BY JOE SIXPACK
In AD 177, St. Cecilia was accused of being a Christian during one of the great Roman persecutions, and she was taken before the prefect. The pagan prefect’s threats against Cecilia failed to weaken her love for Christ. Answering his threats, Cecilia said, “Do you know that I’m a bride of my Lord Jesus Christ?
Cecilia’s answer infuriated the prefect, so he sentenced her to death by suffocation. She was placed day and night in a hot air bath, heated seven times its usual temperature. Reminiscent of the three Israelites that King Nebuchadnezzar had tossed into the fiery furnace (Daniel 3), the heat never bothered the saint’s body at all.
Since Cecilia couldn’t be killed in the heated bath, the prefect sent an executioner to behead her. Under Roman law, the executioner could only strike his victim with his sword three times, then he had to give up. The executioner was so impressed with her holiness and demeanor, and knowing it was wrong to kill her, his trembling hands kept him from severing her head in the allotted three blows of the sword — Cecilia was left where she lay…alive but mortally wounded.
Cecilia lay in the same position, head half severed, and fully conscious for three full days. Since she couldn’t talk, the young martyr used her hands to give her testimony of her beliefs — three fingers of her left hand and one finger of her right hand were set forward as a proof of her faith in the truth that there is only one God in three divine Persons.
The Christian community buried St. Cecilia just as they had found her. Around the year AD 300, her body was exhumed to be placed in a more honorable location. She was found in the very same position in which she had died…and she was discovered totally incorrupt — a not uncommon miracle of God that preserved her body as if she had just died. (More than 100 saints in history have been found to be incorrupt and looking like they just died . . . without the benefit of having been embalmed.)
St. Cecilia’s testimony of the Trinity is a stark contrast to the way we think and believe today. The Holy Trinity is the greatest mystery of our faith, so in this cynical culture that essentially adheres to practical atheism we shouldn’t be surprised by that. (A mystery of our faith is a supernatural truth which we can’t completely understand, but we firmly believe it because we trust the authority of the one who revealed it, who is God Himself.)
Of course, because the Trinity is the greatest mystery of our faith, it’s also easy to understand why people don’t believe in our Trinitarian God. Frankly, I never could grasp the concept of the Trinity until I began studying our holy and ancient faith, and I’ve yet to meet a single non-Catholic Christian who can explain it at all. So let’s try to explain it now.
The Holy Trinity is one and the same God in three divine Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father is the first Person of the Holy Trinity. God the Son is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. God the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. All three Persons are one God, but each is distinct. Let’s see if I can better explain with a few examples.
St. Patrick used to explain the Trinity in Ireland with the shamrock. He would point out that each of the three leaves of the shamrock were distinct, but that it was still one shamrock.
Consider the Smith family who all live in one house. Most of us see the family as a single entity. The mortgage company will happily accept payment from any one of them. You can invite the whole family to dinner by asking any one of them. You can borrow from one of them and repay another. Yet you can distinguish between them. They are distinct but not separate.
Look at your hand. It has five fingers. Each finger is distinct, but not separate. If your fingers were separate, you could take them off your hand. Despite the distinct fingers, it’s still just one hand.
I’m a father — I have four sons. I’m a son; contrary to popular belief, I didn’t slide out from under a rock — I had a real mom and dad. And I have a spirit, called the soul, yet I’m only one Joe Sixpack.
None of these examples are perfect. Indeed, none of them are even really very good. Like I said, the Holy Trinity is the greatest mystery of our faith. Even the great St. Augustine had trouble conveying the truth of the Holy Trinity.
St. Augustine was one of the most brilliant minds the Church ever produced. One day he was walking along the seashore. He was thinking of the mystery of the Trinity, trying to think of a way to explain it to the people in his sermons and in the catechisms he planned to write.
Suddenly he saw a child playing on the shore. The boy had a little hole in the sand, and he was taking water out of the sea with a large shell and pouring it into the hole. The sainted bishop watched the child for a while, then asked, “What are you doing?”
The boy answered, “I’m going to empty the sea into that hole I dug in the sand.”
St. Augustine smiled at the boy’s childish ambition. “That’s impossible,” he said. “Don’t you see that the ocean is much too large to fit into that hole?”
The child replied, “It would be easier for me to do that than for you to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity.” It turned out the child was an angel.
St. Augustine was a quick learner. He stopped trying to fully understand this greatest of all mysteries. Humbly he bowed his head in faith and adored God by saying, “Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.”
Again, we can never fully understand how the three divine Persons, although distinct, are one and the same God. This is a mystery we’ll have to wait to understand when we go to be with God in glory . . . assuming we earn our place with Him. . . Them . . . Him . . . Aw shucks!
If you have a question or comment you can reach out to me through the “Ask Joe” page of JoeSixpackAnswers.com, or you can email me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.
Hey, how would you like to see things like this article every week in your parish bulletin as an insert? You or your pastor can learn more about how to do that by emailing me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.
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