– Most Holy – 29/30 May

So, after many weeks of celebration of the seasons of , and and we finally return to . However, the next few Sundays are taken up with very important in the churches calendar. We have firstly have what we are celebrating today, Trinity Sunday and then next week the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ or to give it its Latin title and what we are all used to, Corpus Christi. Now let us be honest talking about the Trinity, a fundamental part of our faith, is a tricky thing. One , three distinct persons. It is a fair point to say that the Trinity is hard to get our fragile minds around. One God and yet three very distinct beings, , and God the . Today we are invited to reflect and ponder upon this mystery of our faith, what we believe about Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our today is taken from the Matthew, his last chapter where in the short passage we see the disciples arrange to meet and it is there that we see Jesus give the commission to them. It is worth noting that many of Jesus pronouncements and commissions happen on mountaintops. We of course remember Peter, James and John witnessing Jesus’ transfiguration, the Sermon on the Mount. It seems that in scripture mountaintops are important places where instructions and guidance are given and witnessed. The disciples arrange to meet Jesus at this spot, they see him, they fall down and worship him though it is said some hesitated. Jesus recognizes this and begins to give them words of encouragement and the commission. He wants them to baptise and teach in the name of the Trinity. He finishes by reassuring them that he will always be with them until the end of time. The disciples had been prepared for this throughout Jesus’ public ministry so hearing these words of mission and comfort enabled them to have the confidence to go out and do exactly what Jesus wants of them. We are a Trinitarian faith and it is in this passage that we see a very clear link to baptism in scripture and why a priest at a baptism must use the words ‘I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’. Once again, we are asked to look at our faith and see how are faith is used in our lives. In our decisions making, in the way we live our lives, in the way that we speak and treat others, is our faith active? Can people see in us a person of faith. The mystery of the Trinity although challenging to really understand in this life will be made clear to us in the next life. This should not be something that puts us off, to have a relationship with God, we must know His Son Jesus and we can do that through the Holy Spirit and the gifts that are bestowed upon us through the Sacraments. We are meant to live our faith to the best of our abilities and do so with joy. Through the challenging times we have had in our personal lives and as we begin to emerge from the pandemic it is our faith that we can find comfort, guidance and strength. We are asked to live out the mystery of our faith because each of us shares in the life of the Trinity and we do so in confidence that Christ died for us so that each of us may have life and have it to the full. If we live out our faith with this in mind, we are inviting others to share in our joy and ultimately their own joy in God.