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Pastor’s Corner for the Solemnity of The Most Holy Trinity, Year A, by Fr. Bruce Botha SJ

Happy Feast Day to our Trinity family. This is a day when we celebrate not only our God as the theological reality of Trinity, but also a day when we celebrate our own identity as a community of believers. It is our family that we celebrate today.

Trinitarian doctrine is without doubt complex, and the Nicene creed simply says that Father, Son, and Spirit are all equally God because they are made of the same “God-Stuff”. Libraries of books have been written to unpack that theological insight. The readings of the solemnity teach us something about the nature of God.

In the first reading (Ex 34: 4-9) we are told that the biblical God is quite different from the god of the pagans, or the god worshipped by people of other religions: he does not get angry, is not wilful, does not punish people and is not spying on us to catch us out. The gospel (John 3: 16-18) tells us that God has not moved away from us but has joined his life to that of the world and that of humanity. He is not a God who lives far away in heaven and terrifies his faithful with threats of destruction. In the second reading (2 Cor 13: 11-13) we are taught that God is a family open to all people, prioritising love, and peace.

In addition to teaching us something about the nature of God, I think the readings also teach us something about the nature of community, the kind of family we are called to be. We are called to be a community able to see and appreciate God within our neighbour and in creation. We welcome people of all races, cultures, nationalities, genders, and orientations. We welcome young and old, students and unemployed. We welcome the poor and homeless, and through our ministry to them put our love into action.

We are a community that tries to live the faith with integrity, maybe not perfectly, but we are sincerely trying to live good lives. We are all too aware of the plank in our own eyes and therefore reluctant to attempt to remove the speck in our brother’s or sister’s eye. We acknowledge the fragility of one another and try to honour that vulnerability with our own gentleness.

Happy feast day to one and all. May this year be a year of blessing for all of us. May we be blessed with the love of the Trinity. May we be drawn into their love and learn to love as they do.

 

Fr. Bruce Botha SJ