BY: REV. FR. ORLY MENDOZA/PRIEST/MAYNGAWAY, SAN ANDRES, CATANDUANES

This Sunday, we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity which is one of the dogmas of the Catholic Church. When we say dogma, it means a Catholic doctrine that can never be mistaken because it is a revelation coming from God. This dogma is a very difficult teaching to understand since it tackles the very being of God who is impossible to totally comprehend.

Nobody, except a fool, wants to undertake a work that he can never finish. In the same way in theology and in our catholic doctrines, nobody not even the most learned and genius theologian wants to decipher the truth about the Blessed Trinity. All theologians know what the Church believes that the Blessed Trinity is the most central mystery of the Christian faith. The Blessed Trinity can never be comprehended completely because it is not simply a mystery but the mystery of all mysteries because with it we touch the center of our faith: One God in Three Divine Persons.

During the Old Testament times, the Blessed Trinity was not yet revealed as it is since God presented Himself to the chosen people as Yahweh, the almighty God who is the creator of heaven and earth. It is only during the time of Jesus, the Son of God and the God-made-man, when God revealed Himself as a Trinity. And it is in the gospel for this Trinity Sunday that Christ has clearly revealed God as a Trinity of persons when He says: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). This revelation He did when Christ was about to ascend to His Heavenly Father to sit at God’s right hand. It was therefore an important act on the part of Jesus and an important mission entrusted to us, His disciples.

The words “in the name” reveal that there is only One God. If there were three Gods, Jesus could have said “names” instead of “name”. In the Trinity, their unity lies in the fact that They are but One God. There is only one substance in the Trinity which They not simply share among Themselves but rather assume wholly and entirely. On the other hand, such one God exists in Three Divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These persons are distinct from one another in their relations of origin. The Father begets the Son, the Son is the begotten by the Father and the Holy Spirit is the One who proceeds from the Father and the Son. In a more simple comparison, it is the Father who is the Lover, the Son who is the Beloved and the Holy Spirit who is Love.

Truly, the Blessed Trinity is all about a loving relationship between the Three Divine Persons. Before the creation, They already exist as Three Persons in One God. They love one another in the fullness and perfection of love. Such relationship of love has been extended after the creation to all creatures especially to angels and the humanity. The Bible tells us that we are created in the image and likeness of God; we are created therefore pattered in the Trinitarian loving relationship. We are created out of love, in love and for love. For this reason, our main calling is to love. The Ten Commandments of God are summarized by Jesus into two commandments: love for God and love for neighbor. There is only then one commandment of God which can be summarized in these words of Jesus Christ: “You must love one another just as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34).

To reflect the Trinitarian loving relationship in our daily love, we must show our love for one another. We are called to love our neighbor and in loving, we become the lover; our neighbor becomes the beloved and God is the love. God is love as St. John the Evangelist untiringly expresses in his writings. We can never love unless we are united with God. So our first duty is to be one with God and this we can do by uniting ourselves to Jesus Christ – the God-made-man. If it seems impossible for us to be one with God who is infinite, with Jesus Christ, the Incarnated God, it is very possible to be one with God because in Jesus Christ, God has united Himself with us – the humanity. We should therefore love our neighbor by first loving God in Christ Jesus. And we love Jesus Christ by uniting ourselves to Him, by following His teachings and the teachings of His Church, and by living like Him as children of God. Living as a child of God like Christ is loving God and our neighbor by offering our whole selves to God and serving our neighbors according to their needs and according to the Will and Plan of God.

This Sunday, we celebrate the Basic Ecclesial Community Sunday. Our Philippine Catholic Church has chosen the “Basic Ecclesial Community” (BEC) as the thrust of forming and maturing the Catholic faithful into Christian faith. Since the parish Church is a big community of the faithful, it is deemed better to divide it into BECs for formation purposes. These BECs undergo a rigorous ecclesial formation in accordance with the New Evangelization which is the main thrust these days of Christian faith formation of the Catholic Church. By celebrating the BEC this Sunday, we are all encouraged to join into this BEC way of Catholic Christian faith formation which is patterned to the formation the first Christian community had.

SOLEMNITY OF THE BLESSED TRINITY

(White) Cycle B/Year I (May 30, 2022)

Dt 4:32-34,39-40/Rom 8:14-17/Mt 28:16-20

Basic Ecclesial Community Sunday

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