The Christian badge

The feast of the Holy Trinity, which we observe today, not only marks the conclusion of Our Lord's visible ministry on earth, but also indicates the very beginnings of the apostle's preachings throughout the whole world.

If we may use a more down-to-earth analogy, the Church was born at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles, but it started operating when Jesus commanded his disciples to go to the whole world baptising all men and women in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, has always been regarded as the badge of all those who choose to follow Christ and accept his teachings. As Christians we are familiar enough with this mystery, which is the most important one for us, but also the most difficult to understand. After all, what is most important is not to understand, but to accept by supernatural faith: faith in God Himself, but also faith in Christ who has taught it to us, and faith in the Church which passes it on to us.

The sign of the cross, which we often make during the day before we begin something of importance, has become the 'label' of our Christian faith. It might be of interest to note hear that, according to its original Greek version, the phrase "in the name of" is not equivalent to "on the authority of", but "by way of consecration". With baptism, the neophyte becomes the 'property', and therefore the 'protégé' of the Person named.

What we Christians know about God's nature, we know it from Jesus. It was he who told us that he proceeds from the Father, and that the Spirit in his turn proceeds from both. It is through Jesus that we were brought into the intimacy of the divine 'family', baptised into its threefold name. His life, death and resurrection shout to the heavens the extent to which "God so loved the world!".

We know about the mystery of God from Jesus, and our own experience tells us that God is indeed with us and for us. We know that God creates because we ourselves are immersed in creation; we are in fact a marvellous example of God's creative artistry. We know that God sustains us, because we are cared for by the very world in which we live. We know that God saves, because even now we are being freed from the bondage of our addictions, from the tyranny of Satan. We may know little and understand still less of what we believe; but today's message assures us that we live in the embrace of the three divine Persons.

To bring the mystery of the Trinity a bit closer to us, it might help to keep in mind that in Catholic theology its image is projected in none other that the human family as God has made it; father, mother and son. Hence Christian theology draws much of its doctrine about the family, especially the Christian family, on this consideration.

God is love, and love brings father and other together. God is the Creator, and like Him the spouses in their turn become creative and beget a child, so that they are no longer two, but become three, indissolubly united by the bond of love and self-dedication. Their mutual love, like the Holy Spirit, becomes the bond of love and source of happiness for the whole family.