Readings:
Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15
Love is the Essence of the Trinity
Today,
we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. We worship God, who manifested
himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We worship three persons in one God:
God the Father, the creator of the world; God the Son, the Savior of the world;
and God the Holy Spirit, the sanctifier and the one who leads us to all truth.
Today, we also celebrate Father’s Day, a day set aside to pay tribute to the
fathers in our lives. They, with our mothers and in cooperation with the Triune
God, brought us to birth in this world. Thank you for your love and guidance
and for providing for our well-being. May God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit bless, protect, and reward you all abundantly.
The
aim of this reflection is not to give a theological exposé on the Trinity but
rather to aid us in making the Trinity a part of our lives. We begin every
prayer by calling on God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit to dwell in us and
help us live good and saintly lives. We were baptized into the Trinity, and on
the day of our death, our coffin and grave will be blessed and marked by the
sign of the Cross. We begin and end every prayer by calling on the blessed
Trinity to be the beginning and end of all we do and say and to guide our steps
on the right path. The life of every Christian is marked by the Triune God
dwelling in and through us.
The
Trinity is a mystery that presents us with a God of closeness, communion, and
intimacy. We see God, who desires community, communication, and love within the
persons of the Trinity. According to William J. Bausch, “This is an initiating
God, an outgoing God, a creative, life-giving God who stamps his communal life
on us. We are in a relationship because God is; we are made in his image and
likeness.” There is absolute love, respect, and understanding within the
persons of the Trinity. The unity of mind and purpose is enjoyed and expressed
in the Trinity. God loves the world so much that He gave His Son to redeem it.
In giving his Son, God the Father also gave himself because the Father and the
Son are in perfect communion. They are one in Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the
origin of the mutual relationship and expression of love between the Father and
the Son.
The
mystery of the Trinity is seen in the intimate relationship between the
persons, where each person is perfectly transparent to the other. In this love
relationship, there are no hiding places; none of the three keeps anything as
his own, and no one takes particular pride in individual achievements. All
enjoy the success of one; everything is shared, communicated, given, and
welcomed. Nothing and no person of the Trinity is ever taken for granted. The
love seen in the Trinity is not jealous, not conceited, and certainly not
boastful. It is a reciprocal love where the duty of one is the duty of all.
Therefore, in the act attributed to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit are equally present and cooperate in the execution of that task. The
love of the Trinity is transformative and redemptive, creative, and generative.
It is salvific love that assures humanity’s redemption from decadence and
despair. This is agape love.
This
is the kind of love that should be experienced in the family, between husband
and wife. The children are the expression of that love. Let us pray that we may
demonstrate the love of the Trinity in our dealings with one another, in our
relationships, and even in our ministries in the Church. We pray that the
Trinity may teach the leaders of nations to be civil in their utterances and
that there may be mutual respect and tolerance among people and nations of the
world. May the Trinity teach us that whatever we do is done not for ourselves
but for the love of him who created us. May the Trinity teach us to love as
they love themselves so that we may show our love in service to humanity and
our Church. Amen.
One
way that we can express our union with the Trinity is by taking the time to
bless ourselves with the sign of the Cross. Are you proud to make the sign of
the Cross openly, or are you ashamed and afraid to identify yourself as a
Catholic? Please make sure to teach your children to make the sign of the Cross
before and after meals, before they go to bed, and when they awake. Another
application of the Trinity in our lives is to pray the basic prayers of the
Trinity with devotion and faith. The prayers like Gloria, the Creed, and Glory
be to the Father (Doxology). We should be proud of our faith by showing people
around us that we are not just Christians but proud Catholic Christians. In
the Bible, Jesus says, “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man
will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father
and the holy angels.” (Lk. 9: 26). May we never be ashamed of Christ
and his Gospel. Amen.
Rev. Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP
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