The most profound mystery of Christian faith

Christians all over the world celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity in May on the Sunday after Pentecost. The Holy Trinity is the most profound mystery of Christian faith in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The feast itself has presented a great challenge to all Christians across the history of the Church to our present generation. The traditional expression of the doctrine; three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, continues to puzzle us in our modernity since for us “persons” often means “people”. Of course we realize that this human reference cannot be wholly true when applied to the Trinity. Humanly speaking, it is difficult to talk about the essence of the Holy Trinity, since our human intellect is so limited in this sphere of the divine. Instead, we can talk with relative ease of how the Trinity shapes our lives as Christians and how we are related personally to our God. The doctrine of the Trinity affirms that it belongs to God’s very nature to be committed to humanity and its history. The same doctrine teaches us that God’s covenant with us is irrevocable, that God’s face is immutably turned toward us in love, and that God’s presence to us is utterly reliable and constant. Further more, it has been the experience of different peoples and nations throughout human history, that God is present in the peoples’ lives and that his love for all of us is strictly unconditional. It is interesting to note that throughout human history, man has constantly experienced God’s presence in his or her life. Different people have expressed differently this experience of the divine love in their midst. In African traditional religion, people feel surrounded by the divine power present practically in all created things. According to this tradition, the people live in fear of annoying or offending this divine power, which is capable of punishing the wrong doers as well as recompensing those who behave well. Although slightly in a different context, the Jews had a similar approach to God. Though not explicitly Trinitarian, their experience of God conveys the fundamental mystery that the Triune God reaches out to people in love, and seeking the deepest communion with them. This evokes yet another revelation of God; that he is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity. For the Jews and indeed for any believer, Yahweh knows the suffering and weakness of humanity and constantly summons them back to his love and mercy. He is a parent, and traditionally pictured as the Father. This aspect of God means a lot to a believer in his or her trials and tribulations. In the New Testament, Christians have faith in God who is explicitly Trinitarian. This is the God who heard the cries of his people in Egypt, witnessed their affliction, and came down to save them (Exod 3:7-10). Now moved by the same pity, he sent his Son, the Word-made-flesh (John 1:14) so that everyone who believes in him, may grow in faith helped by the Holy Spirit. It is in accordance to the above Christian understanding of God, that we celebrate the feast of the Holy trinity. In addition, this celebration calls for our meditation on the foundation of our Christian hope. Such personal meditation reveals to us that we are loved not by a distant God but by the personal God; the Father, whose Son offered up his life for our sake. It is after the Son’s death and resurrection, that the Church lives guided by the Holy Spirit.(gal 4:1-7). This Spirit touches all those who are created in the image and likeness of God and who bear the imprint of the last Adam. The same Spirit is capable of leading all the people who love the light into ever more profound unity and reconciliation. Hence enabling them to live as the chosen people, indeed the beloved sons and daughters of God. Today, moved by the above understanding, many people have cherished a beautiful selection from John which contains one of the most-quoted New Testament texts: “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” John 3:16 You find this text chiseled into churches and paraded as a bumper sticker on many cars in our cities. Does it mean anything to you as well? The above verses that we may read in our bible or on the bumpers of many cars, help us to discover the true face of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They do help us to know who God is, since they help us to understand that God is not just the Lord, full of compassion, but the one who loved us so much that he became one of us. Today, when we think of God becoming man in Jesus of Nazareth, we may think that this event was only one incident in his life. That he came among us, remained for thirty-odd years and then returned to heaven. No, our God became a man and remains one for ever and he calls us his brothers and sisters. He taught us to call his own Father our Father as well, hence allowing us to refer to him as our brother. And as a good and reliable elder brother, he did not go away and leave us alone, but he remained present in our world. It is with the above understanding therefore that every Christian should celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity in a rather personal way, raising his or her eyes and heart to the Father through our brother Jesus Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit. Ends