26 May 2024 – The Most Holy Trinity, Solemnity

by Fr Oliver Tham

I just want to begin by saying who enjoys coffee? Ah. I think a lot of us do, right? Sometimes the coffee that we like we will upgrade it to Starbucks or Coffee Bean. And the older generation, for me still like the kopitiam coffee, the black one, huh? All right.

Who enjoys 3-in-1 coffee? Okay. Thank you for putting your hands up.

Very easy access, 3-in-1 coffee. Everything is inside there. And the reason, I hope I am not making you thirsty with coffee now, ya, but the reason that I am bringing up the idea of the 3-in-1 coffee is probably to make you understand how the Holy Trinity works. 

But let us begin with the 3-in-1 coffee. So in that sachet, you will have powdered coffee, powdered milk, powdered sugar. Everything powdered. You put it into the cup, hot water, you ‘kacau’ a bit and you have one cup of coffee. Am I right?

But when you drink it, in your mind and in your taste buds, there are three. The first one is you have the coffee beans to give you the coffee taste. The second one we thank our female cows, the mother cows who provide milk. Am I right? So that we can have the creaminess of the coffee. The third one we thank God for the growth of sugarcane. So they provide sugar for sweetness.

So that is what I mean by 3-in-1 coffee. One cup of coffee, three ingredients inside.

So if you try to understand the Holy Trinity, sometimes we should not overthink about it because you get very confused. Because the meaning will come to you. The answers are actually in front of you when you talk about the Holy Trinity because they are affecting our lives, daily lives. How?

Okay, I give you an example, a few examples.

Every morning when you wake up or when you come to church, you will look for the Holy Water fount, isn’t it? You dip your finger in it and you make the sign of the cross: In the name of the Father,  Son and the Holy Spirit. So that is what happens to your daily life when you wake up. I hope it does. I hope you do make the sign of the cross.

And the second one if you have niece or nephew or grandchildren or people that you know who are getting baptised, the formula of the baptism is there. The Celebrant will mention the name of the person and he will say: I baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

And then if you look at the family concept, you would have the father, the mother and the children. So three units, one family. There you go.

Easy to understand to far? Okay.

So when you talk about Holy Trinity, it is one God, three persons. Ya? God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

So let us begin with the first one. God – who loves us so much that He created us so that we can continue our mission here on earth. To live the best Christian life that we can.

For the second one, God who loves us so much that in fact He became one of us. Jesus came into the world and became like us, human. He died on the cross for us so that we can all be saved.

And then you have God who loves us so much that He always remains with us. Remember what did Jesus say when He ascended into heaven? Before He ascended into heaven, He told all of us: I am going to send you the Holy Spirit.

So there you go, three in one.

The Holy Spirit’s job is to nurture, guide and support all of us. 

So in the next few moments, we are going to have God giving Himself to us through the body and blood of Christ, later on as we celebrate the Mass.

But there is one section that says: Lord, you are holy indeed, the fount of all holiness. Now that is God. God is Holy.

And then the second part it says: Let your Spirit come upon these gifts (which is the bread and wine. The Holy Spirit coming upon them) so that they may become the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

You see how the three becomes one in that little prayer?

So for us today, let us continue to discover the Holy Spirit and celebrate it because it is happening in our lives, even now.

The Holy Trinity has always been with us, even we don’t even realise it. It is always working in us and in us.

So when you go back and have your 3-in-1 coffee after Mass, please don’t think of the Holy Spirit when you drink, okay? It is a different concept.

But when you make the sign of the cross, it is God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit that you are inviting and giving praise in your life, in us and within all of us.

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