For the Holy Trinity

Three in one

The Church celebrates the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist) at the Easter Vigil with adults who have identified a call to the Roman Catholic faith.  Following the celebration of these sacraments, these neophyte Catholics continue their faith lessons throughout the liturgical season of Easter.  In this stage of their catechesis, known as mystagogia, the learning happens through reflection on the lived experience, and each week, they are encouraged to reflect on the mystery of their call to follow Jesus, paying particular attention to the lessons he taught his disciples after his resurrection.

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The practice of reflection in this manner doesn’t stop just because the Easter Season has now come to a close, so even the weeks immediately following the celebration of Pentecost bear their own opportunities for deepening our understanding and appreciation for the mysteries of our faith.  Today, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, or Trinity Sunday as it has come to be known.  No matter whether we celebrated the Sacraments of Initiation at Easter, or as little children, this Solemnity allows us an opportunity to deepen our appreciation for a very special gift which has been given to us, but in order for us to do so, we must dare to unwrap it, gaze at it, allow it to mould us, and teach us.

The words of the book of Deuteronomy remind us today of a truth which has been revealed to the Jewish people, our ancestors in faith.  The Lord is God in heaven above and on earth beneath; there is no other.  Since the days of Moses, we have known that there is only one God, however our understanding of who this God is has been deepened and explained further when, in the fullness of time, He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to live among us and to reveal Him to us.  Having taught his disciples that he and the Father are one, Jesus then commissioned them to spread this good news to the whole world.  Go therefore he told them, and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

Like the disciples who were sent out from Galilee, we who receive the gift of life in baptism are commissioned to continue this work of making disciples of all nations.  Led by the Spirit of God, we are all sons and daughters of God.  Ours is the task of continuing the mystagogia for the sake of others in our world who perhaps have indeed been brought to the font and been baptised, but who have not had the opportunity to understand the true depth of the gift entrusted to them.   There are many in our world today who have received the bread of life, and even celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation, but who still have not had the experience of knowing the true depth of love that has been shared with them.

It sometimes takes an entire lifetime to understand that our God is one, that He sent us the gift of His Son Jesus, and that after Jesus returned to the Father, they in turn sent us the Spirit as the enduring gift, the Paraclete who will remain with us to guide us until we ourselves are reunited with Him in heaven.