Today we are celebrating a great mystery—the Most Holy Trinity. God is one and God is three. Tradition has it that St. Patrick tried to explain this mystery to people by showing them a shamrock, also known as a three-leaf clover. There they could see one clover that was also three. However, such attempts to explain mysteries ultimately fail because a mystery, by its very nature, is beyond explanation or human understanding.
Unfortunately, we tend to think of mysteries as problems that can be solved. If only we get enough clues, we will “get to the bottom” of the mystery. But the mysteries of our faith are bottomless, unfathomable, incomprehensible. They are not something that can be known and understood by means of human investigation and reasoning. Rather, we know about them because God has revealed them to us.
Think for a moment: how would you explain “color” to people who were born blind? The blind have to accept our word that there is such a thing as color. Just because they cannot see color doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. They need to have faith in what we say.
On this side of eternity we are all blind. We believe in the mysteries of our faith because God has told us through the Scriptures and the Church that they are real. Speaking about the difference between our earthly knowledge and the knowledge we will have in Heaven, St. Paul wrote: “At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially, then I shall know fully, as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13: 12). Other translations of this verse are: “We see dimly and know partially now” and “We are seeing a dim reflection in a mirror.”
And so, when it comes to God, the Divine Mystery, we must be humble, like little children who believe what their loving parents tell them. Jesus once prayed: “I give praise to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike” (Matthew 11: 25).
Ultimately, the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the mystery of love. St. John wrote: “God is love” (1 John 4: 8 and 16). God is a Communion of Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God’s very nature is love. Every time we prayerfully make the Sign of the Cross, we acknowledge the Love that is God. We may not understand how God can be one and three but we believe it because God who is Love has told us so.