Emulating the Trinitarian family
By
YOU probably heard of the joke about a woman whom a priest found bringing a bunch of novena booklets to church. He asked, “Who is your favorite saint?” “Of course, I like the Blessed Virgin Mary best! But I also like her sister!”
“Sister? Who is she?” asked the priest. “Santa Trinidad, of course!” This story somehow illustrates how inaccurate the ideas of many concerning the Blessed Trinity.
** * One consolation is that of all the Church’s doctrines, the one of the Blessed Trinity is the hardest nut to crack. We say 1+1+1 equals 3 but with the Triune God, it’s 1+1+1 equals 1!
St. Patrick of Ireland used as analogy the shamrock leaf. It has three leaflets but only one stem. Others use the example of water, which can exist in three different forms, i.e., ice, liquid, and steam, but they are one and the same compound.
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God is not completely beyond comprehension though. God communicated himself and the Trinitarian family to mankind in a language that could be felt, touched, heard, and easily understood. He communicated to us through a human form – Jesus Christ.
Through Christ, God revealed his main attribute which is love. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” (Jn 3,16).
*** Love is the bond that unites God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The opposite of love is selfishness. The Triune God cannot dwell in a heart, a family, or an environment that’s selfish.
A businessman once wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper thanking a certain TV personality for helping him when his car stalled somewhere on Katipunan road, Quezon City.
*** He said the guy who was well-dressed stopped and asked what was wrong. “My car got stalled and couldn’t start it.” The Good Samaritan right away offered to tow it to the nearest shop with his own car which was even brand-new.
“After the kind gesture, I asked for his name,” the businessman said. “I couldn’t believe it, but it was Pepe Pimentel, that once long-time host of TV’s ‘Kwarta o Kahon’!”
*** Obviously, such kind act may not be in the form of towing a car; it could be sympathetic listening to a troubled officemate or relative, a sincere praise, a compliment, an unsolicited material assistance (with no strings attached!), or condoling with a bereaved family.
*** Such acts demonstrate that the Triune God is not, after all, so mysterious and remote, and that what counts is not an intellectual faith in the Holy Trinity but a faith that’s concrete and active in love.
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