|
 |
|
Homilies are posted no later than during the week
prior to the Sunday they are needed |
|
|
Holy Trinity
|
At Confirmation, the archbishop asked the children
for a definition of the Holy Trinity. A girl answered very softly, "The
Holy Trinity is three Persons in one God." The archbishop, who was
almost deaf, replied, "I didn't understand what you said." And the
young theologian before him replied, "You are not supposed to. The
Trinity is a mystery."
With the Sign of the Cross, we trace the Trinity on
ourselves. We bring God into our minds first. Then we bring the Trinity
down to our hearts. And, with our hearts filled with compassion, we
move the Trinity across our bodies to our shoulders and arms to better
bear the burdens of our family and friends. (David Walker)
The Trinity feast goes back to 12th century
England and St Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Historians
say the great Thomas celebrated a Liturgy in honor of the Trinity in
his cathedral. So was born the observance. In the 14th century, the
feast came to be observed by the universal Church.
The belief in the Trinity goes back to the New
Testament. There it is mentioned about forty times. Even if so wishing,
we would not be able to lock the Trinity in a closet. The Trinity will
not go away.
We open each Liturgy invoking the Trinity. We
close it by calling upon those same Persons. Throughout the Christian
world today, infants, who were quick enough to avoid abortion, will be
received into our community through Baptism in the name of the Trinity.
Into the arms of the mysterious Trinity, we will be sent by the
officiating priest at our already scheduled funerals.
But the most wondrous thing in the world is the
mysterious. (Albert Einstein)Our life is a faint tracing on the
surface of mystery. (Annie Dillard)
The Trinity is the Mozart of mysteries. Not even
Agatha Christie could solve it.
Our world is filled with mysteries. We live
with them very comfortably. Scientists estimate 90% of the cosmos is
mystery.
For openers, who of us here understands
himself? We are still trying to figure out how water rises from the
earth through the trunk and finds its way out to the leaves of a tree?
The why and how of homing pigeons still mystify us. How about the
infamous common cold? Many "cures" notwithstanding, that mystery is not
solved. (Joseph Donders)
The New York Times wonders whether we will ever
understand how the brain works. (If the Times admits to ignorance, the
subject has to be a mystery.) Why do good things happen to bad people?
And of course why do bad things happen to good people? How about
cancer? Had enough?
Mystery and reality, wrote Walt Whitman, are two
halves of the same sphere.
What Isaac Newton opined in the 18th century
is as true in the 21st. "What we know is a drop. What we don't know is
an ocean."
From the earliest days of the Christian era,
geniuses have been wrestling with the Trinity. Most have struck out.
Sometimes though, some get a Texas League single into short center
field.
Rich material poured out of the busy and
golden pen of the 5th century St Augustine. His conception of the
Trinity is lyrical. The Father is the lover. The Son is the loved one.
And the Holy Spirit is the love they send forth.
The 4th century St Patrick, with a brilliance
that we Irish are justly celebrated for, found in the three leaf
shamrock rising from the one stem an image of the Trinity. After
telling this point to the Irish, they were never the same
again. That is good or bad depending on your viewpoint of us Celts.
It is difficult for us to realize today, but
questions
such as the Trinity were debated in centuries past with the
same intensity as we debate whether a current star is the
best basketball player ever or whether a certain movie deserves an
Oscar or whether Elvis is still alive. You can decide whether our
civilization has progressed or regressed.
But someone has cleverly noted that, unlike
other Christian doctrines, the Trinity is not a truth that leads to
action. But rather, like a painting by Monet or a poem by Keats or a
symphony by Beethoven, it should point us to prayer or just wonderment.
Perhaps it will help us to become the prayers we recite. (Joan
Chittister)
Whoever can no longer wonder or no longer marvel is
as good as dead. (Einstein)
Our goal today is not to get us into the Trinity but
to get the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit into us.
|
|
http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
Holy Trinity
|
“May
the Force be with you!”NO WAY!Yes, I am a bit of a
Science Fiction buff, but I hate how New Age pseudo philosophy has
imposed itself on sci fi. I am particularly irritated by the
religious babel of the oldStar Wars movies.These movies
reduce God to a semi-scientific concept of matter and energy, giving
heightened abilities in mind control, natural instincts and light saber
maneuvers.It is all that New Age babel I spoke about on Easter
Sunday.(SeeEaster 2008 homily). And it really borders on
blasphemy. God is so much more than this.God is Awesome.
