We celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity today. I remember as a seminarian dreading this feast because there would be someone, there is always someone, that would ask me to “explain the mystery”. As time went by, I did not dread it, I looked forward to it. The word “mystery” points to the fact that we cannot embrace the absoluteness of God, but we can allow ourselves to be embraced by God’s divine presence. As with all that is most important in life, it is not a matter of “explaining it” as it is a matter of recognizing and experiencing.
The Holy Trinity is the way we recognize God’s presence in the world. We rejoice this in the ongoing birth of life in all that surrounds us. Not just birth but ongoing life, all of creation breathes ever anew, even through death to new life. And we realize that this birth and rebirth is much more than creation, it is a participation in the essence of life itself. It is like the knowing that the child is of the parents, and the child knowing that he/she is of the parents. A participation in life, constantly open, longing for and stretching towards more life. No deterioration, always expansion. In the language of our religious faith, we call this Abba, Son, Spirit. The Trinity is always and foremost the way we recognize and experience this single presence of God in life. Even when the philosopher and theologian look to “explaining”, there is no explaining without the experience that is most holy and that ushers in a way of life that is as Catholic as it is Missionary.
As a Missionary Servant of the Most Holy Trinity this experience of God moved us to a way of life. Our Rule of Life states: By our lives as Missionary Servants we seek first to glorify the Triune God. We follow in the footsteps of the apostles who, filled with the Holy Spirit, went forth from the Cenacle to spread everywhere the knowledge and love of Jesus. We live and work that God’s name may be hollowed, that his kingdom come, that his holy will be done (MT 6:9-10).
Today, on this feast of the Trinity, we rejoice in thanksgiving for the blessing of 100 years that have been bestowed upon the Order. We began in the spirit-filled gatherings of lay women and men who desired to be more than ordinarily devout. Our Founder, Thomas Augustine Judge, CM accompanied those early pioneers and they accompanied him to Alabama. In Alabama, these pioneer families, moved by an apostolic spirit gave birth to the Sisters, the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity and the priests and Missionary Brothers, the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity. From the foundation experience in what is now known as Holy Trinity, Alabama we have been sent to places where the Gospel needed to be preached, with our hands, feet and heart. In thanksgiving we find ourselves in the Coachella Valley. I pray that you might pray for us, especially during this centennial year, that we might continue to be blessed, especially with the gifts of humility, wisdom and fortitude. Grant dear Lord that we might be worthy disciples in service to your good people.
-Father Francisco Gómez, S.T.