Sunday, May 30th, the Church will be celebrating Trinity Sunday. The catechetical concept of ‘three persons in one God’ is the central mystery of our faith but if you ask any Catholic, they will admit that they can’t explain much about the workings of the Holy Trinity.

The Trinity is a mystery that we often fail to even try to probe. Thomas Aquinas shared the story of his vision that after trying to comprehend the Trinity, he met a child attempting to fill a hole in the sand with the entire ocean. “Your mind will never be able to contain this mystery” the child said before he disappeared. That let us all off the hook for trying to explore the secret. In the void and on the other end of the spectrum, St. Patrick supplied us with the three-leaf clover: one clover, three lobes. For some even more mysterious reason, we continue to hold up that model today though it is dull, teaches us nothing, and is so feeble that even toothpaste with the triple action of whitening teeth, freshening breath and strengthening enamel can best it.

The Trinity is complex but there is no reason to believe that God does not want us to search out its meaning and to begin to use our reason to explore our faith. If we are open to God and meditate on his mysteries, he will teach us “all things”. So we rely on God who works through revelation, not mental gymnastics or inert models.

The Trinity is Like a Seed

Speaking at a Confirmation at St. Mary’s in Rochester Hills, Bishop Moses Anderson said that the Triune God is “goodness that goes outside itself”.  When I picture a seed growing that is what I see: goodness going outside itself.

All seeds are composed of three parts: an embryo, stored food and a seed coat. With its three parts, the seed is a trinity. Just as an embryo, stored food and seed coat combine to form a seed and they need each other to be complete, God, as three persons of love shows us three essential functions of love working together in unity. God is incomplete without one of the persons of the Trinity.

Imagine the seed. It is the beginning of life. The seed is neither male nor female. It is the origin or life force of what is created. When it has germinated, and changed into a plant, it bears fruit. The end result of the fruit is again, the seed. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” – Rev. 22:13.

According to the Catholic Catechism (235) “…by the Divine missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Father fulfills the “plan of his loving goodness” of creation, redemption, and sanctification.” So God has a mission. His plan is to create, redeem and purify His creation and He uses the differing aspects of His persons in different ways to do this.

Because the mystery of the Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life, it is also the source of all the other mysteries of faith. CC 234. There should be parallels between the action of the Trinity and the action of our faith. And there are such parallels in the seed analogy.

Let us consider the relationship between the Father and the Son. It is considered that Father and Son have always existed together. In the seed, the embryo and stored food exist together. In the seed the embryo is hidden “in and with” the stored food of the seed. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” – John 1:1-2.

The Father is known as the Will that commands all things into being: the Creator. In the sense that God the Father is the force that makes manifest the embryo of the seed, we can see Him not as creating Jesus but in making Jesus manifest. Jesus says that it is the Father who has sent Him into the world (John 5:36).

The Father is considered the “generator” of the Son (or else in what way could He be considered Father?) The generating of the plant comes about when the embryo is fed by the stored food. If Jesus is the embryo or progeny of the seed, the Father is the progenitor or the food of the seed. He is the one who gives substance to the embryo for it to grow.

The seed contains a life force that causes the embryo to change and grow. As the food becomes incorporated into the young plant it becomes hidden within the plant. The embryo becomes manifest because of the food that has become one with it.

As we gaze upon the embryonic plant and the food in which it is encased, we see the mystery of death and resurrection clearly. One part of the seed dies so that the other may live. One is consumed so that the other can be in the world. While the plant is alive and thrives, the one that was consumed now becomes part of the plant. The food is now within the plant and the two parts are even closer than before.

This is like what happens between Jesus and the Father. If the Father is the generator of the Son, and the Son is made manifest in the world by the generating action of the Father who is also within the Son, we can only see the Father by looking at the Son. Jesus says, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” - John 14:9.

In the fullness of time, God sent His Son into the world. “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” – Col 1:18-20.