God is all powerful.Yet God is personal.And Godis
Love.It is just wrong to consider God as the quasi-spiritual
binding force of the universe. This is blasphemous.
Today the Church celebrates God’s revelation of Himself to us.
This is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.The readings
begin with the revelation of God to Moses. This is found in chapters 33
and 34 of the Book of Exodus.Moses had destroyed the first stone
tablets of God’s Law when he came down from Sinai and saw the people
worshiping an idol.The people had repented and returned to
worshiping God.In chapter 33 we hear how Moses pitched a tent
far off from the Israeli camp to pray to God and learn God’s will for
the people.He called this the Meeting Tent.Not just
Moses, but anyone who sought the Lord would go into the tent to
pray.However, when Moses went into the meting Tent a pillar of
cloud would descend upon the entrance of the tent and everyone would
pray.Moses spoke to God as a man speaks to a friend. One day,
Moses had a request.“Lord God,” he said, “show me your
Glory.”
God responded, "I will make all my goodness pass before
you, and will proclaim before you my name `The LORD'; and I will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. But," he said, "you cannot see my face; for man shall not
see me and live."Then the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place
by me where you shall stand upon the rock; and while my glory passes by
I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my
hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you
shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen."
That is where today’s first reading begins.God
passed before Moses, and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love
and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the
guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the
children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." And Moses
bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
God
is the Awesome One who existed before all time and Who in His Goodness
created the universe and all within it.God the Creator is God
that we refer to when we say, “God the Father.”
But
this Awesome God, is also and Awesome Lover.The Fourth Gospel
tells us how God sent his Son to save the world from the evil that the
world had turned to. God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the
world, but that the world might be saved through him. There is a
personal element here.The Son is sent not just to the world in
general, but to each of us so that we might be saved through him.
Try praying this verse like this, “God so love me, that he gave his
only son, so that if I believe in Him I will have eternal life.”
“God so loved my wife, my husband, my child, my parent, my friend, and
even my enemy, that he sent his only Son so that if my wife, my
husband, my child, my parent, my friend, and even my enemy, believes in
the Son he will have eternal life.God is an awesome Lover and
the Son is that Love.”
The
Power of Love, the Power that binds us as One is itself the very Spirit
of God.The Unity that we enjoy, the power of God that we
possess, is the Presence of God acting in our lives, the Presence of
the Holy Spirit.
We
belong to this Awesome God, this Awesome Love, this Awesome
Presence.We are baptized in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit.God’s life dwells within us.God dwells within us.
We
carry God in the fragile vessel of our humanity.We seek his
Presence and Love and Power and pray to Him within us and all around
us.He is Ours and we are His.This is the Gift of the
Almighty to each of us, a gift that should not be trivialized with
concepts of Force, but a gift that should be treasured with reverence
and respect.
How
beautiful it is to be alive to God!How sad it is when we forget
His presence.How devastating it is when we lose His
Presence.
The
celebration of the Most Holy Trinity is a celebration of the Dignity we
have received by being admitted into Mystery.The Mystery is God.
His Power and Love and Presence are greater than our minds’
capabilities.He possesses Us, and we possess Him, not for
ourselves, but to continue His Presence in the world.
|
|
http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see Spanish
homilies
Holy Trinity
|
Bottom line: Trinity Sunday is about where we have come from and where
we are going..
You may have heard about the American who got lost in Ireland. After
driving around the Irish countryside, he finally encountered a native,
"Please," he said, "can you tell me how to get to Balbriggan?"
"Well," said the Irishman, "If you take the first road to the left...no
that wouldn't do...drive about four miles and turn right...no that
wouldn't do either." Finally the Irishman scratched his head and said,
"You know, if I was going to Balbriggan, I wouldn't start from here at
all."
