(Homily
for the Holy Trinity Sunday Year A)
“Just… as the three angles of a triangle do not make three triangles but one, … so too in some much more mysterious way, there are three Persons in God and yet only one God” (Fulton J. Sheen, The Divine Romance)
After we have
celebrated in Advent and Christmas the merciful love of the Father who sent his
Son to, in and for the world; in lent and Easter we celebrated the infinite
goodness of the Son, who gave his life for us, and also after celebrating the
feast of the Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and
the Son, in order to bring to fulfillment the wonderful works of our salvation,
in today’s liturgy we celebrate the three divine Persons (Father, Son, Holy
Spirit). Indeed, the reality of the three divine Persons is not a fairy tale,
rather a certainty of what has been revealed to us. Even though it has been
revealed, it still remains a mystery. The
revelation of our God who in essence is One, and manifests Himself in three
Persons is beyond human logic and calculations. The Holy Trinity is the mystery that distinguishes our religion from
others (the Jews adored only one God: Yahweh, the pagans adore many divinities,
without unity), but in ours there is
unity in distinction. The Holy Trinity is not just the perception in three
aspects (Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier) that we sometimes have of God, more
than that, the Trinity does not only
refer to human viewing, but to God himself, to His ways of being God. The
Scriptures actually made us to understand that the Father is God (Phil. 1:2), the Son is “great God” (Titus 2:13; Jn. 1:1) and that the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4). The God revealed by Jesus
Christ is not a distant and inaccessible divinity, that has nothing to do with
the contingent humanity. He does not sit impassible on His eternal throne,
rather He condescends to mankind. Even
though we may not understand God fully as Trinity, we do experience Him as
Trinity daily (in the sign of the cross etc). God is not only believable,
He can be experienced (Taste and See). In the words of Pope St. John Paul II, “God, in his deepest mystery, is not a
solitude, but a family, since he has in himself fatherhood, sonship, and the
essence of the family, which is love (the Holy Spirit).”
In that bid, I would like to introduce the Holy
Trinity in this reflection in two broad terms: economic and immanent Trinity, taking inspiration from some of the
modern theologians. Economic is how God has revealed himself to us as Father,
Son and Holy Spirit (through His actions in the world). And many a times when
we talk about the Holy Trinity, we tend to do so, limiting ourselves to the economic
Trinity, as revealed to us. But more than that, the Holy Trinity is also to be
considered from the point of view of how God is in Himself, God in his essence
is One but manifests himself in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and
that is immanent Trinity. The doctrine
of the Holy Trinity is a mystery beyond and above us, for it has to do with the
ontological aspects of the Trinity (Immanent) and at the same time it is a mystery that has been revealed to
us and it is our way of knowing that God is present in Human history (Economic).
However, we cannot understand and explain fully how God is in himself, as St.
Augustine opined "si comprehendis
non est Deus". In another writing of his, St. Augustine exclaimed
"if you see love, you have seen the
Trinity". “God is love” (1Jn.
4:16) as revealed in the New Testament, and love cannot remain closed up in
itself, and the God revealed by Jesus Christ is Trinity because is love. Jesus
said to Philip, “I and the Father are one”
(Jn.10:30) and no doubt the Holy
Spirit is part of this oneness. Whether
considered from the dimension of economy or immanency, the central word that
dovetails into God’s essence and manifestation is LOVE. The central message of today's doctrine is
that of Love (Father-Lover, Son-Loved and Holy Spirit-Love).
The word Trinity (tri-unity) was
coined by Tertullian about the third century in the bid to establish the
distinct Persons in one God. The Scriptures in no small way, buttress the
reality of the Trinity with some biblical quotations: In Genesis 18:
1-2: God appeared to Abraham at the sacred tree of Mamre. As Abraham
was sitting at the entrance during the hottest part of the day, he looked up
and saw three men. God came to Abraham in the Trinitarian form. In Isaiah
6:8: “Whom shall I send and who
will go for US?” Here we can discover God the Father making a
representational request on behalf of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Likewise
in Matthew 28:19: “Go
therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Jesus Christ, the Son
undoubtedly is God: John 1:1: “In the beginning was the WORD, the WORD was with God and the WORD was
God.” The Holy Spirit is equally God: Genesis 1:2: “The Spirit of God was hovering over the
waters.” This was before God began active creation. The Holy Spirit has
been with the Godhead from eternity. Hence the Holy Spirit is God. In John
14:26: “The Counsellor whom the
Father will send in my name, will teach you everything”. The Greek
word perichoresis (derived from the Greek traditional
wedding dance) will help us to have a clue of how God is Trinity. It is
the reciprocal com-penetration of being among the three divine Persons, it
is like the bond that unites the three Persons in a mutual indwelling. For
instance, in Jesus’ priestly prayer: “Father,
the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” (Jn.
