By Amanda Murthy
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – which together form one God for the Catholic faithful – was the focus during Trinity Sunday celebrations on Sunday 7 June.
Perth Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton celebrated the 11am Mass, which was livestreamed from the St Mary’s Cathedral Parish House and concelebrated by Cathedral Assistant Priest Father Richard Rutkauskas.
In his homily, Bishop Sproxton spoke about the significance of coming together as a community of faith to celebrate the perfect community – the Trinitarian God.
“I have read recently that today’s feast of the Trinity draws together the great preceding feasts of the Resurrection at Easter, the Ascension, and Pentecost,” Bishop Sproxton stated.
“The Resurrection [of Christ] focusses on the Father as the life-giving one, the Ascension on Jesus the vindicated and exalted one, and Pentecost on the Holy Spirit as the empowering one.”
Bishop Sproxton acknowledged the importance of community life, beginning from the first moments of life.
“From the moments of bonding that occurs when our mother takes us and holds us close to her heart at birth, we begin to develop a great series of connections with others throughout our lives,” Bishop Sproxton cited.
“These connections are meant to be life-giving and life sustaining,” he added.
“It is not that surprising to discover that we are encoded to seek belonging in community, when we realise that we are created in the image and likeness of God, who is indeed a community of persons.
Inviting the congregation at home to reflect several questions: “Who is the God in our lives? Do I accept that I am the creature of God, made in the image and likeness of God, or do I want to decide what will be the God in my life: the God in my own terms?” – Bishop Sproxton offered the words of Saint John the Apostle, who often taught in the Gospel readings that to see the Son was to see the Father.
“This feast reminds us of the remarkable love shown by the Father – God sent His perfect image of divinity, the Son, in our image and likeness,” Bishop Sproxton explained.
“John’s advice to the Christian community was to accept the gift of God’s grace that alone has the power to transform and make us like Christ.
“The Holy Spirit, the empowering one, is sent to work within us, remaking us in the image of Christ, who is the perfect image of the Father.”
Bishop Sproxton also addressed the changes that have been occurring during the past 11 weeks, due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, expressing his thoughts on what the “new normal” is going forward.
“What immediately comes to my mind when I hear these words, is that as a community, we will have recovered the basics, such as good hygiene, washing hands regularly and taking precautions to avoid any transmission of the virus,” he stated.
“When the normality of us being able to return to our parish churches [in unlimited numbers] comes, we will all have to ensure that we are extremely careful, in charity, in order to safeguard one another.
“However, some people think that the new normal is something much deeper – I have heard that some suggest this crisis will have brought about deeper changes in people – people are kinder, more considerate, they are perhaps less selfish and more community oriented.
“It is certainly my hope that something like COVID-19 can make us all take stock of our priorities and even our values,” he affirmed.
Bishop Sproxton ended his homily by stating that the Christian community has the privilege of being a “miracle of the Holy Spirit that forms, then sustains them”.
“The Spirit transforms us so that the Church may truly, and more obviously be the image of Christ in the world.
“This, to me would be the new normal,” the Auxiliary Bishop concluded.