This Sunday - Trinity Sunday - is about where we have come from and
where we are going. We have somebody with us this weekend who is going
to give us a little bit of help. You have heard me talk about Dawn
Eden. This weekend she is with us. Dawn was born into a Reformed Jewish
household, but about ten years ago she experienced a conversion to
Christianity that eventually led her into the Catholic Church. She has
written a wonderful book titled The Thrill of the Chaste. "Chaste" is
spelled c-h-a-s-t-e as in the word "chastity." Chastity is a virtue,
that is, a power, a basic way of living.*
So, what exactly is the virtue of chastity? Dawn explains it very well
in her book. For a single person chastity involve "abstinence," but not
because sex is "bad." No, we believe that sex is so beautiful, so
sacred that its use belongs in a specific context - the complete and
life-long commitment of marriage. Chastity is about achieving a
"beautiful love." Dawn expresses it this way: "chastity is seeing your
sexual nature as part of a three-way relationship...between you, your
husband - or if you're not married, your future husband - and God." To
put in a few words: Chastity recognizes that human sexuality has a
exalted purpose: the forming of families.
This drive, this call to form families ties in with today's Feast -
Trinity Sunday. The Trinity is family: persons who are distinct, yet
one. But the Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - is not
just one more family. Maybe it will help to think about it this way: If
your room is like mine, it contains a lot of things - books, a radio,
an easy chair, a desk and a bunch of other stuff. God is also present
in that room - but not as one more object. He contains every thing in
the room, including you or me. And he is the one who makes those things
possible.
Similarly, God the Holy Trinity is not simply one more family. The
Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the ultimate family. They contain every
other family. And they are the only completely perfect family. They are
one in a way that totally respects the distinctiveness of each member:
the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father and both of
them are not the Holy Spirit. Yet the three are perfectly one - the
same substance. You cannot get more basic than the Trinity. It is the
foundation of the cosmos. The Trinity is the ultimate source of every
family in this world.
This is not idle speculation. Someone asked an elderly priest what
helped him become such a good pastor, what was the most important
course in the seminary. Without hesitation he said, "the course on the
Blessed Trinity." By meditating on the mystery of the Trinity, we
discover who we are and the purpose of our lives. Like that American
lost in Ireland, you cannot know where you are going unless you have
some idea where you start from. If you and I are just a complex bunch
of molecules, we are going nowhere. But if we have our origin in three
divine persons, we have a destination. The doctrine of the Trinity
gives a clue to our destiny, our purpose. If the Trinity, the divine
family, is the starting point, then it makes sense to say that family
is our goal - that you and I were created for family. In our better
moments, we want family. We know that we are made for family.
We are made for family, but, you know, achieving family - and
maintaining family - is difficult. Dawn Eden describes her own
experience as a child of divorced parents. Her story is poignant and
painful, but at the same time she reveals touching details about the
relationship with her mother - and also with her dad. And with amazing
frankness, Dawn tells about her own desire to meet the right man - and
the many land mines along the way. She gives practical advice about
dating, dealing with temptation and depression. She also discusses more
mundane matters like clothes, dieting and what to do with one's time
alone. But her book is much more than a manual for young people. Dawn
keeps her eye on what ultimately matters - the relationship with God
that involves every other good relationship.
Jesus said it today, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have
eternal life." All of us have fallen short - we have strayed from the
ideal of family, the ideal God himself placed in our hearts. Yet Jesus
did not come to condemn, but so we would have life through him: to
become sons and daughters in him - by the power of the Holy Spirit. He
invites us to join a perfect family - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Jesus offers a free gift. At the end of her book, Dawn writes about
receiving life as a gift, with a spirit of childlike wonder. She uses
the example of eating a certain pastry on a New York subway. "As the
sourdough sensation drifts across my taste buds," she writes, "I savor
the pieces as though they are the last delicacy I will ever eat in my
life." That sense of wonder makes all the difference. It is the
difference between choosing a life of frustration and choosing a life
of appreciation. A life of frustration comes from constantly demanding
more and more. A life of appreciation result from marveling at gifts,
both small and great. Today we hear about the greatest gift: "God so
loved the word that he gave his only Son." Jesus call us to family - to
form family by God's grace and to take part in the one perfect family,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Join me in that beautiful
prayer: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
**********
*In The Thrill of the Chaste Dawn tells about her own struggle to live
that basic virtue. The book is poignant, frank, funny and wise. Dawn of
course writes from the point of view of Christian woman, but young men
will learn a lot from her book. It belongs in every Christian home and
every young adult should read it. We will have the book for sale after
Mass at a special price.
