Trinitarian man and woman

Fr. Leo Pabayo .

TODAY, the Holy Trinity is at work in the world for the salvation of mankind through visible instruments. The visible instruments are those who have received the Holy Spirit, first of all, the community that is the Church that Jesus Christ established. The members of the Church are called to become “other Christs” in the world in spite of their imperfections. They carry out the work of salvation in a human ways as Christ did.

They do this by the power of the Holy Spirit who inspires and guides them to a good life. They do this by looking back always to the human model in Jesus Christ who lived two thousand years ago. Whenever they are confronted with concrete human problems they invoke the help of the Holy Spirit and go back to the earthly life of Jesus Christ that they can now understand with the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. They also learn from the human lives of those who have lived like Christ, especially the saints who have been declared by the Church as models of Christian life. These models lived like Christ in their own non-Jewish ways, according to whatever is good in their culture and whatever is truly human in their state of life as men and women, as married or single, as professionals, workers, etc..

Because we are made to the image and likeness of God we live the life of the Holy Trinity. Thus we have some understanding of the Holy Trinity by having some understanding of ourselves. Each one of us, man and woman is also a trinity like God.

Like God the Father and Creator every man who is true to himself is the source of his activity. He is the origin of whatever word he speaks and the creator or author of the work that he does. The words that he speaks and product of his work take on a life of their own to some extent. His words and work can impact on the souls of other people even when he is no longer there. The architect of a building may long be gone but those who see the many admirable features of his building touch their souls. The same can be said of a painting or a work of literature. The great writings that we study in school whose authors have long been gone can change our life. These works put us in touch with them to some extent. Looking at their works now, works that faithfully convey the kind of persons the authors were some would say, “That is vintage so and so.”

Another example that illustrates what I am saying here is when a person expresses or communicates himself in words, say, through a phone. By doing so he makes himself present to where the receiver of the communication is. Words spoken through a phone from our home to a friend or relative at the other side of the globe make us present to them. The same can be said to a certain extent of a communication by letter. The song, “Love Letter” is a romantic illustration of this.

In a phone conversation, the words spoken along with the voice by which it is spoken impact on the hearer or the person at the other side of the globe as if the speaker were present there. In a sense he is present there because the words and the voice by which the words are spoken are an extension of him. The words are recognizable by the hearer as coming from his or her friend or relative here because of the kind of words used and the spirit which they are spoken. The spirit of love that is familiar to the one listening convinces him or her that the words spoken are truly from his or her friend or relative because they evoke the feelings of love that he or she has known from this friend or relative at the other end of the phone. The one speaking or the source of the words spoken, the words and the good spirit or the spirit of love in which these are spoken are one. Someone else who is not a friend or relative may imitate his or her words but because it does not bear the spirit of the beloved relative or friend it will not impact on the listener. If there is a difference or a dissonance among these three, then trust will not be generated.

The communication of God with man is like this as clearly shown us in the Bible. In a parable of Jesus in the Gospel where he hints at himself as the shepherd leading his sheep or his followers Jesus says, “He goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”  (John 10:5-7). If we are a true follower of Christ we will know what is true from what is false, what is good from what is bad, what is beautiful from what is ugly and respond accordingly.

In our life we ought always to try to make what we say and do to be one with who we really are as shown in the truth we say or do and the spirit of love with which we say and do them. In this way we move toward wholeness and integrity. This way we are being faithful to being the image and likeness of God the Holy Trinity.