SALVATION AND TRINITARIAN COMMUNION

THE MOST HOLY TRINITY  

Exod 34:4-6,8-9; Dan 3:52-56; 2 Cor 13:11-13; Jn 3:16-18

The Communion of Salvation in God

We celebrate the solemn Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. The revelation of God is, of course, the salvation of man essentially, for being made in the image of God, we cannot know ourselves without God. Hence, the main aspect of the revelation is the understanding of God as given in three persons. The true nature of God as constituted in three persons has always been present in the history of the revelation of God or the history of human salvation, but our understanding of the persons in the Godhead is part of the fullness of divine revelation. If the knowledge of God is essential for our salvation, then our knowledge of God as the Trinity is necessary for our salvation. We must seek to understand the Trinity of God, not just in a notional way, but in a concrete way, in order to enter into communion with the Triune God that constitutes our salvation. Though God remains a mystery to our understanding, He reveals his divinity enough to guarantee our salvation. By the new spiritual birth that we have received through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has given us the capacity to receive and contain the outpouring of His Godhead within us for our salvation and glorification.

This was not possible before due to the original sin and the disfigurement of our human nature in Adam and Eve. By the original sin, the human nature, which God made to contain His Godhead and be like Him, was corrupted by the serpent, who found his way into the human vessel. God promised to cleanse the vessel again without any spot of what belongs to the serpent. God achieved this through His living and Eternal Word. Seeking and singling out Abraham, the man of faith, he commenced the rehabilitation of His Eternal Word in man. The revelation of the Ten Commandments through Moses marked another stage in the project of rehabilitating the Word in the community of human persons. We read about the event that took place on Mount Sinai. “With the two tablets of stone in his hands, Moses went up the mountain of Sinai in the early morning as the Lord had commanded him. And the Lord descended in the form of a cloud, and Moses stood with him there.” Moses, a faithful steward in God’s house, found favour with God through faith and received the Decalogue in physical form. This was to mediate the habitation of the Commandment of life in the people of God. God represented His Word on two tablets of stone as a means of having Him in human hearts.

The one who is able to handle the Commandments could call on God’s name and receive a favourable answer; for such a one has become a true house of God and his priest. This is what Moses became; for he did not just carry the two tablets in his hands, he carried the Commandments in his mind and heart. Through the Commandments, Light or Word of God dwelt in his mind, and Love or Holy Spirit inflamed his heart.  “He called on the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘Lord, Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness.’ And Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped.” It is by faithfulness we enter God’s knowledge, by which God enters us as his dwelling. The unfaithfulness of the children of Israel was a stumbling block to God's entering into them and dwelling in their midst. But Moses’ faithfulness mediated God’s patience and presence to the community. “If I have indeed won your favour, Lord,’ he said, ‘let my Lord come with us, I beg. True, they are a headstrong people, but forgive us our faults and our sins, and adopt us as your heritage.” Through God’s interaction with the people of Israel, He prepared our nature to contain the Word and the Holy Spirit.

At the fullness of time, when God had prepared our nature enough to receive the fullness of the Word as the full expression of the Father’s love and compassion for us, He gave us the woman and her Son. Our Lord confirms that the Incarnation of the Word was the fullness of the Father’s expression of love for us while speaking to Nicodemus. “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” Thus, in the Incarnation, the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity were fully revealed, as fully and actively involved in our redemption and salvation. The Father showed forth His infinite Love, who is the Holy Spirit, through the gift of the fullness of His Word, who became the Son of Man for our salvation. Subsequently, we understand the mystery of the Triune God as intricately connected to our salvation and glorification. God is the Trinity of Persons working for our salvation and glorification.

The intricate connection between the Trinity and our salvation makes it impossible to be saved without the knowledge of the Trinity. Therefore, the Church wisely celebrates the solemn feast of the Most Blessed Trinity on the Sunday after the end of the Easter or Paschal festivities. This tells us that our attainment of fullness of salvation is in the knowledge and communion of the Blessed Trinity. This is what Saint Paul wishes for all of us, saying: “Brothers, we wish you happiness; try to grow perfect; help one another. Be united; live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.” Eternal happiness and peaceful repose after all our works and life struggles is about being filled with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. This is what we wish ourselves and every other person each day as we strive to attain eternal and heavenly communion in God. We note that salvation is communion, and communion is salvation. May the prayers of our mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, assist us daily to attain the Trinitarian communion.

Let us pray: God our Father, who by sending into the world the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification made known to the human race your wondrous mystery, grant, we pray, that in professing the true faith, we may acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory and adore your Unity, powerful in majesty. Through our Lord Jesus, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.