By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
God who communicates, chooses and commissions
May 30, 2021: Trinity Sunday
Deuteronomy 4: 32-34,39-40; Romans 8: 14-17; Matthew 28: 16-20
We celebrate today one of the fundamental truths of our Christian faith and experience: the truth and the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Triune God, who is the Communion that Commissions each of us, to be God’s children and God’s people. The Revelation of God as Trinity, come right from the beginning of creatiion and that is why the reference to the Creator-God in the first reading today, comes right in place. God created, through God’s Words as the Spirit was moving on the waters; the reference to the Wisdom of God and Word of God active in the care and guidance of God’s people is another experience of the Trinity and finally, the Christ-event where Christ declared that he came from the Father and would go back to the Father, sending us the Spirit as advocate and counselor, is the ultimate revelation of the Trinitarian God, we live, move and have our being in.
How do we come across, see and experience the Triune God in our personal lives – the Word today invites us to reflect on this fact and create within us convictions that can inspire our lives.
God who communicates: The first experience is that of God who communicates! Moses today reminds the people of God how he God had been communicating to them, continuously and for their good. The commandments were not to be looked at, even now are not to be looked at, as a control exercised on us by God, but as a communication of God’s will to us, so that we can feel always liberated and godly. Communication, is the key here! What does it mean? It means making something common, making something shared, making something commonly understood. God makes us understand what is expected of us and makes it very clear to us…making it a common place knowledge, so that we can go ahead live our lives to the full.
The first implication of the communication of God, is that we are made God’s children, that is those who share the identity with God, those who belong to God, those who form part of the common heredity of God. The call is here that we are called to communicate, to be communicators, those who make things common, those who create that common space where all of us feel as one people of God, one family of children of God. This is also the second experience of the Trinity.
God who has chosen us: The second experience of the Triune God is that of being chosen! We are chosen…God has chosen us, signifies that we are empowered by the Spirit! The Spirit makes us children of God, inspiring and enabling us to call God, Abba Father! We are made heirs to God, co-heirs in Christ, by the Spirit! It is the Spirit who enables us to understand our true idenity, as chosen people of God, which is certainly a privilege, but a privilege that comes as a package – with the call to share in the sufferings of the sole Heir, with whom we are co-heirs. The sufferings of Christ, is our way to becoming children of God; the sufferings of Christ is our guarantee of the title as people of God.
The implication here, of the fact of being chosen by God, who has chosen us by name: is that we imitate Christ, inspired by the Spirit, that we stand for the values that Jesus stood for, the lifestyle that Jesus promoted, the relationships that Jesus treasured, the searching mentality that Jesus had, the total submission that he expressed to his Father, the fundamental yearning to bring the flock together as one people of God, as one family of chidren of God. Are we following the footsteps of Jesus… doing so, we shall become his heirs, if not, we shall miss that golden opportunity.
God who commissions us: The third experience of the Trinity is God who commissions! God communicates, chooses and, sends or commissions us to be God’s ambassadors in the world today, wherever we are and in the times that we live. Jesus, the missionary apostle of the Father, makes of his own apostles missionaries too: go to the ends of the world, he commissions them. Go and do what? Baptise…in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…that is go and unite the world into one family, into one people of one mind and heart…it is not about bring everyone into one mould, but making everyone belong to one fold…people who think of the other, people who think together, people who care for each other, people who love each other genuinely, as God does. Love one another as I loved you, he said.
The implication of this commission, is that we go, go as ambassadors of God and of God’s peace, love and unity! We need to be people who bear God to others, specially in these moments of crisis that is making people suffer personally, in families, in the society, as nations and as a global community. Can we meaningfully communicate God! Can we really live up to our identity as chosen people of God! The commission, or the call, we have received lies there, where we really become persons and children of God who can make God present to the afflicted, to the suffering, to the bereaved, to the broken, to the depressed, to those in agony and anxiety, to those who have lost familes, to those who are at a loss where to go from here! We are called to make God present to them, because the Lord has promised us: I am with you till the end of times.
The Holy Trinity is an experience, the experience of a God who communicates, chooses us and invites us to communicate… in order that we may create one big family of people of God, creating the Reign of God present here and now!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him.