The
Most Holy Trinity (Year A)
First
Reading: Exodus 34:4b-6,
8-9 Second Reading:
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Gospel
Reading: John
3:16-18
“IN THE NAME
OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. AMEN.”
At
confirmation, the Archbishop asked the children for a definition of
the Holy Trinity. A girl answered very softly - “The
Holy Trinity is three persons in one God.”
The Archbishop, who was rather old and almost deaf, replied - "I
didn't understand what you said."
And the young theologian standing in front of him replied: "Well,
His Excellency, you are not supposed to. The Trinity is a mystery.
Nobody understands it."
The
Easter season is over with Pentecost, which we celebrated last
Sunday. Today we are back again to the remaining long period of
Ordinary Season, to begin it with the solemn celebration of the feast
of “The Most Holy Trinity.”
It
is a doctrinal
feast, that is, one not occasioned by any particular event in the
life of the Savior. Rather, what is brought to mind here is the very
Reality
of God,
the Divine Mystery. Actually, the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is
difficult to swallow. But
we believe in this mystery because Jesus who is God taught it
clearly, the Evangelists recorded it, the Fathers of the Church tried
to explain it and the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople defined
it as a dogma
of Christian faith.
The
mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is a basic doctrine of faith in
Christianity, understandable
not with our heads but with our hearts. It teaches us that there are
three distinct
Persons in one God, sharing the same Divine nature. Here, we are
dealing not just with some terribly abstract theological doctrine,
still less with a mathematical contradiction that 1+1+1=1. What
Scripture reveals to us is a unity of three real
Persons. Of course, to try to understand fully
how one God can be three Persons is not
really possible for us.
However,
while dealing with this, we have to avoid two extreme measures: 1st,
breaking our heads trying to work out fully how one God can be three
Persons, and 2nd, saying, 'Oh, it’s
a mystery' and not bother to have any understanding at
all. On the one hand, we are constituted as human beings to want to
understand, to find meaning in things, and we should always try to go
as far as we can in making sense of our faith. On the other
hand, there are many things in life which are and probably always
will be far beyond our understanding. That does not mean we deny
their truth or their existence. Even human life itself, even our own
lives, our very identity as persons – body, mind &
soul is something we never fully grasp. Instead,
then, of trying to indulge in theological acrobatics or worrying
about orthodox formulations, let us try to enter into a relationship
with these three Persons, through whom God is revealed to us.
The
basic doctrine of the Holy Trinity – viz. three persons in one God,
equal in divinity, yet distinct in personality is not explicitly
spelled out in the Bible. In fact, the very word 'Trinity'
is never found in the Bible. There
are only vague and hidden references to the Trinity in the Old
Testament. However, we do have some limited passages in the New
Testament to support it. For example -
- At the Annunciation, God the Father sends His angel to Mary, God the Holy Spirit overshadows her and God the Son becomes incarnate in her womb.
- At the Baptism of Jesus, when the Son receives baptism from John the Baptist, the Father’s voice is heard and the Holy Spirit appears as a dove.
- At the Ascension, Jesus gives the missionary command to his disciples to baptize those who believe, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
THE
REVELATION OF THE HOLY TRINITY:
The
Gospel Reading
of today from St. John
is taken from the end of a long discussion between Jesus and
Nicodemus about rebirth through water and the Spirit. The love of
God, which resulted in the gift of Jesus Christ to the world, is
depicted in all its generosity. Not to judge but to save, Jesus was
given to the world. The expression
'given'
suggests not only his incarnation, but also his suffering and death
on the cross. The response called for is faith in Jesus. As St. John
illustrates throughout his account, the coming of Jesus into the
world provokes a crisis in human history. The encounter with Jesus
results in a kind of self-judgment, wherein people by their
acceptance or rejection of him decide their own fate. Here again we
see 'The
Revelation of the Holy Trinity'
within the drama of salvation, calling for a human response of faith
that brings with it an abundance of new and eternal life.
Again,
in the
Second Reading
from St. Paul's 2nd
Letter to the Corinthians we find the formulation of the Holy
Trinity, in his greeting - “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of
you.” This greeting we use in our day at the beginning of the Holy
Mass.
The
First Reading
from the Book of
Exodus is the story of the second giving of the law after the people
of Israel broke the covenant by worshiping the golden calf. Moses is
asked by God to bring a second set of blank stone tablets up the
mountain, and this time to come alone. Here our passage begins, with
God’s appearance to Moses and a revelation of the divine name as -
“merciful
and gracious . . . slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.”
This
one is less ambiguous than the one given in the sight of the burning
bush - “I
am who I am.”
For the purposes of the Liturgy of Trinity Sunday, this revelation of
God’s name is central. Compassion
is of God's essence. In this passage, we catch a glimpse of God in
the loving
act of offering a restored covenant relationship to a 'stiff-necked
people.'
THREE
DIFFERENT ROLES:
The
Latin word 'persona'
really refers to the mask that actors used to wear to indicate the
role or function they were playing. The mask then comes to mean role
or function or job. What the Trinity then says is that God has three
'masks'
indicating three distinct roles or functions. God reaches us
personally
in three different ways. Although it took the Church a couple of
centuries to express this in theological language, the three 'roles'
of
God are clearly delineated in the Scriptures, both Hebrew and
Christian. The three Readings today are clear testimony of this:
1)
God
the Father creates
and provides for His creatures.
