Imagine you’re out walking on a beach. It’s summer. It was a warm day, but now it’s evening, the air is starting to cool and there is a light breeze. You’re walking in the sand – barefoot. You can feel the sand between your toes, and every now and then, a wave comes ashore and the water rushes across your feet as you walk. It feels so cleansing, so therapeutic. So pure.
You continue to walk. You see the waves break against the shore. You hear it. It can be deafening, but yet, it’s a sound that yields a silence in your mind and soul. The shore is distinct – a clear line between land and sea. So few things in this world are as cut and dry.
You continue to walk. You stare at the horizon, and you see the sun going down, closer and closer it sinks to its’ setting. The sky is a hazy blue, transitioning to yellows and oranges through a sheen of wispy clouds. The sun continues to set. You continue to walk.
How could something like this be created by random accident? How can you witness a scene like this and not believe in a higher power? On this Holy Trinity Sunday, when I think of the Holy Trinity – and try to comprehend it – I often come up short. How can we humans understand the significance and magnitude of our God – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – when all we have is our earthly, our worldly, and limited understanding? But sometimes, I think we have to look no further than the world around us to get a glimpse, a taste of what the Holy Trinity is. For me, that often occurs in nature, whether its a hiking trail in the woods, on a mountain, or on a coastline.
There is something about the beach that speaks to me, that fills my soul. When I am on the coast – any coast – as soon as I smell the air, and see the water and the sand, I take on a different demeanor. I feel it in my mind and body that everything is right. I look at how amazing it is to see the sea meet the land right there, and I think about the time it must have taken to create such a beautiful scene. It fills me. I think of life.
And so with todays first reading from Proverbs, it speaks of life. And it speaks of how the Trinity was there all along, from the very beginning, as the earth was being created. But just as there is a process, and a factor of time in creating such natural beauty, the revelation of God’s true form, and fullness and beauty took time as well. There was a process we as humanity had to go through before the truth was revealed.
It’s a continual process. Paul writes today in the second reading simply about the process of life. In life we have good things, and we have challenges. We have hurdles. Humanity has been faced with this from the very beginning. But through this affliction, through our trials, we build endurance. This endurance to withstand trials builds the character and discipline within us. Underlying all of this is the hope that there is always something better around the bend, the sun always comes up tomorrow. There’s always the hope that God will provide some bit of truth, some bit of wisdom, some bit of guidance to get us through.
Jesus is this truth. Jesus made it real. He lived as we lived. His was one of us. He is human. But yet, He is God. And so, as in the Gospel today, He tells His disciples how “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when He comes, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you to all truth.” He wanted so much to tell us all He knows, but the disciples were not ready. There is a process.
Back on the beach, we have the land and sea – in constant affliction, working against each other. But through that resistance something beautiful has been created in the form of sand dunes covered with green grass, the deep blue of the waves reflecting the light, and then the sunlit sky as the backdrop. God crafted this world for us. He gave us dominion over it. He is our land and sea. He is our solid ground.
Jesus is that light, that sun in the sky, filling us with warmth and lighting up and otherwise dark world. Sometimes our faith in Him gets clouded though. Sometimes clouds roll in and block Him out. Sometimes, the dunes get in the way. But we keep walking down that beach, hoping to catch light of him once again. Sometimes the winds pick up. Sometimes we wonder if the long walk is worth it. Sometimes, we wonder if our timing is all wrong and if we’re doing anything right. We just want a little guidance, a little wisdom, a little understanding.
We’re still walking down that beach. We’re hoping that there is something better around the bend. Some clouds have rolled in. The sun has went down beyond the horizon, but as we come around the point, there it is. All those clouds moving in, blocking our view of the sun, have been shaped by the winds, and lit up with all the colors of the spectrum of the sun, which while hidden from our view, is still there. And so while the sun has set into the heavens, it’s spirit remains in the form of that warm afterglow – a glow that fills you with life. It’s that glow of the sky, of the invisible air, backlit by the sun that brings the scene all together. Just as when Jesus ascended to Heaven, His Spirit descended and His afterglow remained.
It is definitely worth the walk. It is worth the patience, and the endurance. And so when I try to think of the Holy Trinity, and what God truly is with my limited understanding, this is the best picture I can think of in my mind, it’s a setting where I can truly feel Him in all His glory. He provides us the path, he lights our way, and He fills us with the warmth and glow of His love in those precious, little moments in our lives that we may take for granted, such as a sunset, and walks on the beach. And it’s His Spirit that continues to remind us of His truth and light and love, that no matter the darkness or the clouds, we must simply maintain hope that there will be something brighter around the bend. And we must always be searching for His light. And we must let it guide us.
Just as the land, the air, and the sea surrounds us, so does the Holy Trinity of God. We are simply a part of the earth, living within it, in a relationship with it. We are dependent upon the earth for our physical life. The Trinity, too, is all consuming. We live within it, we are a part of it. We are dependent upon God in all His grandeur through the Trinity, and His grace. God engulfs us through a Fathers love, the personal relationship with His Son, and through a Spirit that consumes us and guides us throughout life.
The Trinity fills us with a warmth, a glow, and a new way of looking at life, and with a new understanding. Like the air, the land and the sea and a beautiful sunset – it surrounds us, and it completes us.
