✝️ REFLECTION CAPSULE FOR THE DAY – May 30, 2021: Sunday
“May the Blessed Trinity – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – help us to grow in our intimacy and union, and in turn, help to reflect His image to all people in our lives!”
(Based on the Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity)
A story is told of various fruits, coming together for a discussion.
The topic of discussion was to know the reason, why no other fruit, but the grape, contains juice, from which the best wines were made.
>> They also discussed from the Biblical perspective, as to how, the wine from the grape, is an important element in Sacred Scriptures.
“Her drink is famous throughout the world”, declared all the other fruits.
>> “Why is she more worthy, than we are, to be so blessed by God?” they asked one another.
A cluster of grapes, which were hanging nearby in the garden, heard the complaint and told them:
“All of you grow individually – each one to oneself and by oneself.
But we, grapes, always, grow in bunches.
>> We always hang on to each other.
That is our nature – that is the only way we can grow.
>> And it is this mutual dependence on one another, that puts something special into the wines that come forth from us!”
Mutual dependence, selfless unity and constant integration with one another, was their nature – and this brought the best in them.
>> These qualities, also ought to become the nature in our own families, communities and society – and that will bring out the best in us!
OUR GOD – FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT – THE BLESSED TRINITY is the Perfection of this Mutual Dependence, Selfless Unity and Constant Integration with one another!
Today, as we celebrate the Great Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, we are invited to grow into this nature of our God.
The Dogma of the Blessed Trinity is indeed the most fundamental, yet the most baffling and confusing mystery of the Christian Faith.
However, we are encouraged by a great truth about this mystery…
>> The mystery of the Trinity is more to be lived, than merely be understood
>> The mystery of the Trinity is more to be encountered, than merely be grasped
>> The mystery of the Trinity is more to be experienced, than merely be comprehended
This feast is celebrated on the Sunday, following the Feast of the Pentecost.
The encounter of the Holy Spirit, was a life-transforming experience for the Disciples.
>> It brought about a huge upliftment in courage for their sagging and fearful spirits.
>> It brought about a massive alteration of mind, to being bold and dynamic in their faith.
Along with this, it also brought in the tremendous experience of the Holy Spirit as a God!
>> This was something very new, strange and heart-experiential.
The disciples, as we know, were Jews.
Jews believed in strict monotheism – One God.
>> They professed this belief in One God, daily, by the ‘Shema Israel’: “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one God….” (Deut 6:4)
However, in Jesus, the disciples encountered a deep Divine experience.
>> On Pentecost Day, they also encountered a deep Divine experience in the Holy Spirit.
This tremendous experience, along with the grace of God, helped them to reflect on the many words and sayings of Jesus that pointed to the dimension of Three Persons in the One nature of God.
Thus, with gradual and deeper reflection on the words of the Lord, and the power of the Holy Spirit, the disciples – strict monotheists – began to understand the mystery of God in a new light…
>> God is One
>> There are three Persons – the Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God
>> The Father is not the Son and the Spirit; the Son is not the Father and the Spirit; the Spirit is not the Son and the Father.
This Triune invocation was the way the Lord exhorted to Baptize disciples in all the nations, as we see in the Gospel of the Day:
“Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, in the name of the FATHER and of the SON and of the HOLY SPIRIT” (Mt 28: 19).
The Dogma of the Blessed Trinity has explanations, rationalization and details in the Holy Scripture and the Teachings of the Church.
>> However, with all that, the Dogma continues to remain a mystery…
And this is the beauty of the Mystery of the Triune God…
… It is something to grow in, daily
… It is something to develop a deeper relationship, daily
… It something to be lived and experienced in practical life, daily
As Evagrius of Pontus, a Greek monk of the 4th century said: “God cannot be grasped by the mind. If God could be grasped, God would not be God!”
This is our Blessed Triune God…
… He escapes being subjugated to the prisons of the mind; instead, invites to forge a powerful bond with the heart!
… He gets away from being trapped in the intriguing theological explanations and philosophical reasoning; instead calls forth to form an everlasting covenant of love!
Our whole world reflects the Triune nature of the Blessed Trinity…
>> Water exists in three forms – solid as ice, liquid as water, gaseous as steam
(In physics, it is also proved that theoretically, water exists as solid, liquid and gas at the same time at something called the triple point – a temperature of 0oC or 273.16 K and at a pressure of 611.2 Pa)
>> Sunlight displays a triune dimension – the substance of the sun, the heat, the light
>> The universe consists of three things: matter, space, and time.
(Each one of those is itself a trinity.
Matter = mass + energy + motion.
Space = length + height + breadth.
Time = past + present + future)
>> Human beings have a triple dimension, consisting of the body, the mind and the soul
The reflection of the Blessed Trinity is indeed everywhere!
>> The most important factor that is needed is that we need to grow in this awareness and deeper our love for Him!
The Lord presents this deep love of the Blessed Trinity, in perhaps, the most popular verse of the Gospels: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Son, that whoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have eternal life!” (Jn 3:16)
Are we willing to grow in cultivating an intimate and close bond with the Triune God – the God of Love and Holiness?
>> Are we willing to live the beautiful virtues of the Blessed Trinity – Mutual Dependence, Selfless Unity and Constant Integration – in our personal relationships with one another ?
Let us become greatly aware of the many invocations we make to the Blessed Trinity (Sign of the Cross, in our daily prayers etc)…
… and perform those actions with greater meaning and significance!
May the Blessed Trinity – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit- helps us to grow in our intimacy and union, and in turn, help to reflect His image to all people in our lives…
… and thus, bring the “best wine” in us all!
Happy Feast of the Blessed Trinity!
God Bless! Live Jesus!
– Fr Jijo Jose Manjackal MSFS
Bengaluru, India
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📖 Discovering the beauty of the Catholic Church through the Catechism:
JESUS CHRIST – THE ONLY SON OF GOD
>> Peter could recognize the transcendent character of the Messiah’s Divine Sonship because Jesus had clearly allowed it to be so understood.
>> Jesus is superior even to the angels. He distinguished His Sonship from that of His disciples by never saying “our Father”, except to command them: “You, then, pray like this: ‘Our Father'”, and he emphasized this distinction, saying “my Father and your Father.”
>> The Gospels report that at two solemn moments, the Baptism and the Transfiguration of Christ, the voice of the Father designates Jesus his “beloved Son”.
>> Jesus calls himself the “only Son of God”, and by this title affirms His Eternal Pre-existence.
>> Only in the Paschal mystery can the believer give the title “Son of God” its full meaning.
After his Resurrection, Jesus’ Divine Sonship becomes manifest in the power of his glorified humanity.
>> He was “designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead”.
>> The apostles can confess: “We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Cf. CCC # 443-445)
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Nelson MCBS 