TRINITY OF ETERNAL GLORY.
June 12, 2022.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity – C.
“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.
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