Trinity Sunday: The joy of discovering the hidden mystery
In primitive communities, baptism was administered in the name of Jesus. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, turned to the people and urged them to repent and be baptised “in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven” (Acts 2:38). The custom of baptising in the name of the Trinity was introduced later. It is the formula that Matthew puts in the mouth of the Risen One. It reflects the liturgical practice of the second half of the first century A.D.
In today’s gospel, Jesus entrusts a mission to his disciples on a mountain of Galilee. The disciples receive the commission to make disciples of all nations, to baptise them and teach them to observe all that Jesus commanded.
Jesus refers, in a solemn manner, to his authority. The Father has sent him to bring the message of salvation and gave him all power in heaven and on earth. Nothing, therefore, escapes the “rule” that the Father gave to Christ.
This universal “power” over all creation has nothing in common with the kingdoms of this world. It consists in the ability to serve man, leading him to salvation and introducing him in the intimacy of love with the Father.
After that Jesus utters the mystery of the divine life that we celebrate in this feast is placed. Stammering with our poor language we call this mystery Trinity.
We are not called to give adherence to an abstract concept, to profess a cold formula, but to sing a grateful hymn to God for the gift he has made of his life. Our fate was death but, “God gives us, by grace, life everlasting” (Romans 6:23). Then the shout of joy emerges from our lips: “See what singular love the Father has for us: we are called children of God, and we really are! We are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been shown. Yet when he appears in his glory, we know that we shall be like him, for then we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:1-3) and also: “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it dawned on the mind what God has prepared for those who love him. God has revealed it to us, through his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). Baptism and preaching of the gospel are two ways of sharing the divine life.
The “family” of God, the Trinity, is the picture of perfect harmony. This unity of all in the peace of the Father’s “home” is fully realised when the “saving power” of the Risen One will have reached, through the disciples, every person. However, it must begin now, in this world, because God has already made us partakers of his own love.
