WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES THE TRINITY MAKE?

Reflections on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: Proverbs 8:22-31, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15

Within the one and only God, there are three “persons”, or rather hypostases. When we try to explain the Trinity, it is often all about nuances. The Trinity is biblical, but not very logical. Three persons in one is not mathematical. An elderly parish priest was examining students preparing for their First Communion during a catechism class. He turned to a young girl and asked, “How would you explain the Trinity?” The girl fumbled through her response, her words hesitant and unclear. The priest, struggling to hear, leaned closer and said, “I’m sorry, my dear, but I don’t quite understand.” She whispered back, in a tone of confidence: “Neither do I understand, Father. It’s a mystery!”

This is how we usually present the core of our faith, the Holy Trinity. Many Church Fathers and mystics have tried to explain this mystery of a God in three persons, using all kinds of concepts, categories, and metaphors to make it intelligible. However, these theoretical constructs and metaphors seek to punch way above their weight; They claim to clarify the nature of God and the relationships that bind the three divine persons. Maybe we should adopt a different approach. Let's drop the usual concepts, theories, and metaphors to focus on another question: what difference does the Trinity make for me?

1. What difference does it make to me that God is a Father?

Understanding and relating to God as the Father carries profound theological, relational, and existential implications. Calling God “Father” affirms that God is fundamentally relational and personal, not an impersonal force or philosophical concept. He is not an abstract/ absolute idea or simply a supreme consciousness. He is a person. The Fatherhood of God reveals Him as a being with will, intentionality, and love - a Person who knows, acts, and invites relationship. This grounds faith in intimacy rather than abstraction: we do not believe in a distant principle, but “we believe in God, the Father almighty”, who seeks communion with creation. If God is Father, then all creation, especially those “in Christ”, is invited into this familial relationship.

By grace, believers become “children of God” (John 1:12), sharing in the Son’s inheritance (Romans 8:17). This redefines human identity: we are not servants but sons and daughters, called to trust, obey, and mirror the Father’s character (Matthew 5:48). In Romans 8:14-17, Paul shows us that to grasp this fatherly closeness to God, we need to progress through a new pedagogy that is summed in four words understood as four stages: slaves, sons, children of God and heirs. Slaves don't belong to the master's line of descent. God makes us sons and daughters, who enter into a relationship of filiation, attested by the Holy Spirit, which enables us to pronounce the word abba/appa father, and so become children of God. It is this closeness, this tenderness, that the Triune God wants to experience with us.

2. What difference does it make to me that Jesus is the Son? 

To call Jesus the Son of the Holy Trinity is to affirm His eternal, divine identity as the Second Person of the Triune God. More than just a title, this sonship shapes our understanding of God, redemption, and purpose as disciples. Jesus’ Sonship does not imply biological offspring or subordination in essence but reveals His eternal relationship with the Father. As affirmed by the first reading, the Son is eternally present to the Father. That He is “begotten, not made” (The Nicene Creed) and homoousios (of the same substance as the Father) means that He shares the Father’s divine nature eternally and in history (John 1:1-3,14). The Son is the bridge between eternity and history. His divinity guarantees that His historical life, death, and resurrection carry eternal weight. Salvation hinges on God Himself acting in human history through the Son.

The Son makes the invisible and eternal Father visible to the creation. He is the perfect revelation of the Father’s character and will for “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). His complete self-offering on the cross demonstrates the truth about God’s love. Further, to call Jesus “Son” is to recognise our calling to live as God’s children, transformed by His grace. His humility and sacrificial love for humanity become the roadmap for every Christian. C.S. Lewis affirms, “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.” That Jesus is the Son means that our history matters, and God continues to reveal through His Son and redeem us through his eternal sacrifice that is carried out in our discipleship.

3. What difference does it make to me that God has gifted me with His Spirit? 

To receive the Holy Spirit as a gift and promise is to welcome Divine life within us. As the gospel attests, the Holy Spirit is our Comforter, Teacher, and Transformative Power. Fully God, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and Son, the Spirit is: 1. Relational, who speaks (Acts 13:2), grieves (Ephesians 4:30), and intercedes (Romans 8:26-27); 2. Indwelling: When God gives His Spirit, He makes His home in us (1 Corinthians 3:16); 3. Advocate: Jesus called the Spirit the Paraclete, the Helper, Comforter, and Counsellor (John 14:16-17), who guides us into truth, convicts of sin, and empowers us to live as Christ’s witnesses. The Spirit transforms faith from abstract belief into a lived relationship.

As Paul affirms in the second reading, the love of God is poured into our hearts through the Spirit, who becomes the reason to hope. The Spirit enables us to become witnesses “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Spirit equips the Church with diverse gifts to build up others. The Spirit turns timid disciples into bold proclaimers (Acts 4:31), even amid persecution and inspires art, justice, innovation, and compassion, reflecting God’s renewal of all things. The Fatherhood of God, Sonship of Jesus, and the gift of the Holy Spirit together reveal to us that God is a Father who enters into a living relationship with us in our historical contexts through His Son and gifts us with the continued presence of the Spirit who builds the Church into a body of witnesses.

The Trinity is never a puzzle to solve but a tri-fold relationship to inhabit, a mystery not of confusion, but of infinite depth, discovered in our concrete relationship with the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.