The week after Pentecost is the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, which is what we are celebrating this Sunday. The Blessed Trinity is not new to us. We have heard it often and know that it refers to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the One God, we believe there are Three Divine Persons, distinct but equal. Now this part is a little bit complicated to understand - three divine distinct persons, yet one and equal in being God. How can it be? Understanding it logically is difficult, but as St. Augustine said, the Blessed Trinity is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived. That is true!
Pope Paul VI described the dogma of the Blessed Trinity as “infinitely beyond all that we can humanly understand”. The Fourth Lateran Council said: “We firmly believe and confess without reservation that there is only one true God, eternal infinite and unchangeable, incomprehensible, almighty and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three persons indeed, but one essence.”
The Three Divine Persons are distinct. This is because Jesus Christ, who became man, is not God the Father nor the Holy Spirit. God the Father is not Jesus Christ nor the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit is not God the Father nor Jesus Christ. They are very distinct from each other. Our proof for this is when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. God the Father, in a loud voice, was there; God the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove was there; and God the Son, who was baptized, was there also.
The Three Divine Persons are equal. It does not mean that God the Father is the One who came first; God the Son is the second one to come and God the Holy Spirit is the last one to come. Rather, they are eternally equal since there is no beginning and there is no end for these Three Divine Persons.
I think by faith we understand the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity. In fact, we even show our devotion whenever we pray and make the sign of the cross to the Blessed Trinity. At the words, ‘In the name of the Father’, we touch our forehead, to affirm that the Father is the First Person of the Godhead. At the words, ‘and of the Son’, we touch the breast or heart to signify that the Son of God came down from heaven and became man. Lastly, by touching the left and the right shoulders with the words, ‘And the Holy Spirit’, we profess that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one source. We make it from the left to the right to express that the Cross of Christ removed us from the left side of sin and perdition to the right side of holiness and salvation. We finish the sign of the Cross with the word, ‘Amen’. This means, “So be it”, we assert that we believe the Blessed Trinity.