Holy Trinity Sunday. June 4, 2023
Genesis,
II Corinthians and Matthew
Rev.
Neli Miranda
Today, our lessons open with the first chapter of Genesis which is a beautiful poem that tells us about God who in the beginning creates the heavens and the earth and all that is in it. The sacred writer poetically tells us that, in the midst of chaos and darkness, the Divine presence, the “Ruah of God” swept over the face of the waters (1,2). Ruah is a Hebrew term for spirit, breath and wind, and it is used in the Old Testament to describe the living and animating presence of God in the world. The image of Ruah tells us how the people of Israel understood God as a living breath and force that energizes and moves life in the world.
Brothers
and sisters, just imagine the Ruah, the divine breath inspiring you in
this very moment, entering your nostrils and animating your lives. This is
God!!
(The grammatical gender of Ruah is feminine).
The
text from Genesis is read in the light of the celebration of the Holy Trinity, a
Christian concept that tells us of the human attempts to create a language to
speak about God. The concept of the Holy Trinity does not appear in the Bible,
yet we read of the triple divine manifestation: God, whom Jesus tenderly calls Father;
Jesus, whom we call Son of God and also, understand as our brother; and the
Holy Spirit/Ruah, the Divine Presence who animates Jesus’ disciples to
be a living community in the world (The Hebrew term Ruah is translated
in the New Testament as the Greek Pneuma, Spirit in English and is grammatically
neuter).
It
took many years for the early church to put this understanding of God in a
human concept, “The Holy Trinity”, that could explain the great mystery of God. “Trinity” does not mean three Gods but the
richness of God’s nature. By the concept of “Trinity” which means “Three in unity”
or a “Common-unity of Three”, the first Christians tried to capture in one word
the essence of the loving God, the Creator, the Redeemer and the Animator of this
world. So, the Holy Trinity is a Holy Communion in which we
have been invited to dwell in and receive the divine plenitude.
The
Celebration of Trinity Sunday was approved for the western church by Pope John
XXII in 1334, and it is celebrated in the Anglican Communion on the first
Sunday after Pentecost. This celebration gathers the Trinitarian Theology
developed during centuries in the
Christian tradition. In the first century, the word “Trinity” did not exist,
but Paul blesses the Corinthians’ community with a trinitarian blessing, which
tells us of the understanding of the rich divine manifestation among them: “The
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy
Spirit be with all of you” (2 Corinthians 13,13). Also,
in today’s Gospel we read that Jesus commands
his disciples to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28, 19). This testimony
tells us that very early, the trinitarian formula “in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” was used to baptize those
who joined the first community.
Dear
sisters and brothers, today we celebrate the Holy Trinity that reminds us that
we were created and received the Divine Breath that makes us participants of the
grand community of life, the Creation of God. This celebration also reminds us
that God so loved us that incarnated in Jesus to live among us and gather us as
a great family. So, today, we celebrate that we live in a community of life,
love and hope, and we remember that in the Holy Trinity, we are all related to
one another in the divine community of our Creator, our Savior, and our Animator.
Amen.
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