Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15
Unity: We are One, because God is One!
Ordinarily, I am not a stammerer, but tell me to explain the Holy Trinity to you, and I begin to stutter! Yet, one thing is sure: I believe it, and I profess it. Every Sunday and Solemnity, I profess anew: 1) that God is a Father and my Father, I say – “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.” 2) I also profess – “and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord.” 3) Still, I profess that “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life.”
Every profession of faith is based on God’s revelation of himself to human beings, notwithstanding the human inability to explain it convincingly. The certitude of God’s revelation is based on God’s trustworthiness and not human intelligence. To this end, the feast of last Sunday, the Pentecost, is relevant in two ways: first, we received the Spirit of Truth, leading us to complete Truth, the Truth of God. Second, we celebrate Trinity Sunday because the Holy Spirit convinces us, the Church, of the three persons in one God.
The Fatherhood of God and the Sonship of Jesus Christ, including the Lordship of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:17) are clearly spelt out in the Bible. From a unique God of the Old Testament, whose Spirit spoke through the prophets, to a God with a Son and the Holy Spirit sent by God upon his Church, one thing is clear – UNITY is the message of Trinity Sunday!
The solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity draws our attention to unity. The persons of the Trinity are the manifestation of God in human history as Father, Son and Holy Spirit: God the Father as Creator, God the Son as Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit as Sanctifier. Of course, there is only one God!
If all three persons worked our salvation in unison, it shows that human beings could learn to live in unity from the Trinity. For example, the notes of a keyboard make music possible, just as letters of the alphabet make sentence construction feasible. There is a world of difference, however, between the notes of a keyboard and music. Music is possible without a keyboard – vocal music! To produce music, with the aid of a keyboard, is to manifest the source and art of producing music, using human intelligence. “Vocal music,” translated into music instruments, is the invitation to translate the unity of the Trinity into human unity with the aid of human intelligence!
The Trinity is God’s attempt at reaching us, human beings, in mode that is possible for us to come into contact with Him – acts of love. The activities of the Trinity in history are harmonized in love and unity: the division of labour, in the Trinity, is the realization of the importance of each Person in the construction of unity!
With the Trinity, let us be agents of unity, realizing that each one of us is important in the creation of unity because we each have gifts and roles that differ; but we are all one! St. Paul uses the human body as an example of how unity is achieve – each part being respectful of other parts as well as doing its own job as part of a whole.
The joy and peace which elude our world today needs every hand on deck for peace and joy to reign. Peace will continue to elude the world, when all we do is complain. It takes the life and death of Christ to establish peace between God and human beings. The angels made this abundantly clear, when, at the birth of Christ, they cried out – Glory to God in the highest and peace among whom his favor rests! It takes putting up with insults and beating for the apostles and martyrs to propagate peace and love of God. Perhaps it will take that from you and me to restore peace to our troubled world!
Assignment for the Week:
Do something for unity and peace this week. It could be saying only positive things about people all week long!