Good morning, this is Cardinal Francis George, and I invite you to join me for the next few minutes to reflect with Father Robert Baron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire.

Father Baron will challenge us to open our hearts to the Word on Fire, which is God's Word of Love for each of us.

If our hearts are open, the Lord can change and transform us, who we might speak with love about the one who is love.

The Archdiocese of Chicago through the generosity of Sacred Heart Parishing Winnetka now presents the Word on Fire.

Peace be with you. Friends, today is Trinity Sunday. The church celebrates this great feast of God, who is three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit.

Now, this feast day has been known for many years as the preacher's nightmare. What can you say about the Trinity?

In fact, when I was growing up, I remember year after year, preachers saying, well, it's Trinity Sunday. I should talk about the Trinity, but what can I say? It's just a great mystery, and then they would move on to something else.

I think for too long we've seen the Trinity as simply a conundrum. It's simply a puzzle, a sort of Rubik's cube that theologians worry about, or they bother their heads over, but doesn't have much to do with ordinary Christian life.

Many years ago, I heard a homily from a bishop, and the bishop said, you know, I don't really care if you know much about the Trinity. What I care about is if you love your neighbor.

Now, as I hope to make clear in the course of this homily, that's not a very helpful distinction. In fact, I'm going to claim the one follows directly from the other.

The Trinity is not just a puzzle, a conundrum. The Trinity is the heart of the Christian faith. In many ways, it's the summary statement of what we believe as Christians.

One of my favorite theologians is Stanley Howerweiss. Howerweiss is this. When someone says to you, God bless you, or God be with you. The proper response is, which one are you talking about?

There are a lot of gods over the centuries. God has understood in all kinds of ways. Christians don't just believe in God.

Christians believe in God who is a Trinity of persons, father, son, and Holy Spirit. And that makes all the difference. It names the unique conception of God that we have.

Notice to something which is very simple, but I think often overlooked, whenever we pray and we make the sign of the cross, we are invoking the Trinity.

This is not just an abstract theological problem. Every time we pray and every time we make that evocative gesture, we call on the father, son, and Holy Spirit.

How about this from G.K. Chesterton is one of my favorite writers. Chesterton said, now many years ago, everybody loves the statement. God is love. Everyone's at home with that. That's beautiful.

But most ones are uneasy with the claim that God is a Trinity of persons. That just seems odd and medieval and puzzling. Chesterton said, in fact, they are simply different ways of saying the same thing.

Look, if you say that God is love, you're not saying that God has love. Love is something God does from time to time. Love is an attribute of God. That's not what you're saying.

You're saying that the very being of God is love. God is a verb, not a noun. God's an action more than a thing. But look, if he is love, then within his own being, there must be a lover, a beloved, and the love they share. God is love.

That statement flows from, and that statement implies the Trinity of persons. Lover, beloved, the love that they share.

Let me try some other images with you to illumine this great mystery. Here's the way St. Augustine presented it to us. He said, from all eternity, God knows himself.

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