Chicken noodle soup and the Holy Trinity

The other day, I went to Wawa’s to buy chicken noodle soup. I placed my order, walked over to the register to pay, and then came back to stand by the counter.

“There you are!” said an employee working behind the counter. “When the order came through, someone thought it was a mistake. Why would anyone want so much soup? I said, ‘Maybe it’s that lady.’ I knew it had to be you.”

We laughed, and I told him—as I do every time—how much my children love the soup. “I have to make sure I bring home enough.”

“I got you,” he said, and he filled three large cardboard containers and slid them across the counter.

I thanked him and headed to my car. I couldn’t help but smile as I thought of how we have different personas in our interactions with people. In some settings, I’m my child’s mother, in some I’m my husband’s wife, in some I’m a friend, and in some I’m a colleague.

Sometimes I’m just that lady who orders large quantities of chicken noodle soup. But I’m still those other identities too. I’m just not seen that way when all I am is a soup-buying customer.

This weekend, we celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday. Getting your mind around the Holy Trinity is not the easiest thing. Understanding that God can be three persons in one—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—can be hard. It’s a mystery. Of course, we don’t need to understand it completely to believe.

To me, seeing God in the Holy Trinity helps me understand how God meets us where we are in different ways.

Some days we need God as Father—guiding, comforting, loving us even with our weaknesses, and believing in all we can be.

Some days we long for God as Jesus—as our brother and friend who understands and walks with us, giving in sacrificial love, inviting us to link our suffering to his, as he longs to be ever closer to us.

Some days we lean on God as the Holy Spirit, helping us grow in wisdom and strength, lighting the path for us, and helping us understand our role here on earth.

“The three persons are distinct from one another,” St. Teresa of Ávila said. “A sublime knowledge is infused into the soul, imbuing it with a certainty of the truth that the three are of one substance, power, and knowledge and are one God.”

What a wonder that our infinitely loving and all-powerful God is ready to encounter us, whether as Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. We have the opportunity to receive him, wherever and whenever and however. He will be ready to meet us, seeing us fully, and loving us completely. And he invites us to do the same for others, meeting them in whatever role we are given in that moment—even if we’re just that customer who always buys too much chicken noodle soup.

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