Spanish Version |
|
http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
Holy Trinity
|
Background:
St. John tries every metaphor he can think of to express his
mystical insight into the relationship between Jesus and us – the good
shepherd, the vine and the branches, a group of people who should be
servants to a great lord but have in fact become a community of his
friends whose joy he wants to be complete. Obviously is a reflection on
the actual community that existed among Jesus and his immediate
followers, a memory kept alive through the decades before John wrote
his Gospel and strove to expand and deepen our understanding of the
intimacy of our actual, here and now relationship with Jesus and the
Father.
Story:
Once upon a time there was a certain bishop who was very proud of
being a bishop. He was also very careful to see that everyone treated
him with great respect because, after all, he was one of the successors
of the apostles, wasn’t he? He didn’t seem to remember what a stubborn,
pig-headed, and difficult crowd the apostles were. He was upset
whenever the acolytes that the masses he said around the diocese were
not trained to perfection. Some people thought he was a real jerk.
Others thought he was a nice enough guy for a bishop but that he had a
few obsessions that he would well get along without. So one day, the
sixth Sunday of Easter to be exact, he was saying mass at a parish
where a certain mother had warned her little girl not to offend the
bishop. Well, the little girl was a feisty one and she wasn’t afraid of
the bishop or anyone else (few six grade girls are). So when she was
slow in bringing the towel for the washing of hands and he snapped his
fingers impatiently, she stopped in her tracks. Bring me the towel the
bishop ordered. The feisty little girl remembered the Gospel and
shouted right back. Don’t give me orders, I’m not a servant, I’m a
friend. Everyone laughed. So did the bishop. He hugged her and said of
course she was a friend because she had the courage to tell him when he
was making a fool out of himself. Then everyone applauded and the
bishop had learned a valuable lesson about what the Church is.
|
|
http://benedictine.stvincent.edu/archabbey/Weeklywords/Weeklywords.html
Holy Trinity
|
Trinity Sunday
Gospel Summary
John tells us that he has written his gospel so that we may come to
believe in Jesus, the Son of God, and thus have life in his name. To
help us come to belief, John throughout his gospel talks about people
like us -- some who believe, some who half-believe, some who refuse to
believe. The context of this gospel passage is the story of Nicodemus.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus "at night" and represents those of us who hold
back, and thus never completely leave the darkness to enter the light
and love of eternal life.
The first sentence of the passage summarizes not only our Trinity
Sunday gospel, but John's entire gospel about the meaning of Jesus and
the meaning of our human existence: "God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not
perish but might have eternal life."
Life Implications
The feast of the Holy Trinity reminds us that every Sunday's gospel
helps unfold the mystery of divine life: in each gospel Jesus makes the
Father's truth and love present in the world through the power of the
Holy Spirit. Every Sunday's Eucharist is the prayer of the church in
living communion with the Risen Lord praising the Father through the
power of the Spirit. Every good work we do is to share in Christ's
mission of making the Father's truth and love present in the world
because we share Christ's Spirit. And we experience even now in faith
some fulfillment of our human existence through the peace and joy of
living in the communion of divine love with Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
The gospel of Trinity Sunday further reminds us of the constant reality
which Jesus addresses in every gospel of the church year. That reality
is the "world" which God loves so much as to give it his only Son. We
are that world -- human beings tragically alienated from God, alienated
from each other, alienated from our own deepest personal identity as
children of God. This is the world described in the first chapters of
Genesis, in every evening's TV news, in our own experience of life.
Particularly this year when many in our world seem to prefer darkness
to light, we need to celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity with
prayer of steadfast hope. God still does love the world. And we can
still come out of its dark night to accept his only Son, whom he has
given to us so that we might have life in him. Only in his light and in
his life can we enjoy peace among ourselves and within ourselves, a
peace that surpasses human understanding.
Campion P. Gavaler, O.S.B.
|
|
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html
Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
Holy Trinity
|
Exodus 34, 4-6, 8-9; Daniel 3, 52-56; 2 Cor 13, 11-13; John 3, 16-18
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The Blessed Trinity is the perfect community of life and love. God the
Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit live eternally, love
eternally and pour out divine love and life in the world through the
Body of Christ, the Church. We learn, thus, that God the Father’s love
seeks to increase itself infinitely and embrace the whole world through
the passion and death of His Son, reconciling us to Him, and the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life. The people
of God, then, must be people of life. God’s perfect plan provides a
place for life to come into the world: the marriage of man and woman in
total self-giving. The self-donation of man and woman in the marital
act brings about new life, thus marriage is the blessed earthly sign of
Christ’s life-giving death on the cross that brings us new life through
redemption.
