Reflection for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Sunday

It is a great privilege for me to share in this feast day of the Holy Trinity, core of our charism of communion.

“… but they doubted”, in the Spanish version is “but some doubted”. Regardless of this, if all or some… I think everybody, in one moment or another of his / her life, doubts. Especially now that the world is whipped by different calamities, either man-made or natural ones: pandemic, volcanic eruption, earthquakes, wars… even the strongest in his / her faith will wonder: “Where are you God? Come Lord Jesus!!!”.

“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me”, Jesus was very sure of His mission.  He really arrived at the maturity of his spiritual-thinking level… He knew very well the meaning of His life. Now that we have entered in our on-going formation, we hope that the Word of God and Jesus will serve us as our model.

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…”. I wonder how our sense of being missionary, our obedience to His Word, that commanded the disciples, commanded us to evangelize… maybe at this point we will be trapped…

“Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, which means to invite the people to change, to be converted; as St. John of the Cross says: “There would not be a true and total transformation if the soul were not transformed in the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity in an open and manifest degree… One should not think it impossible that the soul be capable of so sublime an activity as this breathing in God through participation as God Breathes in her. For, granted that God favors her by union with the Most Blessed Trinity, in which she becomes deiform and God through participation, how could it be incredible that she also understands, knows, and loves -or better that this be done in her- in the Trinity… This is transformation in the three Persons in power and wisdom and love, and thus the soul is like God through this transformation. He created her in his image and likeness that she might attain such resemblance” (C, 3-4).

Fr. Palau gives us also the role of the Trinity in the Church, in the 9th article of what we call the Palautian Creed: “That in you -Church- love is the Holy Spirit that is effused over all the members of the body, corresponds with love to those who love him. It does not have the substance like ours, but it has spirit and this is the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity that gives you life, movement, virtue, grace and glory; you have an intellect, and this is in your head which is Christ, the Son of the living God, and man Son of Mary the Virgin; and with the Son and the Holy Spirit is the Father as the principle whence proceed the other two; in you, with you, and through you, works the One, Triune God, and apart from you there is no salvation, life or happiness, but restlessness, discontent and eternal torment” (MR 22, 20).

In Palau, we also find consolation, since he was a searcher for his whole life, and until the end he lived worried for the possibility of infidelity to his faith and commitment: “–Can I be lost?” -he asked to the Church, who answered him-: “–Of course, while you are living.” “–How?”, Palau asked Her, who answered him: “–The thing is easy to explain. Just as now, sustaining the presence of your Beloved within you through faith and love, you have been formed little by little and with time into her image, and you have been transformed in her, so your heart could little by little be influenced to the things of the earth, and the understanding will forget what it is now searching for, darken the faith in her until it will be lost; and with it love as well. And then, you could become like that which is in your heart; creatures would impress their image upon you, they would be the idols of your heart, and you would be a monster. This . . . could happen” (MR 16, 13).

We are weak, but Jesus promises today His presence, His support: “I am with you always, until the end of the age”. Also, in Spanish the translation is “I am with you all days”, which means always.

Along the writings of Fr. Palau, we see him renewing his vows frequently. It is a good and strengthening practice. Let us renew our vows every day, as one of our ways to relate with the Church, to relate with God, to remind ourselves that we are sent: “I unite myself once again to this family of Teresian Carmelite Missionaries, to live communion in fraternity, to contemplate and to serve you in your Mystical Body and thus proclaim to all peoples that you are infinitely beautiful and lovable…” (Direct. 6).

Let us not wait more! Let’s go and evangelize! Let’s go and build communion! Let us contemplate the beauty of the Church in all persons around us: in the community, in our different missions, in our lay partners! Let us celebrate the Trinity dwelling within us!