Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity 2018

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
May 27, 2018

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As I was saying the most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of our Catholic faith. It is the mystery of God’s own being, who he is.

And we know, of course, what this mystery means. That our loving God is one God in three living persons. He is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our God is the beautiful communion of three divine persons in love.

Our God is the Father who creates us. He is the Son who came into our world to share his life with us. And he is the Spirit who gives us new life as children of God and causes the Trinity to dwell in our hearts.

This is who God is. This is His Name that Jesus tells us in the Gospel today:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
Baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

And the interesting thing, my dear brothers and sisters, besides describing the name of God, is that we are those disciples that Jesus called his Apostles to make.

Each one of us, in our own way — we all have our own stories — each one of us was born of out of the Church’s mission. Each one of us was made a disciple — baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

But as you know, nowadays, sadly so many people say that they cannot find God. That they cannot feel God’s presence in the world.

Again, it is a sad reality in our world, in our society. There is also so much sadness in the world — so much disappointment. It all begins because people have lost God in their lives.

This is why you and I, and everyone in the Church, we have the most important mission in the world. The same mission that Jesus gave to his Apostles in today’s passage of the Gospel.

So just like the Apostles, we need to go out and tell our neighbors what Jesus has shown us. That God is Love.

The Most Holy Trinity. Three Persons united in one love. It’s good to reflect on what it means.

God is love because God is the Father who creates us. The Son who saves us, and the Spirit who leads us to follow the Son on the pathway that leads back to the Father and to eternal life.

God is love. And the love of the Father, the Son and the 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. All around us we see a beautiful diversity, all of it united in one creation.

Everything in creation united in the love of God.

In that powerful first reading we heard this morning, Moses says:

The Lord is God
in the heavens above and on earth below,
and that there is no other.

God is One! And God is love. He 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 walks with us in all the pathways of our lives.

So my dear brothers and sisters, as we reflect on this beautiful mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, we need to embrace this beautiful truth. We can know the love of the God of all Creation! God wants to share his blessed life with each one of us, with you and with me! This is the gift that he gives us in Baptism.

St. Paul tells us today in that second reading of today’s Mass that in Baptism, the love of God is poured into our hearts — making a place for God inside each one of us and making a place for each one of us in the family of God.

St. Paul says:

You received a Spirit of adoption,
through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” …
We are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

That is how much love God loves each one of us! When we are baptized, as Jesus wanted, we become children of God.

It’s amazing when we think about it! God is my Father! Each one of us — we are sons and daughters of God!

Now we are brothers and sisters in God’s family. We share in God’s divine nature. Let me put it a practical way that we can try to grasp a little better — just as children share in the “DNA” of their parents, now we share in the “DNA” of God. God’s DNA is called grace. And he shares his grace with us through his Holy Spirit, given to us through the sacraments.

We participate as children of God in the beauty of God’s love for each one of us.  

God wants us to grow up as his children. He wants us to realize our full potential. Just as parents want their children to be. He wants us to become the people he created us to be.

God is love and we share in God’s nature. That means we need to live with love, to love as God loves. In our thoughts, in our words, in our attitudes, in our actions.

Yes, we need to be good friends to others, good neighbors and good companions. We need share in people’s pain and in their happiness. We need to show mercy and compassion, we need confront the injustice and the violence we see in our society. Just as we see God, who is always there for us and loves us no matter what. As disciples, as children of the Trinity, we need to show the world a new way. We need to bring people together, to live as one family.

And because we are “heirs of God” we need to be aware that we have a responsibility for the whole family of God, for the mission of his Church.

My dear brothers and sisters, we all are part of the mission of the Church. Our lives — your life, my life — participates in the plan of God. It’s exciting! In the same way that we see the beauty of creation and the beauty of the human person, we need to participate actively in that love of God for the world, for society and for each one of us.

So, this week, let us try to reflect more on how beautiful it is. The love of God — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit — for each one of us personally. For our world. For our society.

And let us try to find practical ways to live as children of God. Children of the Most Holy Trinity. When we love we are being like God. When we love God is with us.

And, as always, let us turn to our Blessed Mother Mary and ask her to help us to experience more and more the presence of the Trinity — the love of God — in our lives and in our world.

And let us remember all of that every time that we make the Sign of the Cross — that we have been made disciples of the Most Holy Trinity. That we are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.