A Reflection inspired by the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity
By Fr Ramon Borja, SDB
I may not be a daddy (nor a mommy for sure… though my big tummy makes me look like I’m having a baby) but I say this with a certain amount of certainty…
ONE of the BIGGEST PAINS that PARENTS MAY HAVE is this – their CHILDREN NOT in UNITY, NOT in HARMONY.
A sick elderly father shared with me, “Father, please pray for my children. They are all university graduates with good houses and families of their own now. But I don’t see them together, happy together. How can I be fully happy for them?”
Do you know someone in such a situation? Sad, right?
Are you one of those in such a situation? So sad, right?
We are family. Then why are we not in harmony?
It can happen that for weeks, months, even years, one sibling is not on good terms with another. They have not seen, much less talked with each other for ages. And the last time they did? It ended with a fight, a heated disagreement.
But hey… if ever you’re in such a situation, never lose hope. Sibling disharmony, family disunity… these do happen. Probably they happen to everybody. But believe — things can get well…. Things can even get better. Many times, many fights lead to deeper bonds. As the saying goes… “Love is sweeter the second time around.” Can be true not only romantically, right? Can be true for your sibling and you, for your family and you.
May I offer a suggestion?
Just a suggestion…
YOU DON’T NEED TO BE BEST FRIENDS with your siblings, with your family. But please, BE FRIENDS. DON’T JUST BE SIBLINGS… BE FRIENDS. DON’T JUST BE FAMILY… BE FRIENDS.
Be persons…
not just bonded by blood, but by being there with and for one another…
having nice moments with one another…
maybe sometimes having fights and differing opinions but often still there connected… maybe distant for some time physically or even emotionally but never distancing eternally… not always having everything in common like same likes and dislikes but happy with similarities and ok with differences…
not necessarily close but at least civil…
with enough amount of concern and care, kindness and love…
not really “I’m here for you every day. I’ll be your best buddy come what may.” It can be just a simple but sincere “You and I, we’re good” kind of thing. Good enough, at least, right?
As siblings, as family, may we not just be siblings and family…. May we be friends… even just friends.
Today’s Solemnity of the Holy Trinity triggered me into thinking of this reality… and of other related realities as well.
OUR GOD IS A TRIUNE GOD… three and different but equal and one. Our God is Father and Son and Spirit… with uniqueness but bonded in love. Our God is COMMUNION… not just, or more than just, perfection.
IF WE CALL OUR SELVES GOD’S CHILDREN, not just God’s creatures, then HOW VITAL IT IS THAT WE BE ONE… that we be in unity, in harmony… JUST LIKE THE TRINITY.
And hopefully not just in our FAMILY… also in our SOCIETY… in the whole of HUMANITY.
MAY THE WORLD BE IN UNITY, IN HARMONY… just like its God and creator, The Holy Trinity.
May I be honest?
Lately, again triggered by today’s solemnity, I’ve been thinking of these questions seriously…
When will the world live as one… really?
When will there be no more factions, divisions, wars, discriminations?
When will there be peace in Gaza, in Myanmar, in Mendiola?
When will there be no more hate crimes, no more crimes at all… because all people are kind to all people, as in all, as in always?
When will lives… all lives, not just white, black, asian or whatever… equally matter?
When will this covid pandemic… which is global… bring about a “global embrace”? Please don’t take this literally nor physically, ok? Always keep a healthy safe distance from everyone, right? But please, do take this seriously. When will countries and peoples with more and more resources show care and concern with no strings attached to countries and people with less and a lot less? We have one common enemy. We are not even one in our fight against it, in our rise above it. Haaay…
When will the ‘United Nations’ be not just a phrase nor just an institution… one that seemingly gets tainted with vested interests at times and troubled with not enough implementing powers at more times… but one that is a reality… all nations really united?
When will all politics be only for good governance and always for the common good?
When will all races be totally appreciative and respectful both of their own and of others’… and never feeling superior nor inferior in comparison? No more comparison; just communion.
When will all religions be purely believed in and lived out in their universal pristine values of the supremacy of the spiritual, of the divine, and wellness and progress for all creation and all peoples?
When will the human race feel equal in dignity not just among one another as human beings but with all created beings… the whole of creation… land, water, air, animals, plants, the whole of our earth and beyond?
When? When? When? When will there ever be unity, harmony… every time… in everybody?
May I be more honest?
It is with a dose of pessimism that my single reply to all these questions is this…
“NOT IN MY LIFETIME.”
When will these things happen? These things that show unity and harmony for everybody?
Looks like it won’t… at least not in our lifetimes.
Very sad… but very true.
May I be most honest?
Unity and harmony for all, all the time… these very probably would never happen in my lifetime. But I believe it will happen… and that it is already happening… IN GOD’S LIFETIME.
Thanks and praise be to our Triune God. Unity and harmony can and will be a reality.
Others may call it ‘utopia’. Still others would call it ‘wishful thinking’ or ‘a fantasy world’.
I would rather call it “heaven… paradise… life in its fullness”. I would rather call it… “GOD’S WORLD WHICH GOD OFFERS TO US TO BE PART OF”.
That’s the world, the life, of the Holy Trinity….
And God does not just welcome us nor just invite us to partake.
God urges us and helps us to do so.
Unity, harmony, all loving all, all the time… That’s God’s reality… which God offers to you and I.
In my lifetime, I probably will never see Philippines united as one country… Sarawak nor Malaysia too…
In my lifetime, I probably will never see the whole world united as one humanity… all races nor all religions as one too…
But this I commit…
THAT IN MY LIFETIME, I WILL KEEP ON WISHING FOR IT AND WORKING FOR IT…
THAT IN MY LIFETIME, I WILL KEEP ON PATIENTLY PRAYING FOR IT AND PASSIONATELY PUSHING FOR IT…
Because I know I am not alone in doing so.
MY TRIUNE GOD IS WITH ME.
GOD IS MAKING MY LIFETIME A VALUABLE PART OF GOD’S LIFETIME.
I may not be great and famous like Saint Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Pope Francis and the likes… but in my little ways, in my ordinary nights and days, I will ask for and aim for unity and harmony, for compassion for everybody.
I WILL BE A FRIEND… EVEN JUST A FRIEND… TO ALL, ALL THE TIME.
I know this is not just my intention. This is God’s intention and invitation for me too, for you too. May you and I translate this into our action.
There will still be differences and imperfections in my family, in my country, in society, in humanity.
But in all those, God will also be there… in me, in my family, in my country, in society, in humanity.
In all of creation… from its beginning till its completion… God is there with His saving compassion.
May you and I be there too… with God the Father and the Son and the Spirit, three in one, with you and I in one.
MAY WE NOT BE GOD’S ‘BIGGEST PAIN’…. God is our parent after all, right? Our disunity and disharmony must have been causing God a lot of pain.
RATHER, MAY WE BE GOD’S ‘BLESSED PARTNER’… one with God, one with one another, one in in pursuing oneness.
A fitting ending for this sharing… Imagine John Lenon’s music playing now.… But this time, it is the Triune God singing…
Imagine all the people living life in peace…. They may say “I’m a dreamer” but I’m not the only one. I HOPE SOMEDAY YOU’LL JOIN US AND THE WORLD WILL LIVE AS ONE…
