I was really excited when I saw that May 31 fell on a Sunday this year. May 31 is the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. I really love that feast, especially since it is the anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood, which marks 7 years today. However, there is a hierarchy of feasts and solemnities in our Church, and since this is the Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity today rather than the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth.
To tell you the truth, the Trinity presents the pastor a much more difficult topic to preach on when compared to the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth. Trying to understand God and concepts like the Trinity can be daunting, even for those of us with degrees in theology and divinity. We use big words like omniscient, omnipotent, and consubstantial to describe God, words that we don’t really use in everyday English. In seminary, I took a very challenging course on the Trinity with the interesting title: The Mystery of God. Yes, the Trinity and a lot of the concepts about God seem to fall under that great concept we use in our faith: mystery. It consoles me to know that St Augustine of Hippo, one of the great Christian theologians and scholars, had this to say: God is not what you understand. God is not what you think you understand. If you think you understand God, then you know you have failed. Yet, in our faith we seek understanding, and in the way we grow in our understanding, we seek to grow in our faith. Faith and understanding are two aspects of our journey of faith that complement one another. But, it sometimes seems like we talk in circles or talk in paradoxes about our faith. The Athanasian Creed, written in the Early Church around the year 500, says this: The three persons of the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are not three eternals, but one eternal, not three almighties, but one almighty, not three Gods, but one God. Easy to say, but not so easy to comprehend.
On a practical level, we can see how the unity of the Trinity and the relationship of the 3 persons within the Trinity are our best examples of the community aspect of our faith and our relationship with our neighbor. Our US Bishops wrote in one of their documents: “Christians look forward in hope to a true communion among all persons with each other and with God. The Spirit of Christ labors in history to build up the bonds of solidarity among all persons until that day on which their union is brought to perfection in God’s Kingdom…. Theological reflection on the very reality of God as a Trinitarian unity of persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—shows that being a person means being united to other persons in mutual love.” The Trinity is not only the source of our faith, but it is the goal of our lives. We receive the mandate from Jesus in his great commission to his followers at the end of the Gospel of Matthew to go out to the world to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How do we make disciples? Our Church’s call to a new evangelization says that we need to start with ourselves, that we need to awaken and re-energize our own faith in order to be effective in bringing the Gospel message to others. Pope Francis would say that while the mass is the source and summit of our lives as Catholics, we need to do more. Small groups and different ministries are a great way of getting involved in our parish. If you have not filled out one of our time and talent surveys that we did earlier in the month, I encourage you to do so - you may get a copy of it from an usher today. A couple of people have commented to me that I seem to have a new energy and a new focus since I went on the Camino of Santiago last January. And another parishioner mentioned that he has rarely seen anyone so enthusiastic and energized by something as I am with my call to pilgrimage. That is an aspect of our Catholic faith that calls out to me; I respond to that call and it certainly supports me and edifies me on my journey. We all need to find something we are passionate about on our journey of faith, something that keeps us going on those tough parts of our journey.
You have noticed, the themes I have touched on in this homily have naturally gravitated to the mission that Nativity parish in the Rebuilt book adapted for itself: Loving God, loving neighbor and making disciples. Even though there will always be more we can learn about God, there will always things we don’t understand about God, there are so many ways we can learn about and experience the Triune God, as God reveals his divine nature to us through the prophets and through Holy Scripture, through our relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and through the meal that we share together around the Lord’s table. The Trinity is indeed a doctrine, but we also have new life in the Trinity through our baptism and our discipleship in Christ. For us as believers, the Trinity is indeed a living, breathing, life-giving reality.
To tell you the truth, the Trinity presents the pastor a much more difficult topic to preach on when compared to the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth. Trying to understand God and concepts like the Trinity can be daunting, even for those of us with degrees in theology and divinity. We use big words like omniscient, omnipotent, and consubstantial to describe God, words that we don’t really use in everyday English. In seminary, I took a very challenging course on the Trinity with the interesting title: The Mystery of God. Yes, the Trinity and a lot of the concepts about God seem to fall under that great concept we use in our faith: mystery. It consoles me to know that St Augustine of Hippo, one of the great Christian theologians and scholars, had this to say: God is not what you understand. God is not what you think you understand. If you think you understand God, then you know you have failed. Yet, in our faith we seek understanding, and in the way we grow in our understanding, we seek to grow in our faith. Faith and understanding are two aspects of our journey of faith that complement one another. But, it sometimes seems like we talk in circles or talk in paradoxes about our faith. The Athanasian Creed, written in the Early Church around the year 500, says this: The three persons of the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are not three eternals, but one eternal, not three almighties, but one almighty, not three Gods, but one God. Easy to say, but not so easy to comprehend.
On a practical level, we can see how the unity of the Trinity and the relationship of the 3 persons within the Trinity are our best examples of the community aspect of our faith and our relationship with our neighbor. Our US Bishops wrote in one of their documents: “Christians look forward in hope to a true communion among all persons with each other and with God. The Spirit of Christ labors in history to build up the bonds of solidarity among all persons until that day on which their union is brought to perfection in God’s Kingdom…. Theological reflection on the very reality of God as a Trinitarian unity of persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—shows that being a person means being united to other persons in mutual love.” The Trinity is not only the source of our faith, but it is the goal of our lives. We receive the mandate from Jesus in his great commission to his followers at the end of the Gospel of Matthew to go out to the world to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How do we make disciples? Our Church’s call to a new evangelization says that we need to start with ourselves, that we need to awaken and re-energize our own faith in order to be effective in bringing the Gospel message to others. Pope Francis would say that while the mass is the source and summit of our lives as Catholics, we need to do more. Small groups and different ministries are a great way of getting involved in our parish. If you have not filled out one of our time and talent surveys that we did earlier in the month, I encourage you to do so - you may get a copy of it from an usher today. A couple of people have commented to me that I seem to have a new energy and a new focus since I went on the Camino of Santiago last January. And another parishioner mentioned that he has rarely seen anyone so enthusiastic and energized by something as I am with my call to pilgrimage. That is an aspect of our Catholic faith that calls out to me; I respond to that call and it certainly supports me and edifies me on my journey. We all need to find something we are passionate about on our journey of faith, something that keeps us going on those tough parts of our journey.
You have noticed, the themes I have touched on in this homily have naturally gravitated to the mission that Nativity parish in the Rebuilt book adapted for itself: Loving God, loving neighbor and making disciples. Even though there will always be more we can learn about God, there will always things we don’t understand about God, there are so many ways we can learn about and experience the Triune God, as God reveals his divine nature to us through the prophets and through Holy Scripture, through our relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and through the meal that we share together around the Lord’s table. The Trinity is indeed a doctrine, but we also have new life in the Trinity through our baptism and our discipleship in Christ. For us as believers, the Trinity is indeed a living, breathing, life-giving reality.
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