Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9
2 Cor 13:11-13
Jn 3:16-18
In the Godhead, there are three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Here, we see a community of persons who share one Essence. We have so much to learn from the diversified unity that exists in the Holy Trinity.
1. Collaboration, not Competition:
Despite their distinct personalities, the three persons of the Holy Trinity are eternally collaborating. We could also recall their respective roles during the Baptism of the Lord. We can do better and achieve more when we work together than when we indulge in useless competition. From the Trinity, we learn to help and not to hinder.
2. Unity in diversity:
They are three distinct persons, yet they are One in Essence. We are different individuals from various backgrounds, ideas, and dispositions. However, we are united in one Christian community. Our diversity should be at the service of a functional unity because, as St. Paul would say in Christ, our diversities give way to unity (Gal.3:28).
3. Equality:
In the Godhead, there is absolute equality, given the fact that they share one Essence. Within our human experience, we all share in one humanity. However, some people keep creating unjustifiable barriers of inequality on the foreground of discrimination about gender, colour, class, and others. God created us with diversity as a gift, and we should appreciate it. Nobody chose to be white or black; you don’t choose your parents, nor did you choose your colour. Discrimination is not only a sin against our common humanity; it is also like blaming God for creating someone different from oneself.
At the time of the writing of this homily, the United States of America is heated up by protests following the killing of George Floyd by a Police officer, Derek Chauvin. The deceased was restrained on the ground by the officer who knelt on his neck for more than 8 minutes as he cried out, “I can’t breathe.” The unsympathetic officer and his colleagues watch as the young man passed.
The death of George Floyd and similar acts of killing are sins against our common humanity that should reflect the Holy Trinity. Nobody has the right to take a human life in or outside the womb. Life is a precious gift from God and should not be violated.
My dear friends, we can breathe and be together like the Holy Trinity by pulling down the unjustifiable walls and barriers we build around us to the exclusion of others. The Covid-19 pandemic should have taught us a life-time lesson that we are connected and interdependent. Can’t we see that what touches one of us affects all us!
Today, I plead that we breathe and be together like the Holy Trinity. Let us remember that our kneels are useful for prayer, not for killing. Amen.
Happy Feast to you all parishioners!
Fr. John Peter
Kigoowa Parish.
