These may all seem a little humorous, and they are, but they all demonstrate the human effort to say something that befits the Sacred One, God.

I claim no unique insight into the mystery of the Trinity but I have struggled over the years to say something that would dignify the One whom we call Creator of all.

The great difficulty as we all know is that we are dealing with mystery and mysteries are not explained; they are experienced.

Nonetheless, every thoughtful person, theologian or not, struggles to say something intelligent about the Trinity, something that makes sense in human terms. We will never be satisfied unless try.

Here is one way that I have found useful in the past: I find it interesting, for instance, that we humans find it so important that we give God names. Now, obviously, from God’s point of view, God does not have a name. We humans give God a name so that we can identify Him that we can set God apart from other creatures.

In a sense, names are rather peculiar when you think about it. Their only purpose is to identify who we are so we don’t get mixed up with someone else at the airport security checkpoint.

Yet, in another sense, names are us. We are who we are and our name makes that clear to every one. But isn’t it interesting that this name was chosen for us; we had no part in the choice. If we ended up liking it, fine: if we did not, too bad. Hence it may happen that we may not even be comfortable with our name but we have to live with it nonetheless.

This may be a stretch, but somehow our name contributes to our character. Our name and our personality may eventually become almost one and the same. People will say, for instance: “John is an intelligent person.” “Mary is a sensitive person.” Actually, we are not referring to the name, but to the very character of the person, his or her “Is’ness”.

The ultimate point here is that we have names mainly for identification. There are billions of folks on the planet. Somehow, we need to protect our unique individuality.

So, how about God’s name? Truly, it defies all understanding and search. In a sense, the name “God” is not God’s name. It is simply an appellation that refers to the ultimate Divine Being. Throughout Jewish history, prophets and priests chose various ways to identify the God of the people. The classic example comes in the famous incident at the burning bush in Exodus. Moses asks God to reveal His name so that he can go back and tell the people: “God told me such and such.” So, what does God do? God gives him a set of letters that scripture scholars throughout history have been struggling with ever since. It is the famous tetragammeton YHWH. The letter A is always dropped because God’s name is too sacred even to pronounce.

In place of the Sacred Name, therefore, the Hebrews throughout the centuries chose substitutes: El Shaddai, God of the Mountain, El Elyon, God Most High, El Olam, God everlasting, El Sabaoth, God of Hosts. Other single names were also often chosen: Rock, Stronghold, Deliverer, Shepherd, and Savior.

What all this connotes to me is that God is so mysterious, so unnamable that humans are unable to find a suitable name, one that will encompass all that God is. But the point is that they are names we attach. God himself is beyond all names.

I simply wanted to explore the name theme because on this feast of the Trinity it is difficult to probe the “is’ness” of God, the inner essence of the Divine. Theologians have made efforts at this for centuries without a definitive solution.

St. Paul came close, of course, when he simply instructed his catechumens to call God Abba, Father. It is a term of endearment much as my mother, during my childhood, once called me “buddy” or “honey” rather than my given name LeRoy.

The point in all this is to say that we do not know God’s name. Indeed, any name we give God will fail because no name will afford us a full meaning or understanding.

So, ultimately, what is important is not that we know God’s name or that we have the correct name, or that the name tells us any more about God but rather that whatever name we give God, it will satisfy our deepest longing to be on a one-to-one basis with God. What serves our human purpose is more important than what serves God’s purposes, whatever those purposes might be.

Finally, if we are able to call God Father or Mother, it is my hunch that God will hear us. All those other names for God we quoted above seem a little condescending, but to call God papa puts us in intimate relationship with God. I suspect that God must be happy about that. After all, don’t you suppose God knows his own name anyway?

The scriptures: Deuteronomy 4: 32-34,39-40; Romans 8: 14-17; Matthew 28:16-20