by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
“The feast of the Most Holy Trinity invites us to commit ourselves in the everyday events in order to be the leaven of communion, of consolation, and of mercy.“ (Pope Francis)
Today, Sunday, we celebrate the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. We are reminded that having been baptised: “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” we are part of the Family of God; we are interdependent and are supposed to use our various gifts to build the common good, and to demonstrate that love is at the heart of the Trinity.
While we call Trinidad and Tobago the land of La Trinity, let us be clear about what it means to worship a Triune God. Our Catechism (253) tells us: “The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons: [Father, Son and Holy Spirit] … The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire”.
Pope Francis reminds us that this solemnity renews in us “our own mission to live in communion with God and with each other” and reminds us that “we are called to live not without each other, over or against the other, but with one another, and in one another.”
We are social beings and our love of God and neighbour calls us to make it our business to mind other people’s business in the sense of being aware of what is going on in our country/world and to stand in solidarity with others when necessary. The social doctrine of our Church is not an intellectual exercise. Each social justice principle that appears on the poster that CCSJ circulated recently to parishes and Catholic organisations requires us to observe and judge events from a Catholic perspective and to act with the two feet of Christian service: works of mercy and works of social action.
Each day we read of incidents which highlight the fact that we are in danger of losing our sense of hospitality/neighbourliness. Recently when Guyana-born grandmother Enid Rosaline Periana, 62, was chopped to death in a home in St Helena, it was reported that “almost daily, neighbours would hear screams from inside the apartment leading them to strongly suspect she was being physically abused.” On the night of her murder, they heard her “bawling out for her mother”.
Fear must not cause us to shut our hearts from the plight of others. How difficult would it have been for persons to ring hotlines to report their fears; or to ring the police anonymously?
In Genesis 1:26, God said: “Let us make man in our image, in the likeness of ourselves.” Our Trinitarian God has a plan for us; we are supposed to live a Trinitarian life. We were not created to operate in silos, closed off from the rest of humanity and from our environment. As children of the Trinity, let us spend some time to look inward and reflect on whether we are acting on the words contained in the opening paragraph of the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”
Our encounter with God must lead us to ask: What more can you and I do to assist our parishes/communities in caring for the sick, the shut-ins, the poor, the socially excluded, the differently-abled, the illiterate/semi-literate, the elderly, youth at risk, the depressed, those who have lost their jobs, and so on? How can we help people to move from less human conditions to more human conditions of life?
CCSJ wishes to support parishes by helping the faithful to understand what is required of us, the Faithful, in this critical time in our country/world. Please contact us at 622-6680 to arrange a time when we can come to address parishioners on social justice issues that impact you/us and to work with you to devise strategies that may be used to build more caring and just communities.
