“Believing in a Triune God means believing in a hospitable God, who welcomes us and allows us to dwell in the communion of his love.” Happy Sunday!!!
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Deut 4,32-34.39-40; Psalm 32 (33); Romans 8,14-17; Matt 28,16-20; Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, Year B, May 26, 2024)
“I am with you always, until the end of the world” (Matt 28,20). The great promise of Jesus, with which the Gospel according to Matthew ends, resounds again this year in the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. It is good for us to listen to it, for at least two reasons. First of all because there is a word of consolation in a time of crisis and confusion. Jesus addresses it to the disciples who, after having all abandoned him, are reunited again by a word of forgiveness and peace, now offered to them freely. The evangelist writes that, “when they saw him, they fell prostrate. But they doubted” (28,17). The contrast between these two verbs outlines a Church that is still relevant today. The faith that prostrates itself in adoration, the faith that doubts. The Christian community has always been like this, and it is precisely to a community like this that the Risen One promises his presence: I will be with you, who are at the same time capable of adoration and of little faith.
Deuteronomy reminds us that the first fruit is listening to the word of God. “Was there ever such a great thing as this?”, asks Moses, “that a people heard the voice of God speak and remained alive?” (Dt 4,32-33). We too, like Israel, can listen to the word of God and remain alive; that is, we can listen to the word of God and find in it an inexhaustible source for our life in order to live well and to achieve a happy, fulfilled life.
The second fruit reminds us of prayer about which Paul writes to the Romans. We too have received the Spirit through whom we cry: “Abba! Father” (see Rom 8,15). We can pray to God and call him Father in the mentality of children. Only Jesus can truly say: “Abba”, but by abiding in the love of the Trinity we can also say: “Father”.
The third fruit, given to us by Matthew, is discipleship: "Go and make disciples of all nations" (Mt 28.19). We are disciples and we are sent by the Risen One to allow others to become disciples in turn, like us.
These three fruits qualify our remaining in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. They identify our being a Christian community that dwells in the Trinitarian communion. They give us three fundamental attitudes to live in our own community relationships, whether in a religious community, or in a family community, or in a parish community. By listening, we mean, the ability to welcome and to take care of each other; truly listening is not only listening to the words that the other says to me, but also to his need, his desire, his effort, his hope. Prayer, helps me in recognizing that I need not only God, but also others, the brother of my community, my father, my mother or my son. Praying to God should educate us to live in trust not only towards the Father who is in heaven, but also towards one another. Finally, being disciples means living in the awareness that until the end of our lives we always need to learn from each other, because no one is enough in himself/herself and everyone must look at the other as someone from whom he/she can receive something and who in turn can donate something. They are three very simple, everyday dimensions, which however, if lived with sincerity and coherence, can truly change the life of a community, a family, a parish. And they can allow us to say truthfully: we are gathered in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Believing in a Triune God means believing in a hospitable God, who welcomes us and allows us to dwell in the communion of his love. We (Matthew reminds us again) have been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and by virtue of the baptism received we live every moment of our lives immersed in the love of the Father and of the Son and of the Spirit. We are in God. We live in God. And in the space of this love we are never cramped, it is a very large and hospitable space, in which there is room for everyone; from which no one is excluded or prevented from entering. Jesus reminds us clearly in the Gospel of John: “In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, would I have ever said to you: "I'm going to prepare a place for you"? When I am gone and have prepared a place for you, I will come again and take you with me, because where I am you may be also” (John 14,2-3). Jesus wants us to also live where he dwells, that is, in the love of the Father and in the communion of the Spirit. Obeying the word of Jesus which is given to us today by Matthew, going to all the peoples of the earth to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit means precisely this, going and announcing this beautiful news to everyone: we can enter and dwell permanently in the love of God. + John I. Okoye.
(graphics by Chukwubike)
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