A Reflection by Fr. Kingsley for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Year B).
Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40 – Romans 8:14-17 – Matthew 28:16-20.

Little Martha came back from school. She was excited to tell her mum what the class had been learning. “Mummy, today we learnt all about the Blessed Trinity!” she exclaimed. Mum stopped what she was doing and encouraged Martha to tell her a bit more about what she’d picked up. “Well,” said little Martha, “there is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost” – she paused dramatically – “and ‘A-men’ isn’t anybody”!

Yes, there is One God, and only One God. There are no other gods… angels, yes; demons, yes; gods, no. In God there are 3 Persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – each having the wholeness of the Oneness (the ‘substance’) of God. Today we celebrate and affirm our faith in the Most Holy Trinity. When we go through the Gospels, we find revealed truths of the inner life of God. From what Jesus said and did while He was on earth, we can grasp bits and pieces of the mystery of God. For instance, we would never have known that God is a relationship of three Persons had it not been revealed during Jesus’ ministry. His fully human and fully divine nature (Lk 22:69; Mt 16:16) was revealed to us for the first time after His Baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove and a voice was heard from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased (Mk 1:11). Throughout His life on earth, Jesus spoke familiarly about God as His Father (54 times), and about His mission in terms of doing the will of His Father (Jn 4:34; 6:38). He referred to Himself as God (Jn 8:56ff; 10:25), and we learn from Him that the Holy Spirit’s job is to continue the work of bringing about God’s Kingdom on earth (Jn 16:12f).

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity celebrates the sheer immensity of love which is found in God – relational love of which each of the Three enjoys the wholeness, love which is the life in God. In the Most Holy Trinity, our minds are brought into loving contact with the complexity and wonder of God which human language is inadequate to describe. His greatness and goodness exceed the boundaries of human thought and are beyond our attempts to comprehend fully. On the other hand, we should never look at the Trinity as a problem to be solved, a puzzle to be worked out, but as truth discernible only by faith. Christ has given us special insight into the dynamic nature of God in order to make us aware of the life we begin to share in Him at our Baptism (Jn 3:5), when the Holy Spirit is poured into our hearts, making us adopted children of the Father (Rom 8:15).

In the 1st Reading, we are reminded of God’s special relationship with His people. That’s us! We are His people. This relationship is demonstrated via His loving care for His people. St Paul in the 2nd reading stated that the Holy Spirit in union with our spirit bears witness that we are God’s children. We are all God’s children (Ps 139:14) – the Most Holy Trinity. God looks after us and He speaks to us. God the Father does this in us through the presence and action of the Son and the Holy Spirit until the end of the world.

Every time we make the sign of the Cross while blessing ourselves, we express our faith in the Holy Trinity. The action accompanying the words reminds us that it is through the cross of Jesus, the Son of God, that the life of the Trinity is open to us and that the cross is the only means by which we can follow our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, into eternal life.

Trinity Sunday reminds us and brings home to us how intimate and personal God’s love is for each and every one of us whom He has created and whom He sustains. God as our Father, Redeemer and Spiritual guide, and Life-giver, takes an interest in every individual. Mere words are incapable of expressing the immensity of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity; but in faith, we can say this simple prayer in praise of the triune God, the glorious Blessed Trinity:

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

My God Is Trinitarian