By Nna Anulumadu
The Parish Priest St Albert the great Catholic Church Oraukwu Fr Ogechukwu Nkwankwo last Sunday enjoined Christians to live beyond the confines of tribe, religion, culture and language and to our common human values of love, trust, respect, equity and justice.
Reflecting on the Feast of Holy Trinity Fr Okonkwo stated that God is one and three at the same time, but not in the same way. God is One in essence. God is three in persons
“However, these are neither three ways of looking at God nor three different ways of referring to three different roles of God. The father in John 3: 16, sent the son into the world. Hence the father cannot be the son. After the son returned to the father [ Jn.16:10], the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit into the world [ Jn. 14:26, Acts. 2:33]. Therefore the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son. Though each Person is fully God, there is only One God.
The three Persons in One God are identical in attributes, equal in power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, and knowledge and none is inferior or superior.
The conversation could go on endlessly without exhausting the true and full appreciation and implications of the Trinity as a mystery. It is simply beyond a satisfying explanation.
We are however, consoled that wherever our limited sense of appreciation of mysteries in this mould end, recourse to the witness of faith becomes necessarily inevitable. For wherever reasons stops, faith [ in God] takes over. For says Saint Augustine, one must have and believe in a knowledge of God before calling on faith for deeper understanding.
Now, the beauty of unity in diversity existent in the trinitarian mystery curiously challenges our collective effort at managing the many diversities existent in our multi-cultural, multi-tribal and multilingual nation.
The Trinity sees diversity as an item to be positively maximised. Three distinct Persons in One God, without rancour, intimidation or monopoly and dichotomy. Instead, their diversity is their uniqueness. Their diversity is their strength. Their diversity is their unity. None is either inferior or superior. They recognise each Person’s worth and giftedness and it unites them more strongly.
As a people with multiple identities in the areas of culture, tribe, religion, language and orientation, we need to appreciate each other’s uniqueness and contributions and willingly tolerate one another whilst advancing our common unity, peace and mutual growth and development. It does not take much to see that we can only live in peace when mutual respect and common well-being are our common goals.
There is so much greed, mistrust, hatred and insensitivity in our society today because we have chosen to stigmatise one another because of our tribe, religion and culture. This is what the Trinity frowns at.
We must look and live beyond the confines of tribe, religion, culture and language and to our common human values of love, trust, respect, equity and justice.
At last, if we must be happy and live a fulfilling life, couples must appreciate their specific giftedness and leverage it as a source of strength rather than weakness. Each tribe, each religion and each culture must be tolerant, patient, genuinely honest and intentionally advance the course of the common good, well-being, peace and unity of all.
That way, it would be rightly said that the Trinity is our true teacher and guide. And that we have learnt enough from her to make us happy even with much diversity.”
