Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (“B”)
June 3, 2012

by Paul Rooney

Q. 687: These doctrines like “Trinity” are hard to understand and explain to others.

A. 687:
I agree! We almost always want our beliefs to be based on our personal experiences. But that illustrates a basic problem, the one the Apostle Thomas faced. Even when his fellow-apostles witnessed to him what they had seen, he could not believe. He insisted that he had to see the risen Lord with his own eyes. Fortunately, our risen Lord did appear to him and showed him his wounds; the doubts of Thomas disappeared and he cried out in embarrassment, but now in full belief, “My Lord and my God!”

What happened next is critical. Jesus told the apostles, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29). Thanks to the theological virtue of Faith, a gift we received at our Baptism, we are enabled to believe the doctrine about these Mysteries that the Church has faithfully preserved and passed on to us over the centuries. We believe based on “The Tradition” – this body of truth safeguarded for all Christians by the Catholic bishops since the early Church began.

The great St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, France and a Doctor of the Church, taught back in the fourth century that our minds are too weak to comprehend the mysteries and doctrines such as the Incarnation and the Trinity. For that reason, he says, we have been given the Holy Spirit to shed light on these mysteries, and to enlighten our minds with faith. We believe in the Most Holy Trinity because Jesus himself told the apostles (and therefore, their valid successors) to baptize everyone who believes, in the name of the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (today’s gospel: Matthew 28:19).

KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! The revealed truth of the Most Holy Trinity is at the very root of the Church’s living faith as expressed in the Creed. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith.” That mystery is the object of faith only because it was revealed by Jesus Christ, the divine Son of the eternal Father. (CCC 234, 237, 249).

Mary Our Queen Parish, Omaha

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