It is often said that at the core of our faith is the doctrine of the Trinity, God present to us as Father, Son and Spirit. How then does the New Testament help us understand God? What insights do we gain about God’s nature?

First of all, we must say that we understand God through symbols and analogy, and not literally, for God is greater than we are. God is not ‘Father’, as we human parents are. Rather, as parents in a limited way are the source and origin of all that their children will become, so God is the Infinite Source and Origin of all Goodness, Truth and Beauty.

But we always begin, not with the Father, but with the Son.

Jesus comes to us through the pages of the four Gospels, our ‘way’ to the Father. Jesus is the “human face” of God. Which means, that if anyone wishes to know how God deals with us, he should just look at Jesus, listen to Jesus. In Jesus we find a person kind and compassionate, filled with the desire to serve others even at the cost of his life. In Jesus, we find someone who stood so firmly for the right values that he was killed for it.

But Jesus just didn’t die and disappear. He promised to be with all who keep faith with him, with his disciples. So he is present, even today. But his presence is not just in the memory, in our imagination, but through the ‘power of his Resurrection,’ -- that is, through his Spirit of courage, joy and peace. This is the Holy Spirit, God with us always. Whenever we pray to Jesus, we invoke his Spirit, and this Spirit in turn re-creates in us the likeness of Jesus. Prayer is our way into this mysterious reality.

The passage for today concludes Matthew’s Gospel. It shows Jesus, full of authority, communicating this authority to his disciples. He urges them to proclaim the good news of the Resurrection, which is God’s love transforming us and making us beautiful, and revealing to us what we truly are. When we accept Jesus and his values into our lives, we accept baptism, a symbol of being washed and cleansed; and confirmation, being clothed in the Spirit.

Each time we pray we sign ourselves, “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” the formula of the Trinity par excellence. Jesus it is who comes first, who leads us, through his Spirit, to his Father. His is the human face of God which attracts us, and guides us in wisdom, love and power to the One who is beyond all form and shape, the ‘Father’ and Origin of all Being. It is because of Jesus that we dare to say “Our Father”. And no one can truly say “Jesus is Lord !” except in the Holy Spirit.

May the blessing of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit come upon us, and be with us always.