Skip to main content

Trinity Sunday - Year C

Come on a journey down memory lane with me, to the 1970s, and the best of animation used for education. Old school, hand drawn animation with catchy soundtracks. 

🎵 The past, the present, and the future. The heart, the mind, and the body. And somewhere in the ancient mystic Trinity, you get three… it’s a magic number. 


This week, as the Church celebrates Trinity Sunday, the idea that 3 is significant, if not magic, is the focus of my reflection. 

From John's account of the Gospel we hear Jesus say to the disciples, All that is mine is the Father's, and all that the Spirit reveals to you is mine. It’s a clear expression of the unity between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it’s from this passage, supported by others, that our belief in the Triune nature of God originates. That God is three and God is one. 

But how is that possible? How can three be one? As an RE teacher I have often used my wife as an example. 

When we gather together as a family, she embodies three and one in her relationships. She is my partner in marriage, a living example of self-giving love. At the same time that she is mother to our children, giving and sustaining life. And again, at the same time she is daughter to her own parents, who delight in her as God delights in the Spirit of Wisdom in Sunday's reading from the Book of Proverbs.  Each of these is a distinct relationship, different in nature, and none diminishes the others. 

Of course it's an imperfect analogy, but that's the nature of mystery. We can perceive God as one that has created us, redeemed us, and sanctifies us - drawing us towards fulness of life - but we cannot fully grasp it within the limits of our human frailty. But what we can understand is that God is relational. And it is by working at our relationship with God that we can get to know God better. 

Perhaps, in a colloquial sense, this particular version of three is pretty magic! At least I think my wife is. 

As we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity this Sunday, I pray that my relationship with God continues to be as open and giving from my side as it is from God's. And that when the time comes to know God fully in eternal life, God doesn't hear my name and say, "Who?" 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B

Early in the final year of my teacher training at Mount Saint Mary's I fell in love. Within months I had decided that this girl was the one. By the end of that year I was off to the country as a beginning teacher, leaving her behind in Sydney to complete her own studies.  For the next three years I lived alone in small flat next to the local footy oval. I involved myself in sport, community service and work, and kept myself very busy. I enjoyed it all, but without her, it was never home.  In the latter part of my third year, I was applying for four or five jobs a week, longing to get back to her. After what must have been twenty-five or thirty applications a principal asked me straight out in an interview why I was so determined to come back to the city. I told him the truth, and within fifteen minutes of the interview, he offered me the job. I called my mum, and then I called Shayne.  My experience of long-distance love (and telephone bills) is why the opening line of th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

 In this Sunday's Gospel we hear the story of Mary and Martha. It is Martha, we are told, that welcomes Jesus into her house, and immediately she sets about doing exactly what is culturally expected of her. She begins to serve the Lord.  We aren't given the details but we can imagine that she is preparing food, drink and welcome for Jesus. And that she would have come to wash his feet.  Yet when she does, she finds that her sister Mary is there 'sat at the Lord's feet and listening to Him.'   The Gospel tells us that Martha is frustrated - upset that she is doing all the work while her sister assumes the posture of a disciple. And it tells us that she directs her frustration  at Jesus,  not Mary. "Don't you care..."   As we have come to expect, Jesus' answer challenges Martha's righteousness. Mary, she is told, has chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her.  The story ends abruptly, and we don't get to hear what Martha'...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pentecost - Year C

This  Sunday   we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.  The entrance antiphon proclaims that 'The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit of God dwelling within us.'   The immediate and vivid memory this prompts in me is primary school, felt banners, guitars and children's voices belting out... ♫ God is dwelling in my Heart. He and I are one. All His joy He gives to me, through Christ His son.  And with Jesus in my heart, what have I to fear. For He is the Son if God. In my Heart he is near.  To this day it's a loud sense-memory, and a happy one.  In the first reading this Sunday we also hear a loud sense-memory from the apostles.  'Suddenly, they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house.'  The Gospel tells us that they were all gathered in one place 'for fear of the Jews.' It's not clear whether there is any particular threat that they are hiding from, or whether the...
Post a Comment
Read more