ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

Trinity Sunday

Fr Ivan Aquilina

At a Confirmation service, an archbishop asked the candidates for a definition of the Holy Trinity. A 14 year old girl answered very softly, "The Holy Trinity is three Persons in one God." The archbishop, who was hard of hearing, replied, "I didn't understand what you said." And the young theologian before him replied, "You are not supposed to, Your Grace. The Trinity is a mystery."

The belief in the Trinity comes from the teaching of Our Lord Jesus Christ as found in the New Testament.

The observance of Trinity Sunday goes back to twelfth century England and St Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Historians say the great Thomas celebrated a Liturgy in honour of the Trinity in his cathedral. So was born the observance. In the fourteenth century, the feast came to be observed by the entire Church.

We open each Liturgy invoking the Trinity. We close it by calling upon those same Persons. Throughout the Christian world people are made God’s children and received into our community through Baptism in the name of the Trinity. We hallow each day by tracing over our body the sign of the cross and invoking the Trinity. At the point of our most glorious moment in life, our death, the priest will say to us: “Go forth Christian soul in the name of God the Father who created you, in the name of God the Son who saved you, in the name of God the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you”. Our whole Christian experience starts, lives and ends immersed into this fundamental mystery of our Faith.

Many find exception to this basic truth of our faith as it is incomprehensible, therefore if we can not understand we must reject. Why do such people forget that scientists’ estimate that 90% of the cosmos is mystery? The Trinity is not the only Mystery, what we know is a drop; what we don't know is an ocean.

Today we are asked to trust Jesus and take his word. He teaches us that God is ONE and that He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not three different ways coming across as God, but three real distinct persons that are one. Our God is a community of perfect Love.
From the earliest days of the Christian era, geniuses have been wrestling with the Trinity. Most have come up empty handed. Sometimes though, some have achieved an important insight.

A lot of rich material poured out of the busy pen of St Augustine of Hippo. His concept of the Trinity is beautiful. The Father is the lover, the Son is the loved one, and the Holy Spirit is the love they send forth.

Unlike other Christian doctrines, the Trinity is not a truth that leads to action but rather, like a painting or a poem or a symphony, it should point us to prayer or wonderment. Whoever can no longer wonder or marvel is as good as dead.

So our prayer today is not to understand the mystery of the Trinity but to have an approach of humble wonder so that as we contemplate the Most Glorious Trinity here on earth one day we may be made worthy to behold Him for ever in heaven. Amen.