The Easter season is over. It was concluded last Sunday with the Pentecost. Today we return to Sundays in Ordinary Time. If there is one theme that marks the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year, it is the theme of growth in Christian living. The liturgical color green symbolizes life and growth, as we know from nature. Ordinary Time will take us to the end of the liturgical year. If the theme of the Ordinary Time is growth, why then does the church choose to come back to it with the solemnity of the Blessed Trinity? Growth is a practical, everyday concern but the Trinity seems to be high up there, a matter of theological and philosophical profundity.
One explanation why the church brings us back to the Ordinary time of the year with the feast of the Holy Trinity is in the words of the French novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” The church is presenting us with the big picture of the “endless immensity of the sea” we call God. When we are personally caught up in the mystery of the love of God, then we shall find the rationale and the motivation to work for our personal growth in Christian living.
Our goal is to be at one with God. This is attained through Christ in whom we have access to the Father. Our hope is to share in God’s glory. This hope is nourished by our faith in Christ which justifies us. Our hope to share in God’s glory in the future is not based on wishful thinking. It is based on the fact that even now God has already given us the surety or assurance of what is to come by pouring out the love of God into our hearts. In his Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul says: “And hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” The love of God is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Christian life is, therefore, not possible without a relationship with God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and his Holy Spirit.
What does the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity tell us about the kind of God we worship and what does this say about the kind of people we should be? First, God does not exist in solitary individualism but in a community of love and sharing. God is not a loner. This means that a Christian in search of Godliness must shun every tendency to isolationism. The ideal Christian spirituality is not that of flight from the world like that of some religious traditions where the quest for holiness means permanent withdrawal away from contact and involvement with people and society. Second, True love requires three partners. You remember the old saying “Two is company, three is a crowd.” The Trinity shows us that three is community, three is love at its best; three is not a crowd.
As we return to Ordinary Time and to the daily challenges of living the Christian life, let us know that we are not alone in the struggle. God the Father is on our side, Jesus Christ the Son of God is on our side, the Holy Spirit the Power of God Most High is on our side.