than relationship – a dialogue, you might say, in which Love is given and received and returned eternally between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is crucially important because if Love is the identity of God, and God is the foundation of all that exists, then it means that everything which exists is an expression and a communication also of love. All of creation – all the stars and galaxies in the heavens, everything on earth, and most especially you and me, and every human being – is rooted in the existence of Love, the eternal Love that is the nature of God.

Perhaps you might say, “Father, that all sounds very nice, but how does that relate to the problems I’m currently having, or the things I see out in the world that are so troubling, or the struggles my loved one is currently going through that I feel helpless about?” Well, because to every one of those questions, and more, the Christian revelation of the Holy Trinity is a kind of answer – in the communication of Love that is the essence of God, we find the response to every longing of our heart. Our problems, whether individual or societal, are real, and they demand real dialogue and discernment to work toward solutions. But the Christian understands that these problems – like all of the realities of this life – are also passing away. They are temporary and fleeting because in the final analysis the only thing that will remain is the Love of God – a Love that is personal and self-revealing and extended as a gift and invitation to us.

Corrado Giaquinto, The Most Holy Trinity and the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1754)

Therefore, as Christians, we have the unique privilege and responsibility to always speak to others this deep truth about Love – not just "love" in the abstract, but the Love of God revealed in the Holy Trinity. We need more deep and honest conversations about what that Love means, practically, in our daily life – conversations between pastors and people, but also between spouses, between parents and children, between people at home but also in workplaces, in other arenas of society, in every discussion about justice and the common good and what life is all about. God has revealed to us the deepest truth about reality – the deepest truth about himself – and so in a certain sense, that must always be the message that we communicate also to others. If we as Christians fail to speak to the foundational truth of Love, who will?

Friends, this week, spend some time reflecting on the Trinity, as you understand it. If the mystery of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit seems too challenging, then reflect upon how God has revealed himself to you as the Lord of Love – rich in kindness and fidelity, who sent his Son for your salvation. That's something that every one of us should always be in touch with. And just as that deepest of truths has been shared with us, we must also consider how and where and to whom we are now called to go and share it with others – perhaps in words, perhaps by example, but always by communicating from the heart. 

The Lord who journeyed with his people in the desert, and who came to save us, continues to accompany us, especially in the Holy Eucharist that now we prepare to receive. May this Sacrament of Charity help us to understand and address all of the passing realities of this life, good and bad, in the light of that deepest and truest reality, the Trinity of Love, One God in Three Persons.