One day a priest was sitting at the airport waiting for his flight. A man struck up a conversation with him. He said: “Father, I only believe what I can understand. So I’ll never believe in a God who is a Trinity of Three Persons that I cannot understand.”
The priest reluctantly put down the paper he was reading and said: “Do you see the sun out there?” “Yep!” said the man. “Okay, it is 80 million miles away from us right now,” said the priest. “The rays coming through the window are coming from the sun. The delightful warmth and heat we are enjoying on our bodies right now come from a combination of the sun and its rays. Is that correct?” The fellow responded, “Sure, Padre.”
The priest continued: “The Trinity is like that. God the Father is the blazing sun. Jesus is the rays that he sends down to us. Then the both of them combine to send us the Holy Spirit who is the warmth and the heat. If you understand the working of the sun, its rays and its warmth, why do you have such a difficulty believing in the Trinity?” The man then said something about catching his flight and took off.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity. Like the man at the airport, we can ask, “How can God be one in Three Persons?” It’s a mystery! But as the priest tried to do, we can try to put the Trinity into perspective.
St. Ignatius of Loyola described the Trinity as three notes in a single chord. St. Patrick famously used the 3-leaf clover as a teaching aid for the Trinity.
How has God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit touched your life at different times?
SOMETIMES I JUST LOOK UP, SMILE AND SAY “I KNOW THAT WAS YOU!” THANK YOU GOD!
