The Trinity has one substance and one operation but is three Persons. Accordingly, our experiences with God are Trinitarian. Here are two examples: We have vocations to eternal beatitude with God, to life in the Holy Spirit, and to reproduce the image of Jesus Christ. The Church is the people of God, the body of Christ, and the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

We encounter each divine person in different ways. The Church encounters the Holy Spirit in the liturgy, where he is constantly at work, preparing us to encounter Jesus Christ. The heart is where we encounter God, especially in prayer.

Among the divine persons, Jesus Christ has the unique mission of the Incarnation. He is the God-man. We encounter Jesus in the flesh.

Authentic encounters with Jesus are actual events. Search the Scriptures and see that encounters with Christ are real encounters. They are real people encountering Jesus in the flesh. Nowhere do they give an account of an encounter with the non-corporeal Christ. Even the famous encounter between Saul and Christ on the road to Damascus, where Saul heard the voice of Jesus but didn’t see him, was an apparition in which Christ was present. Saul was, however, blinded by the light (Acts 1:1-9).

Jesus is the true temple of God because he is the place where his glory dwells. Every encounter with Jesus, therefore, happens in God’s temple. During the Feast of The Presentation of The Lord, the Church’s prayer teaches us that fact:

Dear brethren (brothers and sisters), forty days have passed since we celebrated the joyful feast of the Nativity of the Lord. Today is the blessed day when Jesus was presented in the Temple by Mary and Joseph. Outwardly he was fulfilling the Law, but in reality he was coming to meet his believing people. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, Simeon and Anna came to the Temple. Enlightened by the same Spirit, they recognized the Lord and confessed him with exultation. So let us also, gathered together by the Holy Spirit, proceed to the house of God to encounter Christ. There we shall find him and recognize him in the breaking of the bread, until he comes again, revealed in glory.

“The sacraments of the Church now continue the works which Christ had performed during his earthly life. (Catechism, 267)” He instituted sacraments and entrusted them to the Church. When she administers the sacraments, she is his actual body and is continuing his mission on earth.

The Church is where we encounter Jesus. She invites every person, at all times, to that encounter.