Homily For The Solemnity Of The Most Holy Trinity Year B.

Deuteronomy 4:32-34.39-40; Psalm 33:4-6.9.18-20.22; Romans 8:14-17; Matthew 28:16-20.

“THE TRINITY AND CHRISTIAN LIVING!”

By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide.

·      Today the church celebrates the solemnity of the Blessed Trinity. A mystery that is unfathomable yet profoundly livable. It is a known fact that in the Blessed Trinity, we have three distinct persons yet one Godhead.

·      In the solemnity of today, we appreciate and reflect on one of the most fundamental and profound doctrines of the Catholic faith. The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity teaches that God is fundamentally one but three distinct persons. In the blessed Trinity we celebrate the community of persons yet one God.

·      The understanding of the Holy Trinity is not a product of mathematical calculation or logical reasoning. Instead, it is a mystery that surpasses mere human understanding and that we can accept through our faith in God.  David submits to his limitations about the knowledge of God when he says that he would not concern himself with things too great nor marvel beyond him (Psalm 131:1). St. Paul adds that no one comprehends God except the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:11).

·      From the creation account, God shows a glimpse of the fact he is a community of persons existing in love, equal in power and majesty when he said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). The “our” and “let us” used in that expression shows that God the creator could not have been talking to just himself but to himself as God the Father, and the other persons of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – one God, in essence, three in persons. 

·      The solemnity we celebrate this Sunday is a reminder to us that the Most Holy Trinity is not just an unfathomable mystery, which makes us gape in awe and wonder. Neither is it a mere doctrine of faith, which we have to profess and believe in. Rather, it reminds us that the Holy Trinity is the way of life of God. The best news is that God invites us all to share in this way of life. This way of life is love.

·      The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is indeed impossible for us to fully understand. But we are not expected to understand this mystery anyway. Rather, we are called to live it. We are expected to live it, for love is the most vivid mark of every Christian. Jesus said: “By this shall all men know you as my disciples: your love for one another.”

·      The first reading (Deuteronomy 4:32-34.39-40) tells that the God we celebrate in the Blessed Trinity is not like our traditional gods, but a God who is constantly at work and intervening in the affairs of his children. He did not create the world only to be far away from it. He takes an interest in our lives on earth and intervenes in it.

·      Moses took his time to appraise the greatness of this God whom we serve, a God like no other, a God full of love and graciousness and it is in that graciousness that he created man in his image and likeness. And this God continues to sustain us and the whole of creation in his power and love.

·      In all of this excellence of God, what he demands of us is to obey his status and keep his commandments so that it may go well with us and our posterity and that our days may be long. Is that too much for God to ask of us? You cannot be proud of a God who is one and indivisible yet three-person, and yet refuse to do his will.

·      The second reading (Romans 8:14-17) on the other hand, tells us that we must count ourselves privileged to have a God who is interested in the affairs of his children. Hence, we must be proud at all times to call God our father because the spirit which he gives us is not a spirit of slavery but a spirit of the free-born which gives us the leverage to call him our father.

·      Friends in Christ, it must not end at just calling God our Father, we must also be prepared to bear witness to his name that we are children of God not by what we say but most importantly by what we do and how we relate with one and another. Since the Blessed Trinity dwells eternally in love as a community, we too must seek to sow and spread love in whatever community we find ourselves.

·      The gospel reading (Matthew 28:16-20), commands us that has tapped from the profundity of the love of God in the Blessed Trinity, we are therefore commissioned as disciples of love and peace and other virtues in the world.

·      The gospel also gives a formula for bringing God to others. We come to share in the life of God through the sacrament of baptism whose form is to baptize in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Having made them converts, we must seek to continue to encourage them to observe what the Lord has commanded us to do.

·      Beloved in Christ, the celebration of the solemnity of the Blessed Trinity cannot be complete without taking home some of these lessons: there are three Persons in One God. Not three gods, and not three manifestations or aspects of God. The three Persons are uncreated. There is unity in functionality among the three persons. They are distinct from each other. There is One Lord, not three Lords. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit share the same equality, eternity, immensity, and omnipotence; there is one God.

·      Every time we make the sign of the cross, let us renew our faith in the One God and three Divine Persons. Let us also renew our commitment to live the life of the Trinity by loving one another as His children. Therefore, let us pray for unity and mutuality in our relationships despite our individualities. Let us also learn how to co-exist and assist each other to succeed in our various preoccupations. 

·      Happy Sunday!!!