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(15thJune 2025) Homily for the Most Holy Trinity Sunday

READ: (Prov 8: 22-31; Rom 5: 1-5; Jn 16: 12-15)

REFLECT: Holy Trinity embodies genuine power, love and unity...

Dear friends we are commemorating today The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, which is preceded by Pentecost Sunday and followed by Corpus Christi (The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ).  The concept of the Trinitarian God does not reveal to us as if there three gods existing rather there are three divine persons but one God. It is one in three and three in one. It is the central mystery of our Christian faith and life. We call it a mystery because we as human persons cannot understand this concept by reason alone rather we need strong faith. Most of the time we fail to understand or make the concept of the Trinity complex and get confused or confounded, because we deal the concept of Trinity with mind (reasons) and not with heart (faith and love). The following lines from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) give us a profound experience and understanding about the concept of a Trinitarian God.  I am sure this would facilitate our understanding about Trinity and the Trinitarian God in our catholic faith.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) very well underscores the importance and the central aspect of Christian faith saying, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith”. The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin (CCC no. 234).

Moreover, CCC very clearly affirms and attests that “The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the “mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God”. To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of God's Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit (CCC no. 237).” So based on the liturgy of the word, I would like to share with you three points of reflection;

1.     The supreme power of the Trinitarian God:

As we know that in the book of Proverbs, we find deep theological insights concerning wisdom that exists before the creation of the world. Wisdom is attributed to God for his everlasting presence. The everlasting presence of God manifests the supreme power of God that exists forever over all creation and created things. Thus the mystery of Trinity makes known to us that the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit rule over heaven and earth for all times. All the power and dominion come under the Trinitarian God. The power of the Trinitarian God is complete, eternal, sanctifying, redemptive and beyond conditions of love. That’s what we have in the First reading from the book of Proverbs.

The First reading from the book of proverbs speaks about the pre-existence of wisdom, which refers to the presence of God before the world could begin and rest of the powers of the world are under the power of God. Thus the Trinitarian God has power over all that exists on earth below and heaven above. This Trinitarian God is not only a God of mere relationship and love rather God of supreme power, authority over all creation. The supreme power and authority of the Holy Trinity is never for division and confusion rather it is for empowering the people of God to be holy and loving to all. The supreme power  and authority of  the trinity presents fully to  others in love and service, so that power is exercised without domination and corruption.

Today, we see all over full of domination and division due to power. It is because of vested interest of the few individuals and selfishness of people, who hold power and are not ready to reach out to others in love and compassion. We need to understand that the power is given to every individual in various profession or tasks to build and empower people based on love and compassion not domination and division. Thus a life of total surrender to God’s will, a life  of humility that God  is the ultimate control and power of life and seeking spiritual strength to face the challenges of  life is needed for a proper channelizing of power and authority given to us.

All the more, in many of our families, God is not the centre rather the power of each individual has become a highlight of power.  It is a right time that we place God at the centre of life by way of prayer and good works. We need to teach children to respect God and the places of worship. So that God makes us understand his commandment and help us in following them diligently and wisely. The solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity invites each one of us to be witnesses of divine authority based on integrity, justice, courage. Such attitudes would prove that our life is not controlled by worldly power but God, the Supreme Godhead of both heaven and earth. Let us as well give up the idols promoted by the world like money, power, name, fame and pleasure that changes our identity as children of God.

As Pope Leo XIV would exhort us saying, “Move aside so that Christ may remain to make oneself small so that Christ may be known and glorified, to spend oneself to the utmost so that all may have the opportunity to know and love him.” Yes, we are nothing if not the power of God in us.  Let us realize that the power of Trinitarian God in us would enable us to share the power of God to empower and enhance the life of each other.

2.     Love is the basis of the Trinitarian God:

We hear time and again in the Bible the love of the Father for the whole world. One such familiar bible verse is, “God’s so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that we may not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). Yes, it is true because the Father loved us by giving his only Son; Jesus loved us by giving his life for us and Spirit loves us still as we are moved and filled with the grace of God connecting us to God and to one another. Something, similar is what we find in the second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans.

The end of the second reading points out to us that hope does not disappoint us, because the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit and Christ is the fullness of God’s love by his self-sacrificing  love, offered willingly and generously on the cross for the love of God and for the love entire humanity. True, the outpouring of Jesus’ love is a divine work that flows from the heart of the Holy Trinity. The love of Jesus had its origin from the Father and the love of Jesus continues through the Holy Spirit. The love among the trinity is an inspiration to all of us. Because, the Father loves Son and gives him all; the Son loves the Father  and  is  obedient till death, fulfilling what God wanted  from Jesus; the Holy Spirit becomes the bridge-builder between God the  Father and  Son Jesus, creating and continuing the bond of love and mercy for all times.

