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The sign of the Trinity

By Father Dennis Meinen
View from the scooter

A high school graduate got a summer job painting the white line in the middle of the road. On his first day he painted 160’, 60’ on the second day but only 30’ on the third. The foreman was rather surprised. He called him in and said, "How come you painted 160’ on the first day, 60’ on the second and only 30’ today?" "Sir," answered the boy, "Can't you see that the can of paint was getting to be farther and farther away!" The poor boy’s progress was limited by his thinking that the can of paint could only be in one place to which he had to continue to go back. It improved immensely when he found that he could move it along or even bring it with him all the time.

Do you ever have difficulty in finding God? Does your bad health keep your focus on other things? Where is God anyway? For some, God is farther and farther away. God is "up there" in heaven and religion is an effort to attract his attention so that he will visit us here on earth. The recent Feast of the Trinity helped me to center on just how close God is to me.

God is not only a transcendent one in heaven but also a God who became incarnate, who took human flesh and became one of us. This God continues to journey with us today in the world through his Holy Spirit. He is a God who knows what suffering is all about.

What does this doctrine mean for us? We should remember that spiritual health is more important than physical health. Do you remember a baby born with physical problems? As soon as possible he or she was taken to the waters of baptism. They were brought into the Christian faith by a ceremony in which the words, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" were used.

Think of how often you heard those words. The most important thing about the Trinity for us is simply that we are a people gathered in its name when we celebrate our highest act of worship, the Eucharist. When we received the Sacrament of Confirmation, or were married the priest began with this sign. When a priest is ordained or when a sick or dying person is anointed or when God forgives us in the Sacrament of Confession, we sign ourselves in the name of the Trinity. So we live and die by the sign of the Trinity.

There are two things we can take away from this Feast. One is that we have to be careful not to make God smaller than He is. When things happen to us that we don't understand, sometimes we're inclined to think that God doesn't really know what He is doing. We don't know the answer to these questions but we do know that God is wiser and smarter and far greater than we are.

There is a second thing that God wants us to be conscious of: His Abiding Love for us. He loves us more than we can understand and that is part of the mystery. But, that's why God takes the trouble to tell us about Himself. That's why He shares Himself with us.