Marriage is for life. Man and woman joined in matrimony are the
privileged cooperators in God’s will that life should go on. In the
marital act God joins both the life-giving and love-giving aspects of
man and woman’s sexuality into one reality. “What God has joined man
must not divide”, thus love and life in marriage must not be divided.
The two have been brought together as one gift by God. The use of
artificial contraception falsifies the act of self-giving between man
and woman, intended by God in creating the marital act, by separating
these two realities of life and love. Thus the intentional use of
artificial means of contraception violates God’s holy will and, if done
with sufficient reflection and full consent of the will, can be
mortally sinful.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches clearly in this regard:
“Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on
self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity
with the objective criteria of morality. These methods respect the
bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the
education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, ‘every action which,
whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment,
or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as
an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible’ (Humanae Vitae,
14) is intrinsically evil: ‘Thus the innate language that expresses the
total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through
contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that
of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a
positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the
inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in
personal totality. . . . The difference, both anthropological and
moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle .
. . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the
human person and of human sexuality.’(Familiaris Consortio, 32) “ (CCC
2370)
The Church does not leave couples alone to seek responsible parenthood.
In cases where there are grave reasons for spacing or delaying births
husband and wife have recourse to the natural methods, the most
effective available. One organization within the Church which supports
couples who seek to space, or delay, births is the Couple to Couple
League International.
A visit to their website, www.ccli.org, reveals some of the following
information.
“Couples worldwide are choosing Natural Family Planning (NFP) for its
healthful and marriage-building qualities, as well as its usefulness to
plan or postpone pregnancy. Many couples are also grateful to use a
family planning method that is in harmony with their religious beliefs.
“Since its founding in 1971, CCL has also provided instruction through
NFP classes taught by professionally trained, volunteer couples who
teach in their local communities. You can also learn through our
acclaimed Home Study Course, available for order.
“Learn how NFP works and its advantages in the About NFP section, and
discover what the CCL organization is all about at About CCL. The
Online Store contains many supportive books, videos, and audiotapes, as
well as NFP materials. Finally, you can easily locate your nearest CCL
Teaching Couple with our online search at Learn NFP.”
A visit to their site will be informative and bring hope and support to
any couple seeking help in living out their call to be generous to new
life. The website offers a basic explanation about two basic methods
for spacing or delaying births.
“NFP - Two basic forms “CCL teaches two basic forms of Natural Family
Planning (NFP) — the Sympto-Thermal Method and Ecological
Breastfeeding.
“The Sympto-Thermal Method (STM) is based on daily fertility awareness;
a couple charts the wife’s common signs of fertility day by day and
uses that information to determine her fertile and infertile times. It
can be used both to achieve and to avoid or postpone pregnancy. When
used to avoid pregnancy, the couple abstains from marital relations
(intercourse) during the fertile time.
Ecological Breastfeeding is actually the world’s oldest form of NFP. It
is still widely practiced in certain parts of the world, and is used
successfully to space children by many women in the United States. The
key factor in Ecological Breastfeeding is frequent suckling. It usually
requires minimal fertility awareness, especially in the early months,
and, in the absence of signs of possible fertility, no periodic
abstinence. The term ‘ecological breastfeeding’ was developed to
sharply distinguish this form of baby care from ‘cultural
breastfeeding’ which provides little or no natural infertility. Read
more at Ecological Breastfeeding.”
Doing God’s holy will for marriage is the ground of all the efforts of
CCLI on behalf of couples and families.
“Morality
“Couples choose to practice Natural Family Planning for a variety of
reasons. Important to many people is the issue of morality. The
services of the League are open to all regardless of religious
affiliation or conviction, but that doesn’t mean that we teach NFP
without moral and religious convictions.
“First, we believe that God is the Author of nature; He is the one who
put together in the marriage act what we call ‘making love’ and ‘making
babies.’ It is God who in His providence has allowed us to learn in the
late 20th century about woman’s alternating fertility and infertility —
and about Natural Family Planning — at the same time that other medical
advances greatly increased the population survival rate. NFP allows
couples to prudently regulate births without recourse to unnatural,
immoral methods of birth control that interfere with the way God
designed our fertility.