17:1); and again Jesus says referring to the Holy Spirit, “he will glorify me” (Jn.16:14).
Thus, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son, the Son glorifies the Father and the
Father glorifies the Son.
Similarly, no matter how hard
we try, we remain limited in the endeavor to understand this mystery in toto, what is important for us is not even to understand Him, rather to
recognize how he manifests Himself, what are the signs of His presence and
actions? God is experienced as going out of himself in revelation and
redemption. And it is against this backdrop, that the three readings of today
proffer us some indications: The first reading from the book of Exodus reveals
the name of God (Yahweh) and the compassionate heart of God, full of love and
faithfulness. In the request of Moses: “My
Lord, come with us”, here one can preempt the first step towards the
Incarnation and the Revelation of the Son, “Enmanu-EI”-
God with us. This mystery of Incarnation was revealed solemnly in the Gospel of
John: “God so love the world, that he
gave his only Begotten Son”. In the second reading St. Paul rediscovered a
trinitarian formulae of the old Christian liturgy, culminating in grace, love
and communion.
In the first reading (Exodus 34: 4-6. 8-9) God revealed himself to Moses as “Merciful God and gracious, slow to anger abounding in love and
faithfulness.” This is our One and Triune God. And before his majesty we
have to recognize our nothingness and so bow before Him. Moses recognized his
nothingness and bowed on the ground. In this passage Moses shows us what should be the human
attitude before this great and admirable mystery, it should be that of
adoration and worship and an invocation of the Triune God to come and be in our
midst. Let us appropriate the words of Moses, “If indeed I do enjoy your favour, please, my Lord, come with us” (v.9). The passage can be divided into
two parts: the first part is a theophany, Yahweh revealed his name. And the
second part is the response of Moses to this divine manifestation. In this
passage, God we could say goes out of his own transcendent being in
self-communication and he expects the human response. As such, in this
encounter between God and Moses on Mount Sinai we see a threefold pattern: ●God in himself as the transcendent Being,
●God goes out of himself in
self-communication, ●and He creates
within the human heart (Moses) the response to his self-communication. Drawing
the issue further, the passage talks about the “Name of God”, and for us it is
the threefold name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, Daniel
in the responsorial psalm picked up this theme once again: “Blessed be your glorious and holy name” (Dan. 3:52b).
In Gospel
(John 3: 16-18) Jesus reveals the
face of God, not just for what He is in himself, but for what He has done in
favor of man; that God loved us so much, that He became one of us and
one with us. Jesus came to save the world and not to condemn it. In this
passage of the Gospel we see one of the most important verses (v.16) in the whole Gospel of St. John:
“For this is how God loved the world: he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may
have eternal life.” This is the most
glaring and precise affirmation of God’s love, as the true and ultimate cause
of His Son’s presence in the world. But at first sight one might rightly question
the choice of this passage that apparently talks about only the Father and the
Son, without any mention of the Spirit, on this day. On the other hand, after a thoughtful reflection, we discover
that it is as a matter of fact impossible to dissociate the gift of eternal
life, from the Spirit who is the Giver of life. The first reading talks
about God’s compassion, while the Gospel reveals his infinite love for man,
little wonder St. Paul says “what proves
that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners” (Rm. 5:8). God sent his Son to the
world in order to save the world (v.
17). Indeed, this mystery reveals to us our nothingness, and as such calls
our attention to bow down in adoration to God.
The second
reading (2Cor 13: 11-13) begins with
the admonition of St. Paul thus: “brethren,
rejoice. Mend your ways, heed my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you” (v. 11). In a nutshell, is like St. Paul is telling us that a
transformed way of living, living in harmony and love with each other are the
criteria for enjoying the presence of the Trinitarian God, the Trinity of love
and peace. Secondly, he offers us an explicit affirmation of the existence of
the Holy Trinity, but also the fact that the Holy Trinity is present in us and at
work in us, if we do not destroy our relationship with Him through sin. For St. Paul the presence of the Trinity
becomes a wish for the Christians of Corinth and for us today: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the
Love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all”. St. Paul
employs three important words (Grace, Love and Communion). He speaks of the grace of Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of
the Holy Spirit. Thus, bringing to light the experience of grace, love and koinonia.
