If you love Thai food, it is likely because your taste buds are enticed by the coming together of something sweet, sour and spicy; the Thais have mastered blending these 3 flavours into a perfect trinity. Outside of Old Trafford stands the United Trinity of Best, Charlton and Law proclaiming the legendary forward line. Comparisons using everyday life and sporting trivia borders on the blasphemous when we try to explain the Most Holy Trinity. Yet some of us find these 3-in-1 comparisons helpful.

After all we are merely human creatures, never ever able to fully comprehend the Divine; this almighty, mysterious, infinite, indescribable nature of the 3-in1 God: The Most Holy Trinity. For our limited human minds it is not blasphemous in this sense that we need to begin somewhere.

The Holy Trinity is a mystery. God remains a mystery for some of us. Some are actually comfortable with this image. God is somewhere in the universe. He is distant and authoritative. He is ‘my’ one God and ‘I’ worship no other. Due to my reverence of God, I live a good life, without actually knowing more about Him. In reality God does not want to remain a mystery to us. He desires for us to know him intimately – all 3 of Him.

It is impossible to know God intimately if we do not have a relationship with him. We cannot be in a relationship if we do not experience him in our life. First we need to reach out to outer space and shrink that titanic image we have of God and acknowledge that He is present in our heart and is personal to us. He invites us to have a relationship with him by way of revealing himself to us through the Trinity.

The Landings program which welcomes returning Catholics back to Church is a great program to comprehend the Most Holy Trinity. Its emphasis is on experiencing God in the events of our life and to know God not only from the intellect but also through our heart. A well-experienced Landings program rewards us with a personal relationship with God. It demystify the distant God into the loving Father, the self-giving Son and the empowering Holy Spirit.

When we stray away or leave the Church, God becomes increasingly irrelevant. We push him back into outer space and lose all connectivity. One day when, and not if, we encounter trouble in life that leaves us hopeless with no one to turn to, we will crawl on the underbelly of our faith life desperately searching for divine intervention. We find it.

When a returning Catholic comes home the first image of God he (she) see is the loving Father ‘running’ toward him, readily forgiving him before he even utters an apology. He will soon realize that this Father had been patiently waiting for his return.

It is He, the self-giving Son who makes a relationship with God plausible. He was the one who came into human life to talk and guide us. Through the words of the Gospel, we can almost hear as though he is speaking personally to us. He became human to dispel the mystery of God. He is the ultimate expression of love that connects all of us with God. Through him we can have a relationship.

The returning Catholic reclaims his true identity as a child of God. When that happens the Holy Spirit allow us to sense the presence of God in our daily life. He is the connectivity. The Holy Spirit remains in us always ready to affirm and empower us as we embrace a new life in God. “And know I am with you always till the end of time”.

Life events is always a mixture of sweet, sour and spicy. Sometimes they conspire to leave us in despair. Whenever that happens, our faith must not waver but instead we must descend deep into ourselves, surrender and be vulnerable for God to intervene. It is here amidst the pain and tears where we will meet Jesus. Through our challenges, he will bring us to know his Father’s love. And it is the Holy Spirit who will facilitate this experience.

Three persons united in one God. When we are able to experience each one of three, there is no mystery of the 3-in-1 God. United!

 

 

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity