LIVING IN THE TRINITY
This weekend, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity— that is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The easiest and most fundamental way for us to
understand a little bit about the Trinity is by asking ourselves, what do we actually mean when we do the sign of the Cross?  The sign of the cross is the most fundamental and basic expression of faith in the Trinitarian God. It’s the first thing we do whenever we start anything religious or the first thing we do when we enter the Church. So what are we really doing when we make that sign? We touch our head and we say, “In the name of the Father.” Why? The head – as the Creator and origin of all things, everything starts with the mind of God. As our Father, he directs us according to his plan, and it is his vision and plan that makes all things possible. Just like everything that we do begins with the “head/mind”, so does with God. Then we touch our hearts and we say, “and of the Son.” This reminds us that God, the Son, proceeds from the Father and came down from heaven to the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The heart – the seat of emotions, of love. God is not just someone who conceives things in his mind or in his intellect. His plan for us doesn’t just stay in the mind, but it penetrates the heart – and this is shown to us by sending his very Son, so that we might have new life in Him.  We touch the heart when we speak of Jesus in the sign of the Cross, because Jesus is the expression par excellence of God’s love. Then we touch our shoulders, moving from left to right, as we say, “and of the Holy Spirit.” We do this because God, the Holy Spirit, proceeds from the Father and the Son; and in his love, the Spirit fills us, body and soul, with the life of God.  The shoulders – symbols of taking the load and the burden—we carry things in our shoulders, and we touch them when we speak of the Holy Spirit because it is the Holy Spirit that strengthens us in our discipleship; when things get tough and the burden is heavy, we invoke the Holy Spirit for guidance, strength and perseverance.  And, as we invoke the Blessed Trinity in the sign of the cross, we do so touching our body, affirming that our bodies are indeed the temple of God, or that we are created in the image and likeness of God; therefore, we must also embody and manifest the dynamics of relationship present in the Trinitarian model.  – Fr. Cary