THE MOST HOLY TRINITY (C)
12th June 2022

Dear Parishioner

We are back again into the liturgical season of Ordinary Time. This Sunday is designated to a solemnity, a special day meant for understanding and praying over the central mysteries of our faith. Today, the first Sunday after Pentecost, the mother Church celebrates the great Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Holy Trinity Sunday is celebrated thus in most of the liturgical churches in Western Christianity. It is a solemn celebration centred on our belief in the revelation of one God, as three divine persons. It was not uniquely celebrated in the early church, but with the advent of new heretical thinking the Church often had to expound and elaborate its own tradition and then boosted it by a liturgical celebration in order to assure of Church's approval and patronage.

In the early 4th century when the Arian heresy was spreading, the early church, recognizing the inherent Christological and Trinitarian implications, prepared an Office of Prayer with canticles, responses, a preface, and hymns, to be recited on Sundays to proclaim the Holy Trinity. Pope John XXII (14th century) instituted the celebration as a feast for the entire Church; the celebration became a solemnity after the liturgical reforms of Vatican II. This feast invites us to consider what we believe about God, who has revealed himself to us in the Trinity-one God in three persons.

The verses of today's Gospel come near the end of Jesus' long discourse at the Last Supper. In the early part of this discourse, as we saw last week on Pentecost, Jesus offers assurances to the disciples. Even though he must leave the disciples, he tells them that they will have a future because of the help he will send them in the Holy Spirit. In this section he focuses more on the shape of the future, which will include Jesus' victory over the world that they will share in. The disciples of Jesus cannot know the future. They can only know that, whatever shape the future takes, they will not have to face it alone. They have the Spirit of Truth, who will continue to provide the teaching of Jesus in the future.

Reading this passage on Trinity Sunday reinforces our understanding of the unity shared by the members of the Trinity. Although the idea of one God in three persons remains a mystery, we have the assurance that, as Jesus and the Father share all, Jesus and the Spirit share all. God bless you all on this Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.

Fr Jijo George

Notices:
Please remember to pray for:

Daily for the sick clergy of our Diocese

The sick and housebound

Those who have recently died

Years Mind:
Sunday: Fr John Gallagher, Fr Robert Mortimer-Anderson
Monday: Fr Thomas Carlin
Tuesday: Fr Gerard Hughes
Wednesday: Fr Ambrose O'Gorman
Saturday: Bp Bernard Patrick Wall