Where is the word Trinity in the Bible? You won’t find it! The Trinity is a mystery revealed by God and handed on to us through Sacred Tradition (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 78, 234).

Jesus provides trinitarian clues in the Bible. “If you love Me and obey the commands I give you, I will ask the Father and He will give you another Paraclete — to be with you always: the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot accept, since it neither sees Him nor recognizes Him; but you can recognize Him, because He remains with you and will be within you” (Jn 14:15-17).

God is one essence in three Persons. The greatest minds in the history of the Church have wrestled with understanding the Trinity. We’ll never be able to fully grasp this divine truth. But as beloved children of the Father (1 Jn 3:2), our starting point is trust. Let the Lord speak to your heart; focus on the relationships. God is eternal community. Love best illuminates the nature of the Trinity (see 1 Jn 4:8, 16).

God the Father chose us (Eph 1:4). Jesus, our older Brother, leads us (Heb 2:10-11). The Holy Spirit resides within us (1 Cor 6:19). Grow strong through prayer in the Holy Spirit, persevere in God’s love, and welcome the mercy of Jesus (see Jude 20-21). Immerse yourself in the Trinitarian love of God.

Today’s Gospel relates how the Risen Jesus gave his apostles a foretaste of Pentecost on the evening of Easter Sunday by appearing to them and sending them to carry on the mission given him by his Heavenly Father.  He then empowered them to do so by breathing upon them and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  On the day of Pentecost, Jesus fulfilled his promise to send the Advocate or Paraclete. The gift of the Spirit would enable them to fulfill Jesus’ commission to preach the Gospel to all nations.  Today’s Gospel passage also tells us how Jesus gave to the Apostles the power and authority to forgive sins.  “Receive the Holy Spirit.  For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.”  These wonderful words, which bind together inseparably the presence of the Holy Spirit with the gift of forgiveness, are referred to directly in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  But they have a much wider meaning.  Those words remind us of the Christian vocation we all have, to love and forgive as we have been loved and forgiven in the world of today, which is often fiercely judgmental and vengeful.

Jesus tried to tell us we had power to overcome all demons and to cure diseases (Lk 9:1). He told us we could “cure the sick, raise the dead, heal the leprous, expel demons” (Mt 10:8). He even promised we would do greater by far than He ever did, if we only believed in Him (Jn 14:12).

However, Jesus saved the best till last. Before His Ascension, the risen Jesus, with nail-scarred hands and a hole in His side, was speaking to the apostles concerning the signs that would accompany those who had professed their faith (Mk 16:17). Jesus mentioned five signs: expelling demons, speaking new languages, handling serpents, drinking poison without suffering harm, and healing the sick (Mk 16:17-18). “No sooner had He said this than He was lifted up before their eyes in a cloud which took Him from their sight” (Acts 1:9). Jesus ascended “into heaven and took His seat at God’s right hand” (Mk 16:19).

When a Man has split the clouds and left planet earth behind, He’s certainly proven Himself to be an expert on signs. When Jesus says to us: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes down on you” (Acts 1:8), He knows what He’s talking about.

Two more weeks and we reach one of the most important events in our lives, Pentecost. Jesus continues to say: “This much have I told you while I was still with you; the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit Whom the Father will send in My name, will instruct you in everything, and remind you of all that I told you” (Jn 14:25-26).

We need the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, what Jesus has told us will not become real in our lives. We will then become “distressed or fearful” (Jn 14:27). Without the Spirit, we will “make a pretense of religion but negate its power” (2 Tm 3:5), foster doubt rather than faith, and promote disunity in the Body of Christ. We receive the Spirit or stay locked by fear in the upper room (Jn 20:19, 26). We receive the Spirit or see our life’s work amount to nothing, for “flesh begets flesh, Spirit begets spirit” (Jn 3:6).

The word “spirit” also means “breath.” We need the Holy Spirit as much or even more than we need our life’s breath. Begin to wait and pray (Acts 1:4), to pray and thirst (Lk 11:13), to thirst and believe (Jn 7:37), to believe and obey (Acts 5:32). Jesus “breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ ” (Jn 20:22).

We’re in the midst of a fifty-day Sunday, the Easter season. If we can’t rejoice in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we must be dead ourselves. Because His tomb is empty, we have life to the full (Jn 10:10). “Because He lives, we can face tomorrow.” For He shall wipe every tear from our eyes, “and there shall be no more death or mourning, crying out or pain, for the former world has passed away” (Rv 21:4). “This means that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old order has passed away; now all is new!” (2 Cor 5:17; Rv 21:5)

“Life is worth the living just because He lives.” Yet, “we must undergo many trials if we are to enter into the reign of God” (Acts 14:22). Calvary is still ahead for each of us as we begin to walk the way of the cross. We are afraid and repelled by the pain and sufferings. But because Jesus lives, we “consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us” (Rm 8:18).

Because Jesus lives, the devil can no longer manipulate us and keep us slaves our whole lives long through the fear of death (Heb 2:15). “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:54-55) Because He lives, “we are more than conquerors” (Rm 8:37).