St. Henry Catholic Church

The Most Holy Trinity

Life, the Universe, and Everything

Why does God love us so much? And why are we able to love others? The answer to these questions is found in the meaning of today’s feast. Trinity Sunday celebrates not so much an idea of three-in-one as the relationship of the Persons of the Trinity with each other and with us.

The idea is that the Father expressed himself as the Word. Since it was a perfect expression, the Word is his Son and equal to the Father. The love of Father and Son is expressed as the Holy Spirit. Being a perfect love, it too is equal to Father and Son. So even the idea of the Trinity is based on love. But God’s love was so great, God went even further. God created us to be loved by God.

In the second reading Paul blesses the Corinthians with the “love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” The book of Genesis (3:18) says that it was not good for man to be alone. So God created woman, and through man and woman all humanity, to be able to love each other. Though human love is not perfect, the love of man and woman can produce another person, a child. The three Persons of the Trinity share one life in God. But through baptism, we also share in God’s life. Just as parents love to see how their children look like them, so God loves to see the divine in us.

The first reading reminds us of God’s closeness to humanity. Moses can speak to God and God responds by granting his request. The Gospel tells how much God loves the world, that God’s own Son was sent to die for us. But we sometimes forget that God’s love comes first. We think that the more loving we are, the more God will love us. But love comes from God (1 John 4:7–11), so when we love someone it doesn’t make God love us more; we love because God loves us first. Our decision to love is a response to God’s love, and our ability to love is itself a gift from God. The meaning of life, the universe, and everything is Love, the love of the Trinity for each other and for us. The question now is, how well do we use that gift of God’s love by loving each other?

Tom Schmidt