Reflecting On the Trinity: The Heart of Our Catholic Identity

Reflecting On the Trinity:
The Heart of Our Catholic Identity

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

On May 26th, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the mystery of the Trinity, one God in three distinct and equal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Even though this mystery of God is hard for us to wrap our minds around and we will never fully understand it in this life, the concept of a triune God is something that we as Catholics are very familiar with. Every time we pray the Glory Be or make the Sign of the Cross, which is a prayer in itself, we invoke the Trinity, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.”

I say this because while we as Catholics invoke the Trinity often, most other Christians, even though they believe in the Trinity, don’t place as strong an emphasis on one God in three persons as we do. A good example of this (and a pretty funny story) concerns a discussion I had with my mom several years ago. For those of you that don’t know, I’m a convert to Catholicism. I grew up in West, and my family went to the Baptist church. I came into the Catholic Church 42 years ago at 20 years of age at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Abbott, my wife’s hometown.

My mom, on the other hand, stayed Baptist throughout her life and attended First Baptist Church in West. A couple of years before she passed away, while she was living at West Rest Haven, we were talking about our Christian faith one day and the topic of the Trinity came up. After some discussion, my mom said, “One God in three persons, I just don’t understand that.” I said, "I know it’s hard to understand, but it’s a truth of the Christian faith. It’s one of those things about God that we won’t fully understand until we are with Him in heaven." Then she said something that really floored me. She said, “Robin, do Baptists believe in the Trinity?” I said, “Mom, of course, Baptists believe in the Trinity, how could you, a lifelong Baptist, not know that?” Her response to me was, “Well, if Baptists believe in the Trinity, why do I never hear it talked about in church?” I said, “I don’t know, Mom, but I promise you, Baptists do believe in the Trinity.”

A couple of weeks later, I ran into John Crowder, my mom’s pastor at First Baptist here in West, and John gave me a funny look and said to me in a sarcastic tone, “Thanks a lot, Robin.” I said, "What? What did I do?" He said, “I stopped by the nursing home to visit your mom the other day, and the instant I walked into her room, she said, ‘Brother John, do Baptists believe in the Trinity?’” Shocked, John told her, “Marolyn, of course we believe in the Trinity!” My mom’s response was, “Then why don’t you ever preach about the Trinity?” John told her, “Marolyn, you make a good point there, and I really don’t have a good answer. Let me get back to you on that.” John and I both laughed about this; however, I wouldn’t be surprised if from time to time, now, he includes the Trinity in his sermons.

The answer to the question my mom asked of why she never heard anything about the Trinity in her church is actually quite simple. The answer, at its root, comes down to one thing: man wanting to do things his way instead of God’s way. Since the Protestant Reformation in 1517, over 35,000 Christian denominations have splintered off from the Church Jesus established, the Catholic Church, and each time a new denomination is formed, a layer of the faith is stripped away. So much so that even doctrines as central to Christian faith as the Trinity, which is the essence of God himself, can get downplayed to the point that a 65-year-old lifelong Christian lady from West, Texas, doesn’t know if the Trinity is part of her faith.

The problem is that since there is no authoritative teaching on the Christian faith outside the Catholic Church, whenever someone or a group disagrees on a particular teaching, they just remove another layer of the teachings of Jesus and His Church and go and start a new church. It’s like peeling the layers of an onion, with the result being each of these different denominations teaching a slightly different form of Christianity, as St. Paul warned of in Galatians 1. Now, that’s not saying that there aren’t a lot of good Christians in other churches, because there are, and most have the best of intentions. But the majority have no idea that they do not have the fullness of the faith Jesus intended for them and that their faith, and even the Bible itself, only exists because of the Church Jesus started and handed down to the Apostles to spread throughout the earth—the Catholic Church.

The Church Jesus established on the rock of St. Peter, giving him the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and both him and all the Apostles the authority to forgive or retain sins and celebrate all the Sacraments which were established by Jesus himself. These are the same Apostles who Jesus told at the end of Matthew’s Gospel: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.” The importance of what Jesus says here cannot be overstated because it was the last thing He told the Apostles before He ascended into heaven. The last thing Jesus said was, “Go and make disciples,” how? “By baptizing,” and teach them what? “To observe all that I commanded you.”

So, we become a Christian not by a profession of faith that we believe in Jesus, but by the grace we receive when we are baptized. Jesus clearly points this out earlier in Matthew 25 when He said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father,” and again in Luke 6 where He said, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do what I command?” This free gift from God of Sanctifying Grace that we receive at baptism is a gift that grows in our soul and fosters in us, leading us to faith in the Lord. This gift is so free that even those who are not old enough to profess their faith are incorporated into the Church when they are baptized. That’s why we do infant baptism. In the catechism, the Church explains it this way, “Since the earliest times, Baptism has been administered to children, for it is a grace and a gift of God that does not presuppose any human merit; children are baptized in the faith of the Church. By this, they enter into Christian life, which gives them access to true freedom.”

In baptism, we are cleansed of our sins, both original sin and personal sin, and become a part of Jesus’ body, the Church. When we are baptized, the Holy Spirit enters into our soul, and we are sealed with an indelible spiritual mark as belonging to Christ. Nothing can remove that mark, even our own sinfulness. Through baptism, there is, however, an even deeper relationship we establish with Jesus. Through our baptism, we become exactly what Romans 8 talked about. We become more than just friends of Jesus or even worshipers of Jesus; we become a part of Jesus’ family, we become His brother or sister, an adopted child of God the Father, and joint heirs with Christ to the Kingdom of God. How amazing and incredible is that, and how unworthy we are! God loves us so much that, as Romans 5 tells us, even though we had done nothing to deserve His love and grace, “God proved His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Through the grace we receive at baptism, God allows us to share in His life right now, and even more than that, He brings us into a family relationship with Him. Yes, that’s right, in baptism God makes us part of His family! To steal a slogan from a well-known local business, “Our Family Makes the Difference,” and most especially when we are part of the family of God.

Brothers and sisters, we all know that a family relationship is a relationship of both great joy and, unfortunately, great sorrow as well and is a relationship that is on a level far beyond that of mere friendship. The highs are higher, and the lows are lower, and since we are part of God’s family, we should remember this in the times we sin or are tempted to sin. We should remember that as siblings to Christ and children of God the Father, each of our sins, no matter how big or small, is like a slap in the face to God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Every sin we commit in some way hurts both our earthly family and our heavenly family, while every virtuous and loving action brings them joy. In life, we all know how painful it is when a member of our family hurts or rejects us, but we can’t even imagine the distress we cause God when we willingly choose to belittle, reject, or ignore Him, who in His great love created us and sustains us throughout our life.

My friends, we celebrate our Triune God, the one who loves us beyond measure and has adopted us into His family and freely gives us the opportunity to be united with Him for eternity. So let us make a conscious decision to know Him, love Him, and serve Him, by being available to Him every moment of our life. Let us make a conscious decision to make God number one in our life, and when we are faced with a choice between the ways of the world and the ways of God, let us make a conscious and deliberate decision to always, always choose God! Amen.