Today the Church celebrates God’s revelation of Himself to us. This is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The readings begin with the revelation of God to Moses. This is found in chapters 33 and 34 of the Book of Exodus. Moses had destroyed the first stone tablets of God’s Law when he came down from Sinai and saw the people worshiping an idol. The people had repented and returned to worshiping God. In chapter 33 we hear how Moses pitched a tent far off from the Israeli camp to pray to God and learn God’s will for the people. He called this the Meeting Tent. Not just Moses, but anyone who sought the Lord would go into the tent to pray. However, when Moses went into the meting Tent a pillar of cloud would descend upon the entrance of the tent and everyone would pray. Moses spoke to God as a man speaks to a friend. One day, Moses had a request. “Lord God,” he said, “show me your Glory.” God responded, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name `The LORD’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live.” Then the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.” That is where today’s first reading begins. God passed before Moses, and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
God is the Awesome One who existed before all time and Who in His Goodness created the universe and all within it. God the Creator is God that we refer to when we say, “God the Father.”
But this Awesome God, is also and Awesome Lover. The Fourth Gospel tells us how God sent his Son to save the world from the evil that the world had turned to. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. There is a personal element here. The Son is sent not just to the world in general, but to each of us so that we might be saved through him. Try praying this verse like this, “God so loved me, that he gave his only son, so that if I believe in Him I will have eternal life.” “God so loved my wife, my husband, my child, my parent, my friend, and even my enemy, that he sent his only Son so that if my wife, my husband, my child, my parent, my friend, and even my enemy, believes in the Son he will have eternal life. God is an awesome Lover and the Son is that Love.”
The Power of Love, the Power that binds us as One is itself the very Spirit of God. The Unity that we enjoy, the power of God that we possess, is the Presence of God acting in our lives, the Presence of the Holy Spirit.
We belong to this Awesome God, this Awesome Love, this Awesome Presence. We are baptized in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God’s life dwells within us. God dwells within us.
We carry God in the fragile vessel of our humanity. We seek his Presence and Love and Power and pray to Him within us and all around us. He is Ours and we are His. This is the Gift of the Almighty to each of us, a gift that should not be trivialized with concepts of Force, but a gift that should be treasured with reverence and respect.
How beautiful it is to be alive to God! How sad it is when we forget His presence. How devastating it is when we lose His Presence.
The celebration of the Most Holy Trinity is a celebration of the Dignity we have received by being admitted into Mystery. The Mystery is God. His Power and Love and Presence are greater than our minds’ capabilities. He possesses Us, and we possess Him, not for ourselves, but to continue His Presence in the world.