Feast of the Most Holy Trinity
This Sunday, we celebrate the feast of The Most Holy Trinity, one of the most foundational doctrines of Christianity. This is a celebration not as a theological discourse to be understood completely, but rather good news to be celebrated and enriched by.
The gospel for this feast tells us that the Spirit of truth will lead us to the complete truth about God. This gives us confidence that The Holy Spirit continues to lead us into the complete understanding of the mystery of the Trinitarian God. In this case, what we call mystery is not as something we cannot understand; rather, it is a way of deepening and allowing the Spirit to help us enter deeper into our relationship with God. At this point, we cannot say “I’ve got it”, because at the same time we cannot hold God in our limited brain and understanding.
It’s fascinating to see that Jesus explains the Kingdom of Heaven in parables, analogies/ allegories. Jesus uses the formula “It’s like…” The Kingdom of God is like…. In my reflection, we can approach the mystery of God Trinity in a similar way that Jesus explains the Kingdom of God. We cannot absolutely say “it is ….”, but “it is like…”. Even then, we cannot understand the full depth of the mystery of the Trinity: the Father, Son and The Holy Spirit - three persons in one, relating perfectly to one another. All the examples that we can think of are only shadows of the shadows of the Truth. However, in this great mystery of God, what is really important is our faith in God. With faith, no understanding of mystery is necessary; without faith, no understanding of mystery is possible.
Perhaps, the sensible way of looking at this mystery is to understand Jesus’ relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. When Jesus calls himself the Son of the Father and yet one with the Father, it is a relationship. Jesus says to the Father: I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are One, I in them and you in me….(John 17:22-23). The one-ness of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is reflected in the perfect unity and communion; three distinct Persons in one God, sharing the same divine nature, co-equal and co-eternal.
As we approach this feast as a celebration rather than a theological course on the Trinity, our celebration strengthens our connectedness with the mystery of the Trinity through our creation, baptism and the invitation to live in a Trinitarian way of living, loving and relating.
First of all, we celebrate our dignity, created in the image of the Triune God. God said, “let us make man in our own image, in our own likeness (Genesis 1:26). Through this celebration we are reminded to be and to grow into the image of ‘God Trinity’. The image of God Trinity is the image of love. Pope Benedict XVI puts it in this way “God is love, not in the oneness of a single Person, but in the Trinity of one substance. He is the Creator and merciful Father; he is the Only-Begotten Son, eternal Wisdom incarnate, who died and rose for us; he is the Holy Spirit. Three Persons who are one God because the Father is love, the Son is love, the Spirit is love. God is wholly and only love, the purest, infinite and eternal love. God is love.
Secondly, we celebrate our special identity as God’s children. In our baptism, we immerse ourselves into the mystery of Trinity, into communion with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Since then, we are in communion with God the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Our being is forever in loving communion and connectedness with God the Father, Son and The Spirit. It means that we are always “in relationship” with God, no matter what. This relationship, in turn, leads us to our forever union with God, as the Trinitarian God abides in us. This feast invites us to live in the awareness of the presence of the Triune God within us.
Finally, the celebration of the Trinitarian God is an invitation for us to live in a Trinitarian way of living, loving and relating. The Trinitarian relationship of love and unity is the model of our families and society. We are created in love to be a family and community of loving persons, just as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are. We become truly Christians when we live in a relationship of love and unity with God and with others. In this way, we are called to become more like the Triune God through all our relationships, in the family, parishes, and the wider community.
Let me conclude with a favourite prayer of St Francis Xavier: “Most Holy Trinity, who live in me, I praise You, I worship You, I adore You, and I love You. May the Son lead us to the Father through the Spirit, to live with the Triune God forever and ever.” Amen.
IMAGE: Andrei Rublev's famous icon of the Holy Trinity.