By Juliana Uzoka

Catholics around the world are celebrating the Blessed Holy Trinity, a fundamental doctrine of their faith. The Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – is a mystery that has puzzled scholars and believers for centuries. Yet, it is a truth that lies at the heart of Christianity, revealing a God who is not solitary but a community of love and sharing.

In his homily, Archbishop Matthew Audu, the Archbishop of Jos, on Trinity Sunday emphasized that the Trinity is not just a theological concept but a call to live in relationships, just as God does.

Indeed he said “Lessons are simple and clear: God is community not pure solitude. The community that is God is founded on love.  Jesus wants his church to be a community and is also founded on love.  This means that we must work hard to ensure that the Church of Christ, be it parish, diocese, chaplaincy, Seminary, religious houses or Christian families should be a community.

“Then, it should be a community based on love. Love is the only valid basis for community within the Church and not laws, constitutions or hierarchy. If we try to base any of our communities outside love, it will never be a Christian community. It may be a corporation, an institution or a bureaucracy. But it will not be a Christian community that the blessed trinity represents.”

He noted that the increasing culture of individualism in our time contradicts the very nature of God, who exists in the complementarity of three Persons.

“In the blessed Holy Trinity, you have the most intimate union between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That is why they are still just one God, even though they are three persons. But there is also diversity; each person has his own identity, distinct from that of the others: the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son.

“So important is the doctrine of the blessed Holy trinity to our Christian faith that when we admit someone into Christian fold, we baptize the person in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: The Trinitarian rite. In fact the trinity is so important in our Christian faith that it is impossible to be a Christian unless one accepts the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.” He said.

The Archbishop also warned that the quest for total independence is futile and can lead to dehumanized isolation, citing the alarming statistics of loneliness among the elderly in Britain and the spread of isolation even in traditionally communitarian societies like Africa.

While choice is at the heart of how people live their lives,“We can’t eat our cake and have it. What goes around comes around. This may also explain the statistics that 80% of lonely people in the UK over the age of 85 say that they have not told their children how they are feeling.

“In parts of Nigeria for instance, it is not uncommon today for children to leave their aged parents in the care of stranger house-helpers even while living in the same premises. Mother Teresa of Calcutta declared that the most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” Archbishop Audu added.

As Catholics celebrated the feast, they are reminded that their faith is not just a set of beliefs but a way of life that calls them to build a community founded on love, just like the Trinity they worship.

“Indeed, the anthropology of religion notes that people naturally act like the god they worship; people who worship a warrior god tend to be violent, people who worship a god of pleasure tend to be merry or pleasure-seeking and people who worship a god of wrath tend to be vengeful or angry people. Like God, like the worshippers.” He further asked:” What does the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity tell us about the kind of God we worship and what does this say about the kind of people we should be? “

Furthermore, he encouraged Christians to adopt the principle of “I-and-God-and-neighbour” relationship in love and caring, emphasizing that love is the only valid basis for community within the Church. He concluded by praying that grace of the Holy Trinity may help Christians banish all traces of selfishness and live in love of God and their neighbour.