Dear young people, you who will receive the sacrament of confirmation,

Brothers and sisters, 

May the Lord give you peace!

          I am truly very happy to be here, to celebrate this important celebration with you. We celebrate this Sunday the solemnity of the “Most Holy Trinity”. It is truly a great joy to celebrate this solemnity here for the first time as bishop. And also, at this important moment in the life of these young people, an important moment in the life of this community, of our Latin Catholic Church. Thank you Father Theodorus, Father Gabriel for your service, your generosity, in serving our Latin Catholic community here in Kyrenia and Famagusta.

But be aware, that celebrating the “Most Holy Trinity” for us Christians is not just about remembering. Really be careful: He the protagonist, the one who guides not only this celebration, but also our whole life is the “Most Holy Trinity”, which means The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Today the Holy Spirit will confirm in our young people, the sacrament of confirmation, of the glory of the life of Jesus in them. By confirming the life of Jesus in their lives, He gives them the strength to bear witness to the life of Jesus.

          Brothers and sisters, today the Church celebrates God. So, in our faith we affirm that there is only one God. But our God, although One, is also Triune. “When I was a child a priest tried to explain to us and wrote on the blackboard: 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals = 1…. And it made us even more confused”. That is: We Have a God, there are three Persons who are called: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And how is this possible? How to explain? As Saint Augustine said, that trying to understand God, to understand the Holy Trinity, is like putting sea water in the hole we make in the sand on the beach. 

Yes, brothers and sisters, the key, the secret to understanding this mystery, has been taught to us in the Gospel of St. John that we have heard: “love”… (Agapa). God loved the world so much: that he gave his son…. Only those who love will be able to understand God, only love opens us to the knowledge of Trinitarian love. For other religions, we are idolaters, for Jews we are a scandal, for others we are just good, pacifists…

And here we ask ourselves: If God is love, he must love someone, right? Behold, the Father has always loved his Son… The solemnity we celebrate today reveals to us that God is not alone, that he is a community of love, in the Holy Spirit. And beware brothers and sisters: it is unity, in the Trinity… it is not a fusion: they are three distinct persons. Trinitarian love teaches us that unity is not fusion… the great risk is to confuse Trinity, unity with fusion. And Fusion is certainly confusion. 

First of all, the Trinity reminds us of the equal dignity that every person has. Yes, brothers and sisters… celebrating the Holy Trinity is celebrating the greatness of God, who reminds us that we were created in his image and likeness. Therefore, our true image is Trinitarian. And we are the perfect image of God when we are in relationship: when a man and a woman get married, have their children, they become the perfect image of God… when we are selfish, we think only of ourselves… we disfigure the image of God …. But be careful: unity, not fusion…. Every person has dignity. (e.g. family members). In families, children are not all the same…. They are to be respected… in any relationship…. in the community…. Every brother and sister is the image of God…

And I would like to conclude this homily with a question: are we really in love with the Trinity? Am I in love with the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit? Because God, the Lord, is in love with each of us. Are we in communion with our family, with our brothers and sisters, relatives, friends? And I will conclude with this prayer: 

O divine Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, present and active in the Church and in the depths of my soul, I adore you, I thank you, I love you! O Mary, mother of the Church and my mother, who live in the presence of the divine Trinity, teach us to live, in intimate communion with the three divine Persons, so that my whole life may be a “glory to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit”. Amen.