The Most Holy Trinity

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Today’s feast invites us to live in the awareness of the presence of the Triune God within us: the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The mystery of the Holy Trinity, a doctrine enunciated by the ecumenical councils of Nicaea and Constantinople, is one of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity and the greatest mystery of our Faith,
namely, that there are Three Divine Persons, sharing the same Divine Nature in one God. “There is one God, who has three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each Person is God, yet there is still only one
God”. We have the Father Who is the Creator, the Son Who is the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit Who is
the Sanctifier and the Counsellor. The doctrine of Three Persons in one God, co-equal and co-eternal in
Divinity yet distinct in Person, is not explicitly spelt out in the Bible. Even the very word “Trinity” is not
found in the Bible. But the doctrine of the Trinity underlies all major Christian feasts, including Christmas,
the Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter, the Ascension and Pentecost. All the official prayers of the Church,
including the Holy Mass and the Sacraments, begin with an address to the Holy Trinity: “In the Name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We are baptised, absolved of our sins, and anointed in
the name of the Blessed Trinity. We bless ourselves with the Sign of the Cross, invoking the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and we conclude our prayers glorifying the Holy Trinity,
saying “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit….”
Today’s readings convey the fundamental mystery that the Triune God reaches out to people with love,
seeking the deepest communion with them. Today’s readings from Proverbs, Romans, and John are all
about “pouring out.” God pours Self out in Word; God and Word pour out the Spirit to help us pour
ourselves out; and the Spirit pours forth Faith and strength and character. Instead of spelling out the
doctrine of Holy Trinity, today’s readings summarise the effects of the Trinity in our daily lives.
The Book of Proverbs reflects on Wisdom, a quality which that book identifies with God.
St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, teaches us that we have peace with God the Father through Jesus
Christ, and that the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus, the Son of God, mentions the role of the Holy Spirit, His close relationship with
God the Father and what the Holy Spirit is going to do for us as we go about our daily tasks.
God has revealed to us three separate functions that are carried out by the three Persons. He has told
us that it is proper to attribute to God the Father the work of Creation; to God the Son, the work of
Redemption, of reconciliation and of healing, and to the Holy Spirit, the work of guidance in truth, in the
work of teaching and in the work of sanctification.
As the Father, God has brought forth the created universe and even our very selves.
As God’s Son and our Brother, Jesus, He has made known a God Who hears our cries, Who cares, Who
counts the hairs on our head and Who loves us so passionately that He became one of us, to suffer for
our sins, to die that we may live.
As Spirit, God remains with and within us as Paraclete: Guide, Advocate and Consoler.
We need to respect ourselves and respect others. Our living belief in the presence of the Triune God
within us should help us to esteem ourselves as God’s holy dwelling place, to behave well in His holy
presence, and to lead purer and holier lives, practicing acts of justice and charity. This Triune Presence
should also encourage us to respect and honour others as “Temples of the Holy Spirit.” We need to be
aware of God as the source of our strength and courage. Our awareness and conviction of the presence
The Most Holy Trinity Sunday [12th June 2022]
1st Reading: Proverbs 8: 22 – 31
2nd Reading: Romans 5: 1 – 5
Gospel: John 16: 12 – 15
The Spirit will lead you to the complete truth.
of God within us give us the strength to face the manifold problems of life with Christian courage. We
need to see the Trinity as the model for our Christian families. We are created in love to be a community
of loving persons, just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are One in Love. From the day of our Baptism,
we have belonged to the One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How privileged we are to grow up in
such a beautiful Family! Hence, let us turn to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in prayer every day. We
belong to the Family of the Triune God. The love, unity, and joy in the relationship among the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit should be the supreme model of our relationships within our Christian families. Our
families become truly Christian when we live in a relationship of love with God and with others. We are
called to become more like the Triune God through all our relationships. We are made in God’s image
and likeness. Just as God is God only in a Trinitarian relationship, so we can be fully human only as one
member of a relationship of three partners. The self needs to be in a horizontal relationship with all other
people and in a vertical relationship with God. In that way our life becomes Trinitarian like that of God.
Modern society follows the so-called “I-and-I” principle of unbridled individualism and the resulting
consumerism. But the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity challenges us to adopt an “I-and-God-andneighbour” principle: “I am a Christian insofar as I live in a relationship of love with God and other people.”
Like God the Father, we are called upon to be productive and creative persons by contributing to the
building up of the fabric of life and love in our family, our Church, our community, and our nation.
Like God the Son, we are called to a life of sacrificial love and service so that we may help Him to
reconcile, to be peacemakers, to put back together that which has been broken, and to restore what has
been shattered.
Like God the Holy Spirit, we are called, with His help, to uncover and teach Truth and to dispel ignorance
not in anger but in love. “But that is impossible, my child.” There is a very old and much-repeated story
about St. Augustine, one of the intellectual giants of the Church. He was walking by the seashore one
day, attempting to conceive of an intelligible explanation for the mystery of the Trinity. As he walked
along, he saw a small boy on the beach, pouring seawater from a shell into a small hole in the sand.
“What are you doing, my child?” asked Augustine. “I am emptying the sea into this hole,” the boy
answered with an innocent smile. “But that is impossible, my dear child,” said Augustine. The boy stood
up, looked straight into the eyes of Augustine and replied, “What you are trying to do – comprehend the
immensity of God with your small head – is even more impossible.” Then he vanished. The child was an
angel sent by God to teach Augustine a lesson. Later, Augustine wrote: “You see the Trinity, if you see
love.” According to him, the Father is the lover, the Son is the loved one and the Holy Spirit is the
personification of the very act of loving. This means that we can understand something of the Mystery of
the Holy Trinity more readily with the believing heart than with our feeble mind.