“Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
(Mt 28:16-20)
Sermon, May 21, 1595 (Works of St. Francis de Sales, VII, 255)
Today the Church celebrates a great solemnity to the glory of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in order to honour him as we should. We give Him glory if we believe, if we hope in the Trinity, if we pray the three Persons to dwell with us, if we wash their feet, if we invite them under the tree. But for that we must do as Abraham did, who lifted up his eyes, and that’s why he had this honor. Let us therefore raise our eyes to this eternal light, that it may deign to enlighten us with its Spirit, and that in its brightness we may see this holy mystery, and know what it will please him to make known to us.
What glory to the Father to have such a Son! What glory to the Son to have such a Father! The Son has the same substance as the Father; the Father communicates to him all his perfections. What glory a father has in having a son who resembles him perfectly; but if he resembled him so much that he was another himself, ah, what a consolation! I have seen fathers who had some virtues… how much they were consoled for having virtuous children… It is this glory that deserves to be celebrated on this feast.
But again, the Father seeing his Son, and the Son seeing his Father, what exuberance of joy! The Father and the Son see that they are reciprocally worthy of an infinite love; they see that their will is adjusted to their love, they love each other as much as they deserve, they love each other sovereignly, infinitely, and divinely. And this supreme love which thus binds them to each other, proceeding from the look they have towards each other, is a third divine Person, equal to them, consubstantial with them, infinite, eternal and independent like them, and it is the Holy Spirit, the love and unity of the Father and the Son, and the fruit of their mutual complacency and their breath.
And this Holy Spirit signifies a breath of reciprocal love, to say that the Father and the Son, looking at and loving each other, produce this third Person through this gaze and this reciprocal love. Let us therefore sing: Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit!