One Sunday morning, a little girl was drawing with crayons in the pew during Mass. Her mother asked her, “What are you drawing?” she whispered, “I am drawing God.” Her mother smiled, placed her hand on the little girl’s shoulder, and said, “But Honey, no one knows what God looks like.” The little girl looked her mother straight in the eye, tapped her gently on her lap, and said, “Don’t worry; they will know what God looks like when I’m finished.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We say those words often at the beginning of Mass, before meals, when we pass by a Church, when we hear good news, or even when we experience something scary. This Sign of the Cross is like a uniform or an ID card by which people can easily tell that a person is Catholic. I was once at a restaurant with some friends. Shortly after we arrived, a family occupied the table next to us. One of my friends whispered to me, “Father, the family behind you is Catholic.” I asked, “You know them from somewhere?” My friend replied, “No, I just saw them make the Sign of the Cross before they started eating.” Even while watching sporting activities, we easily conclude that an athlete is Catholic as soon as we see them make the Sign of the Cross. But how often do we pause to reflect on what we say when we make the Sign of the Cross?
Today, the Church pauses and invites us to reflect on what we say when we make the Sign of the Cross. Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Par. 253 teaches that these are not three Gods but One God in three Persons. These three divine persons also do not share the one divinity among themselves. Instead, each of them is God whole and entire. The Father is not more God than the Son; neither is the Son more God than the Holy Spirit. They are eternally one. They were together at the beginning of creation, hence the words, “Let us make man in our own image and likeness” (Genesis 1: 26). In the first reading from the Book of Proverbs, the Wisdom of God, which Scripture scholars agree to be God the Son said of himself that he was there when the Lord established the heaven and the earth. The Catechism of the Catholic Church also explains that “The divine persons are really distinct from one another. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. The Father generates, the Son is begotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeds. Even though they are distinct, each one is wholly in the other two.
The Trinity is not just a doctrine among many; it is the foundation of all Christian belief: the belief that there is One God in three Persons. Many theologians and preachers have tried to explain the Trinity by way of analogy, saying: “The Trinity is like…” Such analogies fall short and easily lead to false teachings. The Trinity is not something we can completely understand; it is someone we are invited to know, and it is someone who invites us into a relationship. God created us for relationship with Him and one another; He created us to be part of His family and share with him. Every time we make the Sign of the Cross, we affirm the mystery of the Trinity and express our membership in the family of the Trinity. The Sign of the Cross reminds us that we live, move, and have our being within the very life of the Triune God. So, when we pray, we speak to the Father through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. When we live in unity with others, we reflect the perfect unity of God.
The little girl in our opening story was so confident that by the time she was done with her drawing, everyone would know exactly what God looked like. But the truth is that the moment we completely understand God, God will no longer be God. Thomas Aquinas was one of the most brilliant theologians of all time. His Summa Theologiae was an attempt to bring clarity, reason, and faith into harmony. In 1273 (most likely on December 6, the feast of St Nicholas), after spending years writing about God, he had a vision while celebrating Mass. After that experience, he suddenly stopped writing about God (his monumental Summa Theologiae). When his secretary and friend, Reginald, urged him to keep writing, he replied, “All that I have written seems like straw compared to what has now been revealed to me.” He said those words not because what he wrote was wrong but because it was small compared to the reality of God. The goal of theology, then, is not perfect knowledge but perfect love. So, today, rather than trying to fully understand the Trinity with our minds, let us marvel at the love of the Triune God, who created us in his image and likeness. Like the Trinity, we are not made for isolation, but for relationship. We are made to love and be loved. That is why, deep down, every human heart longs for communion, connection, and relationship.
My dearly beloved in Christ, when Jesus came to earth and died on the Cross for us, he did not come just to tell us about the Trinity; he came to bring us into the Trinity, and the Cross is our open door into the heart of God. So, every time we make the Sign of the Cross, we are placing ourselves in the mystery of the Trinity, and we are saying, “Evil, keep off! I belong to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Year C 2025
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