The Most Holy Trinity
The Feast of the Holy Trinity
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
I wonder how often we actually think about this most simple of prayers and what it actually means to us. It is often the case that we associate time with knowledge; that because we have been with someone or something for a long period of time – we then know everything there is to know about them; because we say something time and again – that we know what it means and mean what it says.
And yet I wonder how many of us have been and are still surprised by something that a family member does or says; or something that a friend or husband or wife does that completely throws us – a word or a look; an expressed love or dislike; a previously unknown joy or sadness.
It can be that because we say something time and time again that it sinks into our minds and hearts as just part of our mental or spiritual furniture or background.
Today is the feast of the Holy Trinity – that huge mystery of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – three separates and yet all one. But what do we know? What do we think when we say these words?
We know the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ. “To have seen me is to have seen my Father”. We have followed the story of Jesus life through the gospel readings and watched and wondered and learned from him his love of his Father and the same in return, shown throughout his living and his teaching; his stories and his suffering; his dying and his rising from the dead. We know from our earlier reading that we are brothers and sisters in Christ and heirs to His Father.
We know the Father from the many recountings in the Old Testament by his prophets, priests and teachers. We know the love that he offered time and time again to his people and we know of his continued patient suport and direction.
The Holy Spirit is a little harder to pin down. We can see the Holy Spirit as the glue between the three. Or the Holy Spirit as the light that allows and enables us to see our need to continue to look – to continue to seek ever-new things about both Father and Son. The Holy Spirit is the energy that makes us want to search for new things to love about the Father and Son and to enjoy the search as much as the discovery, knowing that wherever we are and whatever we are doing, God is right there with us – at all times.
Last week we had the Feast of Pentecost, the feast when the Holy Spirit came down on the apostles and Our Lady – and gave them the gift – the ability – to speak with others – to understand and to be understood by others; to be able to spread the Gospel of the Lord and the m,essage of God’s love for all.
We often have today’s Gospel reading at our Baptisms as it offers such a great and positive, supportive and directive message for the parents, God-parents, friends and families. It contains three commands and one promise. The commands are to go and spread the Good News of the Lord; to baptise people in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit and to make disciples of all they meet. So is this a command for the newly baptised and or their families to become priests, nuns, religious teachers? No!
It is a command for each and every one of us to go and live lives as Christians in such a way that others can see that there is something different about us as a people, as individuals. That we are carrying something special with us that enables us to love other as Christ loved us; that comes from what we say and do with each other that is God-like and that enables us to engage with others through the gift of the Holy Spirit acting as a beacon in our wpords and actions.
And that all of this is underpinned by the promise contained within the passage.
“Know that I am with you – yes – to the end of time”. Knowing that whichever and whatever way I may turn; wherever and however I may stumble or fall; the darkest pit or the lightest mountain – God will always be there with me – in the messages of His Son, in the love of the Father and in the enlighhtening gift and ever-presence of the Holy Spirit – to guide me and protect me and to pick me up, dust me off and help me to start over afresh.
Love each other as I have loved you. Love each other with wonder, with a want and a need to know more and be more with each other; love each other – In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit - Amen