The Most Holy Trinity – Solemnity 

Deut 4:32-34,​39-40
Ps 32(33):4-6,9,18-20,22
Rom 8:14-17
Matt 28:16-20

What was the first religious thing you were ever taught? For me, it was the sign of the cross with the name of the Blessed Trinity from the head, chest, and shoulders. That is such a visible sign that has inward grace, a powerful statement of faith, blessing ourselves with Holy Water, and signing our entire body in the name of the God of all things.  It is submitting every single action, word, thought – every single action of mine – to God, and doing them in His name.

When people heard Jesus speak and saw him heal the sick, they knew that God’s power was wonderfully at work in the words and actions set out before them.  But after the Resurrection, the identity of Jesus was fully revealed.  

The man whom people had touched, eaten with, listened to, and related to in every way as a human person was none other than God Himself, incarnate, in flesh, walking on the earth, sharing our human nature.  This understanding informed the gospel writers as they told the life of Christ from his Birth to his Ascension.

Many events in the gospels were seen to bear witness to the Trinity, such as the commission to the apostles we heard in the gospel a few moments ago.  God the Father has raised and exalted Jesus; He confers all authority on the disciples who are empowered by the Spirit.

 For good measure, at the end of the gospel according to Saint Matthew Jesus tells the disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  This shows how Trinitarian belief was fundamental to the first generation of Christians. Belief in God as a Trinity is there from the start.

The name of the Blessed Trinity lies at the heart of our Catholic liturgical prayer.  They begin almost every celebration of Mass and the other sacraments, and public prayers led by Catholics.  We pray in the name of the Trinity, one God in three Persons.  

Over its first four centuries, the Church worked hard to formulate and express this fundamental Christian belief, and the various creeds and liturgical texts express this settled faith combatting heresies and apostasies.

By and large, the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity is at the heart of Christianity. No matter what I do, good or bad, the Blessed Trinity is present. It’s pretty easy to recognize the work of God in the good deeds and love we feel.

  But for me, it’s an enormous challenge to live through tragedy and find the Holy Spirit at work.  It’s nearly impossible to sift through human hurt and betrayal and disease and death and try to grasp that God’s there with a master plan.

In conclusion, the Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say.
But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: ‘If a man loves me, says the Lord, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’”  (Para 260;  John 14.23).

Realizing all this makes me see my often-occurring failure to treat others with the love and kindness gifted to me by our Triune God.  And that sure makes me want to act like a better person; like the good and beloved child of the Trinity that I was born to be.

PRAYER

Dear God, may all Christians deepen their spiritual lives, entering into ever closer communion with you Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Grant us the grace to see you at work in every where and at every moment. Amen.

Fr Joseph Osho