June 15: The Day of the Lord

Today’s Feast of the Holy Trinity offers us a chance to rejoice in God’s great love for us, a love we know from the Father who created us, the Son who redeemed us, and the Spirit who sanctifies us.

The Feast also gives us a chance to “think in threes,” as the Bible often does. There, in the Holy Word of God, the figure three always symbolizes completeness and perfect symmetry, and re-appears at all the key moments in the life of Christ. In this way, His life itself constantly reflects the Trinity. The following are just a few examples:

Three figures make up the nativity scene in Bethlehem — the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Three gifts were presented to the newborn Baby in Bethlehem. Later, in the desert and preparing to begin His public life, Jesus was tempted three times by the devil.

A good story should have a beginning, a middle and an end. Jesus was a storyteller par excellence and three figures prominently appear in His Parables: the Prodigal Son is about a father and his two sons; the Good Samaritan tells of the behavior of three passers-by (the priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan); the sower sowed his seed in three different types of soil, yielding three different levels of harvest.

The end of Jesus’ life, as the beginning, had again the motif of three: during His Passion, St. Peter denied Him three times; on the road to Calvary, He fell three times; the Crucifixion scene has three figures, Christ between two thieves; and before His Resurrection, He spent three days in the tomb.

When we dare to “think in threes,” we discover that our lives ought reflect (better and better each day) the Trinity. We are invited to be creative like the Father, compassionate like His Son, and put our talents at the service of others like the Holy Spirit. May God’s grace make it so!