Light, radiance and grace are in the Trinity and from the Trinity

Today, on the Solemnity of Trinity Sunday, our Church invites us to read and reflect on the first letter of the apostle Pasul to the Corinthians (2:1-16) entitled "The great Mystery of God's will". Our treasure, which follows is from the first letter to Serapion by Saint Athanasius, bishop. The Catholic Church celebrates Trinity Sunday to honor and reflect on the central mystery of the Christian faith: that there is one God in three divine Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This mystery is at the heart of everything Christians believe: the Father creates, the Son redeems, and the Holy Spirit sanctifies, yet all three are one God, equal in divinity and united in love. The Church places Trinity Sunday immediately after Pentecost because, after celebrating the saving works of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the liturgical year turns to contemplate the deeper reality these events reveal — the inner life of God Himself. Unlike feasts that celebrate a particular event (such as Christmas or Easter), Trinity Sunday celebrates a doctrine and mystery: who God is in His eternal nature. The solemnity also serves a catechetical purpose. The doctrine of the Trinity is profound and can be difficult to grasp, so the Church sets aside a special day to help the faithful meditate on the God into whose life they were baptized: "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). In short, Trinity Sunday reminds Catholics that the Christian life begins, unfolds, and reaches its fulfillment in communion with the Triune God. Saint Athanasius was born at Alexandria in 295. He accompanied Alexander to the Council of Nicaea and succeeded him as Bishop of Alexandria. He fought courageously against the Arian heresy. The Arian heresy taught that Jesus was not divine. For this he suffered many hardships and was exiled several times. His writings are outstanding in their explanation and defense of the true teachings of the faith. Saint Athanasius is a Doctor of the Church. He died in 373. The third article of the Nicene Creed simply states, "We believe in the Holy Spirit." Such a brief statement would lead one to believe that fourth century pneumatology (a branch of theology dedicated to the study of the Holy Spirit) was under-developed. However, Athanasius presents a well-developed theology of the Holy Spirit. His reputation as the champion of Nicene Trinitarianism is secured with his On the Incarnation of the Word and Letters to Bishop Serapion. Athanasius' Trinitarian theology does not appear in a vacuum, but was developed to answer challenges to the apostolic tradition as stated in the Rule of Faith. The wide acceptance of Athanasius' work by his contemporaries suggests that he articulated and clarified a received Trinitarian theology. Athanasius teaches us in today's "treasure" that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are perfectly united as one God, not three separate beings acting independently. Just as light, its radiance, and the grace that flows from it cannot be divided, everything God gives—life, truth, holiness, and salvation—comes from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. In this letter to Serapion, Saint Athanasius defends the full divinity of the Holy Spirit and shows that the entire Trinity works together in creation and redemption. Catholics are meant to understand that when we encounter God's grace, we are encountering the loving action of the whole Trinity. In the first reading, in his first letter to the Corinthians (2:1-16), Paul teaches that God's deepest wisdom and plan of salvation are not discovered through human intelligence, power, or worldly reasoning, but are revealed through Jesus Christ and made known by the Holy Spirit. Paul reminds the Corinthians that he preached not with impressive arguments but with the simple message of Christ I crucified. True understanding of God's will comes from the Spirit, who enables believers to grasp the gifts and truths God freely offers. In short, human wisdom alone cannot comprehend God's mystery; faith and openness to the Holy Spirit are necessary to understand the mind of Christ.