SERMON/REFLECTION FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY YEAR B MAY 26 2024

SERMON/REFLECTION FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY, YEAR B MAY 26, 2024

Deut.4:32-34. 39-40; Ps.33; Rom.8:14-17; Matthew 28:16-20

 _Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: to God who is, who was and who is to come._ (Rev.1:8)

Authentic Christianity is essentially Trinitarian

It is always required for a typical academic/research work, that proper classification of terms be made. This entails that the context in which the basic concepts to be employed by the researcher in the work should be properly outlined and clarified. This is necessary because a word/concept can have different meaning/understanding in different context. It is only after a due and diligent conceptual analysis that anyone can engage a research work in accordance with the mind of the researcher. Again, it is only within the circumference of conceptual analysis that criticisms can make sense.

Today, we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The Trinity is at the heart/foundation of the belief and practice of Christianity. Whether we belief and how we belief in the Trinity, forms how we engage in Christianity. The way we see/understand God influences how we relate with him. Today, we celebrate the very definitive definition of God which ought to influence every authentic belief and practice of Christianity. Unlike basic concepts that could have different meanings in different context, the right belief and proper practice of Christianity is definitive. The definitive definition of God is Trinitarian. There are three persons in one God: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. These three persons are not different Gods but three distinct persons in one indivisible God.

This definition of God tells us that God is essentially one. If so, then the understanding and worship of this God must be one. It makes no sense to worship one and the same God in different (and sometimes contradictory) ways. It is allowed for the manner of expression of this basic worship to vary for different peoples and personalities but it is entirely out of place for a substantial difference to exist in the mode of worship. It is for this reason therefore that the Church has as part of her marks: Oneness and Catholicity. Truly, if the Church serves/worships a God that is essentially one, the substance of the worship of this one God must be universal (Catholic) amongst nations and peoples.

The three persons in one God do not exist in hierarchy but are equal amongst themselves. This is very essential for a proper understanding of the Scriptures. God the Father does not exist as a senior entity over the Son and the Spirit. So, when it was said in the first chapter of the book of Genesis: “let us make man”, it was not the case that in the project of creating man, God the Father was the Engineer while the Son and the Spirit were mere labourers, No. the Father is presented to take the leading role because it is His specific function to create, but never without the Son and the Spirit.

Likewise, when Scripture says that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son to die for humanity, it does not mean that God exercised hierarchical power over the Son, or that the Son came into the world only because he was sent. The God that so much love the world is the Trinitarian God (the Son and the Holy Spirit are involved). To say that the Son was sent is only a way of expressing the collegiality of the three persons in the coming of the Son. It was the son that incarnated because redemption is His specific function. But in Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit also came. So, all that Jesus did and said while on earth, was done and said as Trinity. Likewise, all that happened to Jesus on earth also happened to the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Consequently, we cannot authentically practice Christianity in a manner that disregards any of the persons of the blessed Trinity or in a manner that priotizes one over the other. For example, it is common to find Christians who are so attached to the person of the Holy Spirit. This is not bad but when such devotion disregards the Father and the Son or seems to place them both below the Holy Spirit, then it becomes dysfunctional. So, you cannot so much love the Holy Spirit, but patronizes/consult other gods especially at challenging moments of life. A lover of the Holy Spirit has no business with charms and ammunitions. How can a lover of the Holy Spirit bend to the pressures to carryout unchristian activities in the name of tradition? The strength with which you speak in tongues for everyone to hear, should be channeled into defending Christian principles in your family/village for everyone to see.

Again, you cannot be a lover of the Holy Spirit and not border about receiving Jesus sacramentally. It is funny to observe Christians who claim to be filled with Holy Spirit but whose living condition prevents them from approaching the Eucharistic banquet. Know this, the Holy Spirit does not honour an invitation that disregards God the Son. If you will not invite/honour one person of the Blessed Trinity, the one(s) invited will not come.

Similarly, you cannot be right when you see everything bad with the devotion to the Holy Spirit. This devotion has a unique form of spirituality that could be quite radical in approach. Not everyone can have such disposition but that does not make the disposition bad in itself. For example, those who speak in tongues, see visions or pray spontaneously neither pray wrongly nor pray better than others. Just as the three persons in one God have distinct functions so also have we been given different spiritualities that nevertheless must be Trinitarian in practice.

We see then that we have a great challenge in practicing authentic Christianity that is essentially Trinitarian. Whatever is Trinitarian must be communual, tolerant and respectful. Competition, selfishness and disunity amongst Christians is nothing but a scandal to the faith. Trinity is the very definition of God; and so, every authentic practice of Christianity must have this definition in view. God wants us to relate with Him in the very way he has revealed himself to us. To relate with God in any other way, will amount to no relation at all.