By Rev. Fr. Daniel Tetteh Tackie
Theme: The Holy Trinity, a communion of Love
Dear friends in Christ, today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, a Solemnity on which we celebrate another ground breaking mystery of the Christian Faith. This is one of the foundations upon which our Christian faith and life is built. In fact, no one can bear the name Christian if that person rejects the teachings on the Most Holy Trinity.
The Doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity teaches that in the unity of the Godhead, there are three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These three persons are united as One but distinct from one another. In fact, the Athanasian Creed states: the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God and yet there are not three Gods but one God. It is a mystery.
Today’s readings convey the fundamental mystery that the Triune God reaches out to people in love, seeking the deepest communion with them. Discerning from the first reading of today, the message coming loud and clear is that our God is not far away, that He is not “up there somewhere”, a kind of scary, long-bearded policeman in the sky. Our God is close by and He cares. In the First Reading, Moses is told that God is the “Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness”. Oh, we really need to hear that and to become utterly convinced of it especially when we find times rough and painful. The Israelites have come to know that their God is not a distant and aloof God, but one who chose them from among the nations, delivered them from slavery and whose voice they have heard. God has acted powerfully on their behalf, with a “strong hand and outstretched arm.”
We celebrate a God who has done what no other power on earth could do: chosen us; loved us without first requiring merit and accomplishment on our part; formed us into a believing people; walked with us through the ages and stayed with us when there was more than enough evidence against us as individuals and church. This God, who from the beginning till now, continues to reach out to us at today’s Eucharistic celebration, inviting us, to “fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.”
What lesson can we pick to guide us throughout this week?
A good life lesson is that the Trinity reveals how God has desired to have a relationship with humanity throughout time, throughout salvation history – from the days of Moses and the Exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt, to the time when Jesus walked among us, to the early Church following Pentecost and to the modern-day times of the Church. God continually reaches out to us in an overture of holy relationship. In this reaching out God is continually being revealed to us and among us. The Spiritual riches we receive by developing an intimate relationship with each person of the Holy Trinity through prayer are meant to be shared with others.
In relating to us, God teaches us by example to relate to one another in the same way. God teaches us to forgive one another and to forgive ourselves, for in Jesus he has forgiven each of us. God teaches us to give of ourselves for the essence of the Trinity is God’s continual self-giving.
By the power of the Holy Spirit we find Jesus, sent from the Father, in the Sacraments we celebrate and then carried forth into the world of our everyday existence. Each one of us becomes a vessel of the mystery of God. Each one of us becomes the evidence and example of God to the world. God’s mystery, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, is a mystery to be lived rather than comprehended – it is a mystery sung in the songs of the psalmist and by the mystic poets.
We need to see the Trinity as the model for our Christian families: We are created in love to be a community of loving persons, just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united in love. From the day of our Baptism, we have belonged to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Hence, let us turn to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in prayer every day. We belong to the Family of the Triune God. The love, unity and joy in the relationship among the Father, Son and Holy Spirit should be the supreme model of our relationships within our Christian families. Our families become truly Christian when we live in a relationship of love with God and with others.
In conclusion, God’s mystery, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, is a mystery we see in the depth of life, in new life and in the life of the old, in the turning of the seasons and the slow and gradual changes each of us comes to know in birth and in passing.
At the heart of this mystery of the Trinity is this message:” For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” Let us rejoice today as we thank and praise this God who loves us, this God who saves us, this God who shows us mercy and compassion. Amen
