HOLY TRINITY - TO HIM BE THE GLORY

HOLY TRINITY SUNDAY – A (Ex 34:4-6,8-9; 2Cor 13:11-13; John 3:16-18)
Theme: Our Glory is in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Reflections:

- We have completed the celebration of the Paschal Time and now we start again with the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year and thus we continue with the mediation of the Gospel of Mathew in this year A.
- The Church admonishes us to begin this Ordinary Time of the Year again in the Holy Name of the Trinity because He is the foundation of our faith, life, journey and our final destiny: we live, move and have our being in HIM.
- It is apt and necessary to meditate and make our own the mystery of the Trinity once again so that each time when we invoke the name of the Trinity we would really be mindful of the PRESENCE and EFFECT of the Three Divine Persons who is, in a mystery, the Holy Trinity.
- We have already reflection on the feast of the Pentecost, last week: there are Three Divine Persons and all existing as one God; although we can attribute some events and interventions to each of the Persons, such as, the creation to the Father, the redemption to the Son and the sanctification to the Holy Spirit, they in reality, are not divided; indeed, each event is the act of the three persons together;
- We can revise once again the mystery of the unity of the Trinity in relation to the creation and salvation of man and the world:
o in the creation, though it is attributed exclusively to God the Father, there is the presence of the Son in form of the Word spoken and there is also the presence of the Spirit hovering on the waters;
o in the redemption, though it is attributed exclusively to God the Son, there is the presence of the Father in form of the Will fulfilled and Plan accomplished and there is also the presence of the Spirit which has led the Son to carry on the mission that the Father has commissioned him;
o and finally in the sanctification, though it is attributed exclusively to God the Spirit, there is the presence of the Father who is the fountain of all sanctity and holiness and there is the merit of Son’s death and resurrection through which the purification and sanctification flow and to give full completion, the Spirit who sanctifies comes from the Father and the Son and therefore, there could not be the Spirit except in and through the Father and the Son.
- This unity of the Trinity also proves and gives foundation to the unity of whole creation and whole human race:
o though we find it hard to prove, in the human level and in the human concepts, the mystical union of the Three Divine Persons, we can find from the revelation either in the Old Testament or in the New Testament the presence and the effect of the united work of the Trinity with regard to the human being and to the whole creation.
o In the Old Testament we see the complete design of God for the salvation of man and creation and we see how he has chosen a people for himself and how he wanted to extend this redemption to all through this chosen people. It is the mystery of God in the promise of salvation.
o In the New Testament we see the will and design of God has been fully obeyed and brought to the completion (it is accomplished – the final words of Jesus on the cross) by the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. This is the mystery of God in the process of salvation.
o In the New Covenant, the Church and the time followed till today and the ages to come till the eschatological consummation of all again in God, we see the presence of the Holy Spirit who inspires and sanctifies and leads all to the communion in God. This is the mystery of God in the progress of salvation.
o In this way, it is the whole Trinity who has worked for the salvation of man and creation. Not just single person but the totality of the Three Persons who is the cause of creation, redemption and the sanctification.
- We can also reflect the at most mysteries and how the unity of the Trinity is presence in the work of salvation:
o The creation: we have just seen above how the Trinity is present in the work of creation;
o The project of salvation: it is the Father who promises the savior, it is Son, who is present in every Word spoken by the prophets and it is the Spirit who is present in transmitting the word by the Father;
o The Incarnation: it is the Father who has sent the angel Gabriel to Mary with the good news of salvation and blessings of grace; it is the Son who has taken human form in her womb; and it is the Holy Spirit who has come down upon her.
o The Paschal event: the passion-death-resurrection of Jesus Christ: it is the Father who wills, it is Jesus who obeys and completes it and it is the Spirit who strengthens Jesus to accept and fulfill this will of the Father for the salvation of humanity.
o The Pentecost: we have seen already in the last week about this: it is Father who sends the Spirit in and through the merits of Jesus Christ his, Son and finally it is the Spirit who descends to initiate his mission of sanctification of the world and leading it the Father.
o The Eucharist and other Sacraments: in the Eucharist, the fountain and culmination of all the sacraments, it is the Word of the Father Spoken, it is the Deed of the Son enacted and it is the Power of the Spirit that effects the fruit of salvation:
 It is the Father who sends the word
 It is the Word/Son who is spoken
 It is the Spirit that speaks
 Therefore, in our time, it is the Eucharist which is the fullest manifestation of the Holy Trinity and we can contact and interact with God the Trinity in our daily Liturgy.
o The Church: the Church is a mystery and therefore, we can see the presence and effect of the Holy Trinity in the Church too:
 Church is the People of God, the Father (the people who are chosen/elected, bought and redeemed and in a word, the people that God called for himself)
 Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, the Son (the body which has Jesus as its Head, the Spouse who is washed and prepared by the Bride-groom for himself)
 Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit (the temple in which the Spirit pitches his tent, the holy place in which the Spirit dwells, the holy edifice where the Spirit acts).
 Church is One (Trinitarian)
 Church is Holy (belongs to the Father)
 Church is Catholic (universal property of Jesus who has died for all)
 Church is Apostolic (the succession that is transmitted by the power of the Holy Spirit).
- God is monotheistic or polytheistic? In the Christian Faith God is One but not monotheistic as in the Jewish and Islamic belief who believe just one God, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God is neither polytheistic in the Christina understanding just because there are Three Divine Persons because Three Person, each being God in himself, constitutes only One God. This is the mystery but not an abstract mystery but mystery revealed and manifested in the Second Person Jesus Christ:
o We cannot simply say and leave out the mystery of Trinity because Jesus himself proclaims in his word and deed that:
 He is sent by the Father (it is Father who sent me and I am in the Father and the Father is in me)
 He himself is the witness of the Father (I have not done what is mine but what my Father has told me to do)
 He promises the Spirit who will be sent after his return to his Father;
o In the baptism of Jesus once again the Trinity is revealed as it was in the Incarnation:
 Jesus who has gone to river Jordan to be baptized
 Father speaks about his son: “he is my beloved son, listen to him”.
 The Spirit comes down on him in the form of a dove.
o Therefore, if we really believe in Christ, we believe also his words and we accept his deeds with faith in which there is the manifestation of the Trinitarian God. So Our God is neither monotheistic because there are Three Individual Divine Persons (God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit), nor he is polytheistic because these Three Persons are not three God but one God (Triune God).