“As astonishing as this statement may seem, throughout history natural
methods have never been less effective than the unnatural, non-surgical
methods. (Moral methods may not be as convenient, and they do require
self-control, but that is a wonderful and rewarding virtue to acquire,
as many NFP couples will attest.) In the 1930s the Ogino-Knaus Rhythm
Method of NFP was as effective as the most effective ‘new’
contraceptive barrier methods. In the 1960s, when the Pill launched the
Sexual Revolution, the Sympto-Thermal Method of NFP (as taught by CCL
today) was as effective as the Pill.
“Religious and moral convictions guide anyone’s decisions about sexual
behavior. We believe that when people are fully informed about the
advantages of NFP they will see that this method best agrees with their
convictions as well as their practical desires for happier marriages
and healthier lives.
“NFP does not mean “Not for Protestants.” You don’t have to be Catholic
to have strong convictions that it is wrong to use unnatural methods of
birth control.‘Such “providentialists” should at least learn the
rules for ecological breastfeeding, God's own way of spacing
babies.’For a better understanding of the moral issue of birth
control and to find out the true position of the Catholic Church on
this matter, please see Church Teachings on NFP and especially the full
text of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae Vitae (On Human
Life).”
The website for Couple to Couple League International, with information
about teaching couples in your area, is www.ccli.org. Visit today and
sign up for classes.
(Publish with permission http://www.mcitl.org/www1/mcitl/)
|
|
http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
Holy Trinity
|
We have set before us today one of the most important and frequently
quoted passages of St John’s Gospel: For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Today we are celebrating Trinity Sunday and we look at this passage
from that perspective and what we are given is actually something quite
concrete and not at all abstract.
Our usual impression of a discussion on the Trinity is something rather
ethereal, abstract and quite disconnected from our ordinary experience.
But here in this text we are not told about the Trinity we are told
about the activity of the Trinity—what God does.
And what God does is love the world. He loves the world so much that he
sends his Son who gives his life for us, who rises from the dead and
ascends to the Father and then sends his Spirit to us. There is nothing
abstract here. This is the saving action of God; these are the
consequences of his love for mankind.
If we were in God’s position we might not do what he does, we might not
be so patient or forgiving. His response to man’s disobedience is not
punishment but pardon, not condemnation but salvation.
And this costs him. We cannot know the mind of God or indeed anything
about him that he has not specifically revealed to us, but the very
choice of the word ‘only’ in that text means something. He sends us his
‘only Son’ and behind this simple little word we can detect something
of the depth of God’s love or, to use human terms, something of the
feelings behind it.
There is a scriptural parallel in Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac.
Just think of the conflicting emotions that Abraham must have gone
through on that mountain. He must have been very, very sure that this
was something God wanted him to do, to sacrifice that which was most
precious to him—his only son—and we can only imagine the feelings that
he experienced.
The story of Abraham and Isaac ends in relief and joy when God,
convinced of Abraham’s faith, intervenes and provides a ram for the
sacrifice. This was a moment of real salvation both for the boy and for
Abraham.
In this passage from John there is a great stress on the necessity for
faith, for belief in Jesus. There is no room for ambiguity because not
to believe in him leads inevitably to condemnation.
At first sight this does not seem to square with the depth of love God
has for mankind. We are told that God loves the world, and this use of
the word world is very interesting. He loves not only the Jews, not
only the righteous but the entire world; he loves everyone without
distinction.
So what about those who are condemned? We should be clear that this
condemnation is not something God does; as it says, ‘he sent his Son
not to condemn the world’. No it is something they do themselves by
rejecting Jesus. I think we should understand that this is not
something easily achieved for rejection of Jesus implies full knowledge
of him.
Such condemnation can never be brought about by any merely trivial
reason or as a result of ignorance or anything like that. It can come
only through deliberate rejection. However, we must also be careful not
to think that this means no one can be condemned—they certainly can.
And often this is not achieved in any cerebral way but through actions
which betray a determination to reject God’s love. We can all think of
crimes which, in particular cases, could fall into this category; you
can list them for yourselves.
But whatever a person might have done, however determined to reject
God’s love a person might be, the door is always open. As we have
heard, God loves the world and wants everyone to be saved; he anxiously
waits on the most recalcitrant sinner to have a change of heart and to
accept the salvation Christ won for us.
