“And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3: 16-17) In this first Luminous Mystery of the Rosary, the Baptism of the Lord, we behold the central Mystery of our faith, which is the Blessed Trinity, one God in Three Persons—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. On the day of our Baptism, when the priest said the words “N. I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” (insert your name in this Trinitarian formula) the Blessed Trinity came to dwell in our soul, and remains in us, as long as we are in the state of grace. Baptism makes us members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, and adopted sons and daughters of God the Father; in this lies our identity. And our destiny is union with the Trinity, as a priest said. This article is a reflection on the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity. When we pray this first Luminous Mystery of the Rosary, we might ask Our Lady of the Blessed Trinity to help us to enter more deeply into the great Mystery of the Trinity.
Jesus, the Son, is our Redeemer, our Brother and our Friend, the Friend Who will never disappoint us. He reveals the Father; His is the Merciful Face of God. When Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father on the night of the Last Supper, Jesus responds: “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14: 9, 10) The Father is love and mercy; Jesus is love and mercy incarnate. Through His words and actions, through His very Person, we come to know the Father. His words and actions are love and mercy; His whole Person is love and mercy.
Let us reflect on the mercy of Jesus shown to various persons in Sacred Scripture; they were mentioned by a priest in a conference on Divine Mercy. The Samaritan woman at the well encounters the Merciful Heart of Jesus just once, and through her testimony about this encounter many people come to believe in Him (cf. John 4: 6-42). The woman caught in the act of adultery is brought to Christ. “Jesus looked up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.’” (John 8: 10-11) Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, seeks to see Jesus and so he climbs a tree. Jesus looks up and tells him to come down quickly, “for I must stay at your house today…Today salvation has come to this house…For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19: 9, 10) Jesus reveals Himself as the Good Shepherd, Who goes after the lost sheep and leaves the ninety-nine others behind. Upon finding the sheep, He carries it on His shoulders and brings it home rejoicing (cf. Luke 15: 3-7). “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15: 7) “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed…” (Ezekiel 34: 16)
Peter denies Jesus three times on the night He is arrested, the night of the Last Supper. “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.” (Luke 22: 61) “Jesus’ look of infinite mercy drew tears of repentance from Peter, and, after the Lord’s resurrection, a threefold affirmation of love for Him.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1429) This, as the priest said, is the triumph of God’s mercy. With this threefold affirmation of love in reparation for Peter’s threefold denial, Jesus entrusts His entire flock to Peter as the first Pope. Mary Magdalene from whom Jesus cast out seven devils (cf. Mark 16: 9), stands at the foot of His Cross as the repentant sinner who loves much because she has been forgiven much (cf. Luke 7: 47). She received God’s mercy abundantly. On the day of the Resurrection, Mary Magdalene stands at Jesus’ empty tomb weeping. Jesus calls her by name and then gives her the mission to be the apostle to the Apostles, (cf. John 20: 11-18). For this reason her liturgical celebration was elevated in 2016 from a memorial, to the rank of a feast like the Apostles. God’s mercy “triumphed” in a great sinner who became a great saint.
Jesus says to a chosen instrument of His in our time—Saint Faustina Kowalska: “How much I desire the salvation of souls! My dearest secretary, write that I want to pour out My divine life into human souls and sanctify them, if only they are willing to accept My grace. The greatest sinners would achieve great sanctity, if only they would trust in My mercy. The very inner depths of My being are filled to overflowing with mercy, and it is being poured out upon all I have created. My delight is to act in a human soul and fill it with My mercy and to justify it.” (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, #1784) Trust in God’s mercy, trust in Jesus Who is love and mercy, is at the very heart of the message which He Himself gives to humanity through Saint Faustina. “Jesus, I trust in You” is the inscription on the Divine Mercy Image as He requested. “The graces of My Mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is—trust.” (Diary, #1578)
On the Cross Jesus’ Heart is pierced by a lance and blood and water gush forth from It (cf. John 19:34) as an inexhaustible Fount of Mercy for sinners. “O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You.” (Diary, #187) Jesus invites souls to come to the Fount of Mercy and receive His mercy…through the Divine Mercy Image; through the Sacraments of Baptism, Confession and the Most Blessed Sacrament; through the Feast of Divine Mercy and the unique grace He offers on that day; through adoration before the tabernacle…He calls the Sacrament of Confession the “Tribunal of Mercy” (Diary, #1448), and the tabernacle His “Throne of Mercy” on earth (Diary, #1485), where souls can come to visit Him at any time. Our Mother of Mercy stands at the foot of the Cross. ”And a sword shall pierce through your own soul also…” (Luke 2: 35). Let us ask Her to bring us to the Fount of Mercy, and to dispense God’s mercy to us abundantly. Let us ask Her for trust in His mercy.
