Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend, Sat, June 18, 2011

Trinity Sunday in the Christian Kalendar

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them
to obey everything that I have commanded you.

Matthew 28


Most scholars of the Bible agree that Jesus did not say these words. They are probably a baptismal formula used by the early Church, included in the Gospel by those who eventually shaped the final redaction of the Gospel story, reflecting their experience between the time of Jesus and the development of the Nicene Creed in 325 CE.

Let us put aside the political and “theological” dimensions of this “doctrine”. And simply ask the question: What is at the heart of the doctrine of the Trinity in terms of the inner transformation of the human (both individual and community) “soul”.

It is about LIFE: the Father. It is about ONENESS WITH LIFE: the Son, merging the human and the divine. It is about LOVE IN ACTION, the basic “language” of the Gospel life: the Spirit.

Baptism is being grafted into a human community which teaches about and seeks to live the life of that “Trinity”.

Trinity Sunday is the celebration of the path to full humanity.

Brian+