The Most Holy Trinity [A]
Exodus 34:4-6,8-9  +  2 Corinthians 13:11-13  +  John 3:16-18
St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Garden Plain, KS
May 31, 2026

Every year, the Sunday after Pentecost is Trinity Sunday.  Every year, the Sunday after Trinity Sunday is Corpus Christi.

These three—Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi—are like a triptych.  Very likely you’ve seen a triptych before.  Some consider a triptych a work of art; others, a devotional object.  It’s three painted panels that are joined together by hinges.  The outer images fold in to close against the center image.  The three images relate to each other, and form a larger whole.

Trinity Sunday is in the center.  To one side of it is Pentecost, which focuses on God the Holy Spirit.  To the other side is Corpus Christi, which focuses on God the Son truly present in the Eucharist.  In the center, Trinity Sunday focuses upon all three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity.  All three of them abide in a relationship of love.

Yet maybe the most surprising truth about the Trinity is that God calls us sinners into His love.  To appreciate this calling, you need first to reflect on your relationship with God the Son.  Then reflect on your relationship with God the Holy Spirit.  Those reflections will lead us back to God the Father.

+     +     +

One important truth about our relationship with God the Son is that what Jesus is by nature, we are only by adoption (through Baptism).  What Jesus has by right, we have only by grace.

One consequence of this truth is a temptation that God’s adopted children face.  We can be tempted to think of ourselves as second-class children.  We think of Jesus as the sinless, eternal Son of God.  We are just the sinful children who came later.

Yet it’s false to believe or act as if God loves you less than He loves Jesus.  God the Father loves you as He loves God the Son.  So that means that if we reflect upon how the Father loves the Son, what we’ll see is how the Father loves each of us.  That leads us to the Holy Spirit.

+     +     +

The Holy Spirit is God the Father’s love for the Son.  At the same time, the Holy Spirit is God the Son’s love for the Father.  That’s very lofty.  It’s so lofty that we might wonder how we sinners fit into the picture.

The important truth to remember here is that the Father loves His Son and the Father loves you with the same love.  This is because the Holy Spirit is His love.  The Holy Spirit does not shrink or expand depending on the “worthiness” of the one being loved.

However, you on your end are free to close yourself off from that love, either partly or completely.  In other words, you are capable of loving the Father less than Jesus does.  So to love God your Father as Jesus loves God the Father, the Holy Spirit has to be your love.  The Holy Spirit has to be the love with which you love the Father.

+     +     +

That means that you and I, while still on earth, have a choice to make.  How do we conform our daily lives to the Love who is the Holy Spirit?  How do we allow the Holy Spirit to animate our lives, so that we love as God loves?

There is one practical point here that can help us.  That point is that for God, authentic love has many forms.  God’s love is like the love of loving human parents.  Parents change diapers, listen to band instruments being practiced, and wait up for teenagers.  Likewise, God the Father’s love also has many forms.

For us, one of the chief forms of God’s love that He bestows on us is His mercy.  Of course, within the Trinity, there is no mercy.  After all, God the Son never sins, nor does the Holy Spirit, or the Father.  In Heaven, there is no mercy.  The saints in Heaven never sin.

But from Heaven, the Father bestows His love to sinners on earth and in Purgatory.  God the Father bestows His love to sinners in the form of mercy.  For us sinners, then, this form of God’s love that is mercy is a very practical way to enter into God’s life.  Unfortunately, for many Christians, it’s a challenge that’s not taken up.

The greatest challenge regarding God’s mercy is that we cannot accept God’s divine mercy fully unless we also show mercy.  We pray about this in the Our Father:  “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus looks at us and insists:  “if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” [Matthew 5:23-24].

Before we reach Holy Communion at this Mass, ask yourself a question.  Do you receive Jesus in Holy Communion without being willing to reconcile with others?  If you do, then how can the Holy Spirit fill your life?  And if the Holy Spirit does not fill your entire life, how can you abide fully in Christ?  And if you don’t abide fully in Christ, how can you know the loving embrace of God your Father?

During your days here on earth, you have the opportunity to conform your life to the life of the Most Holy Trinity.  Mercy is one of the chief ways to do this.  Mercy is how we can prepare for Heaven.  Mercy is how we can abide in Christ, experience the Power of the Holy Spirit, and accept the embrace of God the Father, whose mercy endures forever.