Holy Trinity Sunday

06-16-2019Weekly ReflectionFather Prince Raja

The Feast of the Holy Trinity is a mystery and humanly speaking difficult to comprehend. In our daily life we begin every one of our prayers, activities, programs or works with the sign of the cross and call upon God, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Even though we remember the Trinity several times a day, it is difficult to understand the full meaning because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit we invoke constitute a unity and yet separate. The Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity consists of this: the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods, but only one God with three attributes. We have Father who is the creator, Son, the redeemer and Holy Spirit the sanctifier and the counselor. This is the Mystery of the Trinity of Persons in the one God.

The mutual intimacy between the three persons of the Trinity is best captured in the classical icon by Andrei Rublev (c.1360-1430). The original title for the icon is, "Three angels at Mamre." Early Christian writers saw the story of Abraham welcoming the three angels under the tree at Mamre (Gen 18:1-15) as the precursor to the revelation of the Trinity. It is interesting to note that though the story begins with the mention of three men, actually Abraham speaks to 'them' as if to the Lord God – Yahweh; and in the course of the story the number also changes from the plural to the singular. In any case, the reference of the icon to the story of Abraham welcoming Yahweh, reminds us that our belief in the Trinity is about hospitality which calls for faith and personal sacrifice.

According to legend, St. Patrick used the 3-leaved shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the Irish people. The doctrine of the Trinity describes the unique ways that we experience God's presence in our lives. First and foremost, we are baptized into the life of the Trinitarian God. Secondly, we encounter Trinity in our experience of human relationships. According to St Augustine "Wherever there is love, there is a trinity; a lover, a beloved and a fountain of love." Love is an experience of the Trinity. Wherever we see love at work, we see the fruit of the Trinitarian God. The Trinitarian Godhead can be seen as a family – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, a family with relationships between them. Human families, when at their best, show God's love to the world. They draw strength from their relationships with each other each other in times of joy and sorrow. Happy Father's day 2019. We will have a special blessing and prayer at the end of the mass.

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