Trinity Sunday

The Gospel according to St. Matthew, xxviii. 18-20.

Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation

We will meditate to-morrow upon the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, and we will consider it as the beauty of faith, because in believing it we render the most magnificent homage: 1st, to the veracity of God; 2d, to His greatness. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to reanimate our faith and our respect towards the Most Holy Trinity, and to honor it by frequent aspirations; 2d, to perform all our prayers with profound piety, thereby imitating the angels, prostrate in adoration in presence of the Most Holy Trinity. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.”

Meditation for the Morning

Let us prostrate ourselves in spirit before the throne of the adorable Trinity. Let us adore the Sovereign Majesty in the unity of its nature and the trinity of its persons; let us adore it, not only with all the powers of our mind, but with the united homage of all the blessed spirits overwhelmed with the most profound reverence in presence of its grandeur, and let us ask of it permission to unite our adoration with their fervent homage.

FIRST POINT

In Believing the Mystery of the Trinity we Render the most Magnificent Homage to the Veracity of God

When I believe upon his word a traveller who tells me facts that are entirely natural respecting a distant country, I honor his veracity in a moderate manner; but if, upon the authority of his word, I accept as indubitable facts so extraordinary that at first sight they seem hardly credible, then I really honor his veracity, and I show that I believe him to be incapable either of deceiving me or of deceiving himself. In the same way, when God, in the Holy Scriptures, shows Himself to me in the highest heaven, governing from thence, as if He were at play, the innumerable worlds amongst which the whole of our globe counts less than a drop of water in the bosom of the sea; raising up or casting down empires at His pleasure; directing the sun and the heavens in their course, I only give Him moderate honor by my having faith in these marvels; because in this, my reason and His word allying themselves sweetly together as rays of one and the same sun, no sacrifice is involved. But when He teaches me the mystery of the Trinity, three distinct persons in one sole nature, an indivisible essence in several persons, three persons, each one of which is eternal, almighty, immense, infinite, and yet one sole eternal, one sole almighty, one sole immense, one sole infinite, in a word, three Persons who are but one sole God, then I give to the divine word, in accepting what it tells me, the highest homage which can be rendered to it. For here my reason, not being able to go any farther, not being capable of raising its conceptions any higher, falls down and is overwhelmed by the feeling of its powerlessness to understand what is revealed to it; and delighted to honor God by its own annihilation, prostrates itself with reverence and love before the divine veracity, and exclaims with holy transports: O God, Thou hast said it; that suffices me, it is thus, I believe it on Thy word. My weak eyes cannot penetrate the inaccessible light where Thou dwellest; but what need is there that I should see? Too happy to be enlightened by Thee in regard to what Thou art, I believe Thy word without discussing it. If I were to understand Thee, my faith would do Thee less honor, and would be less meritorious for me, and on that account it would give me less pleasure. Therefore, precisely because I understand nothing in respect to it, I take pleasure in confessing the Trinity, a father eternally fruitful, Father as soon as He was; a Son engendered by the knowledge which God has of Himself; a Holy Spirit produced by the substantial love which unites the Father and the Son; a Father who is not more than His Son, a Son of the same age as His Father, who receives everything from Him and does not depend upon Him, a Holy Spirit as ancient as the one and the other, although deriving His origin from the one and the other; as rich as the one and the other, although receiving everything from the one and the other; produced like the Son, but having no birth, like Him; similar to the Father in all things, but not His image. O height, O depth, O abyss of light!

SECOND POINT

In Believing the Mystery of the Trinity we Render the most Magnificent Homage to the Greatness of God

The more, in fact, that revelation teaches me in respect to God high things which are beyond my understanding, the more it raises the conception of Him in my mind. If it told me only things that were perfectly comprehensible, I should say: it deceives me, it dwarfs God in my mind, for the Infinite Being cannot be enclosed in the narrow limits of a created intelligence, an intelligence, consequently, which is essentially limited. But when it shows me the mystery of the Holy Trinity, then I cannot prevent myself from exclaiming: O God! this indeed is worthy of Thee, precisely because my intelligence cannot attain to such elevation. Yes, Being of beings, God incomprehensible, the less I conceive Thee, the more I adore Thee! I will not attempt to understand Thee, O Thou whose nature is so rich in marvels; it would be the idea of a child desiring to hold the sea in the hollow of its hand. My reason, on the contrary, delightedly triumphs at not being in any wise able to understand Thy sublime nature, and is enraptured to annihilate itself before Thee; it is the proof of Thy greatness. If I were to understand Thee, then Thou wouldst not be the Infinite, Thou wouldst not be God. O Supreme Lord, I rejoice to see Thee so great that Thou surpassest all understanding, so great that all eternity will not be sufficient to understand Thee. All other mysteries will disappear on entering heaven, like shadows before the light of the sun; but the mystery of Thy Trinity will remain, O my God, for it is the eternal mystery; we shall clearly see it, but we shall not understand it; it will remain, to be the eternal adoration of the blessed, and in order to recall to them continually that Thy greatness is incomprehensible to all save Thyself (Job xxxii. 19). Let us then adhere with a joyful faith to the great mystery of the Trinity; let us delight to profess it by frequent acts of faith, and often to say, I believe in one sole God in three Persons, and in three Persons in one sole God.

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.