Reflection for Sunday 15th June, 2025

The Most Holy Trinity - Solemnity

A God of Relationships (John 16:12-15)

Anthony De Mello was a writer with a great gift of simplifying deep truths. He wrote that theology is the ability to tell stories about God: and prayer is knowing that you are part of the story.

Jesus, as he was about to ascend to heaven, instructed the apostles to go, make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. As we are baptised, we become part of the story.

About sixty years ago, the famous theologian, Karl Rahner, remarked that if the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity was removed, it would make no difference to the majority of Christians. However, things have changed somewhat since then. The Charismatic Renewal awakened awareness of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

“The human person grows more, matures more and is sanctified more to the extent that he or she enters into relationships with God, with others and with all creatures.”

The Blessed Trinity and Mass

One cannot understand the Mass without an awareness of the Blessed Trinity.
How can we, puny mortals, reach up to God? The doxology at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer tells us how. In everyday conversation we use many small words, known as prepositions, which express the position or relationship of one thing or person to another. Take note of these prepositions and relationships. It is through Jesus (mediator), with him (our human brother) and in him (as members of his community), in the unity of the Holy Spirit, that we are raised up to glorify the Father.

All creation bears the mark of the Trinity

Belief in God as the Blessed Trinity is not confined to the sanctuary but sheds light on the entire universe. Ten years ago, in preparation for the assembly in Paris on climate change, Pope Francis wrote an Encyclical Letter on the subject. Science has developed into specialization in specified fields of research. Specialization needs a bigger vision offering inter-connectedness. Pope Francis drew attention to the inter-connectedness of the Blessed Trinity. “For Christians, believing in one God who is Trinitarian communion suggests that the Trinity has left its mark on all creation” (Laudato Si’, 239). Nine hundred years previously, an extraordinary Benedictine nun in Germany, Hildegard of Bingen, wrote that God arranged everything in this world in consideration of everything else. This is the mark of the Trinity on all creation.
The development of Quantum Physics has increased an awareness among scientists that no single unit in the universe exists on its own but is part of the whole. Even the word universe derives from the oneness of all diversity. A growing number of scientists who previously dismissed any idea of God are now intrigued by the notion of God as an inter-related Trinity of Persons. It makes sense to them.

Science needs moral guidelines

Science will always need moral guidelines. Theology establishes a foundation for moral principles. The advances in globalization and instant communication ought to develop the inter-connectedness between all nations and all people, but without moral values, the global problems are getting worse. One per-cent of the population own fifty per-cent of the wealth. The gap between rich and poor is ever widening. The worst offenders in the destruction of Mother Earth are the rich nations while the poor nations offend the least but suffer the most. This cannot be morally correct. We do not live in isolation but we are brothers and sisters.

A global community

According to the aforementioned Hildegard of Bingen, we are to be living sparks of God’s love like the daylight that comes from the sun. Recalling the words of Pope Francis: “The human person grows more, matures more and is sanctified more to the extent that he or she enters into relationships with God, with others and with all creatures. In this way they make their own that Trinitarian dynamism which God imprinted in them when they were created. Everything is interconnected, and this invites us to develop a spirituality of that global solidarity which flows from the mystery of the Trinity” (Laudato Si’ 240). We are created in the image and likeness of God, each one connected with others in knowing and loving. Recalling the words of Pope Francis, the Trinity has left its mark on all creation … and especially on human life.

Some prayerful reflections

Let us reflect now on the Blessed Trinity in a more prayerful way, guided by some holy people of the past. Saint Paul began his letters with a blessing such as, “The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The First Letter of John described how love begins in God the Father, is shown to us in the human life of God the Son, and is planted in us by the Holy Spirit.
The mystical Julian of Norwich was absorbed in God as my Maker, my Upholder and my Lover. We are part of the story.
Glory be to the Father, through the Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.