Trinity Sunday

40^th Anniversary of St. Conval’s Church, Linwood

 1. Today is Trinity Sunday. The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says this: “The Church expresses her Trinitarian faith by professing a belief in the oneness of God in whom there are three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” So we commonly say that there is one God in three divine persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 2. The somewhat conceptual and abstract nature of these formulations perhaps masks the living faith and religious experience which underlies them. From the very beginning, the disciples of Jesus, who all believed in Yahweh, the one of God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God the covenant, the creator of all that is, found that their faith in Jesus meant that they had to speak of the Father who sent him, of their own dear Jesus who was uniquely the Son of the Father, and the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent from God after his Ascension. They found that, through their faith in Jesus, their faith in the one God “expanded” to become faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The most striking example of this is when the risen Jesus himself commissions them to go out and baptise all nations in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

 3. Just think about how the mystery of the Holy Trinity is weaved into our Christian identity and experience. At the very beginning of our lives, we were baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Thus began our life in Christ. And at the end of our life, we might hear the Church’s prayer for the dying, which I can never pray aloud without shedding a tear, “Go forth, Christian soul, from this world, in the name of the Father who created you, of the Son who redeemed you, and of the Holy Spirit who sanctified you.” So, our whole life as Christians unfolds under the sign of the Trinity and in the presence of the Most Holy Trinity.

 4. In between these two moments at the beginning and at the end of life, there are other times which are marked by the invocation of the Trinity. Spouses are joined in matrimony in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Priests are consecrated by the bishop in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. At Mass this morning, I will invoke the Father to send the Holy Spirit on the bread and wine, so that they may become the body and blood of Christ. And is it not true that when we pray we begin with the sign of the cross, naming the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? Is it not true that we often address our prayers to the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit? Is it not the case that we also pray directly to Jesus: “Jesus, help me; Jesus forgive me; Jesus have mercy on me.” And we also pray to the Holy Spirit: “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the power of your love.” So, far from being simply a doctrine to which we have to subscribe, our living faith and our prayer teaches us eloquently that the mystery of the Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith. And so it should be, for the mystery of God and the mystery of the Holy Trinity is one and the same.

 5. It seems to me very fitting that the 40^th Anniversary of the Opening of this Church of St. Conval’s, Linwood, should coincide with Trinity Sunday. The Church is built to the glory of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This church is named in honour of St. Conval, who, following in the tradition of the Celtic missionaries from the Ireland of Patrick, converted pagans from false gods to the worship of the one God in three persons and baptised them in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. This church is a testimony to those past and present, living and dead, who professed and profess their faith in Holy Trinity. And for all of us here today this church remains the house of God where we gather to worship the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. This is where we bring our joys and our sorrows to the triune God. This is where we say together: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

St. Conval’s

Linwood

3^rd June 2007