John 20:19-23 “Receive the Holy Spirit” The Holy Spirit is also symbolized by Breath of Life as also symbolized by the power of the forgiveness of sins.
May 22, 2021
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26 Solemnity of the Corpus Christi
June 5, 2021
Holy Trinity Sunday
Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
Romans 8:14-17
Matthew 28:16-20
A. Text/Context
• One of the great mysteries that we have in the Christian faith is the mystery of the Holy Trinity or we call it in Spanish as the Santisima Trinidad
• The very simple explanation of the holy trinity is this: the father is present in the son and the holy spirit, the son is present in the father and the holy spirit, and the holy spirit is present in the father and the son
• 3 divine persons considered as one and not separate from one another. One God in 3 divine persons
• Throughout the centuries many theologians in the Church have made attempts to make an explanation about the mystery of the Holy Trinity
• But until today there is really no satisfactory explanation about this mystery
• Why then do we have to call it a mystery if the most intelligent human being will now be able to explain it? It will no longer be a mystery
• There is one very popular story about the search of the explanation of the holy trinity
• The legend about the vision of St. Augustine, one of the most brilliant doctors of the Catholic Church
• One day while he was walking in the beach, and reflecting very deeply trying to understand the meaning of the holy trinity he saw a small child digging a hole in the sand in the beach
• And then the child took water from the sea trying to fill the hole doing it many times
• St. Augustine asked the child: What are you doing? The child replied: I want to put all the water in the sea in this little well
• St. Augustine said: You cannot do that. That is impossible, because the water goes back to the sea
• Then the child was gone but there is now an angel in front of him and the angel said to St. Augustine
• “That is the same with the mystery of the holy trinity.” You can never fully understand its meaning. And the vision of the angel disappeared
• From that time on, St. Augustine did not attempt anymore to find explanation of the holy trinity but instead live a life of deep faith reflecting upon the great mysteries of God that we human beings cannot fully understand
• In the gospel today the holy trinity is a very powerful sign. It is used by Jesus to command his disciples to go to the whole world and gather and baptize them in the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit
• The trinity is a symbol of power that no evil can overcome
B. Human Situation
• In our ordinary life as Christians we use the symbol of the holy trinity for example in our prayers. The sign of the cross before the mass
• We can direct our prayer directly to the father or directly to the son or directly to the holy spirit
• There is no problem with that, if we pray to one of them, the 2 will always be present
• But the more correct way of prayer is to make the holy trinity present in our prayers and petitions
• We make petitions, or praise or give thanksgiving to the father in heaven through the name of Jesus Christ his son, in union with the holy spirit one God forever and ever
• And to make it even more Catholic in character we ask the intercession of the BVM in all our prayers
• So what is now the relevance of the holy trinity in our ordinary lives as Christians?
• The holy trinity is where we get our strength in our faith
• That is why in the gospel it is through the holy trinity that they will baptize all the people of the world
• The disciples cannot do these things if they were not given the power of the trinity. All the power that Jesus has is also given to his disciples
• And so they were able to fulfill the mission that Jesus gave them and the church grew by the millions throughout the world
• But before the Holy Trinity was completed, when the Holy Spirit has not yet descended upon them, the disciples are still very afraid to do the preaching. But after the Pentecost they become so courageous and they were never afraid again of persecutions
C. Challenge
• So today we are all challenged to use the name of the holy trinity in our lives as Christians especially in our prayer
• Many times we expect that God would answer our prayers according to how we want it answered
• Probably God will answer your prayer in many different ways that will always be good to you
• You see, these are the ways of God, the ways of the trinity to save us from our problems
• Prayer is so powerful we do not know what is something next that will happen
• We must never get discouraged to always have recourse through prayer in the holy trinity as it is a very powerful tool as proven to us by the disciples
• This is one of the secrets of the hundreds of saints in the Church, they believe in God whole and entire. Their faith in God is in its entirety
• And from there, God would begin to share his secrets about his mysteries
• God loves to share his secrets to those who entirely believe in him, to the lowly and the humble, to the little ones
• No doubt that all the saints that we have share a portion of the secrets of God because of the merits of their faith
• It is the same faith in the holy trinity that is required of us, that Moses required to the people in Deuteronomy that St. Paul required to the Romans
• There is no room for us to cast the slightest doubt about the existence of the holy trinity because even the demons would shiver upon hearing it
• Its power is already proven throughout the centuries
Tap or click to download
Trinity Sunday
