Do Not Reduce God

We celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity once a year on the following Sunday after the ‘Pentecost’. Even though I have been preaching about the “Trinity” so many times, I still find myself struggling to ‘understand’ and ‘explain’ this ‘mystery”. I find myself not good enough to comprehensively understand and explain God in three persons: Father, Son and The Holy Spirit. This time of writing this reflection, I still find myself in the same situation. It’s awkward. While thinking and reflecting what I am going to write, I came across a story that would relate to my situation and probably some others as well. This is the story:

“There was a young boy who goes and climbs up a mountain in India and he meets a guru. And he wakes the guru up because the guru is half asleep. And the guru says, “What can I do for you, young man?”

And he says, “I want you to explain God for me.”

And the guru smiles and he says, “A God that can be explained is not a God that you should worship.” And he smiled and went back to sleep.

Trying to understand and explain the essence of the Trinity is an impossible effort. It is not just because of the limitation of human knowledge, but also it is an attempt to ‘reduce’ God into human understanding. I used to admire people who claimed to know everything about God. However later I came to doubt their claim. I think they just want to make themselves feel better with the claim.

In one of my reflections published on our parish Facebook titled “The Unknown”, I said that the disciples who were sent by Jesus to do their mission, were actually sent to the unknown. When a couple gets married, they are jumping to the unknown because they realize that they do not know and will never know each other completely. When I was ordained as missionary priest, I was also sent to the unknown. Till the end of our lives, we are living in the unknown. It doesn’t mean that we know nothing. We know something but our knowledge is not and will never be complete. I know the people in the parish, but my knowledge is limited. You know your partner (husband and wife) but your knowledge is still limited. However, one thing you may know is that you are loved by your partner or by your children or by your parents.

Openness and revelation from both sides are required for better understanding. God, the Holy Trinity is continuously revealing himself to us in various ways. It is our turn also to be open to the revelation of God. We may not understand everything, but one thing we may be sure of is that his revelation gives us peace and hope because he loves us.

Have a blessed Sunday.

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