TRINITY SUNDAY Yr B. May 26, 2024
Readings
1st: Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
2nd: Romans 8:14-17
Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
Theme: Be Faithfully Committed To What Is Assigned You In Trust
My dear people of God, today is HOLY TRINITY SUNDAY. For want of time, our reflections would focus on (some of) the lessons inherent in the Trinity, both at the vertical and horizontal levels. Holy Trinity celebrates the Christian believe in a God in whom co-exist three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This belief, unsurprisingly, would not make sense to other religions. It may not even fully appeal to some Christian denominations, and precisely so, given and admitting the fact that a Mystery, by nature and meaning, is a reality that is beyond the full grasp (understanding) of human intellect and/or reasoning. Even a great intellectual, of the calibre of St. Augustine, failed woefully in his human attempt to understand the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. It is said that St. Augustine once spent a great deal of time reflecting and meditating a whole day on this Mystery. In the course of that impossible and fruitless endeavor, Augustine bumped into a small boy busy "emptying sea water" into a small hole he had dug. Enquiring and knowning the boy's "impossible intention", the great scholar laughed sarcastically, puffed up and mockingly described the boy's action as total absurdity and complete madness. In response, the small boy told him in the face, "That is precisely what you are also doing". Understanding the Holy Trinity should have nothing to do with human intellect or reasoning; faith would do better. As the preacher told us last week, we can't confuse knowledge with faith.
The Holy Trinity teaches us to, by imitation and emulation, build and base our Christian life on prayer, the only channel through which we can remain fully and faithfully rooted in the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. This is observably characteristic in Jesus throughout his public life and ministry. He constantly sought, in all things, the Will of the Father and did nothing without consulting and reporting to the Father. "Remain in me and I in you, just as I am in the Father and the Father in me....and together we shall send you the Holy Spirit". The miserable and frustrating experience of Peter and his campinions who toiled a whole night without a catch should be an instant and constant lesson to you and I that, "If the Lord does not build the house, in vain would the laborers toil". Many a Christian at our time are too busy doing the work of the Lord and forget about the Lord of the work. We are aware of the habitual withdrawal of Jesus either in the night or at dawn when nature is at its best to the hillside to spend time in prayer with the Father. It is worrying, disturbing and disappointing that some Catholics who live just behind the Church's fence wall always have time for everything but no time to attend daily Mass, sometimes not even on Sunday. At the horizontal level, the Holy Trinity, is a symbol of Unity in diversity in whom the three distinct persons live and work in harmony with each fully and faithfully committed to what is assigned Him. No one claims superiority or claims to be more important/useful than the other. The Father feels fulfilled with the task of creation, the Son finds full fulfilment in the task of redeeming a fallen humanity and the Holy Spirit is happily busy with sanctifying, counselling, directing and consoling; all for a common good - promoting and enhancing the quality of human life. Unity is radically different from uniformity. Sadly, we are living in an era badly characterised and painfully marred by unhealthy power struggle, inordinate material hunger and untamed ego competition. Some jobs are considered low-grade vocations while others are statue symbols associated with only elites, to the extent that some parents even mislead, misguide and misdirect their wards to enroll for courses that they ignorantly believe would lead to prestigious jobs but for which courses the wards are ill-suited. That explains why in the job market, very wrong people are assigned to do the right jobs and everything becomes wrong and a total mess. Of course, if you appoint/employ a carpenter as your cook, be prepared to feed on saw dust without complain.
In the Holy Trinity we see an apt and patriotic sense of duty, the type we observe in those tiny creatures called termites, we see the beauty and benefits of team work and we admire and appreciate gratefully the blessings that flow providentially from sharing and delegation of duties (division of labor), all of which are worth emulation. We sincerely commend all well meaning and serious minded sons and daughters of our dear country (and countries all over the world) who see and understand work as a sacred duty ordained by God for continued creation and for the sanctification of humanity. Such people are ever willing, when it is necessary, to sacrifice their comfort, their plessure, their own interest, their health, and some of them even their very life for their country. They always listen with cordial docility to the voice of duty in every detail of their life, obey its commands and suggestions promptly and willingly carry out what is assigned them. We can say, with great certainty, that all good Christians are among them. Unfortunately, there are also millions others who misunderstand work to be an imposed pain. For such unpatrioitic citizens, the voice of duty is an austeric and exacting master and must be shunned and avoided, if at all possible. We know them easily by their very nature. They do nothing but would talk about everybody and complain about everything. As we celebrate the Holy Trinity today, may God help all of us to reflect deeply on the patrioitic attitude of termites when they are at work and, with humility, re-examine our own appalling attitude towards what is assigned us in trust. We also pray for an improved sense of team spirit. Our society is increasingly choked, in all sectors, with "Jacks of all trades" in theory but majority of whom are actually masters of nothing in practice. It is not the degree of intelligence and knowledge we possess but the prudent use of them that determine our moral value. The pseudo belief/claim that "I know all and can do all" can lead to an unconscious devotion to a worship of deceit. No one has ever done it all and/or alone, not even the Father, or the Son or the Holy Spirit. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of us as we strive daily to remain more faithfully committed to what is assigned us in trust. Keep praying the Holy Rosary daily and you will not regret that you do. God richly bless you and your family.
Rev. Fr. Thomas L. Debuo, Catholic Diocese of Damongo, Ghana. (0244511306/0243711926)