Joke: Wisdom from child’s mouth: A priest went into a second-grade classroom of the parish school and asked, “Who can tell me what the Blessed Trinity means?” A little girl lisped, “The Blethed Twinity meanth there are thwee perthonth in one God.” The priest, taken aback by the lisp, said, “Would you say that again? I don’t understand what you said.” The little girl answered, “Y’not thuppothed to underthtand; i’th a mythtewy.”

Today, the Church celebrates the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, One God, Three Persons, the same essence, very distinctive from one another, and yet only One God. It is a mystery. In these three Persons, One God, we know only One Person since he vests on himself our very human flesh. This Second Person in the Trinity is the Lord Jesus Christ through him, Saint Paul teaches us in today’s second reading saying, we become children of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” We are the children of God through the spirit of adoption if only, Saint Paul emphasizes, we suffer with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not that we are God’s adopted children that we automatically earn our ticket to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. To enter the kingdom of heaven, we are invited to suffer with Christ, to journey with Christ, and to follow his path. What is his path? His path includes suffering, death, and resurrection. But why do we have to go through suffering and death to be resurrected with the Lord? Didn’t God create our first parents: Adam and Eve to enjoy and to have a happy life in the garden? Yes. However, they fell into the temptation that suffering and death entered into human life. Adam and Eve wanted to become like God so they were expelled from the Eternal Garden.

In today’s first reading, taken from the book of Deuteronomy, Moses said to the people of Israel, “Ever since God created man upon the earth, did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? You must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.” There is no other god, but the God of Israel, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the only one God. It’s not the golden calf, nor Cesar, the Roman General, not even Benjamin Franklin whose face is on a $100 bill, but the God of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Who is this God of Israel, God of the chosen race?

In today’s Gospel, Matthew vividly describes the scene where Jesus’ disciples came to worship him, but they were also at the same time doubted when Jesus ordered them to come, Matthew said, “When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.” Our first parents doubted that they turned their back against God who commanded them not to eat the forbidden fruit. The Israelites, the chosen race, had turned their back on the Lord to worship the golden calf and many other images because they doubted that God abandoned them and forgotten them. The Israelites came to worship the Lord in the temple, but outside the temple, they oppressed the widows and the infants, the poor and the sick. The Levi were the only ones allowed to enter the sanctuary of the temple to incense, and the Lord Jesus reminded them that when they brought up the offering, and there they remembered that their brother had something against them, leave the offering there and go to reconcile with him, then come back and offer the offering. What is the true meaning of offering if it’s not the heart of contrite; if it’s not the heart of charity to reach out to those in need? Influenced by the society that Jesus’ disciples doubted he approached them and encouraged them saying, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

The Lord Jesus promises his disciples that he is always with them to the end of the age. Perhaps, it is also his promise to every one of us when we profess ourselves that we are his followers. But what does that mean to be his followers if it’s not to worship him and only him alone? If it’s not to walk on his path, the path of suffering and death leading into the resurrection? What does it mean to be his followers if it’s not to not afraid to live out our Christian life even at the moment of experiencing difficulty and challenge, the moment of seeing our spouse unfaithful to us; the moment of seeing our children going astray because of the influence of society; and many other struggling moments on our Christian journey. Remember that the Lord is with us always to the end of the age. Since he is always with us, do we remember to call on him in our needs? If we called on him and we didn’t seem to get a response, have we called on him with the right reason? Even with the right reason we called on him and still didn’t get the answer, have we still had faith in him? Just as the Son, the Second Person in Trinity, completely surrendered himself to God the Father, even in his suffering and death, have you and I surrendered to the Lord when we have to face challenges and difficulties of life? May we be united with the Lord even at the moment of experiencing difficulties and challenges of life just as the Unity of the Trinity, Three Persons, but One God, are united in love, the love of fallen humanity. The decision is yours.