SOLEMNITY: HOMILY FOR THE MOST HOLY TRINITY (YEAR A)
SOLEMNITY: HOMILY FOR THE MOST HOLY TRINITY (YEAR A)
HOMILY THEME: THREE IN ONE, ONE IN THREE
BY: Fr. Cyril Unachukwu CCE
HOMILY: How golden it is, to behold and contemplate the beauty of God manifest in the unity founded on love of the three divine persons of the Most Holy Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This mystery of love and union is the content of the Feast of today, the very mystery that is our fons et origo (source and origin). May the union of love and the brilliance of the Light of glory of the Triune God shine upon us always and lead us to imitate and live the style of life and the communion of love of He who created us in His own image and likeness; Amen.
The Feast of today brings us to celebrate the centre of our faith as Christian’s and one of the basic truths that distinguishes the Christian Faith from other professions of faith; the supreme and sublime truth of the Most Holy Trinity of the one God in three divine persons, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; one in essence, substance, majesty, power, glory and excellence; and together they are adored and glorified. In fact, the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity “is the mystery of God in Himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the hierarchy of the truths of faith . The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men and women and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin ” (CCC, n. 234). To profess the Trinity never in any way undermines or negates the profession of Faith in One God. The faith in One God that was nonnegotiable throughout the history of our relationship with God, starting from our fathers in the faith as recounted in the scriptures. The encounter of Moses with God in the First Reading (Ex 34:4-6, 8-9) not only underlines the oneness of God but also affirms the richness and the inexhaustible nature of His love and mercy; “the Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger rich in kindness and faithfulness.” It is this same God, Who in His closeness to us His sons and daughters and in His relationship with us has gradually but continuously revealed Himself as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Trinity does not negate Monotheism, but rather makes Monotheism most meaningful and the One God most accessible! In God there is relationship of persons (of the three Divine Persons) hence He can relate with His creatures. In God there is the fullness of love, hence He loves and the universe is the fruit of the diffusion of the fullness of love inherent in Him. In God there is the fullness of life, hence there is the reality of generation and procession in Him for which He is the source of all life. The Trinity explains our coming into being! The Trinity is the ultimate and unique reason for which we are because we are borne out of the love that is eternally ongoing in the Trinity between the Father and the Son and together with the Holy Spirit.
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The words of Saint Paul in the Second Reading of today (2 Cor 13:11-13) not only makes the reality and profession of faith in the three persons in One God visible in the Community of Christ’s faithful, but also leads us to understand the integral and inseparable relationship between the Rule of Faith and the Rule of Prayer (Lex credendi et lex orandi); “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The Church continues to live and profess the truth of the Trinity and the link between what she professes and the prayers she offers to God as she begins and concludes her prayers in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Doubt is never the proper response to the Doctrine of the Trinity. Our proper responses are those of admiration and devotion and love which are borne out of faith and humility, because the Truth of the Most Holy Trinity is fundamentally a mystery beyond the human cognitive powers. This does not mean that nothing is known about the Triune God but that we cannot know and understand everything about God; His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Is 55:8-9). What we know about the Trinity is infinitely less than what is not known to us, but what is known by us through faith and humility of the intellect is enough to lead us to the certainty of this truth of faith. For we know certainly, as we read in the Gospel (John 3:16-18), that “God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” In these words of our Lord Jesus Christ is summarized the History of Salvation and the Economy of Salvation and the fact that it is the One God who has continued to manifest Himself in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; distinct in their identities and in their relations of origin but united in one power and majesty; doing the same thing but each doing it diversely (semper idem sed aliter) and this divine operation of the three Divine Persons is indivisible (opera trinitatis ad extra indivisa sunt). We are, individually and collectively, products of the divine operation of the three Persons in One God; we are saved by the Triune God and our ultimate end is in the Trinity, in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. This is our faith!
Lord God of infinite mercy and love, three in one and one in three, may the splendour of Your majesty and the beauty of Your glory keep us attentive to and focused on You; and may the depth of the mystery You are keep us humble and always bended on our knees in prayers before You. And may Your benevolence, beneficence and benediction remain with us always from the Father and from the Son and from the Holy Spirit; Amen.
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