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 Trinity Sunday, Year A: Reflection by Fr Julian Ekeh

Theme: The Trinitarian Outreach: An invitation to reach out in love

Gospel Reading (John 3:16-18)

Today is the great solemnity of the Holy Trinity. We celebrate the nature of God; we celebrate the revealed mystery of God. We celebrate the undivided unity of the three Divine persons. We celebrate that God is three and One. We celebrate the love of God.

We celebrate that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, not three gods. We celebrate that God is one God but coeternal and consubstantial Persons. We celebrate that the persons of the Trinity are distinct yet bonded. The Son is begotten of the Father by an eternal generation and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son by an eternal procession.

We celebrate the Trinity today as a great weapon used by the Church to destroy heresies and misleading teachings about the Godhead. We celebrate that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not just elevated creatures as Aerius and his companions opined but God. We are thankful for the demolition of the erroneous teaching that God the Father created the Son and The Son created the Holy Spirit. We rejoice that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were not denied of their Divinity.

As we celebrate the Holy Trinity Sunday today, it is good to note that the term Trinity never appeared in the Bible but the reality of the Trinity as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit working in unity is seen from the beginning of the scriptures through its end. Theophilus of Antioch (around180C.E) was the first to use it in Greek while Tertullian used it as 'Trinitas' in Latin around 200 C.E.

 

MESSAGE FROM THE HOLY TRINITY

Working as a community

The Trinity is described as a community of love. The understanding that exists among the Holy Trinity should encourage us us to love more, to carry others along, to keep that which separates and go more for those things that unites. It was this Spirit that inspired the invitation in Genesis: " Let us make man in our own image".

There should be a healthy communication in our families and in our society. Do you carry your wife along? Are you open to your husband? Are you known to your children? Is the East aware of what North is doing? Is the Government open to the persons they lead? Do we live as equals while respecting people's roles? Let us share in the life of others and allow them to share our own lives.

 

Learn to reach out

The Trinity lives by reaching out. The Gospel of today says that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. When Jesus was about to depart from the earth in His love He emptied himself and poured on the disciples the Holy Spirit.

We are not celebrating egoism, selfishness or nkemdirim but love shared, love given, love expressed indeed!

 

Be Humble

The Trinity celebration is a celebration of the greatness of God and yet the difference between God and creatures notwithstanding, He comes to relate, wants to recreate Himself, invites for a participation in His image and likeness. Cares about man and takes his nature, dwells in man through the Holy Spirit. Let us humble ourselves and foster peace and harmony.

 

Reflect the Trinity holistically

Consciousness of the fact that we cannot do without the Trinity matters. Just as we came into being by the trinitarian call: 'Let us create'', in the Church we too are brought into the Church to share in the trinitarian life through Baptism by the invocation of the Trinity. Let's know the place of the Trinity in our lives, sign ourselves with it always and manifest the Trinity to others always.

The Church in her wisdom begins and ends her celebration of the Holy Mass in the name of the Trinity. She makes her prayers to the Father through Jesus Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit. She is empowered to move into the world on mission in obedience to God. This is a replication of the Trinitarian mission. God the Son is a missionary of the Father, (sent by the Father) God the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Let us therefore reach out to people around us spreading the love of the Trinity, doing only what will glorify God.

 

Benediction

The Trinity is the outstanding sign of blessing in the Church. Let us receive the blessedness of the Blessed Trinity and bless others with it. Let us never cease to call upon the Holy Trinity always. Let these Divine Persons possess us. May our creatureliness remain in accord with the will of our loving creator, be redeemed by the mercies of our passionate saviour and be inflamed by the sweet unction of the Holy Spirit.

 

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Happy Holy Trinity Sunday (Yr A)

Rev Fr Julian O Ekeh