Looked at from this perspective the Theology of the Trinity has nothing
abstruse or ethereal about it. It is simple and clear and benefits us
all: God loves the world; He sends his Son; through his death and
resurrection the Son saves the world and returns to the Father; the
Holy Spirit is then poured out on all believers.
Ours is a dynamic and loving God. He is intimately involved in the
world and in the lives of the whole of mankind. And the key to
understanding him is love. He loves us all, and despite the many
rejections he has to put up with, he keeps on loving us.
As it says in the first reading we are indeed a headstrong people. We
do not often know what is good for us, we break the commandments and we
reject God’s love over and over again. We attribute to him all kinds of
motives and actions that are nothing to do with him, and we blame him
for all our ills. And still he loves us.
Instead of rejecting him and blaming him what we should be doing is
precisely what Moses did on the holy mountain and bow down before him
and worship him and seek forgiveness for our own misdeeds and for the
sins of the world.
This is the proper attitude of a Christian. Knowing all we do know
about God, knowing how utterly dependent we are on him, knowing how but
for his love we would be sunk in our own sin and selfishness; knowing
all these things we should simply pay him homage, we should kneel down
and adore and worship him, praising and thanking him who is the author
and redeemer of all mankind.
Paul in his letter to the Corinthians has it exactly right about the
Trinity. He doesn’t give us a long and dense theological discourse; no,
he gives us a prayer; a prayer that should be ever on our lips as we
journey through life: ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of
God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen’
|
|
Contact Father at cbonar@cfl.rr.com;
information about his book of homilies is available at www.clydebonar.com.
Holy Trinity |
Readings: Exodus 34: 4-6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13; John 3: 16-18
Doing What The Holy Trinity Does
Introduction
When he came for Confirmation, the bishop asked a fourteen year old
girl for a definition of the Holy Trinity. She answered in a very soft
voice, saying, "The Holy Trinity is three Persons in one God." A little
hard of hearing, the bishop replied, "I didn’t understand what you
said." The young girl said to the bishop, "You are not supposed to,
Bishop. The Trinity is a mystery."
Today is Trinity Sunday. We celebrate the Three Persons who are One
God. The word "trinity" combines two other words: "tri" meaning three,
and "une" meaning one. Three in one.
Three Different Experiences
Let’s start with a question. Can we know any one thing in three
different ways? Of course we can. Rather easily we think of something
we experience in three different ways.
For example, a fire. Picture ourselves camping out. We light a fire.
Touch the flame and we'll get burnt. That's one way to experience a
fire. Another way, the light of the fire. Darkness falls back as the
flame burns to brighten the camp site. And on a chilly evening we stand
close to the fire to get warm. One fire, three ways to know that fire:
the flame, its light, and the heat.
Or, think about ourselves in our families. The one and only person we
are is at the same time a son or daughter of our parents, a husband or
wife to our spouse, and a father or mother to our sons and daughters.
With each, we act differently. To our parents, we are respectful and
differential. To our husband or wife, an intimate friend. To our
children, protective and loving while also fostering their growth with
loving discipline. One person, three roles.
Can we know one thing in three different ways? Yes. We experience both
ourselves and the ordinary things of life in various ways. Three in one.
Three Experiences of God
Do we experience God in three ways? No doubt about that: God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Three ways we know One
God.
Moses encountered God the Father. Almighty God "descended in a cloud,"
stood before Moses, and proclaimed himself "The Lord." Before the
all-powerful God, before the all-Holy God, Moses bows his head, falls
to the ground to worship God the Father.
We experience God the Father as creator (Genesis 1:1). God whose hands
shaped and created you and me (Job 10:8). God the Artist with a capital
"A" formed majestic mountains and painted the valleys with brightly
colored flowers. God the Father.
We experience God the Son when we know Jesus. The Word made flesh, born
of Mary, Christ turned water into wine because his mother Mary asked
him at the marriage feast at Cana (John 2:1-12). God the Son showed us
the Father’s love. Christ overcame temptations during forty days in the
desert, and died for us on the Cross.
