June 15 – Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
An innocent little boy, five or six years old, asked himself: “Who is God?” And to the answer of this question he dedicated his life. However, after writing more than eight million seven hundred thousand words, towards the end of his life St. Thomas Aquinas had a supernatural vision and concluded that everything he had written was insufficient to answer his childhood question.
Centuries go by and the devil, in his eternal envious unhappiness, propagates the idea that God is a “unexciting” being: insipid, vapid, distant and… demanding. Thus, talking about the Holy Trinity awakens in certain minds the image of a God the Father who is a kind of “benevolent old man”, good-natured, who no longer has the strength to govern events; a God the Son who is a philanthropic leader who tried to help people and failed; and a God the Holy Spirit who is like a well-meaning dove, but incapable of achieving great things. On the other hand, sin, the enjoyment of life, the pleasure offered by the devil – perhaps even Satan himself… – appear as interesting, attractive and fabulous!
Not far from our days, another boy, as he travelled by train down the slopes of the Serra do Mar that separate São Paulo from the coast, thought about the variety of towering mountains and diaphanous clouds, the sun that bathed nature, the blooming manacá trees, the waterfalls that seemed to smile like a veil or the sea that, like a precious carpet, was already appearing on the horizon before the descent began. His question was no longer “Who is God?” but “What is God like?”
Little Plinio admired the grandiose work of creation and marvelled at its harmonic contrasts and wonderful diversity. He concluded that the One and Triune God had to be represented in a multitude of different and hierarchically ordered beings, in order to compose a whole that adequately mirrored Him.
The Eternal Father, knowing Himself perfectly, wanted to give Himself fully by generating in His omnipotence a Son equal to Himself. The Son gives everything back to the Father with such integrity that the love between them gives rise to the Holy Spirit. Once the process between the Three Divine Persons is complete, they want to reflect themselves in a work that extrinsically glorifies them in a beautiful and holy way.
An unsurpassable Artist, the Father conceives a beautiful plan and entrusts it to the Son, who realizes it in an extraordinary way by becoming incarnate and giving Himself up for humanity, becoming obedient to the point of death. In turn, the Paraclete Spirit has been distributing the most varied benefits over the centuries, with the aim of completing this fabulous picture with millions and millions of reflections of His infinite perfections.
Nevertheless, someone might ask, what about those who rebel against God’s plan? Even they will glorify Him by making His justice shine in a fire He created and maintained for all eternity to punish the rebellious… Like all the works of creation, fire, with its flame, its heat and its light, in its own way mirrors the Most Holy Trinity and praises its perfect unity.
In God we live, we move. There is no outside of God and, whether in the loving hands of His infinite goodness or in the just hands of His holy wrath, we continually glorify Him. ◊
