The solemnity of the most holy trinity

Last Sunday, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Holy Spirit or Pentecost Sunday and thanks to the Holy Spirit living within us, humankind has learned how to love God, regardless of how people perceive God to be. What I’m saying here is that, there are far more people who believe in a deity than those who do not. Of course here in the Philippines, the majority of Filipinos believe in the Christian God and we’ve been taught from the Bible that our God is three persons in one God, which is why today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity. You can read today’s gospel in John 3: 16-18:

(16) God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. (17) For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (18) Whoever believes in Him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

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Today’s gospel teaching maybe very short, but it came directly from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ, who we Christians acknowledge as the Son of God. Yet in the past weeks, we have come to learn how our Lord Jesus Christ describes his relation with God the Father. In John 14:1-12 during the Last Supper Discourse, our Lord spoke plainly to his disciples and avoided using parables so it was easier for his disciples to discern what the Lord was telling them. Actually, this is the very same gospel passage last May 18th so let me reprint this again for your better understanding.

“[Jesus told his disciples.] “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God, have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where [I] am going you know the way.

(5) Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (7) If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

 Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”

There are two very important teachings in this passage. The first one shows God’s love for us, through his only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ who told his disciples, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.”

If you truly believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is God the Son, then just imagine if our Lord spoke the very same thing to you… that we do have a place in heaven for there are many dwelling places in his Father’s house. Call us Catholics a lucky bunch…that if we reciprocate our Love for God, we are assured a place in heaven to be with God.

The second very important teaching came when Philip asked the Lord “Show us the Father.” Jesus said in reply, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.”

In the Prayer of Jesus in John 17: 24, our Lord Jesus prayed to his Father about his disciples saying, “Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see may glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

Clearly, God the Father chooses us from the billions of people throughout the world and gives us to our Lord Jesus Christ to guide us through our life here on earth. Too often, we fail to love God because we sin. But for sure, God never fails to show his love for us. 

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