25.05.2024 – St Patrick Catholic Church, Largo, FL

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The Holy Trinity as core Christian Faith and Model of Community

Deut 4, 32-34.39-40, Psalm 32, Rom 8: 14-17, Matt 28:16-20

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. In the Church we begin every celebration in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In baptism we were all baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Every blessing in the Church is imparted in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Every time we make the sign of the Holy Cross we are professing the faith of the Trinity.

The Holy Trinity is one of the fundamental mysteries of the Christian faith: the mystery of the three distinct persons in one God: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. The Trinity is one of the central Christian affirmations about God. Its origin is in the fact that God came to meet men in three ways: (1) as Creator, the God of salvation history, Father and Judge, as revealed in the Old Testament; (2) as the God the Redeemer, who, in the incarnate figure of Jesus Christ, lived among human beings and was present in their midst as the “Risen One”; and (3) as the God Holy Spirit, whom they experienced as advocate, helper or intercessor.

The question that comes to mind on first encountering the doctrine of the Trinity is: Three persons in one God, how could it be? In fact, it must provoke a question.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church nn. 253-255 makes three basic affirmations about the Dogma of the Holy Trinity thus: 1. The Trinity is One. 2. The divine persons are really distinct from one another. 3. The divine persons are relative to one another. The Church teaches that:  The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the “consubstantial Trinity.” The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire. God is one in essence, but three in person. This definition expresses three crucial truths: (1) the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God. This is exactly what we profess in the creed: I (we) believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth; I (we) believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son; I (we) believe in the Holy Spirit, Lord and giver of life.

By the grace of Baptism for which we are baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light. Today´s celebration invites us to reflect on the theme of unity, communion, love and family values. These are the values we can learn from the Holy Trinity. The Trinity is a community, the communion of three in one, the family in whose image we can build our own human community. Even though, the Trinity is a mystery, that is, a reality, a truth of God that cannot be fully explained or understood. But we are left with the teachings of the Trinity: love, unity and community. In celebrating the Most Holy Trinity, we celebrate the love and unity that exist in the Godhead. We are therefore invited to build our lives and human relationships on the Trinitarian model of loving communion. Am I really contributing to community building, am I building and promoting unity and love in my family, or am I rather an instrument of hate and division? The Holy Trinity invites us to emulate the God we worship, the God of love.