Gospel Reading: John 3: 16-18

Happy Trinity Sunday!

I once thought Trinity to be some sort of theological calisthenics. Preachers come up with countless images: two men and a bird; 1+1+1 = 1; one sunlight diffused through a prism; three ice cubes melting into one glass of water.There are more sophisticated metaphors in the history of theology: father begetting the son, and father-son begetting the Spirit (filioque); love so perfect that it has turned itself into a person; a mother, a father, a son = one family (community model), etc. Only to end up in an unfathomable mystery. The story of the angel’s rebuff of Augustine’s attempt to understand the mystery by the seashore is always a handy story to tell.These theoretical attempts at explanation make the Trinity so abstract that it fails to touch real lives. The famous theologian, Karl Rahner, sadly commented:

"Despite their orthodox confession of the Trinity, Christians are, in their practical life, almost mere ‘monotheists.’ We must be willing to admit that, should the doctrine of the Trinity have to be dropped as false, the major part of religious literature could well remain unchanged.”

True, Christianity has fought the notion of “many gods” (polytheism) for a long time. But a solitary God (monotheism) also has its discontents. For difference and plurality need to balance the ambivalence of oneness and unity.God is one, God is plural. God is sovereign but God is also equal relations. God is essentially relationship from the start, or from eternity.The discourse of oneness alone has its dangers. If we call to mind some famous “calls to unity”, we are not necessarily in good company. Unity and oneness is a discourse of authority, of the victor, of the dictator, of authority that absorbs its subjects unto itself.

“The National Government will therefore regard it as its first and supreme task to restore to the German people unity of mind and will.” (Adolf Hitler, February 1, 1933 – First Radio Address)

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power” towards the “unity of the nation” (Benito Mussolini, 1938 upon dissolving the Parliament and creating the Chamber of Fascist Corporations)

“Make America great again” (Donald Trump, 2016 Presidential Campaign)

“We heal as one” (Duterte’s “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act” – COVID-19 program tagline:)

Plurality, difference and equality present themselves as antidote to solitary power. Godself as relations tames the sovereignty and omnipotence with which God has been presented in history.But such equality in difference or plurality in oneness does not exist for itself. A famous theologian, Catherine La Cugna describes the Trinity as "God for Us"(1991 book of the same title).Pope Francis expresses it well: “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity tells us that we do not have a solitary God up there in heaven, far away; no, He is the Father who gave us his Son, who became man like us, and who sends his own Spirit to be even closer to us.” (Pope Francis, 16 June 2019).The oft-quoted Gospel verse used for Trinity Sunday aptly expresses this: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” (John 3: 16).Here is a God who exists not for oneself but for another, for us. Once I wrote in Tagalog:

"Ang Diyos ay hindi nag-iisa. Siya'y nakikiisa at nagkakaisa."

The Trinity is not only a description of the nature of God. It is also a challenge how to also live our human lives in its utmost authenticity. The God-in-Relations dares us to live relational lives. The God-for-us dares us to be women and men for others.I would like to quote part of La Cugna’s conclusion in that book:

• “Living trinitarian faith means living God’s life: living from and for God, from and for others.
• “Living trinitarian faith means living as Jesus Christ lived, in persona Christi: preaching the gospel; relying totally on God; offering healing and reconciliation; rejecting laws, customs, conventions that place persons beneath rules; resisting temptation; praying constantly; eating with modern-day lepers and other outcasts; embracing the enemy and the sinner; dying for the sake of the gospel if it is God’s will.
• “Living trinitarian faith means living according to the power and presence of the Holy Spirit: training the eyes of the heart on God’s face and name proclaimed before us in the economy; responding to God in faith, hope and love; eventually becoming unrestrictedly united with God.
• “Living trinitarian faith means living together in harmony and communion with every other creature in the common household of God, ‘doing all things to the praise and glory of God.’
• “Living trinitarian faith means adhering to the gospel of liberation from sin and fractured relationship: liberation from everything that misleads us into false worship, from everything that promotes unnatural, nonrelational personhood, from everything that displaces us to an exclusive household, from everything that deceives us into believing self-aggrandizing archisms." (God for Us, 400-401).

Happy Trinity Sunday to all!


Daniel Franklin E. Pilario, C.M.
St Vincent SchoolofTheology - Adamson University
danielfranklinpilario@yahoo.com
06.04.2020