Rt. Rev. Timothy Ravinder, C S I Bishop in Coimbatore.
TRINITY SUNDAY
A loving Father whose occupation was a professional doctor one day came home from work. As he walks through the doors of his home the toddler son who was feeling not very well, jumps into his daddy’s arms saying “Doctor please heal me”. The Father responded in his loving voice “Son you are mistaken. Doctor is what I do, but Father is WHO I am”.
In Christian circles, Trinity is known as the preacher’s nightmare. Today, we briefly reflect on WHO God is. God is the Holy Trinity. God the Father, God the son and God the Spirit - God in three persons. What does the word ‘person’ mean? If we ask God what are you? The answer would be, I am God and I am Divine referring to His nature. If we raise the question WHO are you? Then the answer would be, I am Father, Son and Holy Spirit - referring to His person which is plural. what we call the Holy Trinity. Tri-Unity is trinity. Tri refers to three and unity refers to one. Trinity is a family.
GOD THE FATHER... in the creed we affirm God as creator, maker of heaven and earth. God is Father and this is important because creation is what God does. Father is not a noun but a verb. His eternal Fathering results in an eternal son the second person in trinity. Son is not younger or even smaller than the Father. The son is co-eternal with the Father. In the words of the creed we note: “God from God, light from light, true God from true God begotten and not made” The son is the same substance/essence as the Father.
GOD THE SON... who is eternal, in a moment of time assumed the human nature in every single way. He ate, slept and breathed like us except sin. This Godman walked on the face of the earth, as God he was almighty as the Father. Jesus did miracles, He walked on water, gave sight to the blind, multiplied fish and bread for thousands of people, and raised people from the dead… Jesus the son was omniscient – ‚all knowing‘ like the Father.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT... is co-eternal with the Father and son comprising of the same essence and nature of the Father and the son. Holy Spirit can also be expressed as the mutual love of the Father and the son. We say God loves, but God is love. The indivisible unity between Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Now we are able to know a little better on who God is. In creation God does something in the book of Genesis. “Let US make man in OUR image” ‘Our likeness’ refers to WHO God is.
God the Father sends His Son to rescue us and bring us ‘home’. This is redemption which is not just being debt. Redeemed from sin and for sonship, we could see expression in the sacraments in the life of the church. Baptism where the child or person is baptized in the name of trinity and adopted as child of God in God’s family. God of mercies through the death and resurrection of his son has reconciled the world to himself and sent his Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sin after which the priest absolves in the name of trinity. AMEN
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