Bottom line: As the Second Person of the Trinity Jesus is the Wisdom of God who delights in the human race. We have the capacity of insight that enables us to have a sense of humor and get immersed in stories. And you and I are part of God's story.

Last weekend - Pentecost Sunday - we saw Jesus' greatest gift: the Holy Spirit. He is the substantial love between Father and Son. You can understand this love in the teaching about the Trinity.

Trinity comes from the Latin "trinitas" that mean threeness. A triangle has threeness - three sides and three angles. A shamrock has trinity of leaves as St Patrick pointed out. Similarly, we know from the New Testament that God has a threeness: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. But there are not three gods, but only one God. That's why our Profession of Faith begins "I believe in One God". Then it goes on to speak of "the Father almighty" and his Only Begotten Son" Jesus who is "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God...consubstantial with the Father".

"Consubstantial" means having the same substance. Ice and steam are distinct but they have the same substance - water. The Father and Son likewise are distinct but have the same substance - deity or divinity. And the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son". Him we likewise worship as God. The Holy Spirit is the substantial love between Father and Son. That's our teaching on the Trinity.

What does this teaching have to do with us? We get a clue in the first reading from Proverbs. It says this about the "wisdom of God": "from of old I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth". The "wisdom of God" is Jesus. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul refers to Jesus as "the power of God and the wisdom of God." Proverbs then says this about the wisdom of God: "before the mountains were settled into place, before the hills, I (the wisdom of God) was brought forth". "I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the human race".

The wisdom of God is almost like a child at play. A child doesn't have to make a sand castle, but he does. God didn't have to make the universe, but he did. Physicists say that in the first instance of the Big Bang the universe was fine-tuned to produce galaxies, then eventually a planet suitable for creatures that would give him special delight. As Proverbs says, "I found delight in the human race."

Why does God delight in us? Other animals have greater agility and strength, yet only we can receive wisdom. We have a power of insight that other animals don't have. For example, we can get a joke. A Far Side cartoon shows a cow grazing in front of a house. In the next frame the cow gets up on the porch and uses her hoof to ring the doorbell. By the time the owner opens the door the cow is back innocently eating grass. The joke itself is funny because we can't a imagine a real cow playing a practical joke.

The cartoon made me chuckle, but if I showed it to Rosie she wouldn't make sense of the drawings. Now, Rosie is one of the smartest dogs ever, but the best she could do is sniff the paper. If I wanted to share the joke, I'd have to look for a fellow human. Even the dullest human, even a small child could be amused by the idea of a cow ringing a doorbell.

So God delights in the human race. Unlike other animals, we can laugh at a joke and we can also enjoy a good story. The ancient Greeks could spend three days listening to a bard recite the Iliad or the Odyssey. They would keep coming back year after year, each time enjoying it more. I envy them.

Like the ancient Greeks, we also have the capacity to get immersed in stories. One of my friends is a political junkie. He can get immersed in all details of elections and elected officials. Many people are sports fans. They know the stories about different games and sports heroes. Other people love to watch soap operas. Some of you remember Carl Sagan's series on The Cosmos. He told the story of our universe in a way that rivetted viewers.

Stories help us make sense of our world and our lives. Chesterton said, "I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story there is a story-teller."

Through homilies and through our faith formation program, I want to introduce our children and young people to the great Story Teller. He tells his story in the Bible and in the lives of saints. The story is about his Son Jesus - and his total self-giving. We'll see a great example next week as we celebrate Corpus Christi - the Body and Blood of Jesus.

Today we celebrate the Trinity - the threeness of the Father who eternally begets the Son, and then the Holy Spirit who is the substantial love between Father and Son. As the Second Person of the Trinity Jesus is the Wisdom of God who delights in the human race. We have the capacity of insight that enables us to have a sense of humor and get immersed in stories. And you and I are part of God's story.

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