A Reflection for The Most Holy Trinity (Year C).
Proverbs 8:22-31 – Romans 5:1-5 – John 16:12-15.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity gives us the opportunity to grapple with the mystery of the simultaneous oneness and threeness of God. The Church teaches us that the One God comprises a Trinity of Persons, these being the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the totality of the oneness of God, the divine Persons are distinct and eternally in relationship with one another. This is indeed a mystery beyond human comprehension. That said, let’s unpack it a little bit so that we can at least discern that it is absolutely true!
First of all, Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that the Father seeks out … the true worshippers of God to worship Him and to know Him so that they will worship the Father in spirit and truth (Jn 4:23). In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus advised the disciples (and, by extension, us) that the Holy Spirit will lead you to the complete truth (v.13). The composition of the Trinity is itself true: God is perfect (Mt 5:48), and it follows that His perfection cannot tolerate anything but the truth (Deut 32:4). Today we are called to celebrate and worship God whom we know (Jn 4:22) in truth, because He has revealed himself to us! He has revealed that He, God, is the only God (Deut 6:4 / the Shema) who is three Persons in One God (Mt 28:19). Each Person has the whole of the substance of God, the complete “Godness” of God, and we ourselves are all children of God (1Jn 3:1).
Why does the triune God want to have a relationship with us? God yearns to have a relationship with us because God is Himself relational. Even before chronological time began, relationship within Himself existed. He is triune, Trinitarian, which – if you think about it – is what makes the Church’s faith in God distinctively Christian.
God, who longs for us to know Him and to love Him and to develop a relationship with Him, is self-revelatory. In today’s 1st reading, God is revealed as the Creator of everything out of nothing, in the 2nd reading as the Redeemer of humanity, and in the Gospel reading as our guide and teacher. The 1st reading focuses on the creative work of God in terms of God the Father speaking the Word [Heb 11:3] for the purpose of creation. The 2nd reading talks about God’s redemptive work through God the Son who is Jesus Christ, Our Lord. The Gospel reading talks about the missionary work of God within each one of us through the ministration of God the Holy Spirit. All these aspects of the divine works are accomplished by the one-and-the-same God, by the Holy Trinity. In these works are revealed the indivisible unity, equality and collaboration in the single will of the three Persons in the one God. It is a mystery, but that mystery is engraved in our being as ‘children of God’. We children of God are to emulate Him as best we fallen, frail humans can, both in our families and in the circles in which we move.
The message for us is that we should do our utmost as individuals and as communities to worship God worthily, to reflect God’s love for His people in our lives, and lovingly to mirror His works and His interaction with everyone who crosses our own path in life. How come? Because He has deigned to reveal to us, His ‘little children’ (1Jn 2:1), His existence, His nature and His very Self to us. Once we accept the invitation to participate in relationship with the living God, we are awakened to a wholly new way of living, loving and relating, both to God, to other people, and to the whole of Creation.
In our relationship with the Holy Trinity, we receive the unique gift of a grounded connection with God, with ourselves, with other people, and with the world around us. May I urge you to demonstrate how dearly you cherish the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity by working tirelessly – as did the Lord of glory – towards fulfilling God’s will for unity whilst (a) embracing the diversity of Creation, (b) reaching out across the barriers of differing views and social strata, and (c) celebrating cultural and racial variation. It is God’s will that we love and worship Him, and that for His sake we bite the bullet and show His sacrificial and self-giving love to everyone and everything that He creates and sustains.
Let us continue to:
- rejoice in our relationship with the blessed Trinity
- foster and develop that relationship
- live out the life of the blessed Trinity in the context of the challenging post-modern world, and
- work together for the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth.
May I suggest to you that these are surely the best possible ways in which we can give glory to God.
Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
God bless you.