The Mirror
One of the most magnificent and influential works of theological reflection on the Trinity is the book De Trinitate (On the Trinity) by St. Augustine of Hippo. It took him no less than sixteen years to complete, between 400 and 416, and is composed of 15 books (chapters) and more than 400 pages. A pious legend tells that one day Augustine, absorbed in his reflections and somewhat overcome by the immensity of the mystery of the Triune God, decided to walk along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea outside his episcopal see in the city of Hippo (present-day Algeria). There he saw a boy who was busy carrying water in a shell back and forth from the sea to a hole he had made in the sand. Curious, the saintly bishop asked the child what he was trying to do. To which the little boy candidly replied that he wanted to carry all the water from the Mediterranean into his hole. “You will never be able to fit all the water of this immense sea into such a small space,” the bishop told him. “And you will never be able to understand the Trinity in your little head” replied the child, only to disappear instantly. An angel, or the Lord Jesus Christ himself, had given a profound lesson of humility to one of the greatest theologians of all times.
Who has not experienced something similar when reflecting on the Trinity? Is there an accessible way to understand this mystery? The “beloved disciple”, the Apostle John, who during the Last Supper, reclined his head on the Lord’s chest (Jn 13:23) offers us a way into the mystery through the heart of the Savior.
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9) responded Jesus to Philip who asked him at the Last Supper to show them the Father. A claim already anticipated in the prologue of John’s gospel: “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him” (Jn 1:18). In his heart, and especially during the events of his Passion and Resurrection, we see the invisible God taking on flesh, offering himself to us in the most concrete and vulnerable way. It is a heart that loved us to the end (Jn 13:1), that was moved with compassion, that suffered, bled, and was pierced so that divine love might reach us in our human condition. This love has a source: the Father, who sent the Son into the world not to condemn it, but to save it (Jn 3:17).
At the center of our Christian faith is the belief that God is love (1 Jn 4:8), and that this love exists eternally as a communion of three divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The heart of Jesus, true God and true man, is the human expression of that eternal love. It reveals in a tangible way what cannot be seen by the eyes: the overflowing love of the Father for His Son, the Son’s total self-gift to the Father, and the unity of that love in the Spirit.
And it also reveals how this Trinitarian love is poured out for humanity: having created us in his image, he seeks to redeem us at any cost after sin. Precisely it is on the Cross, in the self-giving sacrifice of Christ, that we see the most perfect mirror of Trinitarian love. The Son offers himself completely to the Father in obedience and love: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46), and in doing so, pours out his Spirit upon the world (Jn 19:30). From the pierced heart of Christ flowed blood and water (Jn 19:34), signs of the sacraments and the Church born from his side.
This is why devotion to the Sacred Heart is deeply Trinitarian. It is a devotion that draws us into the dynamic of love between the Persons of the Trinity. When we unite ourselves to the heart of Jesus, we are drawn into the very current of divine love that flows eternally between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are invited to dwell in that love, to be transformed by it, and to become witnesses of it in the world.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in You.
Fr. Javier Nieva, DCJM
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Previous Letters:
June 8, 2025: Filled With the Holy Spirit
June 1, 2025: He Loved Us
May 25, 2025: Servant of Your Faith and Joy
May 18, 2025: Leo
May 11, 2025: The Deposit of Faith
May 4, 2025: Costly Mercy
April 27, 2025: Who is Peter?
April 20, 2025: I Make All Things New – Arise!
April 13, 2025: I Make All Things New – To Do My Penance
April 6, 2025: I Make All Things New – I Declared My Sin to You
March 30, 2025: I Make All Things New – I Firmly Resolve
March 23 2025: I Make All Things New – I am Sorry for Offending You
March 16, 2025: I Make All Things New – Examining Your Conscience
March 9, 2025: I Make All Things New
March 2, 2025: Pruning
February 23, 2025: The Anointed of the Lord
February 16, 2025: Be My Valentine
February 9, 2025: Wash Away My Guilt II
February 2, 2025: Wash Away My Guilt I
January 26, 2025: Catholic Education
January 19, 2025: Shall Marry You
January 12, 2025: Called by Name
January 5, 2025: Pilgrims of Hope
December 29, 2024: Priests for the Family
December 22, 2024: Messengers of Joy
December 15, 2024: Blessed Are the Poor
December 8, 2024: Love, Hope and Joy
December 1, 2024: Hope Does Not Disappoint
November 24, 2024: Are You King?
November 17, 2024: Seven Words
November 10, 2024: Tu es Petrus
November 3, 2024: Pray For Those Authority
October 27, 2024: These Are the Feasts
October 20, 2024: Someone Else
October 13, 2024: Be Prudent
October 6, 2024: Project and Dreams II
September 29, 2024: Projects and Dreams I
September 22, 2024: Pastor
September 15, 2024: Take Up Your Cross
September 8, 2024: Guardians of Shared Memory
September 1, 2024: From Their Hearts
August 25, 2024: The Cost of Discipleship
August 18, 2024: For Real?
August 11, 2024: Too Long For You
August 4, 2024: A New Manna
July 28, 2024: Bread of Life
July 21, 2024: Shepherds After My Own Heart
July 14, 2024: Woe to Me…
July 7, 2024: Come and Rest (II)
June 30, 2024: Come and Rest (I)
June 23, 2024: Storms
June 16, 2024: I Will be a Father to You
June 9, 2024: Burning Furnace of Love
June 2, 2024: In the Midst of Him
May 26, 2024: Forever I Will Sing the Goodness of the Lord
May 19, 2024: Through the Holy Spirit
May 12, 2024: The Ark of the Covenant
May 5, 2024: Source and Summit
April 28, 2024: Rejoice Always
April 21, 2024: I Believe in the resurrection of the body Part II
April 14, 2024: I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body Part 1
April 7, 2024: Rich in Mercy
March 31, 2024: Sine Dominico Non Possumus About Sunday
February 11, 2024: I Was Ill and You Cared For Me
February 4, 2024: Why Evil?
January 28, 2024: Catholic Schools Week
January 21, 2024: Attachments
January 14, 2024: The LORD Shines
January 7, 2024: Epiphany 2024
December 31, 2023: A Family of Families
December 25, 2023: New Beginnings
December 17, 2023: Christmas
December 3, 2023: Watch
November 26, 2023: Be Healed
November 19, 2023: Sealed
November 12, 2023: Religious?
