The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Homily)

June 12, 2022 11:00 am  · Sergio Muñoz Fita

Homilies, Ordinary Time

In this weekend's homily, I would like to try to explain the meaning of a gesture that is well known to us, the Sign of the Cross, in light of the mystery that we are celebrating today, the central mystery of our faith, that of the Most Holy Trinity.

If we were to ask in general why Christians make the Sign of the Cross, most answers would probably go in this direction - "Because it is on the cross that our Lord Jesus Christ died." - and it is evident that this is the primary meaning of the gesture and that, by tracing it on our bodies, we remember both Jesus' sacrifice for us and the supreme law of love. Jesus calls us to love one another as he has loved us, and he loved us "to the end" (Jn 13:1), even to the madness of the cross. The Sign of the Holy Cross speaks to us, therefore, of God's love for us and also of the love we are called to give to others.

However, the gesture of making the Sign of the Cross is also a wonderful catechesis about the Most Blessed Trinity, because when we do it, we say the words: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." It is not by chance that we say each word in a different place in our bodies. Let us go step by step.

We begin by bringing our hand to our forehead while saying: "In the name of the Father". The Father is represented by the highest part of our body because He is the first origin of everything and the supreme authority. We know that He is a loving and merciful Father, who so loved the world that He gave His only Son. (Jn 3:16) His Son is a distinct Person, the Word of God of whom St. John's prologue says from the beginning was with God and was God. (Jn 1:1) Today's first reading, taken from the book of Proverbs, speaks to us of this presence of the Word in the mystery of God "before the mountains were settled into place". The Word, then, is eternally generated by the Father. God, who eternally knows himself, begets the Word. It is a generation that takes place outside of time, in the eternity of God, and which takes place by way of intellect (per modum intelligibilis actionis). The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word, is also the Wisdom of God because he is a perfect image of the Father. Therefore, the movement of the Sign of the Cross begins at the head, to express that the Father is the origin of everything, that the Son is God like the Father, and that he is generated by way of intellect, by the knowledge that God has of himself.

And then we go on to say: "...and of the Son...", and when we say these words, we do something that is not by chance: our hand goes down to our belly. This gesture is expressing the Mystery of the Incarnation! The Son, who lived in the Father, comes to us to save us and becomes a man, with a concrete name, Jesus, and with a face and a life story like ours, like us in everything except sin. (Heb 2:17) We touch our guts, where our viscera are, to express that "the Word became flesh" (Jn 1:13), that he is one of us, that the second Person of the Blessed Trinity came down from heaven to share our own human nature. That his body is like our body, his soul like our soul, his Heart like our heart. He is truly one of us! Our brother, our Lord, our God. The downward movement of the hand thus expresses the love of that God the Trinity who, from the highest, came to the lowest to redeem us. The distance we make with our hand is tiny, that which goes from our head to our belly, but the Word had to travel an infinite distance to reach us: from eternity, he had to enter into time; from the summit of wealth, he came to total poverty; from the happiness of heaven, to the bitterness of earth, from the light of glory, to the darkness of men, from the holiness of God to the sin of men, from the perfection of the Father to the miseries of his brethren, from incorruptibility to corruption. The love of God the Father and God the Son for us is truly infinite!

And so, we come to the last part of the gesture of the Sign of the Cross: "...and of the Holy Spirit...", and when we say these words, our hand rises to the level of the heart. We do so because the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, which we celebrated last Sunday, is the personal love of the Father and the Son, and love is represented in all cultures by the heart. If the generation of the Son takes place by way of intellect, the spiration of the Holy Spirit comes about "in the manner of love" (per modum amoris). Isn't it wonderful? By means of generation, God is eternally Father and Son. The Father who begets loves the Son and the Son loves the Father with a love which is identical with that of the Father: paternal and filial love at the same time which, in their mutual gratification, "spirate the Holy Spirit, who is consubstantial with them”. So then, in relation to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Sign of the Cross teaches us that it is love and that this love unites the Father and the Son: that is why in the gesture of the Sign of the Cross it is placed between the Father (in the head) and the Son (in the belly). Thus, the mission of the Spirit in us is to make us love God, and in this way, he unites us to him as in the bosom of the Trinity the Holy Spirit unites the Father to the Son in the most beautiful embrace that can exist. St. Paul said in today’s second reading: "the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.". The Holy Spirit brings us the loving presence of the three Divine Persons, who dwell in the heart of the just so that we may enjoy their friendship and their light.

Dear brothers and sisters, on this solemnity at which we celebrate the source of all the mysteries of our faith and the goal to which we are called, let us ask for the grace to live this reality in our daily lives, to learn from the Most Holy Trinity a communion in our families and communities, the total gift of our persons to others, and a generosity that holds nothing back. May we live always aware of this Presence and may we always keep it within us, living in the grace of God and, after living the days of this life in union with the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, may we deserve to live forever with them in the eternal joys of Paradise.