Kuwait City, 13-15 June 2014
Homily of the Apostolic Nuncio
His Grace Archbishop Petar Rajič
Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9; 2 Cor 13:11-13; Jn 3:16-18
Today we celebrate the great feast of the Holy Trinity which is the central mystery of our faith and Christian life. The Church dedicates this Sunday to the one and only God in three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is difficult to explain with words and concepts this great mystery of God’s own being, the fact that there is only one God in three persons, yet the Church teaches only that which has been revealed to her by God.
During Jesus’ mission on earth, he made numerous references to God as his and our Father. This is the preferred name Christ used in referring to God, which presents God to us as totally benevolent, as a good father who loves all his children.
At the same time, Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man and the Son of God; specific terms that describe him and his relationship to God the Father. Jesus is at one and the same time God and man, the Son of the eternal Father.
Last Sunday we celebrated the feast of Pentecost which commemorates the sending of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Holy Trinity into the world by the Father in the name of and through the Son. Jesus himself said that he would send forth the Holy Spirit to the Church in order to guide us in the whole truth. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, who helps us understand Jesus’ words, we can experience the intimacy of God himself. By believing in the Holy Trinity we discover that God is not infinite solitude but communion of light and love, life given and received in an eternal dialogue between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit – Lover, Loved and Love, to echo St Augustine.
Therefore, we can easily see that what we celebrate today has been revealed to us by God himself. These three members of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit are inseparable in their unity and action. The Father spoke to the Patriarchs and the Prophets and in the fullness of time has been revealed to us by the Son. Jesus said to his disciples once: He who sees me sees the Father, for I am in Him and He is in me. The Son, Christ comes from the Father, he is “consubstantial” or “one in being” with him as we confess in our Credo at Mass, and “through him all things were made”. The Holy Spirit is the bond of unity between the Father and Son, and is the living force of God’s being, which we have all received at Baptism and Confirmation.
Our entire Christian lives are centered on this great mystery of our faith. One of the first introductions we had to the faith by our parents or grandparents was the making of the sign of the cross in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We might be able to recall how our parents taught us this first great truth of our faith by taking our small baby hand and showing us how to touch our foreheads, hearts and shoulders and thereby recalling that God is one being in three persons and that the sign or symbol of Christians is the cross of Christ.
We make the sign of the cross at the beginning and end of Mass, at prayer, when we receive the sacraments, when we enter churches, when we start and end our day at home. This shows us that the Holy Trinity is with us in all our actions and in our daily Christian lives. Everything we do as believers is done in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God works through three persons and we are called to adore him and worship him as such in his eternal majesty.
When we make the sign of the cross, we must call to mind that we are invoking the name of God, and that we are making the sign of our salvation – the cross of Christ. We call upon God to be with us in our actions, in our daily lives, in everything we undertake so that his divine presence accompany us along the way, strengthen us, and encourage us to go on. We cannot therefore just routinely make the sign, but it should be an act of prayer, done with dignity, and in humility before God.
God wishes to communicate his life to us through his eternal love, which has been manifested to us in Jesus Christ, for 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. Let us take advantage of the great mystery of God’s presence in our lives to enrich ourselves with his gifts, his life and above all his love. And all that we do shall be done for the greater glory of God, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!
