One in Love

Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity May 30, 2010 (Jn 16:12-15)

"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you."

In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself to the Israelites through Moses. He said, "I am WHO AM". This is not a grammatical error. Through this, God introduced Himself as the God of their ancestors, the God of the living, the unchanging God, the God who is, who was and who is to come. The revelation of the Divine name happened just before God revealed His plan to save Israel from slavery. God introduced Himself to the people He was to save, to the people He planned to be His own.

God's revelation finds fulfillment in the New Testament. Again, as God's plan for our salvation was unfolding, He revealed Himself ever more fully. This time, God did not speak to us through prophets. He Himself spoke to us in the person of Jesus. Jesus revealed God to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus revealed to us that the one God is Trinity.

Of course, our human mind can never fathom this doctrine in its fullness. We can never understand how three can become one. Nevertheless, we accept it through faith because it was revealed to us by God.

God as Trinity shows us how God works in our lives and for our salvation. Our readings and our Gospel for today show us how God works as Trinity, how wonderfully His plan of salvation unfolds. God worked for our salvation as Trinity. The Father created us out of love. The Son became love incarnate to save us and to bring us back to God's love from which we ran away. The Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son to help us remain in God's love and to inspire us to love God back.

The Trinity is a community of love. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit love each other. Therefore, being created in the image of the Trinity, we too are made to be a community of love. The Trinity teaches us that we are one human race, though different in color and creed. We are one because we were created by the one God. We must therefore live in love and in unity as one human race.

Jesus gave us the doctrine of the Trinity not to confuse us. He revealed this to us to make us appreciate the marvel of our salvation. He shows us that the almighty God uses all His might to win us back. The Trinity shows us that God loves us so much because He Himself is love; and in that love he desires all men to share in His oneness. He wants men to be one human race and to be one with Him in love.

One People, One God of Love

Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity
June 7, 2009 (Mt 28:16-20)

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity states that there is one God who manifested Himself to be Trinitarian. Hence we have one God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This mystery has been revealed to us by Christ, but it has been an object of discussion and debate for many centuries.

This doctrine is not that easy to understand. The human mind cannot completely fathom it in it's fullness. Nevertheless, we believe in what has been revealed to us by God and in the authorized interpretation of the Church. We are the new Israel to which God reveals Himself. It is written in our First Reading today, "Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?" (Dt 4:32-33).

As God let His voice be heard by all Israel in the days of old, God let his voice be heard in the Baptism of Jesus, and let the people have a glimpse of the mystery of His being. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were revealed at that moment.

As Catholics, we believe that the three divine Persons are one, united in a bond of love, which is the Spirit of God. This is how we can say that God is love (1 Jn 4:8).

In the Gospel today, we hear Jesus telling His disciples to make all nations His disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Trinitarian God. In this commission, Jesus is telling us to unite all peoples in faith and in love. Jesus wishes that all His disciples be one as He and the Father are one (Jn 17:11). The Father wills that all things in heaven and on earth be summed up in Christ (Eph 1:9-10). The Church prays for unity through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is our One God, and it is His will for us to be one like Him.

May we always work for the unity of all Christians, and for the unity of all men regardless of color or creed. Our God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34) and neither should we. Discrimination and partiality further widens the gap between people, and this is not God's will. We need to see every person as our brother or sister in God, even if they are not Catholics, even if they are not Christians. It is God's will for us to be one people with one God of Love.