XXI — THE TRINITARIAN MYSTERY

Presence of God. — O my God, Trinity whom I adore, teach me to know You and to love You.

Meditation

1 — As creatures, we had no right to know the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, which is the mystery of God’s intimate life. Yet God has manifested it to us because He did not wish to leave us in the state of mere creatures, but wished to raise us to that of children, of friends. The Son of God said: “I no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master does; I have called you friends, because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father” (Jn. 15:15). And this “all” is precisely the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, which only Jesus, as Son of God, has seen and heard in the bosom of the Father.

Already in the Old Testament we find some hints of this mystery; but its revelation belongs to the New, to the Testament of love, and it can be said that God wished to reserve its manifestation to Himself. In fact, He did not reveal it to us through the prophets, but through his Only-Begotten who is one thing with Him: “No one has ever seen God,” says the Evangelist, “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known” (Jn. 1:18).

Jesus came to tell us the mystery of God’s intimate life. He spoke to us of Himself as Son of God in all things equal to the Father: “He who sees me sees also my Father,” because “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (ibid., 14:9, 11). He spoke to us of the Holy Spirit, without whom one cannot attain eternal life: “Unless one is born of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:5). And He told us that He Himself, together with the Father, will send us this Spirit, who therefore proceeds at the same time from Him, the Word, and from the Father: “It is expedient for you that I go; for... if I go, I will send Him to you” (ibid., 16:7); “I will pray the Father and He will give you another Paraclete... the Spirit of truth” (ibid., 14:16). Many times Jesus returned to these concepts and thus taught us that it is good for us to fix our gaze on the most high mystery of the Most Holy Trinity in order to admire It, praise It, to love in return this one and triune God who has loved us so far as to introduce us into the secret of his intimate life.

2 — God, supreme and infinite Good, is sufficient to Himself; in the knowledge and love of Himself He finds all his happiness. Being infinitely perfect Being, knowledge and love in Him are essentially fruitful, and from this fruitfulness flows the mystery of his intimate life, the Trinitarian mystery. The Father, from all eternity, knows Himself perfectly and, knowing Himself, begets the Word, substantial Idea in which the Father expresses and to which He communicates all his essence, divinity, and infinite goodness. Thus the Word is “the reflection of [his] glory and the imprint of [his] substance” (Heb. 1:3), but substantial reflection and imprint, since He has in Himself the same nature and the same perfections as the Father. From all eternity Father and Son contemplate each other and love each other infinitely because of the infinite indivisible perfection both possess. Loving each other, They are drawn to each other and give Themselves to each other, pouring all their divine nature and essence into a third Person, the Holy Spirit, who is the term, pledge, substantial gift of their mutual love. Thus the same divine nature and life circulates from the Father to the Son, and from the Son and the Father is poured into the Holy Spirit. In this way the Trinity appears to us as the mystery of God’s intimate life, a mystery that flows from those most perfect operations of knowledge and love by which He knows and loves Himself.

The Trinitarian mystery, more than any other, shows us that our God is the living God, that his life is essentially fruitful, so fruitful that the Father can communicate to the Son all his divine nature and essence, and the Father and the Son can communicate it to the Spirit, without being stripped of it, but all three possessing it with the same infinite perfection. The Trinity, more than any other mystery, reveals to us the perfection of God’s goodness; that is, it tells us that God is good not only because He is infinite good but also because He communicates all this good of his: from the Father to the Son, from the Father and the Son to the Holy Spirit. Whereas in works done outside Himself God pours out his good only partially, in the bosom of the Trinity He communicates it integrally, necessarily, so that his intimate life consists precisely in this eternal, necessary, absolute communication of all his good, of all his being. The Trinitarian mystery thus lets us intuit that in God there is a boundless and inexhaustible ocean of goodness, love, fruitfulness, life, an intuition precious because, more than others, capable of developing in us the sense of God’s infinite greatness.

Colloquy

“Incomprehensible God, eternal is your greatness, ineffable is your goodness. I see, and seeing I rejoice, the three divine Persons flowing one into another in an unspeakable and inscrutable way. The Father flows into the Son, the Son flows into the Father; the Father and the Son flow into the Holy Spirit. Eternal God, You are unspeakably good, You who by goodness communicate to the creature, who knows its own non-being, some knowledge of your eternal being. Yet, although this communication is admirable, it can be said with pure truth that it is a sheer nothing in comparison with what in reality passes between You and the creature” (cf. St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi).

“O supreme and eternal Good, what moved You, infinite God, to enlighten me, your finite creature, with the light of your truth? You Yourself, fire of love, are the cause. Since love has always been that which has constrained You and constrains You to have mercy on us, giving immeasurable and infinite graces to creatures. O goodness above all goodness! You alone are He who is supremely good! You gave us the Word, your only-begotten Son, so that He might come to converse with us who are mud and full of darkness. What is the cause of this gift? Love, because You loved us before we were.

“O eternal Trinity! and who can reach your height and give You thanks for so immeasurable a gift and for so many broad benefits You have bestowed on me, and for the doctrine of truth You have taught me? Answer Yourself, Lord! You have given, and You Yourself answer and satisfy, infusing a light of grace in me, so that with this same light I may thank You” (St. Catherine of Siena).