Date: June 7, 2020 ()

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What I consider as the most awaited part of the liturgical year happens today as we return to sacred Mass after months of keeping safe from the pandemic. And isn’t it providential that this has to befall on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity? Today, we, as it were, return to the very core of God.

A saying, I read from a saint, says: the farthest journey of humanity is not the leap from earth to the moon; but a man’s return to the heart of God. It can take a lifetime to set out for this journey. But this is by far the most important among all journeys. The journey of our coming back to the bosom of God. (I’d like to share a story.)

The phone bill was exceptionally high so the husband called a family meeting to discuss the issue.
Dad: This is unacceptable. I don't use the home phone; I use my work phone.
Mum: Me too. I hardly use our home phone. I use my company's phone.
Son: I always use my office mobile, I never touch the home phone.
All of them were shocked and together looked at the maid, who was patiently listening to them.
Finally the Maid said: "Why are you all looking at me? So, we all use our work phones. What's the big deal??
There’s only one name it’s called: work phone in different workplaces! More like One God in three Persons?

A priest was administering last rites to a man who had collapsed in a general store. Following his usual custom, he knelt by the man and asked, “Do you believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?” The man roused a little bit, opened an eye, looked at him, and said, “Padre, here I am, dying, and you ask me a riddle?”

Today we celebrate one of, if not the, greatest riddles or mysteries of our Faith - the very core of the being of God - the Holy Trinity. Our faith teaches us that God is One in Three distinct Persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. No mathematical reasoning can explain yet this Mystery.

In an open park, a famous preacher was about to explain the subject on Holy Trinity but suddenly the rain started to pour down. He was clever enough to use the rain as an analogy: He said, “The water that is falling is water, but it can exist in three different forms: gas, solid-and liquid – that is, in steam, in ice, and in falling rain.” Of course, an analogy like this falls short of the reality, but it offers an insight into the Trinity. As there are not three different kinds of water, but only water in three different forms, so there is only one God in three different persons. What we can have are little human attempts to understand the mystery, and ultimately, we leave everything to faith to be able to live with it.

The greatest revealer of the Holy Trinity is God Himself, and in the most intimate and tangible way, He revealed to us through the Son. In the event of Jesus’ Baptism, the Father, in a voice from the cloud was heard speaking: “This is my beloved Son in whom my favor rests, listen to Him.” And as the heaven was torn the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove and rested upon Jesus. On many different occasions, Jesus spoke of the Father and Him as one; and before His ascension into heaven, He promised His disciples to give the Holy Spirit, who descended upon them on Pentecost in the form of tongues of fire.

During the earthly life of Jesus, the Holy Trinity was never this perceptible. That’s why the apostles having truly experienced and understood the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit cannot make a controversy with regard to this matter. They did not analyze the mystery of the Trinity; They lived with it and Jesus allowed them to experience the Triune God at work in the context of Love.

The first reading today recalls the time when Israel sinned. But God who just liberated them from the slavery in Egypt forgave them despite the fact that there was never an assurance that His people will not fall to sin again. God takes chances even persistently to the point of sending His Only begotten Son, if only to tell us how much He meant to save us. Thus, our gospel today reminds us: “For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him must not perish but have eternal life.

Since the beginning of time up to the point of the last man who will ever live, it will always be a long history of God’s love for man. Along this infinite thread of mercy and forgiveness lies the indisputable presence of the Blessed Trinity—the Three Great Persons of One Godhead, embracing us all to His Fatherly love, redeeming us from the pit of death by the Son’s crucifixion and resurrection, and sanctifying us that we may gain the dignity of the citizens of heaven through the omni-present breath and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We move, and live, and have our being in the love of the Most Holy Trinity.

There are two modes by which the Triune God who is Love Himself reveals to us. First; in the order of creation, where we are made to see the wonders of the universe and His magnificent creatures—When God created us, He always begins with this phrase: “Let us make…” Second; in the order of salvation, where we, like the lost sheep, are always sought after by the Shepherd and embraced by His redeeming love.

The Triune God loves us and always invites us to share in His inner Life. In fact, we are created in His image and likeness and what we all are is the reflection of His being. If then, how are we to participate in His divine life that we may be able to truly reflect the life of the Trinity in us? We can sort out some values Jesus taught us as He relates with His Father and the Holy Spirit. We can teach to our children prayer and obedience. We can teach to our family the value of listening; the value of honesty and trustworthiness, the value of sense of mission and purpose. If such values are esteemed in every family, there will be no broken families but parents and children bonded strongly by respect, fidelity, and love. No desperate moves but courageous and hopeful young men and women who are capable of bearing their crosses. There will be no self-indulgent individuals but charitable Christians who will help make the world a better place to live.