This Sunday, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, also known as Trinity Sunday. It is an important tenet in our Christian faith, one that is truly Christian, and one of the core tenets and beliefs of our faith in God. We Catholics believe in the Holy Trinity — One God in Three Divine Persons — the belief in the Triune God Who is One and only One and yet manifests Himself in the Three Divine Persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, distinct yet indivisible and perfectly united to each other as One.

This is our Christian faith, our Trinitarian beliefs, and our faith in the One Lord Who in His Person of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit has each interacted with us, and shown us all His love and truth, His compassion and grace.

But what is the Holy Trinity all about? There are people both within and outside the Church who misunderstand what the Holy Trinity is all about, and there are not a few who think that we worship not one but three Gods. This is false, and it does not help that there are quite a lot of falsehoods and inaccurate representations of the Holy Trinity that are believed by those outside the Church, misrepresentations of the Holy Trinity that perpetuate these misunderstandings, that even quite a number within the Church follow and believe.

What is the Holy Trinity? As stated, as Christians we believe in the One and only True God, Creator and Master of all the Universe, Who has Three Divine Persons or Aspects, as we profess every time we say the Creed. The Nicene Creed begins with, “I believe in One God,” which states clearly this belief in the Oneness of God, and then continues “the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth,” then “I believe in One Lord Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages… consubstantial with the Father,” which highlights that there has always been only One Lord and God, and the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are all part of this One God, with Jesus Christ, the Son of God being “begotten” and not “created.” The Son and the Holy Spirit are part of this Holy Trinity together with the Father, from before the beginning of time.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are co-equal and co-eternal, having existed before the beginning of time and for eternity. The Three Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity are both distinct and indivisible at the same time. Each member of the Holy Trinity was present at the moment of Creation and throughout all history. The Father willed the Creation and the Universe into being, through the Son, the Word of God, by His words, “Let there be…,” and the Holy Spirit being the Spirit of Creation and Life present in all of Creation, made all things come to be.

At the moment of the Incarnation, the Holy Spirit was also present, with the Father’s will again making the impossible possible, that the Son of God, the Divine Word, become incarnate in the flesh, taking our human form and existence, our nature, to be the Son of Man, in the Person of Jesus Christ our Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit that made it all happen, in the womb of Mary, the Mother of God.

And at the supreme moment of our salvation when the Lord died on the Cross, the Holy Trinity was again present, as the Son of God was dying on His Cross, gave up His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to return to God the Father, with the words, “Father, into Your hands, I commend My Spirit.”