“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.  But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.  He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.”  We can see from our gospel reading today that God continues to reveal himself to the world through the work of the Holy Spirit of truth.  The Holy Spirit enlightens the minds of the apostles to continue to grow in their understanding of God’s revelation.  After the Ascension of our Lord to the Father’s right hand, the teaching of the truths of faith are continued through the gift of the Holy Spirit that is poured out upon the apostles.  Our understanding of the mystery of the Triune God continued to be developed in the early Church during the time of the Apostles.  During this time the doctrine of the Holy Trinity became a foundational teaching in the growth of the Church and in the profession of our faith.  From the beginning, the Church has always affirmed the early teaching of the Jewish scriptures that God is One.  This Oneness of God has been revealed, through the processions of the three persons of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to be a dynamic union of three persons within the Trinity.  God is One, but exists from eternity as a communion of Three Persons who share in the Divine Nature.

     The theology of the Holy Trinity has developed in a way in which we speak of the Immanent Trinity, the interior life of God as a communion of persons that exists in a dynamic sharing and exchange of love, a love that is so strong that it is inseparable.  There is no separation in the Divine Being of God and Jesus will speak of this truth and mystery when he asserts that everything that he has and does comes from the Father.  To see Jesus is to see the Father.  Jesus asserts this same truth in relation to the Holy Spirit who will not “speak on his own” but will “speak what he hears” from the Father.  Within the Trinity there is no separation.  Theology also speaks of the Economic Trinity, the way in which God has revealed his Divine Trinitarian nature through his work in creation and redemption.  In a simple way, the Immanent Trinity is who God is and the Economic Trinity is what God does.  God creates through the Father, God redeems through the Son and God sanctifies through the Holy Spirit.  The work of creation, redemption and sanctification is the economy of the Holy Trinity, how God’s gifts and graces are revealed, dispensed and poured out continually upon the created world.

      Just as there is no separation in the Oneness of God in Three Persons, so there is no separation between the Immanent and Economic Trinity.  The immanent or interior life of God is as a being in relation, in a relationship of eternal communion between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The economy of God is also one of eternal communion.  Every work of God is aimed at forming relationship with his creation.  The prayer of Jesus in John 17 expresses this truth when he prays that the disciples will be one as he is one with the Father.  The work of God is to establish communion or oneness among all living beings.

     Too often we have seen how the economy of God has conflicted with the economy of the world.  The economy of the world is most often based upon commerce.  It is based upon buying and selling, making deals and using goods, to such an extent that we begin to reduce everything to its utilitarian value.  We measure a person’s value by the size of their bank account.  As Pope Francis often pointed out, this results in our assigning very little value to the poor of our world.  This economy of commerce even can creep into our religious practice as Jesus points out dramatically when he drives the moneychangers from the Temple and declares that the Father’s house is not to be one of commerce but one of prayer, a dialogue that leads to communion.  The economy of God is an economy that is based upon communion not commerce.  Every person has an intrinsic value, created in the image and likeness of the Triune God, as a person created for communion with God and gifted for life in community.  Our value comes from what we hold in our hearts and not from what we hold in our bank accounts.

     On this Trinity Sunday we can examine our own lives and hearts to see if we are living in the economy of the world in which things are bought and sold as commodities or if we are living in the economy of the Triune God in which we value communion above all else.  All the money in the world will not buy us salvation but love will open the doors to the Kingdom.