Trinity Sunday

Editor's Note: This article was the Educational Column for the St. Thomas Aquinas parish bulletin, Ames, IA , spring, 2007.

What do weddings, anniversaries, Easter and Pentecost, Baptism, First Communion, Ordination, graduations and Confirmation have in common? They celebrate both the Paschal Mystery and the Trinity! These celebrations invite us to die to our former life and to embrace a new life in Christ and to be living signs of the Trinity and the Paschal Mystery in today’s world. They involve a relationship built on trust, love, communication and respect. Each celebration is life changing and makes the Trinity and the Paschal Mystery more concrete and vibrant. All of these events challenge us to trust in the Trinity as we transition from one stage of life to another.

St. John Baptist de La Salle, founder of the Christian Brothers, expressed this very eloquently. “The sign that God is involved in our lives is that we will be led where we did not plan to go.” Similarly, related to today’s reading from Romans, Jeremiah 29:11 echoes the message of trusting in the Trinity’s master plan in each of our lives. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” It is when I am least expecting or intensely searching, that the Trinity unexpectedly surprises me with an opportunity that I didn’t have in my “blueprints for life.”

Above my desk is one of my favorite quotes by German poet, Maria Rainer Rilke, “Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart. And try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek the answers that cannot be given you, because you would not be able to live them – and the point is to live everything. Live the questions. Now. Perhaps you will gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” This quote seems to parallel what Jeremiah and Romans discuss about the Trinity and Paschal Mystery’s roles in our lives, especially in times of intense searching about our ideals and goals.

Rilke’s message to us is to be open and to trust the Trinity’s will for our lives. We are God’s children and He only has our best interest in mind. This quote reminds me that “the best is yet to come!” when I do surrender my will to His.

When was a time that the Trinity had other plans for your life? How did you respond to the Trinity’s invitation instead of your own plans?