The Most Holy Trinity, depicted in Cologne Cathedral
The doctrine of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity is a central tenet of the Christian faith; at once a mystery beyond all telling and a reality intrinsically present in the lives of each of us. Blessed John Henry Newman, concluding one of his sermons on the subject, encouraged his congregation to consider this lofty topic only with a certain reverence. He writes: “May we never speak on subjects like this without awe; may we never dispute without charity; may we never inquire without a careful endeavour, with God’s aid, to sanctify our knowledge, and to impress it on our hearts, as well as to store it in our understandings!” So we may well be tempted to handle this profound theological notion with kid gloves; with a kind of holy fear. Yet the ready presence of the Most Holy Trinity, which runs through the veins of each Christian, and which is present in a very real way in the action of the Sacred Liturgy, calls us to set aside such anxiety, if not our just reverence, and to enter into the mystery and life of the Trinity, with awe and respect for sure, but with tenacity and confidence, knowing that the doctrine we revere is not something distant from us, but here and now, in our midst; in our very being, and in the act of divine worship we gather this morning to perform.
