Holy Trinity of Love

06-04-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Stanislaus Okonkwo

In the collect for this mass we pray, “God the Father, who by sending into the world, the Word of truth and the Spirit of Sanctification, made known to the human race your wondrous mystery…” This prayer points to us the truth that what we know about God is only what He reveals to us about Himself and the highest point of this divine self-revelation is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The invisible God became visible in time and walked with us on earth. This revelation is further consolidated in the sending of the Holy Spirit.

The Word, (logos) which existed from the beginning in Heaven became flesh and made his dwelling among us! We have seen his glory, that of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of Grace (Jn 1:14). Jesus Himself attests that no one knows him the (Son) except the Father and likewise, no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him (Matt 11:27). Thus, our knowledge and understanding of the divine is also imperfect for we see and know only in parts, as in a mirror. Only at the end of time shall we know God fully when we see him face to face (1 Cor 13:9-13). Jesus not only reveals the Father to us, he also introduces us to the Holy Spirit.

In the Easter season, we celebrate the salvation brought to us through Christ and the Pentecost which we celebrated last Sunday marks God’s self-giving and self-revelation as the Holy Spirit, who teaches, enlightens and sanctifies us. The culmination of this divine revelation is the celebration today, of God’s self-revelation as the Trinity. The Trinity of love teaches us how we ought to live our lives in imitation of the Trinity. So, Christ prays, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me-so that they may live in complete unity.” (Jn 17:22-23)

God’s love for humanity led Him to reveal Himself to us. In the first reading, Moses receives God’s revelation and a Tablet of Stone of ordinances and commandments by which the people should be guided. Moses, on his part, pleads with God, on behalf of the people, to abide with them (Exod 34:4-9). The incarnation of Jesus became the perfect and definitive divine response to this plea as God becomes Immanuel-God with us (Isa 7:14; Matt 1:23), a high priest like us in all things but sin (Heb 4:15). Thus, we can now approach God with confidence hoping to find mercy.

In the second reading, St. Paul exhorts the Christians of Corinth and all of us to live in peace and unity, helping and supporting each other, so that the peace and love of God would abide with us. He concludes this with the Trinitarian greeting which we repeat daily at the beginning of the mass: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Cor 13:11-13) Indeed, we are a Trinitarian community. We celebrate this in every mass as we open in the name of the Trinity and end with a Trinitarian blessing. By this, we observe the Savior’s injunction to go into the world and bring all peoples into the fold of the Trinity by baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! (Matt 28:19; Mk: 16:15-16) Reborn by baptism into the Trinity dear friends, let us live in the unity and bond of love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit! As it was in the beginning, is now and forever shall it be, world without end.

Fr. Stan