Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity 2022

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
June 12, 2022

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

So today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the profound mystery of God and creation; the mystery of the Church, and the mystery of each one of our lives.

We celebrate what Jesus came to reveal to us — the face of God and the name of God, who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Trinity. One in essence and three in
persons.

St. John Paul II used to say that God in his deepest mystery is a “family.” Because in the Trinity there is the Father and the Son, and they are bound together, as all families are — by the bond of love. And that bond is the Holy Spirit. Three divine persons in a beautiful communion love.

So God is love. And from beginning, love has been reason for everything that God does in creation. The love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit give life to the whole universe, and to each one of us.

All of the universe, everywhere we look, we can see the traces of the Trinity. That is what we just heard in the first reading today, that great hymn of the wisdom of God. And I was thinking it would be good for us to listen to some of those words again. So let us listen again:

“When the Lord established the heavens I was there, when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep; when he made firm the skies above, when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth.  … I was beside him as his craftsman, and … I found delight in the human race.”

So these beautiful words tell us of the creation of the world, how the world was filled with the glory of God, the glory of the Most Holy Trinity.
 
Again God is the love who turns the stars and the planets in the heavens. He is the love who changes the seasons. And he is the love who creates us, and lives inside of us, and the love who walks with us in all the pathways of our lives.

And I hope that we never forget those beautiful words that we just heard: “I found delight in the human race.”

My dear brothers and sisters, our God delights in us! He delights in you, and he delights in me. As we are. Who we are.

And God wants us all for himself, in fact he has claimed us for himself.

Because when we are baptized, we are baptized in his name — in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That means we are not on our own. That means we belong to him now. We are children of God! We partake of his divine nature, we have his Spirit in us.

St. Paul tells us today in the second reading: “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

So the Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — now dwells within us. Each one of us. We are temples of the Holy Spirit.

This is, my dear brothers and sisters, the beautiful mystery of God’s love. He comes into our lives, he fills us with his love. And he makes each one of us a special image of God on earth, a special image of the Trinity.

So today, let’s ask for the grace to deepen our devotion to the Blessed Trinity. To learn to praise God — as the Father who creates us, the Son who came into our world to share his life, and the Spirit who gives us new life as children of God and causes the Trinity to dwell in our hearts.

And let us always try to remember that our lives are “trinitarian,” they are marked with the sign of the cross. When we make the Sign of the Cross — we remember that we are born from the love of the Father; that we are born again in the love of the Son who makes us brothers and sisters; and that we are sent out in the love of the Holy Spirit, to spread the love of God in the world.

Jesus tells us today: “But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. … He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”

So he sent his Spirit of truth down on Pentecost in tongues of fire, to complete his mission. And yes, my brothers and sisters, that mission continues in your life and mine.

The Lord commanded his apostles to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth, to make all men and women disciples, and to baptize every person in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

This is our mission, too.

There is no other purpose for the Church. We are here for the salvation of souls. One soul at a time. Every soul is precious to God. Every heart is made to love him and to feel his love. God really wants to live in every soul in grace.

So, he sends us out. To live in his love, and to share his love. Wherever we are, God is with us. And we are with God. We are his image.

So let us make our homes, our neighborhoods, our society — a dwelling place for the Holy Trinity. A place where God’s glory can be seen by the way we live our lives.   

It is, indeed, a beautiful mystery — the Trinity. God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it is so overwhelming to really think that God is with us every single second of our lives.

So let us try to glorify God by loving one another, by caring for one another! By sharing the love of Jesus with one another.

Let us ask Our Blessed Mother Mary, to help all of us to be a worthy dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity, to fill us with faith, hope, and love. That we will always give glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The God who is, who was, who is to come, and who is with us always.