Today, we need to embody in us the love manifested in the Most Holy Trinity. When the overflow of love from the Trinity becomes part of us, we become little trinities of love and mercy in our world. The overflow of love from Trinitarian God in us would give us source of life, salvation and hope to humankind. We experience lots of hate, war, violence and fight. The only path that would stop all hate and violence is genuine love. The genuine love is only possible when we unite ourselves with the Trinitarian God in prayer and supplication. Our daily encounter and experience with the Holy Trinity would definitely create peace within and give us the grace to love all limitlessly although we have limits and limitations in life.

Perhaps, the genuine love among us could be shown by serving others without any expectation, loving even when we are hurt the most and deep, standing for and promoting truth and  justice, practicing charity without any criticism and above all participating the Holy Mass, the highest expression of Trinitarian love. Holy Eucharist is the highest form of God’s love as it manifests to us the nature of self-sacrificing love. Let us be Eucharist-centred persons and be generous enough to give ourselves for the other. So let us be witness of Trinitarian love in our world by loving one another as God the Father, Son Jesus and Holy Spirit loved us and still love us. Let us make the place of our living a place of love and longing for God.

3.     Unity is the basis of the Trinitarian God:

We all know that unity is real strength. The more we are united the better growth is. The concept of the Holy Trinity and the mystery of the Holy Trinity is that they remain united always. They are distinctly three persons but they are united without any difference. That’s the mystery and power of the Holy Trinity. The unity of the Holy trinity is what we hear in today’s Gospel. The gospel reading of the day enlightens us about the unity that’s present in the Trinitarian God.  That’s what we hear from the Gospel of John that the spirit of God will guide us into the whole truth; the spirit will act on the authority of God and not on its own; the spirit will glorify Jesus by declaring what Jesus has made known to us. We see here that there is a strong bond of unity and oneness among the Trinitarian God.

The spirit of God will guide us into the whole truth because the entire life of Jesus was animated by the Spirit of God; the spirit of God never abandoned; the spirit of God strengthened the will of the Father in Jesus and the mission of Jesus was accomplished. The spirit of God does not act or speak on its own power and authority rather on the power and authority of God, the Father. That’s why Jesus would always associate his work with God the Father, saying “all that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you (Jn 15:15). Therefore, the Trinitarian God is connected, interconnected with each other and everything proceeds and precedes from the Father to the Son and the Holy Spirit and through them to the disciples and us, the universal Church.

On this day, the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity teaches us that unity does not imply uniformity, because the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Spirit yet they are one God. The unity of the Trinitarian God is rooted in reciprocal relationship and love that is self-giving and generous. Further, the unity of the Trinitarian God is not static but dynamic, active and alive in each other. The same act of unity is what we could live out in our communities, families, societies, so that the impact and effect of Trinitarian God can inspire us and be examples to one another.

Today what we need among us from the solemnity of Holy Trinity is active listening and empathy. The active listening enables us to respond to God in deep faith and love and empathy helps us to walk along with brothers and sisters of our society in compassion and forgiveness. The unity of the Trinitarian God should make us forgive and reconcile, foregoing the wounds, hurts, grudges by seeking peace and forgiveness of God. It should also elicit in us to celebrate diversity of life that we live as persons and celebrate the diversity as one family under the Trinitarian God.

The unity among the trinity teaches us to respect each one’s role in the family or the society. We need to value and respect each one’s role without any superiority and downplay of the role entrusted. Today we see in families there is no much time given to each other as each one is busy running up and down, working for livelihood. We need to prioritize our presence in the family over business and busyness of life, so that our sharing strengthens the bond of friendship and relationships in each other.

That’s why Pope Leo XIV very beautifully tells us “As Societies committed to sharing in the missionary mandate of the Pope and the College of Bishops, you are called to cultivate and further promote within your members the vision of the Church as the communion of believers, enlivened by the Holy Spirit, who enables us to enter into the perfect communion and harmony of the blessed Trinity. Indeed, is in the Trinity that all things find their unity.” Yes let us cultivate within us the communion of the Holy Trinity and realize that our beginning and final destiny of life is in the Trinitarian God. Let us remind ourselves that the best sought after place could be for safety and security is the heart of the Most Holy Trinity.

RESPOND:

Do we rely on the power of the Supreme Godhead, the Most Holy Trinity or  our own limited power?

Do we realize that power of God’s love empowers us and makes us powerful mediums of love and compassion?

Do we understand that our beginning and final destiny of life lie in the unity of the Most Holy Trinity?

Let us rely on the power of God, empower ourselves with God’s love and move to the final destination of life, the Most Holy Trinity, the true powerhouse. Amen.

God bless us all… Live Jesus!