A Trinitarian Love: Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

The feast of the Most Holy Trinity is said to be a nightmare for most preachers, and rightly so, for how does one communicate one of the most complex mysteries of the Catholic faith, within the space of a few minutes? One cannot, and therefore, I will not try.

What I will do, however, is to point out that at the heart of understanding the Trinity is a relationship, that of love, a love that is so strong, that each person of the Trinity is present in each other. As Saint Augustine put it: “Each are in each, and all in each, and each in all, and all are one.”

There is much that this love can teach us, who are Catholic, and in fact, this is the love that should inspire our daily living, for this is what Our Lord taught us. The first location that this love can inspire, must most surely be the nuptial love between husband and wife.

In the Gospels (Mt 19; Mk 10) responding to the question from the Pharisees on the question of divorce, Our Lord teaches:

“Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Mt 19: 4-6)

First, let us bear in mind that when Our Lord says “the one who made them at the beginning”, He is referring to Himself. This is the teaching also of the first reading today, from the Book of Proverbs. It is generally understood, that the reference to Wisdom in the Bible is to Christ Himself. The first reading teaches us today, that God the Son existed at the side of the Father before time, was by the side of the Father when the world was crafted, and indeed, was the craftsman of the world.

Thus, when Our Lord says “the one who made them at the beginning”, He is referring to not only to Himself but to Himself in union with the Father, and the Holy Spirit that is born from their love for each other.

And so, in this episode when the Pharisees seeks an answer on the question of divorce, the creator is telling us that he seeks to see married couples united in love just as the Holy Trinity is united in love. So united must married couples be, that despite maintaining the distinct identity, they cannot, simultaneously, be distinguished as anything but one flesh.

This imitation of Trinitarian love need not be restricted to married love alone, however. This morning, we celebrate the inauguration of the Youth Group of this parish. Youth is often marked by vigour, and this vigour is made all the more beautiful when it is directed towards the common good. Indeed, in the two weeks that I have been here, I have seen evidence of this Trinitarian love that animates the parish youth group, when they offer their personal efforts for the group, seeing in the group an extension of themselves. In doing so, they recognize the great Catholic truth; that the person finds fullest articulation and coherence of themselves, not in a selfish individualism, but in cooperation with the group. In other words, the success of the group does not imply a loss for the person, both grow; and a loss for the individual is a loss for the group.

Indeed, the very technical understanding of indwelling which marks the theological understanding of the Most Holy Trinity, can be explained through these human loves that we have. In a good marriage, the spouse see themselves fulfilled in the other. They are so invested in, to use a term popular today, or so much in love with the spouse, that they cannot see themselves alive in any other way. The good Catholic, works for the common good because she or he realise that is the only way in which they can truly achieve personal growth!

For the model of love that the Most Holy Trinity offers us, dear brothers and sisters, let us give thanks in the words of the Gospel acclamation today:

Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit;
to God who is, who was, and who is to come.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa on 15 June 2025.)

(Image reference: “The Most Holy Trinity,” Laurent Girardin, c.1490, The ClevelandMuseum of Art, Cleveland.)

An Identity Renewed: Homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost

Some time ago, while interacting with a group of seminarians I heard the following anecdote from their life in the seminary. The question was of identities, and they were taught that we are first human, then Indian (assuming the seminary is in India), and only then, in the third place, Christian.

My dear brothers and sisters, if what was reported to me is true, then it is not only a great shame, but a matter of great concern, that such unchristian knowledge is being propagated via seminaries.

It is not that this teaching is entirely untrue. Naturally, and chronologically, speaking, it is a fact that one is first born, and is hence human; that we are then registered in the State records, and receive our nationality and/or citizenship; and it is only then, after a period that in the old days was about 45 days, that one is baptized, and hence becomes Christian. 

But the life of Christians is not about the natural alone, but also about the supernatural! The feast of the Pentecost that we celebrate today, is indeed, all about the cooperation of the natural and the supernatural, and the priority of the supernatural over the natural. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the gift of His Holy Spirit, the supernatural has not only triumphed over the world and the natural, but indeed, remade it! As in the case we just heard from the Acts of the Apostles:

there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven
staying in Jerusalem.

but they were confused
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
"Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?

How else, but because of the work of the Holy Spirit, that remakes the world?

I would like to return to the anecdote from the seminary; the formator who filled the seminarians with this nonsense seems to have misunderstood the very nature of baptism. When we are baptized, we are – through the power of the Holy Spirit – claimed for Christ, the stain of original sin is removed, and we are made worthy of entering heaven.

Listen to the words of St. Peter in his first epistle (1: 18-19):

You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.

The ways of our ancestors, those who belonged to the world, were – and remain – useless, and it was only with the gift of the Precious Blood of Christ and His Holy Spirit, that we are renewed, or made anew. As the response to the psalm says:

Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

After Pentecost, and the sacraments of baptism and confirmation that flow from it, we are no longer anything first, other than Christian. If we are not Christian first, and we stress our natural identities rather than the supernatural then we have missed the point, and we are nothing. For, as St. Paul teaches, "the wisdom of the flesh is death" (Romans 8: 6).

This Christian identity, is not some mere social identity, that is, not a natural identity, but in fact, a supernatural identity. The Christian identity via baptism is something that changes the core of our being, an ontological change - to use a technical word - and is about acknowledging Christ as Lord. As Saint Paul says in the portion from his first letter to the Corinthians that we just read:

No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, which was poured on the world on Pentecost, continues to claim souls for Christ, and to guide these souls towards union with Him and the Father. More than this, as St. Paul continues to teach, it makes us one body. This is the body that we belong to, the mystical body of Christ, which is His Church. We are, through baptism, therefore, not Jews, or Greeks, or slaves or free persons, or Indians, or Pakistanis, or Portuguese, or anything else but Christians; which is to say, one body in Christ, who is our first identity.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created,
and you shall renew the face of the earth.

(This homily was first preached to the faithful at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa on the 7 of June 2025, following the first vespers of the solemnity of Pentecost.)

(Image reference: Constantine the Great, accompanied by the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325), holding the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381, anonymous icon writer, via Wikipedia.)