First reading:

- The Book of Exodus is the very important event in the chosen people of God; it manifests the total design of God who has brought his people out from the bondage of God promising the land of honey and milk; though these people, many a times have gone astray from his path and command, God reveals himself as a Merciful and Kind, Slow in Anger and Faithful to his promise (v.6).
- Already this exodus of Israel is the pre-figuration of the Great Exodus which Jesus prepares and fulfills for all the people in the future.
- We see the wonderful supplication of Moses to God to be “in the midst of his people” and God is so faithful to his word that He remained always “with his people” making them “his own”. Not only in the Old Covenant but also in the New He is “Emmanuel” – “God with us”.
- He was present in the story of the people of Israel in the various forms and one of the form is the ‘cloud’ (v.5); He was present in the process of the salvation in the person of Jesus; He is present now in the Church and in the world, always ‘amidst us’, in the person of the Holy Spirit. His Presence and effect is with us because he has made us ‘his heredity’ (v.9) and He is our God and we are his people.

Second Reading:

- The salute of Paul at the end of his letters to the Corinthians is very theological (v.13):
o The grace of Jesus Christ: the Second Person of the Trinity is the foundation of all the graces, because it is for him and because of him that God has created everything that is in heaven, on the earth and under the earth. All the graces of God flow through the Son, therefore, for Paul the grace belongs to Jesus Christ, who by his passion and death has merited every grace for the man.
o The love of God: God is love and in love all is one; once there is love there cannot be any difference or any division; in love there are no proportions (high or low; big or small). For Paul God is love and in and through this love that God generates his Son (generation) and produces the Spirit (Spiration) and yet they are not divided and different with the proportions just because they are all in love and LOVE IS ONE. This love makes God to be God, although a Father of the Son; this love makes the Son to be God although he is generated eternally by the Father and Father becomes the Father just because of the love of the Son; this love makes the Spirit to be God although he proceeds from the Father and the Son. Each one is God and yet Only One God just because of the Love and God is Love.
o The communion of the Holy Spirit: the source of the unity is the Spirit; when there is Spirit there is unity and communion; this is the effect and the fruit of the presence of the Spirit; For Paul, we are all united in the bond of communion just because the Spirit is present is each one of us; therefore, the ultimate manifestation of the Spirit should be the unity of all the believers in Christ; this truth leads us to reflect whether we are really Christians who follow Christ and who have the Spirit dwelling with us? this question arises just because of the disunity and lack of communion that exists between various believers in Christ;
o Be with you all: this is the blessing of the Trinity that is with us – the grace – the love – the communion, although seems to be three words and three attributions but in reality they constitute single presence of God, the presence of the Trinity;
- The same salutation is inserted into the celebration of the Eucharist: it is with this salutation that the priest greets the assembly of the faithful inviting them into the life of God the Trinity.