But his friends came to recognize that even by his death Christ had not
left them. Christ sent his Holy Spirit to dwell with us forever. To
continue to make God’s divine love present, God the Holy Spirit nudges
our hearts. A tender act of care shows we follow the Holy Spirit. God
the Holy Spirit guides us to understand revelation as the Spirit of
Truth. Impulses of God the Holy Spirit strengthen us in times of
struggle.
Let there be no doubt, we do experience God in three ways. Our faith
history attests to a God who is Father, to Jesus his Son, and to the
Holy Spirit being God with us now and forever.
The Oneness of God
Distinct experiences of God, yes. But the Three Persons are One God.
Love binds Three Persons so that three become one. The triune God is
the model of perfect love.
Let's think about love. When two people are in love, they remain two.
The person who loves and the person being loved. When we love we do not
cease to be ourselves. In a marriage, a husband keeps his personality,
a wife keeps her personality. Their goal is to enjoy each other, not to
change each other. Love demands an "I" and a "you."
But the two individuals in love also form a unity. The other side of
love is "we" without "mine" and "yours." In fact, in marriage the words
"mine" and "yours" are ice cold words. Ask a married couple about their
marriage. If the couple talk of "his" and "hers," trouble is brewing in
that marriage. Love is "we." The two who are separate becoming one.
To attain this oneness requires self giving. To love is to give. Love
does not count the cost of the gift, love wants the beloved to treasure
the gift. Love never feels put out by giving, love only seeks the joy
of the beloved. True love gives to ensure the happiness and well being
of the beloved.
In the Trinity we find perfect love. In the mystery of the Trinity,
each Person is an "I" and a "you" without any hint of "mine" and
"yours". The Father gives to the Son all that the Father has. The
Father says about Jesus, "this is my Son, the Beloved" (Matthew 3:17).
And the Son is the perfect son. The Son gives even to death. Jesus
says, "not my will but yours be done" (Luke 22:42), and returns all
back to his Father. And this love of Father and Son, this love is the
Holy Spirit. God is an eternal exchange of love. Three Persons bounded
into a unity by love.
Trinity is the perfect model of love. In the mystery of the Trinity, we
have a lesson in self giving love. The one-ness of God is his love. God
is love.
Trinitarian Living
Our part, to copy in our lives the love found in the Trinity. God
invites us to be part of the divine love, to enter into the very
Trinity itself. And, we can.
God certainly loves us. In John’s Gospel (15:9), we read that Jesus
loves us in the same way the Father loves him. In other words, the
Persons of the Trinity embrace us with the same love they have for each
other.
Today’s reading from Exodus tells us God abounds "in steadfast love"
for us. So much love has God lavished on us we are called God’s
children (1 John 3:1). God has the same love for us as does a mother
for her child (Isaiah 49:15-16). "An everlasting love," the Prophet
Jeremiah (31:3) calls God’s love for us, a love which will always be
faithful.
Loving as do the Three Persons of the Trinity should come natural to
us. We are made in the image of God. In Genesis (1:27) we read, "in the
image of God he created them; male and female he created them." As God
is love, so we are love. God wrote love into our hearts (Psalms 40:8;
Ezekiel 36:26).
Loved by God, baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19), God graces us with the ability to
enter into the life of the Trinity.
Jesus commands us, "Just as I have loved you, you also must love one
another" (John 13:34). With a God-centered love, we make God’s love
present in the here and now. An all-inclusive way of love.
When we love as Jesus loves, we enter into the Trinity. Mothers and
fathers enter the Trinity by the day-in, day-out love of raising a
family. From changing diapers to cooking meals to nursing hurts to
joy-filled laughter in good moments to working a job to pay the bills.
Christians enter the Trinity in their ministry with a sacrificing love,
by sharing the footsteps with another on a faith journey, or by
overnighting with teens for a lock-in.
By a giving love, we participate in the Trinity. God invites us to be a
part of the divine love, to enter into the very Trinity itself. And, we
can. Because we are in God’s image, our natural tendency is to be
loving.
Conclusion
Do you want to honor God who is One and Three? It is easy. First, be
yourself. Rejoice in your uniqueness. Be the person God designed you to
be. Remember the Divine Persons remained distinct as Three Persons. And
second, imitate Christ. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, give love until
you can give no more.
That's how to live the Christian life — be yourself, love others. When
we do, we become God-like, we do what the Holy Trinity does.
|
|
|
|
These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
the author.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
