Homily – Trinity Sunday – Year A – Fr Jeremiah Browne (National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies #Southafrica #Swaziland #Botswana #eswatini)
If someone were to ask us to describe God in a single word, many of us might use a word like Mystery, or Creator, or maybe Almighty. Each of these words captures something true about God.
Yet if we were to listen carefully to the Scriptures, and especially to how Jesus reveals God to us, a more accurate word might be Love. Not love as a feeling or emotion, but love as a self-giving, life-giving relationship.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity is often regarded as one of the most difficult doctrines of our faith.
For centuries theologians have struggled to explain how God can be one God in three Persons. But what if we approached the Trinity not as a doctrine to be explained, but as a mystery to be entered into? Not as an abstract theological concept, but as the deepest reality of our lives: a God who is love, relationship, and communion, and who invites us to share in that divine life.
This truth is revealed throughout the life of Jesus. Again and again in the Gospels we see Jesus speaking of God not simply as Creator or Lord, but as Father. He withdraws to pray. He seeks not his own will but the Father’s will. He speaks of the unique bond that exists between them. He tells Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” The whole life of Jesus becomes a window through which we glimpse the mystery of God.
At his baptism, the Father’s voice is heard from heaven declaring, “This is my beloved Son,” while the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus like a dove. In that moment we catch a glimpse of the Trinity itself: the Father loving the Son, the Son responding in love to the Father, and the Spirit uniting them in an eternal communion of love.
This is not merely a truth about God. It is also a truth about us.
Every human person, every act of goodness, every expression of beauty and truth finds its origin in that eternal communion of love which is the heart of God.
This has profound implications for our lives. If we are created in the image and likeness of God, then we are created for relationship. We are not meant to live isolated lives. We discover who we are through our relationships with God and with one another.
Every friendship, every marriage, every family, every parish community reflects something of the life of the Trinity when it is marked by love, forgiveness, generosity, and mutual respect.
The Trinity also reminds us that unity is not the same as uniformity. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, yet they are perfectly one.
In the same way, the Church is made up of people of different cultures, languages, backgrounds, and gifts. Our unity comes not from being the same, but from being united in Christ.
Because the Trinity is a communion of love, Christians can never live as isolated believers. We are drawn into unity with Christ and with one another. That is why the Church reminds us this year that we are One in Christ, United in Mission. Mission is not something we do alone; it is something we do together as members of one body.
Today’s Gospel (John 3:16-18), perhaps the most famous verse in Scripture, reminds us: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” Notice that the starting point is not judgement, condemnation, or fear. The starting point is love. God’s first movement towards humanity is always one of love.
Jesus came not merely to teach us about God but to draw us into God’s own life. Through baptism we are welcomed into the very communion of the Trinity.
Every time we make the Sign of the Cross, we are reminded that we belong to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Yet this gift is never meant to remain private. The Trinity is not only a model of relationship; it is also the source of mission. Love by its nature reaches outward. The Father sends the Son. The Son sends the Spirit. The Spirit sends the Church. Mission is not an activity invented by the Church; it begins in the very life of God. The Church is missionary because God is missionary.
The more deeply we are united with Christ and with one another, the more effectively we become witnesses to God’s love in the world.
Our Christian mission, therefore, is not primarily about programmes, structures, or activities. It is about making visible the love we have received. Wherever people forgive rather than seek revenge, welcome rather than exclude, listen rather than condemn, and build bridges rather than walls, the life of the Trinity becomes visible in our world.
Perhaps that is the challenge of Trinity Sunday. Not that we understand every detail of the mystery, but that we allow ourselves to be drawn more deeply into it.
The world does not need Christians who can perfectly explain the Trinity. It needs Christians whose lives reflect the relational love of the Trinity – people who live in loving relationship with God and with one another, people who are one in Christ and united in mission.
When our communities become places of reconciliation, welcome, generosity, and hope, they reveal something of the life of the Trinity and become a living proclamation of the Gospel.
For in the end, the deepest truth about God is this: God is love. The deepest truth about the Church is this: we are called to make that love visible. One in Christ, united in mission, we are sent to reveal to the world the very life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
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Please consider praying a decade of the rosary on a daily basis for the evangelising Mission of the Church and the Pope’s intentions.
The pope’s prayer intention for May is “That everyone might have food”
Let us pray that everyone, from large producers to small consumers, be committed to avoid wasting food, and to ensure that everyone has access to quality food.
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Blessed Pauline Jaricot, Pray for us. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
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Batswana Catholics Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference Diocese of Francistown Catholic Diocese of Mthatha Catholic Diocese Of Kroonstad Catholic Diocese of Kimberley Youth & Young Adults Ministry Catholic Diocese of Manzini Catholic Diocese of Port Elizabeth Catholic Institute of Education Catholic Church South Africa – Sacbc Missionary Childhood #catholic #faith #hope #charity #trinity