Brief synopsis of the readings: Our first reading comes from Deuteronomy where Moses spoke to the people. In a series of questions he asked if any other people had been so blessed by God. By being so blessed they need to “fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.” They are then instructed that they must obey God in order that their children may prosper. We read in the end of Matthew’s Gospel that the eleven disciples (minus Judas) gathered on a mountain in Galilee, as Jesus instructed. They were still getting used to seeing Jesus after the Resurrection. Jesus told them that all power in heaven and earth had been given to him. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

I’m sure you’ve heard me say this before but when I was a child I loved the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity just because I took great glee in watching my teachers tie themselves in knots explaining this doctrine. In fairness now that I’m an adult I don’t have a clear, concise definition either. My wisdom only tells me to stop trying to define the Trinity and instead celebrate what it has to teach us.

Part of the challenge is that previous explanations of the gods or God were fairly simple. Pagans like the Romans who dominated the Jews believed in many gods, and other societies had much the same belief. The Romans had Jupiter, Juno, and Venus. The Greeks worshiped Zeus, Apollo and Poseidon while the Egyptians gave us Ra, Osiris, and Anubis. This is obviously a limited list of both gods and societies. These gods held great power but could also be erratic, unpredictable, and at time just plain cruel. They had complex power struggles with each other and some had sexual relationships with humans. They were frankly much like more powerful versions of ourselves.

On the other hand Jesus and his disciples believed in one God. They didn’t believe that our God was more powerful than all other gods, they believed that there simply were no other gods. Jupiter and Juno weren’t weak, they didn’t exist.

But today’s Gospel gives us something puzzling. This new faith, which will come to be known as Christianity, is monotheistic (belief in one God) but that God is Father, Son and Spirit. Little wonder this led to debates over our first few centuries and wasn’t settled as a doctrine until the year 325.

Now I don’t have any desire to try to define the Trinity; that’s what sleep medication is for. Instead let’s look at what it can teach us 2000 years after Jesus.

I find it interesting that today’s Gospel gives us a confluence of three important tenants of our faith: Evangelization (go and make disciples of all nations), Baptism (baptizing them) and the Trinity (in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit).

This may sound radical but I believe that the importance of the Trinity lies not just in the persons of the Trinity but also the spaces between them. When we think about space we think about emptiness or “stuff that’s not there” but the space between the Father, Son and Spirit is far from empty. Love fills it. The love that binds them together also binds us together and binds us to our world. We don’t do it alone.

John Donne, a 17th Century poet, wrote No Man Is An Island and that has proven an inspiration to many readers. In 1955 the Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote a book of that same title; it was given to me as a gift from a former coworker in 1988 and I still carry it with me.

There is nothing earth shattering in the book but it states emphatically that we do not exist on our own and we can’t grow on our own, but only in community. In the Gospels when Jesus sends his first disciples out to spread the word he has them go in pairs. Even today when the evangelizing Christians come to our homes they come in pairs: the ability to evangelize and baptize does not come from intellectual assent or clever arguments but witnessing and following love. Imagine if you met two people who wanted you to follow them but they didn’t appear to like or respect each other. You almost certainly wouldn’t care what they had to say.

I think that’s something we need to pay attention to. From time to time I speak with someone who considered joining a church but decided against it because of something they witnessed. A friend of mine was new to a parish and was invited, along with her husband, to a newcomers breakfast after mass. They went and found…nothing. Nobody was in charge and nobody talked to them. They at their breakfast and left feeling that the church was not interested in them. Not only did they not feel loved, they didn’t feel welcomed or even visible.

We’re not islands because if we were we wouldn’t be able to love. There are those who feel called to be hermits but they are rare. And those who do respond to a call from God that does not move them away from love but deeper into it; they find that solitude does not bring loneliness but closer connection with God. And that is not most of us.

And I think we have a great deal to learn about this. I find that while we can connect more easily we don’t always find this gives us what we need. I see people in local coffee shops spending hours sipping one drink while making eye contact only with their laptops. I listen to people who wonder why they’re lonely even though they have hundreds of friends on Facebook and spend hours on Tik Tok.

We live the Trinity when we love one another, when we grow into the love the other has to offer and encourage others to grow into our love. When we see, welcome and listen. When the spaces between us aren’t emptiness but love.

And if you’re one of my old teachers, you loved me enough to teach me. Though you may not believe it, I’m grateful.