May 27, 2018: The Most Holy Trinity
May 27, 2018: The Most Holy Trinity
In my family home in Dallas are two thick genealogy books, written in a mix of Korean and Chinese, that chronicle how our family came to be. It is a great mystery how the love and commitment between generations of husbands and wives over several hundred years have formed the roots of the Yi family. It is a great mystery too, to ponder about the love in the Divine Family: the great love that Heavenly Father has for the Son and the great love the Son has for the Father is another Divine Person, the Holy Spirit. The foreshadowing of this inner divine mystery is contained in the Book of Genesis when God said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” However, we Christians believe Jesus came to reveal the fullness of truth of who God is as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are made by God, made for God, and live in God; we are made by God’s love, made to love God, and to live this love for others. Thus the mystery of why we are on this earth, what we are to do on this earth, and where we are going, begins to make sense when we understand God as the Holy Trinity. We believe in God who created us, redeemed us, and graces us continually. So it can be said that our life is a Trinitarian life. What does it mean to live a Trinitarian life?
I bear resemblance to my parents in the way I look, talk, and behave; I have a distinctly Korean look, the personality and the voice of my parents. Likewise, through our adoption by Heavenly Father through the Paschal mystery, each of us bear the image and likeness of this Divine Family of Holy Trinity, capable of enjoying the divine life here and now. However, the privilege of enjoying this divine life comes with responsibilities.
Our Lord reminded us, “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 have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Our Lord has commissioned us to be spouse, parents, teachers, community leaders, and spiritual guides for others. Our Lord has empowered us to be the light and the salt of the world, living not by the worldly principles but by the Beatitudes and Ten Commandments. It is through this commissioning that we raise our families to be good neighbors, to reach out to those in our communities who are in need. Our Lord himself was not sitting in his nice home talking about his Father; rather, he walked and journeyed with others, reaching out everywhere he went-- including talking with despised, misunderstood, and unloved persons.
At times we Christians are tempted to turn away from the Heavenly Father and to look to things of this world for happiness and pleasures even though the worldly things will pass away. We need to be reminded as Moses reminded the Israelites, “This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. You must keep his statutes and commandments that I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper…”
The feast of the Holy Trinity is an invitation for us to redirect our lives in deeper relationship with the Divine Family of the Heavenly Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We come to Mass to reconnect us to the life of the Divine Family. In the liturgy, we praise the love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who are the source and foundation of our faith. It’s time for us to listen in prayer to the promptings of the Holy Spirit who invite us to silent and intense prayer, to commit to enriching our everyday relationships with others with patience, understanding, and compassion. May the Holy Spirit who dwells in us guide and direct us through the intercession of the Blessed Mother to true happiness and eternal life with the Heavenly Father.
