Readings for Mass: I: Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9; Responsorial: Daniel 3:52-56; II: II Corinthians 13:11-13; Gospel: John 3:16-18

Today we celebrate the Most Holy Trinity. Minds and hearts much better than mine have sought to help us understand this immense mystery of our faith. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit…One God in three persons is one of the most profound challenges of our faith and for our understanding. Yet in Scripture from the ancient Hebrew of the Old Testament to the Greek of the New it is a Truth, at times veiled, but also one boldly proclaimed. Although the word “Trinity” is not to be found anywhere in Scripture this living Truth powerfully abides in an holy majesty and infinite love.

This abiding Truth is challenging our understanding to great degrees of frustration. As we wrestle with the Holy Spirit to try to get this essential reality of our faith into our minds we can sense one of those holy whispers of God. We will never understand the Holy Trinity. But we are called to simply relate to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

This blessed realization can be countered at the coast. As we, smell, feel, hear the beauty and power of the Pacific Ocean we simply can embrace our relationship with the ocean we are witnessing. We can recognize that our respective “visions” of the ocean in no way encompass the immense scope of these waters. We indeed can truthfully say we know about the ocean. We can swim, surf, scuba the warm Pacific waters of Southern California. We may visit, work or live along the coast of Northern California on calm warm days and stormy times of intense waves and currents. But our understanding is so…small. We never have explored the deepest depths, the immense miles of coastline, the coral reefs, the creatures of the deep. We realize our understanding is so much like our faith. We are so confident and comfortable with what is familiar. But have no real realization of all that lies beyond our mental grasp..the sister oceans, the diverse waters all provide a living portrait of our Triune God.

This beautiful time to focus on the Most Holy Trinity may we allow what is a very finite example, the majesty of the oceans, to invite us to plunge into our relationship with God.

May we immerse ourselves in the majestic power and love of our Heavenly Father. May the eternal currents of God’s mercy draw us ever closer into His holy embrace, drawing us away from the tiny brackish pools of fear or doubt we may have encountered in our lives.

May we each dive deeply into the eternal love that is God the Son, Jesus. As He pours upon us waves of cleansing and buoyant power, waves that would not drown us in sorrow or brokenness as does the world but waves of hope and life. Waves that even in the storms of life can bring us to peaceful waters of rest and assurance.

And may we each swim freely in the waters of life of the Holy Spirit. Growing in the Truth and our relationship with the fullness of God and each other we then grow in the fullness of God’s people we are created and redeemed to be.

Immersed in this infinite power and holy beauty that is God we realize that there is no way to separate or understand all that is God. But we also realize that we have the tragic power to damage and destroy this relationship of holy love and life.

Rebellion and humans mindful only of self and not of God pollute their relationship with God and each other. This intense sadness is seen in the way we pollute and destroy the creation given us by our Creator to care for and use for His glory and the good of all.

In our pilgrimage of faith my we trust our Lord to lead us to grow in our relationship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.