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God the Father is revealed to us through the Son, who became one of us, and the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us. The human race is graced because God is three persons in a relationship of love. Today, on the day on which we honor fathers—our own fathers, stepfathers, foster fathers, grandfathers, godfathers, and fathers of all kinds—we look to the Holy Trinity as a model for the loving relationship we strive for in our own families.​ ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Some of the liveliest debates about human nature were prompted by the ideas of three outstanding figures, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx. Between them they pushed western thought into new avenues, making us question many older beliefs. Though based on a remarkable series of fossils, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was first met with angry derision, and he had to battle hard to prove it. Sigmund Freud opened up the unconscious in ways that profoundly changed how we understand human nature. And analysis of capitalism and property by Karl Marx came to polarise our planet, dividing it into two opposing ideologies, with a large swathe of social democracy in between. Of the three, only Darwin’s theory of evolution remains relatively intact. History has largely undermined the optimism of Karl Marx; and many of Freud’s theories are regarded as over-generalised from his clinically ill patients. Time has taken its toll of “the unholy trinity.”

The Holy Trinity, the inner self-communication of God, is a profound mystery of faith: how God can be one divinity, shared between three persons. We can only fumble in the dark in search of glimmers of light. In the gospels, the number three symbolizes completeness and perfect symmetry, and re-appears at key moments of the Christ story. His life itself reflected the mystery of Trinity. Three figures make up the nativity scene in Bethlehem, the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Their first visitors were the three wise men. Later, in the desert preparing for his public life, Jesus was tempted three times by the devil. A good story should have a beginning, a middle and an end. For Jesus, the storyteller par excellence, three figures often feature in his parables. The Prodigal Son is about a father and his two sons; the Good Samaritan tells of the behavior of three passers-by, the priest, the Levite and the Samaritan; the sower sowed his seed in three different types of terrain, yielding three different levels of harvest. The end of his life, as the beginning, has again the three-motif. During his Passion, Peter denied him thrice. The crucifixion scene has three figures, Christ between two thieves. Before his resurrection, he spent three days in the tomb.

God is love. There are Three Persons in the Holy Trinity whom we name as Father Son and Holy Spirit. Their mutual interactions represent the fullness of love. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father; and we may picture the Holy Spirit as the outpouring of their love. In our innermost selves, we are made in the image of this triune God, of God the Father, who created us, of the Son who saved us, and of the Holy Spirit who continues to guide us. Something in our lives should reflect the Trinity, in whom we live and move and have our being. At our God-driven best, we are creative like the Father, compassionate like his Son, and dispose our talents in the service of others like the Holy Spirit.​​​​

Jesus said to his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”​​​​​