Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

Most Holy Trinity (May 22, 2005)

Suggested Emphasis

"Encourage one another. Live in harmony and peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you."

Salesian Perspective

St. Francis de Sales had this to say about one of the most profound mysteries of our faith: the Triune nature of God.

"From all eternity there is in God an essential communication by which the Father, in producing the Son, communicates his entire infinite and indivisible divinity to the Son. The Father and the Son together, in producing the Holy Spirit, communicate in like manner their own proper divinity to him. So also this sovereign sweetness was communicated so perfectly outside itself to a creature that the created nature and the godhead each retained its own properties while still being united together in such wise that they were only one self-same person…In short, God's supreme wisdom has decided to intermingle this original love with his creatures' will in such wise that love would not constrain the will but leave it possessed of its freedom." (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 2, Chapter 4)

What can we hope to consider or explain about the profound mystery of the Trinity in a way that makes a practical difference in our lives and in the lives of those we touch? For the sake of simplicity, let us look at each person of the Trinity in very broad strokes, looking at those activities we - in our attempt to take in the mystery of the divine nature - we associate with the Father, the Son and the Spirit in recalling the history of our salvation:

In the Trinity, we experience a Father who creates out of love;
In the Trinity, we experience a Son who redeems and reconciles out of love;
In the Trinity, we experience a Spirit who inspires and sustains out of love.

We are most like the Trinity when we establish and sustain in ourselves the things that most clearly reflect our God-given, Trinitarian nature: when we create, feed and nourish relationships in which we are redeemed, reconciled and inspired to live in the freedom of the sons and daughters of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the words of St. Paul, we are faithful to our divine dignity and destiny when we "encourage one another…living in harmony and peace…"

We are most like the Trinity when we forgive, when we are willing to let go of hurts, disappointment, injury and betrayal. We are most like the Triune Godhead when we inspire, encourage, challenge and support one another to do the same.

How might we best act in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit today? How might we encourage (literally, "give heart" to) one another?

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS is Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center.