The ordering of Son, Father and Spirit
is quite fascinating, for it is in the Person of the Son through his gracious
life and death that we encounter the love of God, and this encounter enables us
to be incorporated as members of the redeemed community, where we are made
sharers in the common life of the Spirit.
Be that as it may, we have a
number of virtues to learn from the mystery and divine manifestation we
celebrate today: ●Unity in diversity,
a call, therefore, to recognize all as brothers, despite our differences, and to live in love and communion as
children of the same Father. The
revelation of God as Trinity is a revelation of love. The Trinity is ocean of
Peace and communion; the Father always works with the Son and the Holy Spirit “let us” (cf Gen 1 & 2). It is thus an invitation to us to cultivate the
spirituality of inclusion. ●We can
as well reconsider the Holy Trinity in three dimensions: the Trinity of faith (of the past, when He revealed himself), the Trinity of Love (of the present,
that lives and works in us), there is also the
Trinity of Hope (of the future, we are on our journey towards the return to
the Father). It is of a Hope that is certain (cf. Rm 5:5). ●The mystery of the Holy Trinity is a reality hidden
in the heart of God. The mystery of the
Holy Trinity is neither the work or the fruit of theological thoughts nor of
mysticism. The Trinity is not a fruit of human invention, is not an idea,
rather it is a reality, the most sublime
reality, not a static reality but a process-reality; that the Father
revealed through the Son and the Holy Spirit. The mystery of the Trinity was
immensely revealed to us through the action and manifestations of God in human
history. God revealed himself as Father by sending the Son. And Jesus Christ
revealed himself to us in his perfect obedience to the Father, through his
redemptive death and resurrection. And the Holy Spirit revealed himself to us
as the “cement” of the love of the
Father and the Son, as a gift of communion to man, so that they will live in
the trinitarian image.
What should be the attitude of man before
this mystery? ►First, there is need for the attitude of adoration and
submission to the Father that so much loves us, to our Brother
Jesus who gave his life for us, and to the Holy Spirit who
accompanies and sustains us in the course of our earthly existence. More
important to reflecting, thinking and pondering on the mystery is to worship
and render all adoration to the Triune God. ►Second, is the attitude of
thanksgiving, thanking God for the fact that He is a mystery and continues
to be a mystery even after the revelation. But not a mysterious and complicated
mystery, for we are constantly involved in the life of the Blessed Trinity.
Being a mystery, as such it cannot be manipulated or instrumentalized by man.
►Third, is the attitude of humble acceptance of the mystery, avoiding a
rationalistic position and
an irrationalistic position, that seeks to exclude it (because it
does not comprehend it) or that seeks to succumb to its weight (because it is
perceived to be cumbersome) respectively.
Above
all else, however, drawing the issue further, we see that the Holy
Trinity is a mystery of Mission: the Father sends the Son, and both
send the Holy Spirit, and in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, the Church is sent by Christ to “go and make disciples of all
nations”. You too, you are sent to be heralds of love, unity and
communion. In the mystery of the Holy Trinity, there is love amongst the
three Divine Persons (ad intra), but in the same vein
the Trinitarian love is manifested externally (ad extra),
love towards humanity, towards us. This Trinitarian love extended to us should
be a prerogative for the extension of that same love to our fellow human
beings. The Trinity is therefore a sign of a harmonious unity existent
in God, which should equally be existent among God's children. The central
message of today's doctrine is that of Love. The Holy
Trinity is a mystery of interpersonal communion of love. It is
a sign of communion and of love. As those called to live a Trinitarian
life, is our life a sign of communion and of love, a reflex of the Trinitarian
life? Drawing the issue further, we call the attention of our leaders
and all, enough of all this religious, ethnic and political divides that create
tension, hatred, violence and the massacre of human beings, especially in our
country today. We condemn in all its forms and manifestations the barbarous
warfare, persecution, endless massacre, kidnapping and plunder going on today
in this nation. We need an urgent rediscovery of the sense of the sacredness
and respect of the human life, created in the image and the imprint of the
Trinitarian God. Let us pattern our lives according to the God we worship and
teach others to do same. May Jesus in whom “in bodily form dwells all the
fullness of divinity” (Col. 2:9), continue to reveal to us the
God who is communion. Oh our Trinitarian God, help us to love You and to
love one another! Enable us to recognize you in each other and in our world, so
that we may be capable of living the Trinitarian existence of communion, love
and a harmonious unity. Amen!
(Fr. Vitus Chigozie, SC)
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