This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity and we observe Memorial Day as well.

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The Catholic Church teaches that the fathomless mystery we call God has revealed himself to humankind as a Trinity of Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
THREE PERSONS, ONE GOD

The mystery of the Trinity is the central doctrine of Catholic faith. Upon it are based all other teachings of the Church. In the New Testament there is a frequent mention of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. A careful reading of these passages leads to one unmistakable conclusion: each Person is presented as having qualities that can belong only to God. But if there is only one God, how can this be?

The Church studied this mystery with great care and, after four centuries of clarification, decided to state the doctrine in this way: in the unity of the Godhead there are three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—truly distinct one from another. Thus, in the words of the Athanasian Creed: “The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three gods in one God.”

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While Memorial Day has come to be thought of first as the kickoff weekend for summer fun, it was born in 1868 of a more somber purpose, honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice for America.

As President Abraham Lincoln put it in his address at the site in Gettysburg, Pa., of the epic Civil War battle: “It is for us the living….to be dedicated hereto the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”

Memorial Day should serve to remind us that America will always be an unfinished work, true to its principles but evolving in practice, and dependent on its armed forces’ sacrifice, most recently 4,100 who have perished in the five years of the Iraq war.

Perhaps this day also can kindle a spirit of shared sacrifice on the home front, a spirit that was more evident in the past, as these words attest:

I’m well and strong and young-young enough to go to the front.
If I can’t be a soldier, I’ll help a soldier.”
-Clara Barton, founder of the American National Red Cross

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“No soldier starts a war—he only gives his life to it. Wars are started by you and me, by bankers and politicians, excitable women, newspaper editors, clergymen who are ex-pacifists and Congressmen with vertebrae of putty. The youngsters yelling in the streets, poor kids, are the ones who pay the price.” -Father Francis P. Duffy, New York City priest and famous battlefield chaplain of World War I, in a sermon at the 1931 funeral of French Army commander Marshal Joffre.

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