This is beautifully expressed in the First Reading of today
from the Book of Proverbs.
2)
God
the Son redeems
us and reconciles us with God the Father. He builds a bridge between
the human and divine. He is the pontifex, the bridge-maker. God’s
love becomes humanized and therefore tangible, understandable and
able to be more easily followed and imitated.
3)
God
the Holy
Spirit sanctifies
us, strengthens us, comforts us, teaches us, forms us and guides us
to God. We find God through His Spirit acting in and through us, in
and through others, constantly creating and re-creating, making all
things new.
So, the
Most Holy Trinity is often seen and understood as God's three
different functions; viz. -
Father
as the Creator,
Son as the Redeemer
and Holy Spirit as the Sanctifier.
Inseparable
in what they are, the Divine Persons are also inseparable in what
they do. There
is a beautiful prayer to the Most Holy Trinity quoted in a book on
Celtic prayer, which expresses beautifully the different qualities
of the three persons of the Holy Trinity, 'O
Father who sought
me,O Son who bought
me, O Holy Spirit who taught
me.'
WHOLE
PHYSICAL REALITY IS TRINITARIAN:
But
now, when we gaze into the physical reality of the world, then we
find that all
reality is essentially trinitarian. And it looks as
if the whole physical reality is constituted in the image of the Most
Holy Trinity. For example,
1.
Space - Length, breadth &
height
2.
Time - Past, present &
future
3.
Numbers - Negative, zero &
positive, ...and so on.
We
remove one, either length or breadth or height, we cannot have a
Space. Similarly, with Time & Numbers.
THE
FULLNESS OF LOVE:
Actually,
the Most Holy Trinity is the reality
of God
Himself, manifested
as Father, Son & Holy Spirit. We also know through the Scripture
that God has manifested Himself to the world as 'LOVE.'
In
the Second Reading of today, from the Letter to the Romans, St. Paul
tells us how God’s love has been made known to us in the Person of
the Son, Jesus Christ. We see God as Son in Jesus, the visible and
human revelation and manifestation of God’s love and compassion for
the whole world. This love is climaxed in the extraordinary events of
Jesus suffering, dying and rising to life. He says,
“The
love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which
has been given to us.”
That is what it is all about. So,
God
is the fullness of LOVE,
which is in fact Trinitarian; i.e. it involves three things, and is
expressed symbolically
as Father, Son & Holy Spirit. That is to say -
GOD
= LOVE
→
Father
:
The Lover
Son
: The Loved One
Holy
Spirit
: The subsisting Love that is generated between the Father and the
Son, which they send forth between them.
So,
if there is a spirit that presides over the whole of this Mystery of
the Most Holy Trinity, it is the spirit of LOVE, for it is truly love
that leads the Father to give to his Son all that he has, and
similarly, it is love that leads the Son to give back to his Father
what he had been given by him. This is why the Holy Spirit is nothing
other than the Love of God personified.
A
SHARED COMMUNITY LIFE:
One final consideration:
The Most Holy Trinity is a community of Persons, and God’s
own life is a shared life, a life of mutually interacting
relationships. From this we can consider that we are called to a
shared living with the Three who are one God, with other people and
with our whole created environment. We are called to find unity and
harmony in the midst of ever-changing diversity.
Let
us then turn to God in the community of his Persons, a community of
perfect sharing and equality. We all are God's children and it is in
his image that we have been created and it is to grow ever more into
his image that we are called. It is a world of harmony, peace and
joy. The feast of the Most Holy Trinity is the
mystery of Divine Life, which reminds us that God is a community, a
family of love and it
is the model for both Christian life & Christian families. That
is to say,
Christian
life is trinitarian;
i.e. WE
– GOD – NEIGHBOR
←
LOVE
Christian
family is trinitarian;
i.e.
FATHER – MOTHER – CHILD
←
LOVE
It
is clear then
that the Divine life of the Most Holy Trinity flows in each one of us
and
that it should be manifested in our Christian life & our
Christian families. Its importance we can easily see for -
- All prayers in the Church begin with the sign of the cross, i.e. taking the name of the Holy Trinity and they end glorifying the Holy Trinity.
- All sacraments are administered (i.e. we are baptized, confirmed, anointed, our sins are forgiven and our marriage blessed) in the name of the Holy Trinity.
- The blessings are always given in the name of the Holy Trinity.
CONCLUSION:
The
mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the
Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to
us by revealing Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Today, when we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, let us praise & glorify the Triune God and bring ourselves in the peace and joy of living in communion with the Divine life of the Father, the Son & the Holy Spirit, which is actually the model of our Christian life & our Christian families.
Finally,
today’s feast can be a reminder to pray with much greater meaning
and respect that most common of all prayers, so common we hardly
think of it as a prayer - the Sign of the Cross - “IN
THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. AMEN.”
It combines both the mystery of the Trinity and mystery of our
salvation through Jesus’ suffering, death and rising to life. It
encapsulates in so few words and a simple movement of the arm all
that we believe in and all that we live for. Let us, then resolve to
make this sign with greater dignity and reverence and in a spirit of
real prayer. And this is the Good News of today.
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