Jesus Himself is the Father’s Divine seed when He is sent into the world to become a man. Jesus imitates the Father by laying down His life for us so that we may have life.

The Catholic Catechism states that the whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God reveals Himself to men “and reconciles and unites with Himself those who turn away from sin.” God has revealed Himself to man and He has done this through Jesus. “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.” – John 1:18. If we want to see God, we must look at Jesus, who died and rose from the dead with a transformed body.

Jesus Glorifies the Father Through the Resurrection

“We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14.

1 John 4: 9-11 – “In this the love of God was made manifest (displayed) where we are concerned: in that God sent His Son, the only begotten or unique [Son], into the world so that we might live through Him.
In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins.
Beloved, if God loved us so [very much], we also ought to love one another.” Jesus imitates the Father and we should imitate Jesus.

Jesus’ mission is to redeem us. Yet, while He is laying down His life for us, He declares that what He is doing is giving glory to the Father. Jesus, the Son of God, through His consummation and resurrection, glorifies the Father. Jesus said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” After Jesus died, the Father raised Him again, regenerating His body. In imitation of the Father, Jesus becomes like the food of the seed. He is our food. He is our hope. He nourishes and sustains us in the Eucharist and as the Word of God. Jesus gives us His all. He becomes consumed in order to bring new life and to make all things new. When we receive him and He lives in us, we can also be regenerated and be raised with Him.

Jesus is Our Food

“Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.” – John 6:57.

We are told by Jesus to eat His flesh and drink His blood. As the Father was food for Him, He becomes food for us. We rise to new life in Him as He lives in us.

“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” - John 14:20.

“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” – Col. 2:9-10.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you…” – John 15:9. The Father gives substance to the Son so that He may be manifested in the world and made incarnate. So Jesus lays down His life, becomes food for us so we may be made the glory of God.

The Holy Spirit

Both the Father and the Son are bound by the Spirit of Love, which forms the third part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Like the seed coat, the Holy Spirit binds together the other two persons of the Godhead and completes the Trinity. He is formed by their love, which shows itself in their unity and closeness. St. Alphonsus De Liguori says that the Holy Spirit “ is the indissoluble bond which unites the Father to the Eternal Word.” (pg. 490) and says, “Oh love, how strong is thy bond which could bind God!”

After the embryo of the seed has been germinated and grows up out of the ground, what has happened to the seed coat? Having done its work, it is cast off in one sense. It issues forth, proceeds, and passes from one stage to another. It is like a shell that has been opened and discarded as a sign that it has been used. It is evidence of a work accomplished yet, the unity and bond that now exist between the plant and stored food is even stronger. They are still completely united and bound together.

After His death on the cross, Jesus’ body was carefully and lovingly wrapped in linen cloths. After the Resurrection, these cloths are found lying in the tomb. They are discarded like a seed coat that is no longer needed yet apparently, a work has been done within them. A change has taken place. They signal to us that death has led to Resurrection.

God allows us to enter into His work. When Jesus was born, his mother received Him and clothed him. She wrapped Him in swaddling clothes. After His death, she took and wrapped His body again. When He rose, the cloths were left behind like a seed coat, giving us the first sign of the Resurrection and revealing God’s glory. These acts, receiving Him, receiving each other, are the ways that we show love and enter into God’s works.

Man, by receiving Jesus, by wrapping and covering His body and clothing God, has been given the great privilege of entering into the works of God through this same love; this transforming love of the Holy Spirit through faith and hope has the power to save us and make us a new creation. We can go forth to build the Kingdom. Instead of self-seeking, we can clothe the naked and give food to the hungry. “So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matt. 6:31-33.

“The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” - Hebrews 1:3

God has chosen to become manifested in His creation. Because He has deigned to make us in His own image, and given us an immortal soul and loved us, His goal is for His creation to be united to Himself. All that is left is for us to enter in. He is only waiting for us and calling to us to come to Him, be united to him and be transformed. Then, we will see His Glory.