Holy Trinity, A May 31, 2026
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
“Wow, it’s like he’s a real person now.” It’s the kind of thing you might say that about a young child you haven’t seen since they were a baby. It doesn’t mean the child wasn’t a person before, just that your experience of that child’s personality is more obvious. Some people aren’t great with babies because they don’t know what to do, but once the children get to an age where they can think rationally and talk and do all the usual human stuff, it’s easier to relate to them.
For example, I’ve always known my nieces and nephews are persons, but it’s a lot of fun to discover more and more of their personalities as they age… like when they stump their parents with questions about catechism who then call me saying, “your godchild asked a tough question, what should I say?”
The truth is that human beings are always persons. From the moment of conception onward – even after death, actually – they are persons. It’s not like babies become persons as they age, but we become aware of their personhood. The more you pay attention, the more of their personhood you’ll see. They might change over time, but they will never become multiple persons or stop being a person. They always were and always will be one person.
If you do the same thing with a rock… if you watch it for a million years, it will never be a person. Animals too. Animals might have unique and interesting behaviors that we describe as “personalities,” but that’s more of an analogy – animals are not people. Neither are machines. Every “thought” Artificial Intelligence has is ultimately the physical movement of electrons in some chip somewhere on earth. As Pope Leo puts it they “do not undergo experiences… do not mature through… Nor do they have a moral conscience… They may imitate language, behavior and analytical skills… but… they lack the affective, relational and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom” (MH 99). AI imitates personhood, but it will never be a person. The same instinct that makes us adopt and love and name pets might make AI feel personal to us, but we must know they are not persons.
What about God, though? Is God a person? These are some of the most important questions in existence. We know the answer, but it’s important that we also know the question. Just as watching a baby long enough reveals its personhood, so we have to pay attention to God long enough to learn about him. Every human culture grapples with the question, “what is God?” Some think God is a force, some think the universe is God, some think it’s trees or animals or even ourselves.
Just like a human child, however, if we pay attention long enough, God shows us what he is. Children reveal their personhood over time sometimes by words and sometimes by actions. So God too has revealed himself to humanity in words and in actions. And as more time reveals more and more of a child’s personality, so more time and attention reveals more and more of what God is… of who he is.
God has shown us – through Adam, Abraham, and others – that God is personal. He has intelligence and will and he enters into relationships with humanity. Our first reading is an example of how God reveals himself to Moses as “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” God has always been personal and eventually the human race began to understand that more deeply. Then, to everyone’s surprise, a divine person also became a human being.
The incarnation – God becoming Man – is amazing enough, but then that God-Man revealed the greatest truth of all: not only is God a person, he is so much a person that he’s actually three persons. One God who is Three Persons, Three Persons who are One God. There’s a mystery here we cannot fully understand, but it is a truth we need to ponder. It is The Central Mystery of the Catholic Faith, the Holy Trinity. Everything God has done is secondary to who God is.
Here’s one way to think about it: A “nature” is what something is. A “person” is who something is. A rock has one nature and is zero persons. An animal has one nature and is still zero persons. A human being has one nature and is one person. God has one nature and is three persons. One Divine Nature, Three Divine Persons. Not three separate gods and not just three aspects of one person. Three Persons, One God.
This theological truth is not just abstract, though. It matters to our daily lives that same way it matters that we believe a human being is a person from conception onward. Even when we cannot see it directly, accepting the truth that an unborn children is a person dramatically affects how we treat them. Even when linguistic and cultural barriers make it harder to see the personhood of those who look and act differently, accepting the truth that they are persons should affect the way we treat them. To deny the personhood of either leads to tragedy.
The same goes for God. Our teaching on the Trinity is true, so it matters! Our response to that truth should motivate us to get to know and love God. It takes time to discover the personality of a someone you don’t already know. Give them time and attention, however, and you’ll see it. The more we know someone, the more potential there is to love. We can love strangers, yes, but the deepest and most profound love requires us to deeply and profoundly know the person we love.
The same goes for God. We don’t just love God like some kind of impersonal object or force in the sky, but as a person. Only, he’s not just one person, but three. If getting to know one human person well allows you to love them more, what does that say about getting to know God as three Divine Persons? It means there is infinitely more to know and love about God than about any other human being.
God is our Father; learn to know and love your father in heaven. God is the Son who became flesh and dwelt among us; get to know and love the God who is your brother. God is the Holy Spirit who inflames our hearts and dwells within us; get to know and love the God who is closer to you than your own breath.
Our belief in the Trinity does not divide God: everything that One Divine Person does, the other Two do with him because they are One God. Rather, the doctrine of the Trinity provides the necessary conditions to understand the teaching of St. John the Apostle: God Is Love. What is a rock? A thing. What is a dog? An animal. What is a human embryo, a human fetus, a human child, a human adult? A person. And what is God? God is love.
Love requires a lover and a beloved. When two people love each other, the love itself, the relationship is something real too. When going through a major breakup, people often grieve the same as when someone dies. Even if both people are still alive, the loss of the love, of the relationship can feel like the death of a person. For humans, the love itself is only kind of like another person. For God, however? It is.
The Father loves the Son. The Son is beloved and returns that love. The love between them is a third person, whom we call the Holy Spirit. One God, Three Divine persons who give love, return love, and are love. Don’t see it yet? That’s okay; keep paying attention to God. Eventually you will say, “wow, it’s like he’s a person.” Not just a person, but the source of personhood. Three Divine Persons, One God who is love. And what does this Trinity do? He gives “his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life;” that is, life inside the eternal exchange of love that is our Triune God.