Today is the feast of the Holy Trinity. The feast of the Holy Trinity is the only feast of the liturgical year in which God the Father is remembered in the form of a feast day. We celebrate today that Jesus revealed us God who is Triune. That is the idea and depiction of us humans about God and at the same time a revelation of God to us humans according to our faith. We believe that what we know and experience about God is not our merit, but it happens through the grace of God that enables us to grow deeply in the communion of God that God remains always with us as grace and strength.
There are hundreds of different depictions of the Holy Trinity, especially through the paintings. The idea of God as Father, Son and the Spirit in three persons are depicted as three leaves, as triangle with an eye in the centre, as Father, Son and the Spirit as the Mother are some of them.
The presentation of Trinity as three angels (The Hospitality of Abraham) is the most popular and widely discussed painting on the Holy Trinity. This is an icon created by Russian painter Andrei Rublev in the 15th century. This painting of the orthodox Christian art is considered as the most famous of all Russian icons, and it is regarded as one of the highest achievements of Russian art.
Especially beautiful is the depiction of the middle age in Santa Maria Novella in Florenz in which a cross is held behind God the Father, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove in middle between the Father and the Son. In this depiction of the Holy Trinity salvation is considered as work of the Holy Trinity. In the Suffering and death of Jesus he is not left alone. God the Father and the the Holy Spirit are with Jesus Christ in Jesus’ work of salvation that we experience in his life, message, suffering, death and resurrection.
This salvific will of God is evident in today’s Gospel. God has sent his Son to the world not to judge the world but to save it. The reason for that is the love of God towards the world. This concept of God and the world, God and human belong together and God will keep up this belongingness and togetherness by God‘s own initiative. This provides us much hope and encouragement that we belong to the divine communion and therefore we can never be disappointed or depressed. God will take us on his initiative and let us grow into his divinity. Pre-condition for that is our faith.
We read the Gospels:“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.“ God as relationship, God as communion and God as love is the God whom Jesus revealed us.
Faith, hope and love are the three virtues of the Christian faith that are required for belonging to the divine community. To love God and people, believe in God and in his grace and to hope for divine mercy enable us to enter in communion with the triune God who reveals himself as communion and relationship.
Sometimes we ask ourselves what is missing in the Christian life today in a time of upheaval and many difficulties. Many people lack faith, faith in God, in which we find ourselves, in which we give ourselves completely. Today we also often lack love, the love that comes from God, that connects us to God and to people, because we know that this love has its origin in God and in his communion of the Trinity. We often lack hope, the hope that God and his loving will to save will never let us perish.
Our belief in the Trinity actually includes a belief in the work of this Trinity today, which we have experienced in God’s salvation. Faith in God the Father, Son and Spirit and the celebration of the Trinity of God can help us deepen faith, hope and love and thereby make God’s presence felt in the world.
Fr. Joseph Pandiappallil MCBS