THE HOLY TRINITY, YR C
Genesis 14:18-20; Psalm 110:1-4;
1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11b-17
OUR GOD IS TRINITY OF PERFECT LOVE
Today we celebrate, the core of our faith, the Holy Trinity. In celebrating the Holy Trinity, what we celebrate is who God is. What is his nature? Our God is One but three. Even though the Bible does not have the name Trinity or identify God as Trinity, we come to identify him as such as he continues to reveal himself to humanity.
One of the truest things we can say about God is that he is the One Supreme Being. This One Supreme Being has revealed himself in three persons in our journey with him. The persons of the Trinity are not three modes of God, but persons.
Scripture presents us with two ways by which God’s identity is revealed as we look at the two testaments:
In the Old Testament, beyond all the ways he is referred to, his highest identification is “God is Being”, that which is in its absoluteness. When Moses wondered what his name is he told him, “I AM WHO I AM”. It is important to note that before God revealed himself as “I AM”, every person or deity needed to be validated by another deity or something else.
By identifying himself as “I AM WHO I AM’, what he means is that he is vindicated by himself and nothing else.
It also means that he is the source of all essences. In fact, he is Being itself. All beings are contingent on him. In him, there are no potentialities, he is pure act. God as Being, is absolute existence, eternity and self-sufficient. In God there is no “before” or “after”. He simply “is”.
In the New Testament, we come to know God as love (1 John 4:8). God remains Being but now we know that he is love. Love is not just an attribute of God which means that it is not just something he shows us or have for us. He is Love. That is what he is, his nature.
In his reflection of the Trinity, St. Augustine taught that the revelation of God as love implies that in him there is;
-A lover: Someone who loves (The Father)
-A beloved, someone who is loved (The Son)
And the love they share. (The Holy Spirit)
This is the revelation that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, reveals to us by his coming into the world. He tells us about the Father but also speaks and acts like God. He forgives sins, heals people possessed by demons. All his words and actions are things one will expect of God. So that in one instance, the Jews angrily commented, “…Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:21).
At Pentecost, the disciples (church) received the Spirit sent by the Father and the Son.
This eternal play of love within God, is what we call “Trinity”. Which means that in God is “three in Unity”.
How Does That Relate to Us?
In baptism, we are all inserted into the life of the Trinity. In Jesus, we become sons and daughters of the Father. We now share the Son’s relationship with the Father, which means we, too, now live in the intimacy of the Holy Spirit. This is so beautiful and awesome. God who is beyond all and is the essence of existence calls you and I into a relationship of love. How are you responding?
Since we worship God who is a communion or family in himself, each one of us must become a sign of unity in the church and in our families.
As the fullness of love, God calls us to appreciate ourselves. This is because we are God’s first gift to ourselves and to the world. We are also called to have love towards all people in a pure and genuine way.
We must let all men come to know God, love him and be loved by him.
We must continue to seek to know God. We must remember that the best way to understand God is through prayer. Contemplation is the only way by which each one of us can truly come to encounter his tremendous love.
In it all, we must remember that God is always beyond our comprehension but because he is love, he has allowed himself to be known and loved.
God bless you
By Fr. Delight Carbonu
