Posted by The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr Sonny de Rivera SVD – Rome, Italy
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity – B / Trinity Sunday
Image: Wikimedia Commons
I have this practice of making the sign of the cross on the forehead of someone saying goodbye to me, or a friend leaving to embark on something important, or someone plainly asking for my prayers. By this gesture, I wish to convey that I value the holy presence of the Trinity and confirm that holy presence on the person concerned.
It is a fact that we don’t even realize how often we invoke and proclaim the presence of the Triune God. The most common of all actions is making the sign of the cross during liturgical celebrations, to begin and end our prayers, or when we enter and leave the Church. As the saying goes, “We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.” In spite of it all, the fact that we embrace some significant manifestations of the Triune God, we express them from our perspective. They may simply be gestures devoid of meaning, without significance, and with no affirmation that the Triune God is with us and within us.
On the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, the gospel relates the preaching mission given by the risen Lord to the disciples. Jesus commanded them to baptize people “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Having been baptized in the name of the Triune God simply reminds us that God is in our midst and he is the Source of our strength and courage. This means a lot for someone who is feeling abandoned and unwanted. This is a moment of hope for a mother who is almost ready to throw in the towel on account of her son’s addiction to drugs. This gives courage to a public official to do what is right even though he is surrounded by dissenting opinions. This Triune God-spirited conviction has prompted Christian martyrs when taken to their execution to shout, “The Lord of might is with us, our God is within us, and the God of Jacob is our helper” (Psalm 46).
Having taken the Trinity as a source of strength, the Trinity is also a model of relationships. If there is anything that is personally awe-inspiring for me in the Triune God it is the aspect of “bonding.” The love, unity and joy in the relationship among the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the supreme model of our relationships as Christian families. I may even go as far as to say that we can only say that we are truly Christian families when we live in a relationship of love with God and with others. What the world needs now is “depth” in our relationships with others. Unfortunately, we have taken the easier and more uncompromising way of “shallow” relationships. How often do we use the word “bonding” to signify that we spend time with one another? In the end we simply “shallow bond” with one another.
Being truly Christians and baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit we belong to the family of the Triune God. And it is only in the spirit of Trinitarian relationship that we can experience true bonding. The Blessed Trinity challenges us to live our relationships in the true spirit of selflessness, no longer the “I and me” principle of individualism, and no longer the consumerist and strings-attached approach of dealing with others. We are simply called to become more like the Triune God in all our relationships.
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