14 & 15 June 2025, TRINITY SUNDAY
Our Father
On this Trinity Sunday, the Church lifts our gaze to the heart of the Christian mystery: one God in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We do not approach this mystery to explain it away but to receive it in faith and worship. And at the very center of this mystery is a simple, astonishing truth: it is one thing to call God “Father”; it is quite another to call Him “Our Father.”
The Mystery of Divine Fatherhood
To call God Father is to acknowledge His transcendence, sovereignty, and creative authority. It is a theological truth—He is the source of all life, the Almighty and Eternal One.
But to call Him Our Father is to speak of relationship and communion. It is not just an article of faith—it is a familial confession. The demons can acknowledge that God is Father (cf. James 2:19), but only the redeemed can, in the Spirit, cry out Abba, Father (Romans 8:15). This is the difference between knowing about God and being united to Him.
Father in the Old Testament
In the Old Testament, God is occasionally called Father, but typically in reference to Israel as a people (e.g., Deuteronomy 32:6; Isaiah 63:16). Yet even then, the relationship is marked by awe and distance. The intimacy we know in Christ had not yet been revealed.
It is Jesus Christ who unveils the fullness of this truth. He refers to God as His Father in a uniquely personal and eternal way. This is evident from the beginning of His earthly life to its fulfillment: at the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel announces that He will be called the Son of the Most High; at His baptism and Transfiguration, the Father’s voice declares, “This is my beloved Son”; in Gethsemane, He addresses God intimately as Abba.
These moments reveal not just who Jesus is, but who God is: a communion of Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—united in love.
Our Father by Adoption
The marvel is this: Jesus shares this relationship with us. After the Resurrection, He tells Mary Magdalene, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17). This is no poetic expression; it is a theological revelation.
By faith and baptism, we are adopted into the family of God. St. Paul writes, “You have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15). It is the Holy Spirit, poured into our hearts, who makes us children of God in the Son.
The early Church Fathers understood this with awe. St. Athanasius declared: “The Son of God became man so that we might become sons of God.” And St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote: “When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, we are adopted and cry out with confidence, ‘Our Father.’”
It is no coincidence that the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, was poured out at Pentecost, forming the Church as the family of God. That same Spirit is given to each of us at baptism, enabling us to live as sons and daughters.
A Gift Beyond Comprehension
To call God Our Father is not a right we claim—it is a gift we receive. Israel trembled at Mount Sinai before the voice of God. Yet now, through Christ and in the Spirit, we approach the Father with filial confidence, not as fearful slaves but as beloved children.
This truth shapes our prayer. Before the Lord’s Prayer at Mass, we say: “At the Saviour’s command and formed by divine teaching, we dare to say…” What daring love is this—that we who were far off now stand where the Son stands, in love and trust.
Unity in the Name of the Father
And yet, we do not say My Father—we say Our Father. This word binds us not only to God but to each other. The Fatherhood of God reveals the brotherhood and sisterhood of believers.
Jesus prayed to the Father: “That they may be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You” (John 17:21). The unity of Christians is not simply institutional—it is spiritual, sacramental, and must mirror the very communion of the Trinity.
The early Church Fathers recognized the visible structure of the Church as part of this unity. St. Irenaeus, writing in the second century, said: “Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace.” He also affirmed that true communion is expressed in communion with the bishop of Rome, the successor of Peter. For Catholics, unity with the Pope is not merely hierarchical—it is the visible expression of the Church’s universal communion.
The Children of God
As St. John proclaims: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are”(1 John 3:1).
This is the identity we carry into the world. To be a Christian is not merely to follow Christ’s teachings, but to share in His sonship—through the Spirit, to call His Father Our Father.
Conclusion
On this Trinity Sunday, let us marvel at the God who is Love: Three Persons in perfect unity, drawing us into divine communion. Let us rejoice in the gift of being able to say—not in fear or formality but in love and truth—Our Father.
For through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, we are no longer strangers and orphans. We are children. We are home. Amen.