Can you explain?
Ummmmm, maybe?

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”

It is amazing that on the day we consider the greatest mystery of mysteries – the Holy Trinity, we are confronted with the Jesus’ command to go and do the most simple and straightforward of things – baptize.

We recall from catechism class that anyone can baptize. In an emergency, any person can take some water, pour it over a person’s head, and with the words “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” they have baptized that person.

In ages past, this was quite necessary. Unfortunately, many children died shortly after being born. People were caught up in wars and other tragedies. Christians in many places were the subject of persecution and martyrdom. Healthcare, safety, and religious freedom were a far cry from what they are today. Still to this day, every Christian has the right and duty to baptize when necessary.

Today’s Christians in the Middle East, North Korea, and China still baptize in emergencies, in prisons, whenever and wherever necessary. Soldiers in harms way baptize their brothers and sisters. Healthcare workers baptize in urgent situations.

In baptizing, in this simple act, we join the newly baptized to the Holy Trinity, to this great mystery, and to the Christian community.

The key is that in baptism, in regeneration into people of God, we come to recognize that our wisdom and intelligence are not enough. We realize that we are participants in God’s life. We must listen to and understand God’s mystery as a child would; accepting God’s greater wisdom.

Jesus praised His Father in saying: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to little children.”

We cannot explain the mystery of the Trinity. We can however explain what He has revealed to us and what we have accepted in baptism as His children. It is this simple fact: The Father loves us so much that He offered up His Son so that we might have eternal life. He loves us so much that He gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to sustain, instruct, strengthen, and enlighten us; to join us together.

That’s a mystery we can all explain – love, A.K.A. God.