Gospel:

- “So that the World would saved through Him” (v.17):
o Though this gospel passage does not speak of the Trinity immediately, it proclaims the ‘Love of God’ (v.16) who wills to send his Son just because he loves to see the salvation of everyone who could participate in the same love; the same John the Evangelist who loves to speaks of “Love of God” mentions it very often both in his Gospel and in his epistles and he admonishes his community ‘to be in that love’ (we love each other because love comes from God – 1John 4:7).
o But in this Chapter, in the same discourse with the Nicodemus, Jesus speaks of the design of the Trinitarian God; in the precedent verses Jesus speaks of being born in the Spirit; he speaks of the Baptism which everyone has to receive in the Spirit of God for having “Eternal Life” (v. 16) and the Life itself is the Spirit.
o Here we see the mysterious words of John in which the presence of the Trinity is seen: “God has loved” – “Sent his Son” – “may have Life” (v.16).
- Two words noteworthy: the Life and the Salvation
o Only who has the life can produce and offer life: it is God himself
o Only who has the Omnipotence can save man: it is God who comes down to save the humanity who has fallen into the pit of destruction and who has no capacity to save himself and who looks always upwards (towards God with the hands lifted up – the sign of cry for redemption) and who seeks for God who saves him.

Conclusion:

- Trinity is Unity and Community in Love
o Trinity is Unity: as we have reflected the Three Persons in Godhead are United just because they are in Love and they are the love;
o Trinity is the Community: Three divine person, not being divided, makes the community:
 Trinity is a family without borders of hatred and heredity;
 He is a society without barriers of race and color;
 He is a world without limits of war and aggression. In this way, the Trinity stands as a model for the family-society-world and on the whole: to the whole humanity and creation itself.
o This is in the bond of Love: love is not an act of a single person; there should be at least three elements which constitute love:
 One who loves (the Father)
 One who is love (the Son)
 The love that passes from one to the other (the Spirit)
- The knowledge and understanding of the Trinity is possible only in Faith and Love:
o Ideas fails because they are personal (each one has his own idea and his own background for thinking and finally the personal thinking is always limited to the self)
o Philosophy fails because it is not objective (each philosophy has its reasons when the reason has limits and cannot go ahead it concludes that ‘the object’ doesn’t exist just because it is not conceivable, tangible and do not fall in the spheres of knowledge)
o Theology also fails because it is only a search towards the Objective Truth (theology can really go beyond the reason and really work hard to search and can coin many words: for example : hypostatic union in the matter of Christ’s humanity and divinity; consubstantiation: to explain the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist; it is nice to see the progressive aspect in the theology but it has its limits to reach and to express the Truth)
o Only Faith understands it and Only Love reaches it:
 In Faith: we leave aside our own limited ideas, leave aside the philosophical reasoning, leave aside also theological failures and we can, more than knowing God in concepts and words, Adore him as he is;
 In Love: as we have seen, love has no limits either personal or not even common (because majority believes it need not be true in the matter of God); it reaches beyond; it lives this moment of unity and community;
- The immediate action we have to do is:
o Keeping aside thinking how God looks like, how is he and where is and all (all the questions are only in the human mind; God has no questions, instead, stands as an ANSWER for all;
o Living in faith and love: when we are not able to come out of our own mind to understand others giving them the chance of talking, when we are not able to come out of our own homes to meet others giving them the chance of entering, when we are not able to sacrifice our own life to give other a chance of living, HOW CAN WE UNDERSTAND GOD and his presence and effect in us;
o The only way is TO BELIEVE AND TO LOVE (our unity and our community makes us understand the unity and community of God because “God and We, are united in the LOVE” and God is love.
- Therefore, let us take glory only in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and glorify him saying: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end, Amen.