Homily on the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity

The Lover, Beloved and Love

Rev. Marcel Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, LA

May 31, 2015

To be a family is not always easy. Good parents give their children roots and branches, a sense of security and freedom to live their lives. They understand that ‘it is not what they do for their children that will make them successful human beings, but what they have taught them to do for themselves.’ They understand that the greatest legacy they can pass on to their children is not money or other accumulated material things, but rather a legacy of good character and faith in God. In raising their children, they make effort to strike a balance. Although, children, sometimes feel suffocated by their parents; they feel that their parents are controlling their lives too much. But at other times, children feel they are being neglected, that they are not important, not even cared and loved. 

Today, we celebrate one of the deepest mysteries of our faith: that God is a Trinity of persons. The solemnity of the Trinity is not meant to tie us in theological knots, but to remind us again that God wants us to know that we can find our roots in the divine love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that we can also find our freedom there. We are being asked to be inspired by and to imitate the unity of the Trinity, the love of the persons of the Trinity, and the harmony that exists within the Trinity. The Trinity is a seamless unity of persons, a community of love. The Father is the Lover, the Son is the Beloved, the Holy Spirit is the Love. Said differently, The Father is the one who loves, the Son is the one who is loved and the Holy Spirit is the very act of loving. This reality, this mystery, teaches us three things: how to love, how to be loved and how to be love. It teaches us how we can love others, how others can love us, and how each of us can be an agent and instrument of love, that is, how we can be love and love-giving. It teaches us how to be a family and a community, just as God is a family and a community.

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is about the inner relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It teaches us that our God does not exist alone or in isolation. Our God is a community! Now, if we expected today’s readings to give us a clear and elaborate presentation of the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, we have found out that they simply do not.  In fact the very word “Trinity” is not found in the Bible. But in today’s Gospel, Jesus referred to the reality of the Trinity when he said, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-19).

The importance of this doctrine lies in this: we are made in the image of God, therefore, the more we understand God the more we understand ourselves. Experts in religion tell us that people always try to be like the god they worship. People who worship a warrior god tend to be war-mongering, people who worship a god of pleasure tend to be pleasure-seeking, people who worship a god of wrath tend to be vengeful, and people who worship a god of love tend to be loving. Like a god, so the worshippers. The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity teaches us, among other things the kind of God we worship and the kind of people we should be. God does not exist in solitary individualism but in a community of love, fellowship and sharing. God is not a loner. This means that a Christian in search of godliness must shun every tendency to isolationism and individualism. We become who God created us to be when we are in a relationship of love with God and with the people of God.

We begin and end the Mass by making the sign of the cross. The sign of the cross is a simple action that many of us have been doing since we were children. As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, I want us to always remember that each time we make the sign of the cross, we sign ourselves in love. Therefore, let’s live as such. We may not be able to comprehend the mystery of the Trinity, as such, may not be able to help people understand the theological intricacies of this amazing mystery, but we can certainly help them experience love. Since we all want love, let’s give love. Love makes us a family. It turns a house into a home, and turns a home into a family. Love turns a people into a nation, and a nation into a community. It turns a gathering of people into a church and a people of God. Loves transforms us from selfishness to selflessness. It makes us to think, not only about ourselves but also about others. Love makes us to live for a cause. It is the driver for making disciples for Christ Jesus.