Trinity Sunday Homily

I remember, as a child, every time I asked questions about the Trinity, I was told that it was a mystery and that I would not understand. Initially, I accepted ‘blind faith’ as an answer to my questioning. But later on as my age of reasoning set in, that type of an answer would not satisfy me. Like most growing boys and girls, I wanted to know ‘why. Why was the sky blue and why were the girls different from the boys and why did their have to be three persons in one God?

As Christianity spread across the world, there were a number of people who began asking questions about the Trinity, much like the questions we ask today. The Fathers of the Church responded to these questions. The answers were not simple and in order to explain them sometimes people stressed only one part of the Trinity or sometimes on another. This led to controversies in the Church. The statements made by the Church in order to address these controversies led to the development of the Doctrine of the Trinity.

The most significant controversy was that of Arianism. Arius was a priest in Alexandria. Arius believed that God the Father was unique and only He had no beginning. Therefore, the Son was Subordinate to the Father was and the Spirit was no God at all. When this type of belief spread, it led to numerous fights among people, even Bishops. In the streets throughout the Empire, people discussed this, with the baker, the grocer everyone. Much like we in our country discuss cricket. There was trouble everywhere.

In order to put an end to the bickering, the Emperor Constantine called the Council of Bishops together. This Council in Nicaea, in 325 C.E., then issued a statement that God the Father and God the Son had the same nature. Later another Council in Constantinople in 381 C.E. said that the Holy Spirit too was equal to the Father and Son. Thus the three persons Father, Son and the Holy Spirit were in one God. This became the central datum of our Christian faith.

Now these three persons in one God can be compared to a community. In this community each person of the Trinity has a role to play. Each person’s role is different from that of the other. And yet all three work together for human growth. To understand this a little better, compare the Trinity to a magnet. A magnet has a North Pole and a South Pole and around these two lies a magnetic field. If the Father and the Son are likened to the North and South Poles, then the Spirit would be quite like the magnetic field. In this it becomes clear that each part of the magnet has a different role to play and yet only when all the three parts come together can it be called a magnet.

When we see the Trinity as a community, we notice that there are two particularly significant features that stare us in the face, one, that each person has a role to play and two, that each person supports the other person. The first feature, in the community of the Trinity each person has a role to play. Since our lives too are lived in communities, each one has a role to play in these communities.
A story is told of a village where all the villagers lived and worked in their vineyards together. One day they decided to have a party and each family was to bring a bottle of wine. When all the families had come in and emptied their bottles of wine in the wine bowl, the party began. It was only when the first of the villagers began to serve them from the wine bowl that they realized the wine bowl was full of water.

Each family thinking that they would be the only ones brought water instead of wine.
In a community each individual has a role to play, and no matter how small the role may be, for the community to come alive the role must be fulfilled. It means that I cannot leave it for someone else to do my job. I must do my little bit for the community to become a living one. In our Parish communities some are involved in animating theirs zones/clusters, while others have a role to play in the Liturgy. Some contribute in the Sunday School, some in the Financial Committees, some through artwork, others in terms of time, talent and money. Each one has a role to play.
Secondly, each person of the Trinity maintains his individuality. This aspect of the Trinity too is significant. Often when functioning within a community we tend to fit everyone else into our mould. In doing this we effectively negate the individuality of everyone else. In a household community for instance a husband needs to acknowledge and support his wife in what she does and a wife likewise has to support her husband. Neither has a more important role than the other. Similarly children need to be allowed the freedom to choose their own careers. They are individuals in their own right not just extensions of their parents.

There was a famous organist. This was in the old days when organs had bellows through which air had to be pumped in for the organ to be heard. During one of his performances, a little boy was working the bellows in order to pump air. And the organist played the most melodious music. At the interval, the organist took his bow and gracefully made his way backstage. In the passageway the little boy at the bellows all puffed up with pride, called out, ‘We did very well, didn’t we Sir’? The great organist looked at him scornfully, `What do you mean we?’ The little boy said nothing. After the interval the organist returned to his seat at the organ and once again his fingers began to dance across the keys, but not a sound could be heard. The little boy had gone away.

The Trinity challenges us to be a witnessing community. Such a community, like anything worth having, requires effort. It requires effort to learn about and respect differences, to be compassionate with one another, to be tolerant, to cherish one’s own identity, and to accept unconditionally the same in others. Can you and I take up this challenge?