Trinity Sunday often features Bible passages in which we can identify each person of the Trinity. For example, we can identify all the persons of the Trinity in the first three verses of the Bible:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Here, we see God, the eternal Father, the Son as the eternal Word he speaks, and the Spirit’s presence bringing life over the waters. The same Trinitarian dynamic is at work in the baptism of Jesus:

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.”

Notice the Father speaking over his Son, with the Spirit present over the waters. The baptism of Christ is a new creation, a new creation in the love of God.  The Father’s words of love at Jesus’ baptism give us an essential clue to the deeper meaning of the Trinity. When St. John writes that “God is love,” he means not only that God is loving but also that God in his essence is love. Even before creation, God is a community of love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God did not create out of loneliness. He did so from an overflow of love, rejoicing to share his eternal love with his creation.

---