Jesus reveals to us the Father’s mercy in the beautiful parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15: 11-32) through the “merciful father” who, as the Catechism says, is the focus or center of this parable (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1439). The younger son of the “merciful father” demands his inheritance from his father, and in so doing, could not have hurt him more. It is as if to say: “I cannot wait until you die.” His father gives him his inheritance, which he then squanders on “loose living” (Luke 15: 13) in a foreign country. When the prodigal son finds himself starving, while employed in feeding swine, he decides to return to his father’s house. While he is still far from the house, his father rushes to him and hugs and kisses him. Not a word of reproach, no mention of what his son did. Considering himself unworthy to be called a son on account of his sins, the prodigal seeks to be a servant in his father’s house. But the father tells his servants to clothe him with the best robe and to put a ring on his finger. Kill the fatted calf, strike up the instruments and let us “make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15: 23, 24) This parable is a window into Heaven as it were, enabling us to catch a glimpse of the infinite merciful love and goodness of God the Father, Who rejoices in every repentant sinner, and we are all sinners (Cf. 1 John 1: 8) since Our Blessed Mother Mary alone is sinless. “The beautiful robe, the ring and the festive banquet are symbols of that new life—pure, worthy and joyful—of anyone who returns to God, and to…his family, which is the Church. Only the heart of Christ who knows the depth of His Father’s love could reveal to us the abyss of his mercy in so simple and beautiful a way.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1439).
Saint Joseph was the man created by God, to represent God the Father for God the Son—Jesus. By getting to know Saint Joseph better, by drawing closer to him, we can get to know God the Father better. Let us ask Saint Joseph to help us to know the Father better, that we may love Him more. “God is love” (1 John 4: 8), the Blessed Trinity—one God in Three Persons—is love. The Three Persons of the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—are distinct from each other; the Holy Spirit is “Person-Love” as Pope Saint John Paul II says (Dominum et Vivificantem, n. 10). He is the love between the Father and the Son. He is the Spirit of the Father and the Son. Through Him we come to know the Father and the Son, through Him we can penetrate deeper into the Mystery of the Trinity, of Love, of God Who is love. “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” (1 Corinthians 2: 10) It is through the Spirit that we recognize that Jesus is God (cf. 1 Corinthians 12: 3) as Pope Benedict XVI said, and it is through the Spirit that we can say “Abba”…Father. “When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God…” (Romans 8: 15, 16). Let us ask the Holy Spirit then, to help us to know the Father and the Son better, to love them more, to enter into a deeper relationship with Them.
The Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier. Jesus said: “I came to cast fire upon the earth…” (Luke 12: 49) This “fire” of love is the Holy Spirit—“Person-Love”—Who was poured out powerfully upon the newborn Church gathered in prayer with Our Blessed Mother in the Upper Room on the day of Pentecost “like a cascade capable of purifying every heart, extinguishing the fire of evil and kindling the flame of divine love in the world…” Pope Benedict XVI said in his Regina Caeli address on Pentecost 2008. He came rushing down like a mighty wind upon all present, through the Heart of Mary, and the fearful, imperfect Apostles were transformed into fearless, bold witnesses of Christ as we see in the Book of Acts. On that day of Pentecost, Peter, who denied Jesus three times just days earlier, addresses the people with such power, that 3,000 souls are baptized on that very day. The most radical transformation by the Spirit is perhaps seen in Saint Paul (Saul). He who was consenting to Stephen’s death by stoning, who persecuted and “laid waste” the Church, who entered the homes of the first Christians and dragged them off to prison (cf. Acts 8: 1, 3), who “breathed threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9: 1), proclaims Jesus as the Son of God in the synagogues after being filled with the Spirit (cf. Acts 9: 17, 20).
The Holy Spirit dwells within us; let us surrender ourselves to His Divine action, to His Divine Power, and ask Him to unite us to the Most Holy Trinity, to transform us into the saints He calls us to be. He gives us inspirations, which if we follow, we will become saints. Stephen is a most beautiful example for us in the Scriptures of holiness, of saintliness. This soul had a face like an angel we are told; he was filled with the Holy Spirit, “full of grace” (cf. Acts 6: 5, 8, 15). May we never grieve the Holy Spirit by resisting His inspirations, but always do His will. God is love and mercy; His will is love and mercy.
The Holy Spirit is our best Friend, as a priest said, the “sweet Guest of our soul” as we pray in the Pentecost Mass Sequence. We can talk to Him at any time about anything, pour out our hearts to Him. He will console us since He is our Consoler. He will counsel us since He is our Counselor (cf. John 14: 16, 26). Let us ask Him to enlighten and guide us, that we may know what to say or do in any given situation, or ask Him to speak through us.
Our Blessed Mother Mary bears the title as this priest said of “Our Lady of the Trinity.” As members of the Mystical Body of Christ by our Baptism, we are adopted sons and daughters of the Father. Our Blessed Mother is the pre-eminent member of the Mystical Body of Christ (cf. Lumen Gentium, 53) thus She is the pre-eminent Daughter of the Father. She is the Mother of the Son and the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. She is, as this priest also said, the Living Temple of the Trinity; the Trinity dwells in Her, and that we too are living temples of the Trinity [by our Baptism]. In this lies our dignity, and our destiny is union with the Trinity. Let us then ask Our Blessed Mother, the Mediatrix of all graces, to obtain for us this great grace of union with the Blessed Trinity. Our Lady of the Blessed Trinity, pray for us!