The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Today's Mass Readings

Even at this moment humanity is dealing with two catastrophic natural disasters: the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China. I have to confess that I have had a difficult time dealing with the death of over one hundred thousand people in two weeks just to natural disasters. I have been afraid to look at pictures of the disasters. The one picture I did see was a naked and decaying dead body in the middle of an inundated rice field. “This body is made in the image and likeness of God,” I said to myself. There was a repulsion in me to even think that a holy thing like that should lie so desolate and so decadent. Of course, this is not the first time that the world has been affected by natural disasters of such magnitude. But as I read the readings for today – the feast of the Holy Trinity - I have struggled all week to reconcile these human tragedies with “God” who “loves the world so much that he gave his only Son…” (Jn 3:16). The question, then, is about making sense of human life as we experience it in relation to the life and nature of God. Today’s readings give us some indication about the nature of God. God’s nature is love. As the first reading tells us Moses’ experience of God is that of "a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity" (Ex 34:6). The gospel reading tells us that “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son…” (Jn 3:16).Last Wednesday during the Bible study on Genesis we grappled with God’s demand of Abraham’s son as a sacrifice. One of the reactions that emerged was, “which father in his right mind would sacrifice his own son?” The answer was that no father in his right mind would sacrifice his own son no matter how noble the cause. Yet, today’s gospel tells us that God gave his only Son to the world.

The point that I am trying to make is that if God as parent could even think of giving us his Son, and if the Son could agree to give his life to us according to the will of the Father, then there must be much love between the Father and Son. We also know that the Holy Spirit was instrumental in the Son coming to us. The Spirit of God not only made it possible for the Son to become one of us but also came upon the Son at his baptism. We are celebrating, then, two things as we celebrate this feast. First, we celebrate the fact that God is love. We celebrate the nature of their love which flows out to us human beings who are the fruit of their love. Second, our salvation is the result of love that exists between the three persons in the Trinity. Our salvation is the work of God, the Son and of the Holy Spirit who function in an amazingly loving and unified way to save us.

Let me draw three practical implications from today’s feast and the readings.

1. If this is true that God is "a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity" (Ex 34:6), then it is impossible for me to conclude that God either caused the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China, or that God is unaffected by the death of a hundred thousand people. I find it impossible to conclude that God does not weep at the picture of that man lying desolate and decaying in the paddy field. I find it difficult to believe that God sent a hundred thousand people to hell last week because as today’s gospel reading tells us, “Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (Jn 3:18). What is the truth? Honestly, I do not know the fate of these hundred thousand people. All I know is this – that God is "a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity" (Ex 34:6) and that God is the kind of God who even gave us his Son. I trust God to save those created in love. I trust God to make the right decision in God’s overwhelming love.

2. The second practical implication comes from today’s second reading. St. Paul says to the Corinthians, “…encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Cor 13:11). And Paul ends his letter with these words, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Cor 13:13). Should we interpret this to mean that because the “grace of Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor 13:13) is with us that we should “encourage one another, agree with another, live in peace?” (2 Cor 13:13). Or does he mean that if we “encourage one another, agree with another, live in peace” (2 Cor 13:13) the grace of Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor 13:13) will be with us? Either way, the call to us as human beings is to be instruments of God whom we know as a community of love. This feast should lead us to act in some way in Myanmar and in China. It is in and through us that God is community in today’s world. It is in and through us that God cares for all those he has created.

3. As Catholics we have to admit that we are fortunate. I say so because the most intense experience of the “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 13:13) is the Eucharist. However, let me add a fourth dimension to the Trinity – each one of us gathered here. It is true that God is self-sufficient and that God does not need any created being to complete God’s being. But think about it; even if a child exists independently without the mother is the mother complete without her child? A child born to a mother is part of the mother. In the same way, God has invited us into God’s community. While God can complete in his being without us, God wills for all of us to be in perfect communion with the Son and the Holy Spirit. And this Eucharist is the most perfect example of this on earth. How fortunate we are who understand this and can celebrate this.

As we continue to celebrate this Eucharist, let it be a celebration of God’s love as Trinity and the overflowing of that love to us as communion. Because of this Eucharist and because of our love for all people, may we find perfect communion with God in heaven and now on earth. Amen.

- Fr. Satish Joseph