Joke: One parishioner said, “The Trinitarian God is a lot like our pastor. I don’t see him through the week and I don’t understand him on Sunday.”

Three persons but one God is very difficult to know and understand. Today, the Church celebrates the Most Holy Trinity, Three Persons, the same essence, very distinct from one another, and yet only One God. It is a mystery. How do we understand three Persons, but one God? Who is God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Who do we often pray to and why?

God the Father, the Creator that we learn from the book of Genesis. However, why do we call him God the Father? Is it because he has a Son who is Jesus Christ? How do we know that Jesus Christ the Son of God the Father? We know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God through the Scriptures, Matthew, for an instant, reported that the moment that Jesus came up from the water of baptism, the heavens were opened and a voice from the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). If Jesus Christ did not have the same essence as God the Father, he would not call him Son.

Recalling a conversation I had with my co-worker when I still worked at FedEx head-quarter in Memphis, Tennessee. Mike liked to talk about religion, so he once said to me, “I don’t understand why you Catholics believe that Jesus is God and not that he is just a human being like all of us?” “Would you agree with me,” I said, “that in the Scriptures, the moment that Jesus came up from the water, there was a voice from the heavens saying to him, “This is my beloved Son?” “Yes,” he responded. “Then,” I said, “for God the Father to call Jesus his Son, he had to be God as well. Just as you cannot call a dog your son when he is not a human being, so God the Father cannot call Jesus his Son if he is not God himself. You cannot call a fish your daughter when it’s just an animal and not a human being.” “If Jesus was God,” he asked, “Then how comes he died on the Cross? God cannot die.” “God cannot die and will never die,” I said, “but Jesus did die on the Cross. The moment that the Son of God, God himself, accepted to vest on himself our human flesh through the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the moment that he accepted all human weaknesses and limitations just like any other human being except sins. He couldn’t be born in Jerusalem and present in America at the same time. He had to eat and drank like any other human being when he was hungry and thirsty.” In Jesus Christ, there exist two inseparable natures, divine and human. When he died on the cross, it was His human nature that died and not God. Thanks to God the Son who came to us to lead us to God the Father. It is through God the Son Jesus Christ, that we can call God, Abba , Father as Matthew reported the teaching of the Lord’s prayer saying, “Our Father in heaven” (Mt 6:9).

In today’s second reading, Saint Paul reminds the Roman community and us that “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith.” It is through Christ, we have found peace and gained access to faith. Why? It is in Jesus Christ, that there are two natures: Divine and human. As Jesus a human, we are easily related to him. As Jesus God, we are able to call God the Father “Abba.” It is only through Jesus Christ. This is why we are easy to pray to God the Father or God the Son than to God the Holy Spirit.

Who is God the Holy Spirit? In today’s Gospel, Saint John reminds us of the words of Jesus teaching his disciples saying, “When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth… he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.” So, who is the Holy Spirit if he is not the one who guides us in all truth? Whatever the Holy Spirit says and does, he says and does from what belongs to God the Son. Unlike God the Son Jesus Christ talked to us in human language, Aramaic specifically, the Holy Spirit spoke to us in spirit. If the Holy Spirit does not speak in human language, how do we understand him? To understand the language of the Holy Spirit, we are invited to discern and reflect on what we are inspired or touched by whatever or whoever comes into our lives.

Why are there three Persons, but One God? Is there an order of first, second, and third? Are they different in rank? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are ONE God but three distinct Persons. They are all present at the beginning of creation.

In the very first chapter of Genesis, the Lord God created the universe and what was contained in it by saying the Word and it came into being. This Word is the Son of God and God himself Saint John beautifully started his Gospel by saying, “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1). What happens to God the Holy Spirit? Was there a point when God the Holy Spirit began to show up? Recalling from the book of Genesis, after “the Lord God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Gen 2:7). This breath of life is the Holy Spirit who was also with God the Father and God the Son right from the beginning. Therefore, right from the beginning of creation, there were three distinct Persons but One God appeared.

What is it to do with us on our Christian journey? As a creature that God, the three Persons, created, we ought to give thanks to God the Most Holy Trinity. We are drawn closer to God the Son because he vested on himself our human flesh to be with us and to be like us except for sins. God the Son the Lord Jesus Christ is so closed to us to lead us to God the Father. Through the help of the Holy Spirit, we are given the strength to live the words of Jesus’ teaching. So, to come to God the Father, we are invited to follow the Lord Jesus’ teaching. With the gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us to live with the Lord Jesus teaches us. Among the most Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, whom have you been drawn closer to? How is your relationship with your father? God the Son obeyed his Father even to the point of death, death on the cross, have you, son or daughter, obeyed your parents? As the love that abides the Three Persons in God together, how is your love for your parents? How is your love for your children? The decision is yours.