What does it mean to believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit? 

Believing calls us to know who God is, thus to have wisdom and knowledge of our God, and then to be a “doer” (to be in action)—thus to literally live out the faith of the Catholic Church, the Faith of our Trinitarian God. 

To be a faithful disciple means to know His Heart, which is illustrated in the Beatitudes, located both in Matthew 5, as well as on the front wall of our church, once we “know” God, then we must come to understand what it is that God asks of us. Faithful discipleship requires more than just “knowing” our faith, it calls us to live it out in-and- through our daily activities of life. How do we bring to life what we possess in our mind—the knowledge of our faith? By translating it by our hands and feet and heart. To get up and “put out into the deep” (Luke 5:4) and drop anchor in the mess of life and bring the stability of kindness, compassion and forgiveness into everyday life. 

A few weeks ago, we heard in sacred scripture that we have to know God in order to become God in the world around us through our new way of life (faith). And the way to know God comes to us in listening to His Word (the New and Old Testaments and Gospels), studying His teachings (the Catechism), and practicing His Ways (feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and teaching the ignorant). 

To know God and to be Godly in the world around us requires us to listen, consume, pray and act. St. Thomas Aquinas would say that to live faith indeed requires Wisdom (knowledge) and “habitus" or practice of the faith—putting our Wisdom into action. After all, one cannot be a great golfer if one never plays golf; one cannot be a truth teller if one lies constantly; and one cannot be a Catholic unless he or she lives the faith. Herein lies the active difference between Catholicism and Protestantism, the latter believing in Sola Scriptura—scripture only—Protestantism; versus Catholic Action. 

To believe requires both the Wisdom of the God and the Action of the Holy Spirit, that is why God sent the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, to bring Life—Eternal Life-—into the world and beyond.—into the world and beyond.