They say that Trinity Sunday is every preacher’s nightmare. How can one speak of the most profound mystery of our faith and make sense of it? But it really doesn’t have to be so. After all, no one expects a preacher to explain the Trinitarian mystery. No one can. It is a mystery.
The Trinity is a doctrine we simply believe because Jesus himself revealed it. But more importantly, it is a mystery to be lived because God has made us in his image and likeness. The Trinity is the fundamental doctrine of our faith that teaches the mystery of three distinct Persons in one God, sharing the same nature, co-equal and co-eternal.
What makes the three Persons one? Love. The love between the Father and the Son so perfect it becomes a Person, the Holy Spirit. The inner life of the Godhead is one of infinite and everlasting love. Thus, John does not hesitate to define God as love. God is love.
Because we are made in God’s image, we are called to live his own life, which is love. That is why the whole commandment is summed up in love. Indeed, all that matters in life is to love.
The call to love is a call to communion. As God is one, we too are called to be one – with him and with one another. Jesus, in fact, came to gather and make us one with him in his Body, the Church. Before his passion and death, his one prayer to the Father was unity for his Church. “With me in them and you in me, may they be so perfect in unity that the world will recognize that it was you who sent me.” (Jn 17:23)
Hence, communion is also our mission. It is the most effective means of evangelization. As Jesus tells us, the world will finally recognize and believe in him, when it sees us in perfect unity.
Some years ago, I read a true story written by Fr. James Kroeger about an African girl from a small village. She had a brother who went to the big city to study in the hope of a better future. One day she received news that her brother was taken to a hospital. She went at once to visit him, only to be told by the doctor that it would be best for him to be brought home and be personally cared for. At home, the girl gave her brother all her attention. Despite her care, her brother’s condition deteriorated fast. No one came to visit him, neither neighbour nor family. He had AIDS.
Deeply moved by his sister’s dedication, the brother told her one day, “You should become a believer.” The sister did not understand what his brother was talking about. He then instructed her to contact a certain Padre from a neighbouring village and inform him of his condition.
The Padre came together with some companions. It was then that she learned her brother had converted to the Catholic religion. Since that first visit, the community took turns each day to visit him and attend to his needs. Eventually, the brother died. At his funeral, no relative or neighbour was present, only the Christian community. As they buried him, his sister told the priest, “Padre, I want to become a believer. I don’t know what you believe in, but I want to live as you live.” She had seen the love of the Christian community. Now she was ready to listen and receive the faith.
I think this is the reason why Jesus formed his disciples into a community before sending them on mission to proclaim the gospel. Man’s ears will open to our proclamation only when his eyes see us in communion as a community of love. Our life of witness is crucial for our proclamation, otherwise we can become obstacles to evangelization. Ghandi fully accepted the teachings of Christ, but he could not accept the faith because he could not see Christ in the Church.
On the other hand, the number of believers grew rapidly in the days of the early Church. People, seeing the first Christian communities, could only marvel and say, “See, how they love one another,” (Tertullian) and joined them.