Msgr. Michael Woster
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
The Most Holy Trinity, May 26, 2024

As we end the holy seasons of the year and now return to Ordinary Time, we are reminded today that the work of our salvation – that is the birth, the suffering, the death, and the resurrection of Christ – is the work of the Triune God. A God of not one but three divine persons laboring together to bring the world to God’s love and God’s peace.

The mystery of the most Holy Trinity is a basic doctrine of the Christian faith, understandable not with our heads but with our hearts. It teaches us that there are three distinct persons in one God, sharing the same divine nature and glory. Your head can hurt trying to wrap your mind around this mystery. Our minds cannot grasp this doctrine which teaches that one plus one plus one does not equal three, but it equals one! It doesn’t make sense logically! However, our hearts can penetrate the mystery. When the mystery is accepted with childlike faith, knowing that it is true because Jesus revealed that it’s true in so many clear ways in the scriptures. 

The work of salvation itself is Trinitarian. As we recognize that we are connected to our God in three distinct ways: God has created us, God has redeemed us by forgiving our sins, and that God is making us holy and drawing us to perfection. 

Though it is true that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all work together in us and through us in these three separate ways, each person of the Trinity is connected to us very uniquely. It is the heavenly Father who has created us and formed us in our mother’s womb. It is Jesus who dies to prove God’s love for us and to take away sin from our lives. And it’s the Holy Spirit who lives within us by the Sacraments and who is doing everything that He can do to make us over in the image of God Himself through Christian holiness. 

So, we cannot understand this mystery with our heads alone, but we can penetrate it with our hearts through the gift of faith, prayer, and especially love. 

Each year on this feast I offer a suggestion as a way of getting more deeply into the mystery of our Triune God. Christians in their prayer tend to focus primarily upon one person or another of the Blessed Trinity. Some tend to call upon Jesus in their prayer. Some, the heavenly Father. Others think of the Holy Spirit when they pray. You might ask yourself, which do you do? It tells you a lot about how you relate to God. 

But try this: I call it the three-minute examination of conscience. Do this before you go to bed every night. Take just one moment and thank the Father for some gift, some good thing that happened that day. No matter how bad our day might be, there’s something always good within it. Call to mind that this comes from the Creator who is the author of all gifts. 

And then, secondly, for a minute, call to mind a failing, a mistake, or a sin and ask Jesus’ forgiveness and the grace of amendment of life. Why? Because repentance and conversion are his special gifts that come to us from his holy cross.

And lastly, take a moment to call to mind the challenge of the day to come, or week to come, and then ask the presence, the blessing, the wisdom, the strength, the blessing of the Holy Spirit for guidance and courage for what we need to do and manage that next day very well.

I promise you, if you do this for a month, do this every night for a month, you’ll probably find, like so many do, that the three persons of the Trinity come more alive and more distinct for you, and that you come to know the real grace of this mystery we celebrate today. That there are truly not one, but three divine persons present in your life strengthening you, protecting you, and guiding you safely to Heaven.