When we are baptised, the priest or the deacon says the words ‘I baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’. This fulfils the words of Jesus from today’s Gospel and is a sign that God has chosen the individual being baptised to become a son or a daughter of God. By going out to the whole world and baptising people in the name of the Holy Trinity, the disciples obeyed Jesus, whose role on earth was to bring people closer to the Father and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church has grown throughout the world.

If we were to ask ourselves why almost every nation at some point or another has been a fruitful place for the Church to grow, I wonder what the answer would be. For me I think, that as we are created by love, then we have a deep desire to love and to be loved; therefore, mankind needs to love and to be loved. Even those with no faith express love for one another and do loving actions, even though they claim not to know God or in some cases state a disbelief in God.

For us to achieve true happiness we need to know God. Every other source of happiness is temporary or dependent on available resources and as the Beatles famously said over 60 years ago, money can’t buy [me]] love. True love comes from the source of everything, our creator is love and we are made in His image and likeness. As I have said previously, we are made in the image of love we are meant to be loving beings and reflect God’s love to the world. But to do this we need help. We can only love, if we know love and know how to love.

Fortunately, when Jesus told the disciples to go out and baptise all nations,[the Gret Commission] he continued ‘and teach them all the commands I gave you. And know that I will be with you always; yes, to the ends of time.’ When our parents and Godparents made promises on our behalf at our baptism, they took on the role as being our first teachers. By word and example, they are promising to fulfil the role of the disciples in this instruction from Jesus. They are promising to teach the commandments that Jesus has given us and because Jesus knows what it is like to be tempted, he promised to be with us until the end of time.

I like the summary of this feast which is used in my home Missal. It is given by the late Pope Benedict XVI, and it was given at the Angelus on this feast day in 2009 “Today we contemplate the Most Holy Trinity as Jesus introduced us to it. He revealed to us that God is love “not in the oneness of a single Person, but in the Trinity of one substance” (Preface). He is the Creator and merciful Father; he is the Only-Begotten Son, eternal Wisdom incarnate, who died and rose for us; he is the Holy Spirit who moves all things, cosmos and history, toward their final, full recapitulation. Three Persons who are one God because the Father is love, the Son is love, the Spirit is love. God is wholly and only love, the purest, infinite and eternal love. He does not live in splendid solitude but rather is an inexhaustible source of life that is ceaselessly given and communicated. To a certain extent we can perceive this by observing both the macro-universe: our earth, the planets, the stars, the galaxies; and the micro-universe: cells, atoms, elementary particles. The “name” of the Blessed Trinity is, in a certain sense, imprinted upon all things because all that exists, down to the last particle, is in relation; in this way we catch a glimpse of God as relationship and ultimately, Creator Love. All things derive from love, aspire to love and move impelled by love, though naturally with varying degrees of awareness and freedom.” [1]

For me this is a reminder that God made everything, the hand of God is in the largest of mountains and the of smallest insects; all have a purpose; just as we all have a purpose. As the old Penny Catechism answered to the question of why did God make me? “God made me to know him, love him and serve him in this world, and to be happy with him for ever in the next.”

Having been reminded of this Commission, what can we choose to do today and going forward?

Further Reading

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

CCC 202, 232-260, 684, 732: the mystery of the Trinity
CCC 249, 813, 950, 1077-1109, 2845: the Trinity in the Church and her liturgy
CCC 2655, 2664-2672: the Trinity and prayer
CCC 2205: the family as an image of the Trinity

Angelus, 7 June 2009, Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity | BENEDICT XVI (vatican.va)

Please keep in your prayers this week

  • The sick and housebound, those who are lonely, those who are dying and those who are grieving.
  • Those affected by war, those affected by crime and those trying to help these people.
  • The people of Sudan and the neighbouring countries who are trying to help alleviate the effects of famine.
  • Those affected by poor mental health or addictions.
  • Tobechukwu who is being baptised at St Bede’s this Sunday.
  • For all those on half-term holiday that they have a safe break and return refreshed.
  • The children in the Tadley & Burghfield Common communities who are still preparing for their First Holy Communion which will take place on the 16th June.
  • The repose of the soul of my mum Margaret, this Sunday would have been her 80th birthday.

Deacon Tony 25th May 2024

[1] Angelus, 7 June 2009, Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity | BENEDICT XVI (vatican.va)