Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

Sunday Mass Readings

I am sure that you have heard of the word "mystery" often used in relation to God. Especially in trying to describe the trinitarian nature of God, we run short of ways to explain the totality of God in human language. It is when human language falls short that we use the word mystery. It is our way of saying that God cannot be captured in human terms; that God is far beyond the limitations of human imagination and language. This does not mean that we know nothing about God. In fact, today's readings tell us much about God. In the second reading, God is revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (2 Cor 13:13). In today's first reading, God in his self-revelation says to Moses, “The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity” (Ex 34:6). This is so different from the frightening image of God I learnt as a child. This is so beautiful. This is so warm. This make us feel like responding to the relationship that God wants to initiate with us. But there is more. The second reading says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16). That says to me about God that God would rather sacrifice his own Son rather than see his people suffer eternal death. It tells us that God’s revelation of himself as merciful, and gracious, slow to anger and rich and kindness and fidelity is true. That tells us that God is love itself. God is indescribable love.

This love is the best way to define God as we celebrate the feast of the Trinity. There is indescribable love between the three persons of the Trinity and that God's love for us is unfathomable.

There are two consequences of knowing God as love. First, if God is indeed indescribable love and if God love for us in beyond human imagination, then the best response we can make is to show ourselves to God – just as we are. We may be sinful ,we may be angry with God for things not going according to plan, we may be indifferent about God, or there may be barriers between God and us because we have been taught wrong things about God, or we may have a desire to respond to God but don’t know how. Let us allow the love of God to transform and change us. Second, love is the model for our relationship with one another. We now know the way we must relate to each other in our families, in our parish, and in our society. If we did relate to each other in love and out of love, we would not have hatred and revenge, divorce and murder, and rape and abuse, violence and war.

The Trinity is the image in to which we much transform ourselves, our families, our church and indeed society itself.

- Fr. Satish Joseph