Getting to Know God
Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity

Antonio P. Pueyo
Reproduced with Permission

My attention was caught by a front-page news item in a national newspaper the other day, "Vatican: It's OK to believe in ET (Extra-terrestrial)." The Vatican's astronomer as interviewed by the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano said that aliens would still be God’s creatures. To rule out their existence would be like putting limits to God’s freedom to create. The universe is so vast that it is possible for other life-forms to exist in other galaxies and planets.

Action starter: Introduce somebody to God.

We are blessed with a human intelligence that is limitless in its desire to possess its object which is knowledge. We want to know more and more. Our curiosity showed itself even from our early childhood. Watch a toddler as it tries to explore its surroundings and toys. Such intelligence enabled the human species to explore the depth, breadth, and height of this planet's mountains, oceans, and lands. We studied quarks and atoms as well as elephants and whales. We tried to explain the inner workings of the human mind and the human heart. We even set our sights at the seemingly infinite space above us.

If one is serious enough in his search, he eventually encounters the question of God. Why are things as they are? Why are there things at all? Why is there something instead of nothing? How did it all start? If God created it all, who created God? The seeking for answers may lead to faith (there is God), to agnosticism (God may exist but we do not have a way of knowing), skepticism (we are not really sure), or atheism (there is no God).

In a way, the human tendency to ask questions and to seek answers, is God's way of leading us to discover Him. To help us find the answers to our questions, God gives us clues about Himself. We call this revelation. God reveals Himself to us in myriad ways. The beauty and complexity of creation is God's way of revealing Himself as creator. People of many faiths and many cultures arrive at a consensus that there is some Power, Force or Energy that sustains our being.

The experience of a people (Israel) also revealed that this Power is somebody to whom they can relate in a personal way as Father, Protector, Mother, and Friend. He is one who knows us in the deepest way possible, one who is near to us. The experience of the Israelites in the bible shows a God who acts in history to save His people. God also showed Himself as one who joined the human condition. The all-powerful became powerless as a baby in a manger and as the Man on the Cross. God revealed Himself in a human manner through Jesus. Jesus showed us the human face of God. As the Gospel reminds us, "Yes, God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die but may have eternal life." (Jn. 3:16)

God also reveals Himself as one who does not abandon His people. He is ever-present in His Spirit. He breathes his peace, life, and energy into His creatures. He is with us always.

Today is the Sunday that is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. God revealed Himself in different ways. As we get closer to Him and we enter into His life of love and communion, then the mystery somehow makes some sense. The all-powerful Creator is one who cares and provides for His people like a Father, one whose love led Him to join the human condition in Jesus, and one who today is ever present in the Holy Spirit.

To get into the mystery of the Trinity is not just a matter of arriving at an intellectual clarity. Ultimately, it is to make an affirmation that God is so great that He defies intellectual understanding about being Three-in-One. Although intellectually difficult to comprehend, in the human experience, the One God revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Spirit.

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