Indwelling

"Behold, I am with you until the end of time" (Matthew 28:20).

Dt 4:32-34, 39-40; Ps 33; Rom 8:14-17; Matt 28:16-20

We can only approach the mystery of the Trinity with metaphors and symbols. It is the primal sacrament — the inner life of God somehow made visible in our human attempts at loving one another to make community out of our separate selves. It is goal of creation -- unity in diversity. God is the ultimate source and model for what it means to be a human being in relationship with others, for we are made in the image and likeness of the divine community.

The words fall on the page, wholly inadequate to even point by analogy to the ineffable reality of the family of God. Yet we only need to search within our own consciousness and our longing for completeness in love to feel the cosmic pull to the center of creation. Our human bodies, our faces, the dynamic tension within each of us between solitude and communion, self and others, alone and with, this experience whispers to us of the paradox of human nature as a glimpse into the divine nature that made us.

Father, Son, Spirit; Creator, Savior, Sanctifier; Eternal Voice, Spoken Word, Holy Paraclete; Our Father, Jesus, Son of God and son of man, Advocate, dove, holy wind and fire. Faith tells us that God is no distant, solitary being, but an intimate presence, calling, naming, loving us toward lovableness, beyond selfishness and sin, holding us against death for an eternity in the Family of God.

The Solemnity of the Trinity is a celebration of every kind of love we know, our marriages and partnerships, friendships and networks, real and virtual. Baptism seals our communion as members of one body, one Spirit, one destiny. To believe in the Trinity is to know ourselves and the lifelong journey from self-filling isolation to self-emptying love.

We rejoice today to have this mystery dwelling within us, telling us how to live and showing us the way home.