TRINITY SUNDAY

Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18

(Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah)

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity – God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is a basic doctrine of the Christian faith, comprehensible 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 dreadfully theoretical theological doctrine, still less with a mathematical contradiction that 1 + 1 + 1 equals 1. But, using a mathematical symbol, we can say that 1 × 1 × 1 equals 1. What Scripture reveals to us is a unity of three real Persons. Of course, to fully understand 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: first, breaking our heads trying to work out fully how one God can be three Persons, and second, saying, ‘Oh, it is a mystery’ and not bother to have any understanding at all. On the one hand, we are constituted as human beings who 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 that 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, and soul is something we never fully grasp.

The section of the Gospel of John we read today is probably the most quoted passage in the whole Bible, so often repeated that we may take it for granted or no longer really hear it. But these words reflect the relationship between the Father and the Son, and also give us a definition of what love really is. First of all, “God so loved the world…” We often forget that God created everything and it was all good, and that God loved what he had created. That love is always expressed in action – in doing – much as was the act of creation itself. Our God is an active God – a doer. When his creatures sinned and lost the paradise of goodness that God had created, God did not stop loving but actively sought a way to save the world that was so loved.

By taking on our humanity, God offered himself to us through the physical reality of Jesus, to be the sacrifice that would save his beloved creatures and give them back eternal life. What can we draw from these readings that we can use this week in our own lives? Hopefully, we can renew our belief and our slight understanding of the Trinity, knowing fully that God loves us, loves us so much that God the Father offered up his most precious thing for us, his child. We need to remember that when we pray to God the Father, or to Jesus, or to the Spirit, that we pray to only one thing – to a just and merciful God who loves us despite our failings. We need to remember that Jesus is the physical manifestation of God, and when we partake of the Eucharist, we partake of God. God truly is in us, and that is why we are not condemned and why we have eternal life. Let us see ourselves and our neighbors as physical manifestations of God and treat them accordingly. It is what Jesus would have us do.

The three readings today are a clear testimony of this: God the Father creates and provides for His creatures. God the Son redeems us and reconciles us with God the Father. He builds a bridge between the human and the divine. God’s love becomes humanized, becoming tangible, understandable, and more easily followed and imitated. 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 distinct functions: namely, the Father as the Creator, the Son as the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit as the Sanctifier. Inseparable in what they are, the Divine Persons are also inseparable in what they do.

Trinity Sunday is, therefore, a day for the church to celebrate how it understands God and how it lives out that understanding. It is an opportunity for us to wrestle with, to struggle with, and to celebrate the meaning of God in our lives and in the life of our faith community. It is about getting back to the basics of our calling. To the community that hears the salvation story and how God has acted through history and continues to act in our lives as we recognize that all are created in God's image. To the community that lives the resurrected life of the risen Christ and makes itself manifested in the world by living as Jesus lived, a welcoming and inclusive life. To the community that knows it is empowered by the Holy Spirit to live boldly as it proclaims the good news and goes forth into the world, baptizing all in the name of the Trinity.

As can be appreciated from all that has been said, the three Divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity deserve and receive coequal glory and adoration in all phases of the Christian life. Before continuing with the celebration of the Holy Mass, I ask that each and every one of you take a few moments this week to reflect on the Presence of the Holy Trinity within you, in your life, in your home, and within all those with whom you come into contact. During that moment of reflection, ask yourselves, "How would I behave before 'so and so' if I saw before me God the Father, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit?" And may the Blessed Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- guide you all to embrace that behavior, now and forever.