HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

THREE DIFFERENT PERSONS BUT ONE AND THE SAME GOD

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

Dear friend, we celebrate today the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. This celebration is fittingly celebrated on the Sunday following the Feast of the Pentecost. The doctrine of the Trinity is at the center of our Christian life and faith because it is the sum total of our Christian understanding of the mystery of God. This doctrine states that there is ONE God but in this one Godhead are THREE persons - Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

On the course of my theological studies, the course on the Trinity was one of my favorite courses. But this is not based on the fact that the course helped me to fully understand the mystery of the Trinity. The Fathers of the Church and numerous other great theologians have invested so much thought in the bid to unravel the mystery of our God who is one and at the same time three. But none has succeeded in fully capturing the essence of this doctrine. As a doctrine that pertains to the core nature of God, it will be difficult to fully understand the doctrine of the Trinity because to do so is to understand God and once we understand God, then, God ceases to be God. On that basis, our reflection does not aim so much at explaining the doctrine of the Trinity. Rather, we will try to see how the nature of God as a unity of persons can as well be applied to our human reality following the words of St. Augustine that “To know God is to know man who is created in the image of God.”

In the creed, we profess our faith in God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our Christian faith confesses three persons but one God. The three persons are one by virtue of essence and three by virtue of hypostasis. Everything the Father is, the Son is and same with the Holy Spirit except that the Father is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit. The Father is God. The Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God yet, there are not three Gods but one God. The Father is God in the same way that the other two persons are God. The Father is the one from whom all things are. The Son is the one through whom all things are and the Holy Spirit is the one in whom all things exist (Romans 11:36).

Basically, the doctrine of the Trinity implies that God exists in a relationship as a community of three persons. God is not only personal but tri-personal, which means fullness of life, movement and relationship. God’s existence in a relationship therefore stands as a model for how we should view our connectedness. Just as our God is one and at the same time three, so are we many and different but at the same time one. We are many and different on account of our color, sex, creed, profession, tribe, class but we are one on account of our human nature. Lucky Dube’s song with the title ‘different colors, one people’ best explains the point I am making here. We have plurality of differences but a singular human nature. The differences that exist in us are not meant to make us different. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one by virtue of their substance. We too are one by virtue of our human nature. Sadly, we often pay greater attention to the several accidents that make us different while forgetting the one substance that unites us and makes us the same- our common and shared humanity.

The three persons share the same Godhead, equality, eternity and none is superior to the other. In the Trinity, we find a unifying bond and that bond is the Holy Spirit. Also, in the Trinity, we find inter-dependence and inter-connectedness of persons. So, it is with us. We are distinct and even far apart but we have a common link and whatever we do affects the other person. The pandemic that is ravaging the whole world today has shown us that what happens in China does not always remain in China. If one individual does not cough properly or use the nose cover, the next person or the whole world will catch cold. The Trinity also has something to tell us about our ecology. If we continue to destroy our environment through indiscriminate dumping of hazardous wastes and burning down of vast forestlands, then, the ecology of the whole world will be affected as well.

Today, let us ask the Holy Spirit, the bond that unites the Father and the Son, to remove the seed of division that has been sown in our hearts and our world. May this Spirit enlighten the hearts of married couples to understand that though they are different sexes but the sacrament of Holy Matrimony has made them one. May this same Spirit enlighten our minds as a country to look beyond our ethnic and religious differences and to see that which makes us one. Lastly, may this Spirit heal our world that is being ravaged by racial discrimination and strengthen our bond of unity. We depend upon one another and together, we are stronger. Let us make the unity of the Trinity alive in our lives and in our world. Amen