Readings:
Exodus 34:4-6,8-9; 2 Cor. 13:11-13; John 3:16-18.
We worship a
Triune God
1.
Today
is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. God manifested himself as Father,
the Creator; Son, Redeemer, and Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier. The Preface of the
Trinity praises God thus: “We joyfully proclaim our faith in the mystery of
your Godhead. You have revealed your glory as the glory also of your Son and of
the Holy Spirit: three Persons equal in majesty, undivided in splendor, yet one
Lord, one God, ever to be adored in your everlasting glory.” There is unity
of purpose and expression of love in the Holy Trinity. Our God is in a
relationship. He invites us to enter into a relationship with Him. We are at
our best when we are in a relationship with God and others. No man is an
island.
2.
At
every prayer, we call on God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit to dwell in us
and help us live good and saintly lives. We were baptized into the life of
Grace through the invocation of the Holy Trinity. At our funeral, the coffin
and the grave will be blessed by the sign of the Cross and the invocation of
the Trinity. Every Christian’s life is marked by the Triune God dwelling in us.
The mystery of the Trinity demonstrates a God of closeness, communion, and
intimacy. God desires that community, communication, and love shared among the
Persons of the Trinity be replicated in every Christian. According to William J.
Bausch, “This is an initiating God, an outgoing God, a creative, life-giving
God who stamps his communal life on us. We are in a relationship because God is;
we are made in his image and likeness.” There is absolute love, respect,
and understanding within the Persons of the Trinity.
3.
If
we are at our best in a loving relationship, it is also true that we are at our
worst when we fall out of love and are not in a relationship. The worst pain of
our time is loneliness. Not having someone to talk to and relate to can be an
awful experience. Most of our elderly ones feel lonely when their children and
friends do not call or visit them often, either at home or in nursing homes.
4.
In today’s first reading, we read that the
face of the Father is turned towards His children despite their sins. He
renewed the tablets of the Law that Moses had broken, showed them mercy, and forgave
their sins. He revealed His name as “The Lord, a merciful and gracious
God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” These are the
attributes of the Triune God. God is merciful, compassionate, and tender – the
heart of the Father moved by unmerited love.
He is gracious - the favor or benevolence of one who has gifts to give
and wills to give them. His kindness is the love that marks the covenant bond
between Him and His children. And finally, God’s fidelity connotes
rock-likeness, constancy, the inability to be turned from the will to love.
This is God. He knows anger because of sin and permits Moses to express his
anger by breaking the tablets of the law brought down from Mount Sinai, but in
the end, God wants only merciful and faithful love to be known - the heart of
God. And the Gospel tells us how far God can go to reveal His true nature. God
so loved the world that he gave his only Son. In giving his Son, God the Father
also gave himself, because the Father and the Son are in perfect communion, and
the Holy Spirit is the expression of the Father and the Son. St Paul shows us
in the second reading that these attributes are truly God’s and thus of the
three Persons. “Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one
another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.”
Hence, the love from God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Spirit will
bring us together in fellowship and union.
5.
So,
how do we relate to the Holy Trinity? First of all, acknowledge the indwelling
of the Trinity in our lives. Then develop an intimate relationship with the
Persons of the Trinity. This means having a personal relationship with the
First Person of the Trinity. God is our Father who created us “To know, to love
and to serve God in this world, and to be happy with God forever in the next.”
The end of our human existence is to be in relationship with a God who made us
in His image. In the Lord’s prayer, we address God the Father directly. Hence,
we should pray the Our Father with devotion, while reflecting and paying
attention to the words of the prayer.
6.
We
must also develop and inculcate an intimate relationship with Jesus, the second
person of the Trinity - the Savior of the world. He redeemed us with his
precious blood. ‘The Anima Christi’, ‘Jesus, I love You’, O Sacrament most Holy,’
and other prayers besides, direct our minds to Jesus after receiving the
Eucharist.
7. It may not be easy to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit because we don’t feel the Spirit as a person. The Church has many prayers that can help us in this regard: ‘Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful’, and ‘Prayer for the seven gifts of the Spirit. We must note, however, that all prayers are directed to God the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit. Praying to God alone is the same as praying to any Person of the Trinity. That is why the Sign of the Cross, the Gloria, and the Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit are traditional prayers that address the Three Persons of the Trinity directly. Let us demonstrate the love of the Trinity in how we relate in our families and in our society. Amen.
Rev.
Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP
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