SOLEMNITY OF THE HOLY TRINITY

 

Readings: Proverbs 8:22-31

                Romans 5:1-5

                 John 16:12-15

 

 

“Everything that the Father has is mine…

he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”

 

 

            Today’s solemnity is an honor of a doctrine. This feast, being celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost, traces its roots back in the year 1030. In 1334, Pope John XXII approved it as feast of the universal church. The theological significance of this celebration most probably rests on the point that this is our dogmatic understanding about the God whom we know of and believe in.

 

            As we have it now, this doctrine is well defined in philosophical terms. But the revelation of the Blessed Trinity in the scripture is not so much metaphysical than economic. That is, the one true God reveals himself as three persons in the economy of our salvation. Thus, even as we take this most opportune time to explain this doctrine, we believe that a more profound religious understanding of this dogmatic definition demands a going back to that very biblical context wherein the reality the Triune God has become a living experience of a people in the history of salvation. And accordingly, we are guided with three important phases of this revelation: one, the Father as the God in the Old Testament (the creator), two, the Son as the God in the New Testament (the savior), three, the Holy Spirit as the God in the period of the church (the sanctifier).

 

            1.         Whenever we talk abut God, most often we refer it directly to the Father. The image of the Father is all-embracing. It means not only as the fountain-head of the Trinity. It also means that his fatherhood extends to all things and in all aspects and respects. Among others, we find these important attributions to God the Father in the Old Testament.

 

            First, his fatherhood is made manifest in the totality of creation. This is why Genesis, the first Old Testament book, opens with the creator-image of the father. “In the beginning, God created heavens and earth” (Gen 1:1). Here, the first thing we know of him is that he is the cause of all beings; in a word, creator. But what is more striking is the fact that he does his creative works out of nothing (ex nihilo). Thus, what comes out of it is a mighty and wondrous creation. And since he creates ex nihilo, he is also the principle of existence so that apart from him nothing can ever be. As we see, then, God the Father’s fatherhood over creation bespeaks of what he is: the alpha and the omega.

 

            Second, his fatherhood is made manifest in being the God of his people Israel. The chosen people are God’s choicest possession, as children are to a father. Israel is indeed so dear to God the Father so that he calls her his own. So, even if a natural mother may forget her child, never will God forget his own (cf Is 49:15). This love and faithfulness he always makes clear not only in his words and in his promise, but more so, in the saving acts of his mighty hands. The Old Testament is practically a story of how God the father has shown his love and concern for the house of Israel.

 

            Third, his fatherhood reaches its fullest expression in being the Father of his only Son. We say “fullest” because while his fatherhood to others may simply be figurative, symbolic or adoptive, his fatherhood to Jesus is true, real and natural. And again we say “fullest” in the sense that with the advent of the son, the Old Testament closes and the New Testament opens. Meaning, in the economy of salvation, the period of the Father ends and the period of the Son begins.

 

            2.         Jesus is the natural son the Father. In fact, he is the Father’s only begotten Son. This is one very clear biblical truth that both the Father and the son claim. The Father calls Jesus as his beloved Son whom he is well pleased (cf Mk 1:11; Mt 17:6). And in a number of occasions, Jesus refers to God as his Father, and indeed calls him “Abba” Father (cf Rom 8:15). But the intimacy of the Father and the Son is found in their oneness. What our dogmatic definition refers to as consubstantiability is precisely what the biblical expression means of: “The Father and I are one” (Jn 10:30). That is why we hear Jesus say in today’s gospel: “Everything that the Father has is mine.”

 

            But Jesus’ sonship is not only of what he is but also of what he does. And if there is one word that can best capture the essence of Christ’s sonship in what he does, it is obedience. If the Old Testament is a record of the Father’s love and justice, the New Testament is also a story of the Son’s obedience. Christ’s obedience characterizes his whole life that practically from Bethlehem’s stable to the Calvary’s cross, he was doing nothing but the Father’s business. This is how he has merited his glorious sonship. And if ever he was able to build and establish his new and everlasting covenant, it is because he has paid for it and sealed it with his most precious blood.

 

            3.         Lastly, the economy of salvation brings us at the phase when the third Person of the Trinity reveals himself at the period of the church. This is the highlight of our Pentecostal celebration, which we had just Sunday. And if we remember, the significance of the coming of the Holy Spirit rests practically in the continuation of Christ’s salvific mission. Where Christ ends, the Spirit begins. Thus, we see a clear pattern of the divine unfolding of the great mystery of the Triune God.

 

            Now, there have been some questions regarding the “Holy” in the Spirit. Why do we emphasize this “Holy “in the Third Person? Is not the Father Holy? Is not the son holy, too? Of course, all the Divine Persons are holy, in fact co-equal in holiness. But we emphasize the concept of holiness in the Third Person because of his specific and distinguishing role in the economy of salvation. If the Father is creator and the Son savior, the Holy Spirit is Sanctifier. He is the Spirit who not only breathes unto us the breath of life (cf Gen 2:7), but also invigorates us with sanctifying grace so that we live as sons and daughters of the most high, worthy and pleasing in his sight. Thus, as the church continues to travel along the road to holiness, the perpetual presence of the divine is felt and realized with and in the workings of the Holy Spirit.

 

            Looking at it in its totality, therefore, the process of this great unfolding is long and magnanimous. But thanks, at the final stage of the process we discover that the One God whom we believe in consists most sublimely in Three Divine Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.