TRINITY OF ETERNAL GLORY.

June 12, 2022.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity – C.

Readings: Prv 8:22-31; Ps 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Rom 5:1-5; Jn16:12-15.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” (2 Cor 13:13)

A Romanian proverb says: “A threefold cord is not quickly broken.” And an Afghan proverb adds: “Two are better than one, and three than two.”

The Church, in her teaching, speaks of the Divine works and the Trinitarian missions. She says, “The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the same operation: "The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle." However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, "one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are". It is above all the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine persons.” CCC. 258

Every time that I am brought to reflect on the Supreme Godhead, comes this question: How will you explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity to your grandmother in a vernacular language? The Filipino uses the word "Santatlo", a combination of "Isa" which stands for one, and "Tatlo" which means three. Thus, the basic meaning of one in three. We are talking of one nature in three persons. The Holy Trinity is the mystery of the divine nature found in three different persons distinct from each other without fusion and confusion. One God, existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three dissimilar persons sharing one homoousion, “consubstantial”.

Our lives as believers, our beings, and even our destiny are defined by this divine mystery. We are people of the Holy Trinity. Created by God the Father. Redeemed by God the Son. Sanctify by God the Spirit. And at our Baptism, this trinitarian identity was deeply engraved in us. For, we are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The readings today emphasize this trinitarian Godhead and the mission of each of the persons.  The first reading speaks of the wisdom of God, the wisdom at work in the creation. The personified wisdom tells us that She was there when all were created. She saw everything; did everything; and contributed to bringing everything into being. At the end, when all were already created, She found delight in the human race. It may sound like speaking of the incarnation of wisdom after all things were made. After the creation, the wisdom of God was made flesh and took our humanity.

In the second reading, the Apostle Paul tells us that redemption is a trinitarian work. Through Christ, and the Holy Spirit, God has poured His love on us. The Apostle highlights that, justified by our faith in Jesus Christ the Lord, we are now set at peace with God with a great and firm hope that does not disappoint. Paul ends by mentioning the work of the Spirit in this process of justification and salvation. He is the one who shows us God's love.

The Gospel pushes further our meditation on the Trinity when we hear the Lord Jesus promising the Holy Spirit to his disciples as the one who will lead them in all truth. The Lord speaks of the Father as the author and origin of all things. That the Father gave him all, and that the Spirit will take it from him to reveal it to us.

The Holy Trinity is a communion of action and love. The Father works through the Son and the Son through the Spirit. We all are used to the idea that there is one God. And we fully believe and accept that this one God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As strange and difficult as it may seem, because of our algebraic state of mind made of addition and subtraction, the Holy Trinity is the central mystery of our faith. It is a mystery that speaks only one language: love, unity, community, and collaboration. And so, this solemnity comes to challenge you and me to gaze at the Godhead, and imitate their being in our daily life. For, if we accept that we are children of the Holy Trinity, our Baptismal identity, our lives should be an imitation, if not an incarnation of the relationship of the three persons of the Trinity.

In the Trinitarian relationship, the Father does not substitute the Son or the Spirit. The Son and the Holy Spirit do not take the place of the Father. Instead, there is perfect communion and collaboration between them. What about our communities born of the Holy Trinity? Are we united? Do we live in perfect accord and harmony? How do we embrace our differences and diversities?

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