FEAST OF THE HOLY TRINITY The Trinity is Three in One In the Universe there is Diversity but also Union First Reading (Prov 8: 22-31): God's wisdom existed before all else Second Reading (Rom 5; 1-5): Be reconciled with God through Christ, rely on the fullness of love in the Holy Spirit Gospel (Jn 16: 12- 15): All that the Father has is the Son's Chinese classics: -“A pair of golden orioles twitter in the green willow; a line of white herons flutter on their blue-bound way. The window frames the western mountain’s thousand year snow. By the door moor ships from Eastern Wu ten thousand miles away.” (1) - “It is not only that I love the bamboo and stones, the bamboo and stones love me too.” (2) “All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he (Holy Spirit) will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (Jn 16: 15) Today is the feast of the Holy Trinity and before we talk about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity I would like to review the tenets of our faith. First, among the choice to believe or not, we chose to believe in the existence of God. Secondly, among many choices, we chose to believe there is only ONE God. We chose not to believe in Buddhism, Taoism or the popular religions of China. Then, among Christ’s teaching about only one God, we chose to accept Christ’s revelation about the one God, not the God of Islam or Judaism. Lastly, among the many Christian religions that accept Christ’s revelation, we chose to adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. and not to other Christian denominations. For myself one of the main reasons I chose to be a Catholic is that since Vatican II the Church is open-minded, tolerant, comprehensive, with a balanced outlook on faith. It is able to accommodate to the harmony of the “Median Way” of Chinese culture and also to a union of faith and life. In talking about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity this ability to unify is especially evident. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is one of the most basic faiths of the Catholic Church. Church. We believe that there is only one supreme Being, who is one God in three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We acknowledge this belief each time we make the Sign of the Cross, “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” or recite the prayer, “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.” We have always called the Trinity a 'mystery,' because we cannot understand it with our mind, - three is three and one is one and cannot at the same time be three and one. But in God there really is both one and three simultaneously. Because in this one and only God there truly are three distinct Persons, somewhat like you, me and a third 'other'. Yet when you take the three together there is still only one. Of course this remains a 'mystery' we cannot clarify in words. When we cannot use reason to clarify something, it may be clearer if we use a poet’s eye to 'see'. In one of Du Fu's poems he wrote, “a pair of golden orioles twitter in the green willow. A line of white herons flutter on their blue-bound way. The window frames the western mountain's thousand-year snow. By the door moor ships from Eastern Wu ten thousand miles away.” (1) The last two lines of this poem speak about looking out from a square, empty window frame. The western mountain with its peak beautifully capped with snow a thousand years old has become a part of the window, together forming a magnificent picture. The same is true about the door - it is empty but the thousands of miles of moored ships from Eastern Wu make a beautiful landscape painting. Combined together the view is one like unto an elegant 'moving picture'. If we could reach Zhang Ban Qiao's state when appreciating scenery, we would be able to blend into one the distant view, the close-up and the person appreciating it: “It is not only that I love the bamboo and stones; the bamboo and stones love me too.” (2) Is this not similar to the way we think of the Trinity? Of course this cannot explain the Trinity clearly, it only gives an example of a three- dimension image. In the “Constitution on the Church”, Vatican Council II explains the Holy Trinity from a different viewpoint. It emphasizes the role of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the history of salvation. The Father created the world, the Son saved humankind and the Holy Spirit sanctifies us. That is the explanation most familiar to us. We must live out this message in our daily lives. For example, if God created the world, the world belongs to God and we are only the world's stewards; if the Son became human and lived as a human being, we should also live a fully human life; if the Holy Spirit sanctifies us and helps us to be holy, we should always be aware of His presence, commune with the Spirit in our hearts and recognize signs of the Spirit's presence and opportunities the Spirit provides. Jesus said “All that the Father has is mine... The Holy Spirit will take what is mine and declare it to you.” That really is saying that the Holy Spirit is a very important part of our lives. All that the Father has is given to the Son, and the Spirit tells us all that the Son has spoken. If we listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and listen to the voice of our conscience, we will be able to allow the Holy Trinity to abide within us. We will be living in the bosom of the Holy Trinity. (1)兩個黃鸝鳴翠柳,一行白鷺上青天;窗含西嶺千秋雪,門泊東吳萬里船。 (2) 非唯我愛竹石,即竹石亦愛我也。
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